(Just a quick note, late addition on this, this is going to be a two-part article. First part a look-back at The Beer Thrillers articles of 2019, and the second part about our top beers, top breweries, and other happenings of 2019 for myself personally and the blog, and some of our friends in general. So make sure to check out both parts.)

So its the end of the year… end of decade even…. and thus its time to reflect back on where we came from, how we got to where we are, and where we are going. Humanity, since the inception of time, and creating of calendars and years and New Years Eves and New Years Days have always taken the last few days of each year to look back on their year, their life, and reflected, and thought about how they could better themselves, come up with “resolutions” for the upcoming year, and join in with friends and families as they ring in the new year. “New Year New You.”

We here at The Beer Thrillers are going to do something …. similar. Not fully introspective though, because we don’t take ourselves that seriously. But just a fun look back at the year that was 2019. I can’t speak for my co-writers, but I can say for me, personally, 2019 had its fair share of ups, downs, in-betweens, lefts, rights, diagonals, crosses, bounces, turns, jukes, and jives. But I’m still here and better for it all. But I’m not going to go on and on too much about myself personally.

Rather, I’m going to write about how the blog has done, where we started from, where we’re headed, etc. And yea, I’ll probably get a little personal. But nothing deep or philosophical or introspective. More along the lines of what were some of the best beers, breweries, or events I’ve done of the year. So don’t worry, the blog will uphold the Seinfeld idea of “Nobody learns, nobody grows, nobody hugs”.

I started this blog back on May 17th, 2019. (This year!) It was a Thursday, my girls (my daughters) were at school, I was bored, and trying to figure out what I’m doing / was doing. I needed something for my days off while the kids were at school, something that was fun, something I was passionate about, something that let me feel like I was being creative, using my talents, and something I knew about. I’ve been reading blogs, and news sites, and all kinds of things about beer for so long, and I have a lot of experience drinking… …and writing… that I figured why not combine the two? I was feeling like I was in a rut, my job is the same its been for the past seven years, I wasn’t doing anything outright ‘creative’ and needed an outlet for it, and we are in a review culture. I do all kinds of reviews all the time, in small nondescript and unimportant ways. Like reading books when I’m finished, I write up a review of them when I check them off on GoodReads. Same with Untappd, when I drink a beer, I write up a small (Tweet size) review of it. I also felt, I was in a unique spot to start this up. I was getting to a spot where I knew enough people “on the inside” or “in the business”, and I was also doing stuff beyond just being a consumer; like home brewing, growing hops, helping can at Tattered Flag, being engaged in conversations with home brewers and professional brewers a lot, that I felt like I could provide some interesting conversations and articles to the world.

Mainly…. I was looking to not be bored, and to do something I love doing – writing and drinking beer.

So I started the blog up on May 17th, 2019. Basically having no clue what I was doing. I started up using WordPress and here we are. Its still WordPress, albeit the ‘weaker’ version (fingers crossed come sometime the new year, I switch over to the more advanced version, where I have more control over the site and the appearance). I did a little bit of research, chose a name – which to be frankly speaking – the name “The Beer Thrillers” just popped up to me. Nothing too deep or crazy or interesting behind it. I was honestly conjuring up the idea that it would be me, and a few of my friends writing, thus the “Thrillers” and not “Thriller”. I thought me, Drew, Dan maybe, and a few others would all writing all kinds of blog posts and contributing. Maybe some of the insiders in the business I know too… …while this hasn’t happened exactly; I have enlisted friends and other writers over the year to help out. (More on that as I get to their participation.)

Outside of creating the home page and starting up the site, my very first article on the blog was a beer review of Troegs’ Scratch 375 – The CocoNator. As far as first time articles go, I have no problems with it. Counting the writing of my colleagues and fellow contributors and cowriters to the blog, we’re now up to 130 blog posts (this being #131). I definitely think I’ve come a long way from that first blog. But I also like to think I laid the foundation there. I set up a system for how the beer reviews (I do) are written, presented, and I hope they are written in a fun, interesting, educational, and most importantly entertaining way.

When I started this in May, I had just gotten a couple of cans from my shift manager at work – Jordan and used them a the base for my first few beer reviews. The CocoNator was quickly followed by two South County beer reviews – Painting with Light (May 19th) and Sundrifter (May 30th). Also during this time, from my recent volunteer work helping can at Tattered Flag I worked with and gotten quite a few of their cans (hard work and sweat at their brewery resulted in many cans of whatever beer was being canned that day, as well as lots of other cans they still had from past canning runs). Two of these resulted in the beer reviews of Boulangerie Stout – Imperial Churro (May 22nd) which was a collaboration between Derek Wolf of Wolf Brewing Co. and Tattered Flag and You Hoppin’ On Me? (May 24th).

I was trying to write fast, furiously, and get some articles out there as a starting blog, I knew content was going to be the main driving force (and still is). Quality content even better. Hopefully I provided the quality content. I guess thats all up to you guys to decide, but I like to think I did (or at least, like I said, hope I did). As you can see from my picture of the Imperial Churro; often times in the background or foreground or beside the beers you’ll see some of the recent books I’m reading, as well as my dog Leela – especially if I’m drinking at home where she typically has to get her nose into the business of all involved. On May 27th, I conducted a bit of a science experiment when I found an old (over a year old) Black and Blue Tastee from The Veil. I had gotten a four pack from one of my favorite bartenders – Chris – who had traveled down and muled some back up. I wrapped up May, my first month of writing for the blog, with my first beer review from a bar – Warwick Hotel – on May 31st with a beer review of Cinnamon Toast Crunch by Collusion Tap Works.

May finished, and my first month done; even if I had only started late in the month on the 17th, I felt accomplished with the blog. I published 9 total blog pages; which included the home-page, the author-bio page, the contact page, and other necessary background pages. Word was slowly trickling out about the blog, I was up to 59 visitors and 121 views. Not a bad first month – especially considering it was basically just two weeks (the 17th through the 31st). Lets say I was “pleased as punch” with the start of the blog. June was looking bright!

June started with a beer review from the Bissell Brothers Brewing Company – Baby Genius on June 3rd. Followed up by a bottle of LazerSnake by Three Floyds on June 9th.

On June 13th, I did my first multiple beer review, and my first beer flight review – from Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – of course. What other place would I do my first beer flight review? Troegs was basically my initiation into the craft beer scene when I was ….cough turning 21…. and was the start of my craft beer love. Troegs is still a wonderful brewery, a fantastic venue there in Hershey, and overall holds a definite soft spot in my craft beer loving heart.

June 14th ended up being my first “double blog post” day. Earlier in the day I had stopped in at Tattered Flag to pick up a four-pack, had a beer, and when home, wrote a review, and later that night, with my daughters, I stopped in at Boneshire Brew Works, had a beer, and did a review before bed. At Tattered Flag I had the Abra Collabra beer, and at Boneshire I had the Sunburst beer. A week later I did my first brewery review, when I took my oldest daughter to Gettysburg for the day to visit the battlefields and monuments. Before visiting the sites, we stopped for lunch at the Battlefield Brew Works. A day later I was back at Warwick for another beer and review – Manayunk’s King Crunch.

Around this time, looking to expand, I enlisted the help of a buddy and fellow craft beer aficionado and enthusiast, and Boneshire lover – Josh Doncevic. We had a few talks at Boneshire Brew Works, and we chatted on the Central PA Whalerz group, and discussed this and that and everything beer related, and I thought he’d be a perfect fit for the blog – and he is and still has been. And on June 27th, he took his plunge into the world of blogging with his first beer review Northmont by Yellow Bridge.

A flurry of beer reviews followed – Should Have Put Him in Custardy, a beer flight from Hershey Biergarten, helped close out June and start July with Josh’s review of Ectogasm. June saw the blog grow by massive leaps and bounds, we went from 59 visitors in May to 848 visitors in June with 1100 some views. July was looking to be a great month for The Beer Thrillers, and it certainly delivered some amazing beer reviews! Pink Guava, Inexplicably Juicy, Miami Vice, Old 51, Dillston, Saison and Hurry up and Wait, a beer flight from Tony’s travels up north at the Black Gryphon, Wolf Prints, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart.

On July 19th we launched our Twitter page. Which just a few days ago, we hit our 100th follower! (Time for me to plug in here and suggest everyone head over there briefly to follow us, then come back here.) On July 23rd we also started our Instagram page. I will be the first to admit that we don’t do as much with Instagram, primarily because I don’t know enough about it yet. Looking to learn more about it in 2020 and get that page going a lot more.

July continued with some more beer reviews like Enigma, Green Zebra and Next Coast, Good Walk Spoiled, another beer flight from Troegs, and Road Less Traveled. I ended the month by discussing my upcoming road trip with my daughters.

July also saw some fun and interesting events I got to do for the first time. I lost my Ffej of July cherry, getting to make it out to possibly the biggest, baddest, most sickest birthday bash / lawn party ever. Me and Drew also attended the Moo-Funk Home Brew event as well. July was certainly a fun month, but August was looking to be even better.

August started off with a bang, I took my daughters up north PA to visit Elk Country, then we visited Straub Brewery, then we went to Kinzua Bridge and after that stopped at Logyard Brewery and next door to it was Twisted Vine Brewery. That was Day One. Day two saw us hitting the Pittsburgh area. First at dawn we hiked McConnell’s Creek, then went to ShuBrew before going into Pittsburgh proper and visit the city where we did a whole slew of things like see Fort Pitt, take the Duquesne Lift, check out medieval Catholic relics, stop by a Jewish synagogue, see the outfield wall still standing, and we also checked out a few breweries like Cinderlands Warehouse, The Church Brew Works, and we finished the day staying at a motel right next door to Yellow Bridge Brewing. Day Two was a lot busier than day one, but just a much fun.

We didn’t slow down for Day Three. We had a whole host of driving to do on day three. We started at Bushy Run to watch the reenactment and check out the events, then went to the Alleghany Portage and Railroad Museum, and then went into Johnstown to see the Johnstown Flood Memorial and there we checked out the brewery Stone Bridge Brewing. From there we Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and then we stopped and paid our respects at the Flight 93 Memorial. On the way back home to the Hershey area we stopped at Olde Bedford Brewing.

Was a fun three days where we got to see lots of cool places, museums, memorials, monuments, and nine breweries to boot. Can’t beat that!

The beer reviews weren’t going to slow down in August either. Ghost in the Machine by Josh, a beer flight at Twisted Bine, Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, and Caucus Race 6.0. Then shortly before my oldest daughter’s birthday I took her and my second oldest down to Antietam to see the battlefield there and on the way back home we stopped at Cushwa Brewing. Which I did a brewery review of.

They have since moved out of that building but they are still close by to the location. August still had plenty more beer reviews for you guys starting with Harrishire, Kettle Sour Series – Raspberry, Ghost in the Machine by B. Kline, Good Vibrations, and then I did a dual beer review from two beers I had at a Harrisburg Senators game – a Pineapple Kolsch and a Dry Irish Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, Rye for an Eye (my birthday blog post and beer), and that closed out the month of August. As for events in August, me and my friend Ming went to the Lancaster Brewfest and afterwards went to Mad Chef Brewing (my first time there) which was an overall fun event.

Moving onto September started with my cashing in my birthday taco coupon at Newfangled Brew Works and had a really tasty Kettle Sour from them. In September I wrote a piece for Breweries in PA and also posted it on my blog – the version on the blog is found here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19). It has become one of the most popular pieces on our blog, and I believe it has done very well for the Breweries in PA crew as well. Beer reviews certainly didn’t slow down: a flight of Levante and Tattered Flag beers, a flight of Troegs beers, Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale, a flight of beers from Mount Gretna Brewery, and Spundae.

September also saw me do our first listicle articles. With two – one celebrating our oldest posts – and one celebrating our most viewed posts. Followed by, as always, more beer reviews – Key Lime Pie, They Burn Them All Away, AuZealand, a flight of Ever Grain beer, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, and a Sour Blueberry wrapped up September.

October started off with a couple of Boneshire Brew Works beers – Tried and True (Mango) and Iscariot. I then got to attend Dr. Alison Feeney’s seminar and event at Mid-Town Scholar “For the Love of Beer“. Afterwards I went to The Millworks and had a flight. I did a book review of Dr. Alison Feeney’s book – For the Love of Beer. We finally joined Facebook on October 17th, you can find our Facebook page here. We are now up to 154 followers on Facebook, hoping to grow more! Did a beer review of Salted Caramel Moo-Hoo next.

I was contacted back in September by Midwest Coast Brewing Company to do an advertisement article and announcement article about their brewery opening. And I think it turned out very well. This was the first time a brewery reached out to us and asked us to do a piece for them and I think it turned out very well. I did a bit of an interview with the owners / brewers, and talked about their brewery’s opening. This has led to Mellow Mink reaching out to us and inviting us to their place to check them out and do an article (January 2nd we’ll be doing that).

J. Doncevic did a review of Ekaunot by Barebottle. We then covered Rotunda Brewing Company’s rebranding of Irv’s Pub into Rotunda Brew Pub. Also did a news article on Pennsylvania breweries that won at the 2019 GABF. That was my first straight up news article for the blog.

More beer reviews: Athena, Sour Me Peach, Irish Table, Envie and Envie 4X, Yuengling’s Hershey’s Chocolate Porter, and to wrap up the beer reviews of October I did Fatum Series: Member Berries. We also covered Boneshire Brew Works’ 3rd Anniversary Celebration.

November was a crazy month for me. I challenged myself to doing 30 blog posts, one per day – MINIMUM, and I am proud to say I achieved that and met my goal. It was certainly daunting a task, but I did achieve it.

Here’s the list of my articles in November: Pumpkin Stout, St. Thomas, Walker Station Stout, a flight by ZeroDay, King Sue, Intergalactic Warrior, s’Mores LazaRIS, There’s Nuttin Butter Than a Nice Pair of Camo Pants, Secret Machine, Broken Heels, Animal Adjective, 556 Stout, Boat Drinks, a flight of Tattered Flag – Newfangled Brew Works – and Cox Brewing beers, Alpha Abstraction, Double IPA, Lager, Birra Di Levante, Tickle Parts – Passionfruit, a flight of beers from Appalachian Brewing Company, Default Brewing, Darwin’s Salted Forehead, Newfangled Pils, Gotta Get up to Get Down, Paradise Lost, Moon of Vega, Citraquench’l, Azathoth, a flight of Troegs including Mad Elf, and finally a review of Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s second location. WHEW! That was a lot to get out, you can read about it in the November Recap.

November also saw Default Brewing join us here at The Beer Thrillers. Headed by AJ Brechbiel, they are a group of home brewers who will be providing home brewing articles for the blog from time to time. They gave us a welcoming post in November: Cheers from Default Brewing.

I also started up a collaboration with Let Us Drink Beer blog. Where we would be guest writing and contributing to each other’s blogs occasionally. They are down south, and with us being here in PA, it seemed like it’d be a nice fit. Provide some information and beers and breweries that readers might not normally get to see. They posted their first article “Five Must See Breweries in Atlanta” in November.

Josh also wrote two beer reviews in November: Ghost 782 and Ghost 779.

December started off a little slower here for us, probably because I was a bit tired from November, or perhaps just because its the holiday season, I don’t know. But my first beer review was Ice Dreamz. I did a few more beer reviews in December – My Watch Has Ended, The Hog, Scrooge IPA, Sap, and Autumn.

Default Brewing gave us an introduction to their crew: “Meet The Crew at Default Brewing“.

I covered the guest blogging that was going on and Let Us Drink Beer gave us a review of Koki Bunni.

Finally, the last article posted in all of 2019 (outside of this one now) was a travelogue of me and Drew brewery hopping around Harrisburg. Starting at Boneshire Brew Works, and going to The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturges Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Was a fun day jumping around from place to place.

Hopefully you enjoyed this look back on 2019 with The Beer Thrillers. The second part of this article will most likely be posted January 1st, possibly before work, possibly after work. I have to leave for work now, and work until (at least) 8PM, and will most likely be going right out to enjoying New Years Eve festivities with my daughters. Tomorrow I work 10-6, and afterwards will be doing a podcast with Esteban about LOST.

The second part of this series will cover top beers, top breweries, and other things about the year for The Beer Thrillers and myself. For example – podcasting.

So make sure you check out part two then as well!

As always, I hope you have a Happy New Year, enjoyed the blog, and continue to do so! Without you, we don’t need to write, so we hope you are having as much fun and entertainment with this as we are!

-B. Kline on behalf of The Beer Thrillers staff.

Want to take a trip with us? A journey along Harrisburg? C’mon, it’ll be fun. You get to hang out with me, and my buddy, and we basically do nothing but chat about Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Coen Brothers movies, how we were so disappointed by the sequel trilogy, about the blog, about the podcasts, we run into other friends, chat with bar patrons, and generally have a good time.

So why not join us? We hit several stops in the Harrisburg area. Not as many as originally wanted, and not all of the places we wanted, but we jumped around, had some fun, and called it a day and were happy. So no complaints there! Can never be upset with a day out with friends, beer, and no stress. Plus…. we got to pet a baby corgi… so there’s that too!

I have written a bit, here on this blog, and for Breweries in PA, as well as the Let Us Drink Beer blog about the breweries around Hershey and Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania. Mostly recap articles on the locations, taps, places, atmosphere, beers, etc. The bigger – main article can be found here: “Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg“. The blog post that is primarily a link to the Breweries in PA article with a few bits of new information can be found here: “Touring Through the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg“. The actual Breweries in PA article is here: “Breweries Around Harrisburg (BiPA)“. And of course, the last article of the series, the larger one yet – that also delves into the breweries of Hershey PA can be found here on the blog Let Us Drink Beer: “Breweries Around Hershey and Harrisburg PA.” I do guest work and contribute to the Let Us Drink Beer blog, so make sure you check them out and my other articles there, like my review of the Pretoria Fields Collective Walker Station Stout. (I also did a review of it here for my blog: Walker Station Stout. For more information on Let Us Drink Beer’s Blog and to just check them out, their blog home page can be found here: “Let Us Drink Beer“.)

Lets start off with the pre-adventure details. First off, the events of this day occurred on December 27th, 2019. A Friday – and my day off (my days off are Thursdays and Fridays for now, before they change soon after the new year). Having worked the week, including Christmas, and spending the night of Christmas with family, and then spending Thursday with more family, Friday was a day for me and friends. I still got some crucial stuff done pre-noon, I finished reading a chapter book with my youngest daughter, I got the Autumn beer review blog up, did some minor editing on the Sap Beer Review and The Hog beer review (website formatting changes) and I walked my dog. So, noontime, dog home, I shower up, and head out to Boneshire Brew Works to meet up with Drew for the first leg of our trip.

(A final in-line, late note, just before publishing this, instead of listing the beers with the brewery we had them at, I decided to put them at the end, categorized by brewery / location and gave bare-bones information from Untappd on them. I’ll leave my rating with them as well, but not go into a full break-down beer review of them. So if you wish just to see what Drew and I drank, you can jump to the end of the article.)

As anyone who knows me and has read this blog, Boneshire Brew Works is typically home base of operations. Its about three-five minutes from my house, right by Rutter’s, right off of Nye’s Road and on Derry Street. Close enough for my friend Drew to meet us there, and its also not too far out from where Dan lives (near Breski’s Beverage). A lot of other friends are close by too, from the Hummelstown, Middletown, and Harrisburg areas. Even from Hershey – its not a stretch of a drive. So its always a great place to meet up; plus the beer is superb, the atmosphere is nice, the bartenders and beertenders all know us, and its just a great place to hang out.

I got there about five minutes before Drew, and ordered the newest beer on the menu – The 2019 Holiday Reserve. A tradition now, at Boneshire, its always a glorious beer to end the year on. One of a handful of great NE-IPA style beers in the area, its usually one of the best, and always fantastic straight from the tap. And this year’s was no exception. After Drew gets there he orders the same, and we spend a good twenty minutes nursing our first beer of the day at lunch-time while discussing the intricacies of Star Wars; including The Mandalorian’s season finale (which had just dropped that morning), as well as how bad Rise of Skywalker was and the sequel trilogy as a whole, how bad the prequel trilogy was, how there’s now more bad to good movies in the Star Wars canon, how some of the books fit into the movies, etc.

We also talked about the next jump on the tour – The Vegetable Hunter, about them teaming up with the Harris Family, and other things beer related in the area. We discussed maybe checking out the BBQ place that is home to Pizza Boy’s secondary location; but decided to skip it, and decided to skip Newfangled Brew Works since with Drew, thats basically home number two. I’ve been to The Vegetable Hunter one time, but quite a long time ago, soon after they added the mini-micro-nano-brewery part to it. So I settle up the tab with James behind the bar, talk a bit about heading on some brewery jumping, and then we’re off to the city proper.

Now, it should be noted, number one, I am horrible at getting to any place. I’ll get there. No doubt about it, but it won’t be right, will consist of wrong turns, driving on one way roads, and being a bit late…. but I’ll get us there. And case in point was getting here. Next thing we know, we’re crossing the bridge and the river and turning around on Erford Road and heading back, finally finding a parking spot in front of the restaurant turned brewery.

I don’t know much about The Vegetable Hunter unfortunately. I do know its a super tiny micro / nano – brewery, and I know that Tim Myers is the head brewer. He is also the head brewer for River Bend Hop Farm – you can check out a review of their Dry Irish Stout I did. I was there at their brewery a year ago (on the 28th, it came up in my ‘memories’). Fantastic brewery and facility and the beers were great. Tim definitely produces some great beers.

I’m not vegan or vegetarian, and neither is Drew. So we didn’t order anything to eat. (Not saying you HAVE to be vegan or vegetarian to eat there, but its more likely to appeal to those who are.) Not sure if they do flights of beer there or not, I think they might, but the two kids behind the food counter who were finishing up an order for the family that was in the place eating (six or seven people with a small child) and doing a lot of cleaning (dishes / glasses) didn’t mention it. We each ordered a pint. I ordered the Brother of Thor! and Drew ordered Today’s Tom Sawyer. Their on-screen board listed only four beers. But their Untappd app lists six. I have also heard (after the fact) that they have an upstairs. Not sure if that was open when we got there or not, but they probably have more taps up there.

Brother of Thor! was tasty and delicious. Drew also said the Today’s Tom Sawyer was also good. Both are IPAs and were neither super hoppy or super bitter, but also not NE-IPAs. We would both recommend them to anyone traveling in the area. Can’t say anything about the food (sorry), but we both enjoyed our beers, the relaxed, hipster, like atmosphere, and overall thought it was a pleasant time there. We didn’t stay long, (not long enough to use our full hour of parking meter time – 3$, right in front of the restaurant), but we enjoyed our beer, and chatting, and stayed for probably twenty – thirty minutes.

After leaving, we decided the next stop would be The Millworks, since its close by. Did a few turns here and there and parked next to the Market. And went inside to the Millworks, which even at 2:30-3PM was pretty full with the bar nearly packed (luckily found two seats together) with lots of people eating.

Sidled ourselves up to the bar and plopped down. Ordered myself a flight, Drew ordered a pint, and got himself the brisket pizza. Drew typically always does pints rather than flights, and I typically will do flights whenever possible – to try as much as I can. Especially if its a venue I’m not likely to get to all that often.

My flight consisted of Winter Saison, Cherrywood Rauchbier, Kiwi Berry Gose, Triple IPA. Drew ordered the Market Day Session IPA.

Once we ordered and he ordered his food, the pizza arrived pretty quickly. I enjoyed the Saison, the Rauchbier was a nice, smokey, malty tasty drink, the Gose was a little bland, and not quite as interesting as I’d hope, but the Triple IPA made up for it and was very tasty, juicy, and hoppy. Drew enjoyed his Market Day IPA (I had it once before and found it enjoyable myself).

Drew said the brisket pizza was delicious. While here, we discussed various ongoing TV shows that we are still watching and looking forward to of upcoming seasons, like Fargo, HBO’s Righteous Gems, and of course still The Mandalorian. We broke down Coen Brothers movies, like A Serious Man, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and talked about how interesting it was for that show to be made (the Fargo show). We also talked about upcoming podcasts including me and Esteban doing one about LOST, a show which Drew had never watched.

While closing out and debating how far to stray from Harrisburg and getting texts from Dan Arndt that he’s getting off work and wants to jump in on the festivities, the bartender pointed out that it was 4:15PM and that The Sturgis Speakeasy was doing their happy hour from 4-6. So since Dan usually likes to meet up at ZeroDay when in the city, we figured we’d stay local, hit up Sturgis, then meet him over there. So off we were to a “pit stop” on the brewery tour.

A hop skip away from The Millworks we found ourselves good parking beside The Sturgis Speakeasy and headed in. They had a nice tap list including several noticeably good beers, quite a few New Trail Brewing Co. beers on tap, and a pretty good bottle and can listing. Drew asked for one of the bottles on the list and was told they just sold out, and so he then settled on the New Trail Porter – Sunset. I ordered the NE IPA Goggles from New Trail which everyone has been raving about in various Facebook beer groups I’m in.

You can’t go wrong with New Trail, they seemingly haven’t made a bad or even mediocre beer yet (at least that I’ve had). I’ve had several from them before – Broken Heels, Double Broken Heels, Corvus, and I believe a sour of theirs that name eludes me at the moment. Goggles was another fantastic New England style IPA, this time a Double Imperial New England IPA. At 8.8% ABV it does give you a good punch and with the large pour at Sturgis it was really good. For my second beer I got the Porter, which was a very nice chocolate porter. Not too overpowering, not too heavy chocolate, pretty much just the right amount. A nice mixture of flavors and complexities to keep it tasty.

On the background TVs was an English Premier League soccer (or “football”) game. A roar went up at one point from the denizens of the bar as the one team scored, and me and Drew talked about my years playing and coaching soccer. Also discussed Christian Pulisic a bit and how I grew up knowing the family due to his father – Mark Pulisic – and his days playing for the Harrisburg Heat. Christian is a great kid, and Mark was a great player, coach, and all around guy. His wife (and Christian’s mom) Kelly is also a wonderful person. So its so great to see the family achieve so much success. Hopefully it also translates to the US Men’s Team finally getting better and possibly winning a World Cup some day (obviously not the next one…. ….since we didn’t even qualify….. ugh……). Side note here: if you ever want to discuss soccer – make sure you see Owen, bartender for Boneshire Brew Works, the men has forgotten more about soccer (due to concussions) than most people will ever know. Plus he’s a great dude, especially after a few.

Nearing our end at the speakeasy a nearby bar patron started chatting us up about local Harrisburg politics, and all kinds of manner of other things. Now, me and Drew will often get chatty about politics, philosophy, religion, etc – but only with ourselves, and more quiet, …and usually when we’re a lot more drunk. We tend to not jump into these kind of conversations with people we don’t know, because well… you never know how the conversations are going to go, and typically we like to follow the bar rule of “No Religion. No Politics. No Gender.” discussions. But we allowed him to talk to us about it, and we stayed neutral and listened. (Always remain neutrality when listening, always the best case scenario.)

We paid up, said goodbye to the friendly bartender lady who was very nice, and chatted to us a bit about The Mandalorian (noticing a theme with our day yet?), as well as Netflix and other TV in general, thanked her for the good beer, and we were on our way to ZeroDay.

We park back behind Midtown Cinema and head into ZeroDay. Finding a spot at the bar we jump up, Drew orders the Financial Panther, and I get myself a flight. I also try their hard seltzer, one of the first craft brewery hard seltzers I’ve had. And I just have to say…. the style does nothing for me. No White Claws for me, no Truly Hard Seltzers, just… nope. White Claws mean no Laws is BS and I stand by it. I’ve never been a fan of carbonated water or seltzer to begin with, so making it slightly alcoholic doesn’t do enough for me. The first time I tried a hard seltzer was at Ffej of July this year from Karl Larson’s group. This was my first time trying it from a craft brewery.

My flight consisted of: Accidental Fluffer, Grievance, Smooth Metal, Mister Bubz, North St. Stout, and ZeroDay Dunkel. With an additional taster of plain Automatic Refresher (the hard seltzer).

We hung out inside for about fifteen minutes before our friend Youngblood and his girlfriend arrived. After about another five or so minutes Dan arrived, but had to stay outside because he had his corgi with him – Domino Thunderthighs. And yes, thats its actual name, and yes, the dog is totally a babe magnet and the most adorable thing since Baby Yoda – The Child. So we went outside and hung out at the picnic table, and watched the slow human avalanche of people finding out theres a nine month old corgi outside as they all came out to pet him and either go back in or head to their cars. Even the bartenders took turns coming outside to pet the dog.

Outside was a nice brisk evening, and we stayed out there til 9PM. Youngblood does stand up comedy work for various places, so we chatted some about that, his upcoming shows, some bits, we talked with Dan about his work (lung respiratory nurse), talked about our jobs (Drew as bartender, me at the casino, etc.), we talked about dogs (my border collie Leela and my new pitbull / black lab mix – Tink), Dan’s two dogs the corgi Domino Thunderthighs and his other dog Indiana Bones. Dan talked about his latest trip with his fiance Kat at Tree House Brewing Company where he brought back the beers I’ve done reviews of – Sap and Autumn. Talked about the places we stopped at today – Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, and The Millworks. Talked about local breweries in general, places like Iron Hill, Troegs, Moo-Duck, Cox Brewing, The Vineyard and Brewery at Middletown, and Spring Gate.

We got into our normal shenanigans and revelry and had a good time hanging out together. Killing an afternoon / evening. At about 915 or so, we discussed evening plans, I had to take Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works for him to get his car and I was gonna head home, Dan, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend were going back to their apartment after Dan dropped off his dog. As usual partings go, we cleaned up and took our glasses back in, gave our goodbyes to each other, walked to our cars and left. Knowing we’ll all be doing this again in a few days most likely, just chilling, relaxing, hanging out, having a good time, and drinking beers at places like ZeroDay or Boneshire or Troegs or at bars like Chick’s, Sturgis Speakeasy, The Manor, Gin Mill, The Boro, Warwick Hotel, etc. There is few things on this planet that are better than hanging out with friends, having fun, laughing, not being stressed by life or cares and just taking care of each other through communal friendship and just being with each other as we drink and bond. Its easily one of the best things about craft breweries is the communal nature of the small local craft breweries. The atmospheres and the venues and the way it brings people together to talk, hang out, have fun, and drink good delicious beers. Not even macro beers at big time bars can deliver the same kind of intimate friendship and kinship that craft breweries can give you, just based on the structure of how different the two are.

After we departed, took Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works and let him get his car. It was 9:45PM and Boneshire was soon closing for the night. Made our safe returns and trips, and had ourselves a fantastic trip basically over Harrisburg and the suburb of it a bit. We got to drink at Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturgis Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Had great beer, Drew had some great food, lots of great conversations, lot of fun, and much laughter. Was a fantastic day, and a nice leadup to the end of 2019 and the end of a decade and to the start of a new year, new decade, and certainly many more adventures.

As a final note before listing the beers, I started writing this up Sunday December 29th 2019 early in the morning before work, had to go to work, wanted to finish it after work, but had a retirement party for a co-worker at Thoroughbred’s, and after that it was late and I was unable to finish it. So I am now finishing this up (started at 5:30AM when I woke up, and now finishing it at 7AM). And since its December 30th now, I can safely say to Drew happy birthday, as the old man is now 35. So in his honor, make sure you listen to some of his podcasts and mentally give him a shout out and happy birthday.

And now onto the lists!

Boneshire Brew Works:

Beers:

• 2019 Holiday Reserve
• The Hog

Beer: 2019 Holiday Reserve
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: What we have here is a small Christmas miracle! This year’s batch of Holiday Reserve is a NEIPA brewed with 12 varieties of hops and copious amounts of Flaked Oats, Wheat, and Barley and clocks in at 8.5% abv. This batch is brewed with Apollo, Cashmere, Columbus, Simcoe, Warrior, Motueka, Amarillo, Azacca, Lemondrop, Citra, El Dorado, and Mosaic. This NEIPA is sure to please everyone for the holidays.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: The Hog
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Triple
ABV: 9.8%
IBU: 51
Untappd Write-Up: Our collaboration with Muggers of the year 2018-2019. Mike Luckovich and Dan Ploch dreamed up this big hoppy fruit forward IPA. Brewed with Simcoe, Amarillo, Zythos, and Citra hops.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.16 (as of 12.30.19)

The Vegetable Hunter

• Brother of Thor!
• Today’s Tom Sawyer

Beer: Brother of Thor!
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 27
Untappd Write-Up: Hoppy IPA with the Viking/Norwegian yeast strain Loki.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Today’s Tom Sawyer
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: West Coast IPA – Slappin’ da bass hops! Nugget, Equinox, Citra, Amarillo, and Columbus hops.
Drew’s Comments: Good, hoppy, tasty.
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

The Millworks

• Market Day Session IPA
• Winter Saison
• Cherrywood Rauchbier
• Kiwi Berry Gose
• Triple IPA

Beer: Market Day Session IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Session / India Session Ale
ABV: 5%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Light body, hop forward ale. Orange-golden in color. Floral and citrus in the aroma and flavor. Restrained bitterness that is noticeable but not overwhelming. Easy drinking, lower alcohol session ale.

Malts: Pale, Vienna, Cara Pils

Hops: Nugget, Cascade, Chinook, Crystal
Drew’s Comments: Tasty, crisp.
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.66 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Winter Saison
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 7.9%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Medium body, dark spiced farmhouse ale. Deep mahogany in color, lightly spiced with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, and french oak chips. Fermented with spicy belgian saison yeast.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Cherrywood Rauchbier
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Rauchbier
ABV: 5%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Classic Rauchbier brewed with local PA Cherry Wood smoked malt. Mild smokiness balanced with sweet bready malt
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Kiwi Berry Gose
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: PA Preferred beer brewed with Deer Creek Malt and 350 lbs of Kiwi Berries from Threefold Farm
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Triple IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Tripel
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 80
Untappd Write-Up: Full bodied IPA brewed with Amarillo, El Dorado, and Idaho 7 hops
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 12.30.19)

The Sturges Speakeasy

• Goggles
• Sunset

Beer: Goggles
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Goggles is a Hazy Double IPA focussing on some of our favorite hops. Brewed with a mixture of wheats and oats. Heavy handedly hopped with Galaxy and Citra. Goggles is excessively fruity and dank.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.21 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Sunset
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: Porter – Other
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Sunset is a Chocolate Porter brewed with layers of dark and chocolate malts, rested on Cacao Nibs from Ghana. Expect a rich porter layered with deep chocolate flavor reflecting both dark and milk chocolates. Brewed for the early winter sunsets and long dark nights.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

ZeroDay Brewing

• Automatic Refresher
• Financial Panther
• Accidental Fluffer
• Grievance
• Smooth Metal
• Mister Bubz
• North St. Stout
• ZeroDay Dunkel

Beer: Automatic Refresher
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Hard Seltzer
ABV: 5%
IBU: 0
Untappd Write-Up: Hard Seltzer brewed for you! We brewed a blank Hard Seltzer and provide the flavors for you to add how you please!
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Financial Panther
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 47
Untappd Write-Up: Inspired by the hard work it takes to not only make the beer, but the prowess required to run the business, we are excited to release Financial Panther, our newest IPA double dry hopped with copious amounts of Motueka from New Zealand. With notes of crushed lime and bright citrus, it’s sure to start your weekend right.
Drew’s Comments: Had this before, second favorite from ZeroDay behind Mango Hab
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Accidental Fluffer
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Malt Liquor
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A Zeroday holiday classic, Accidental Fluffer is one of our most creative libations. Peppermint flavor and aromas shine in this malt beverage from the addition of pounds of candy canes in the fermenter. This fresh, minty characteristic is complemented by a sweetness derived from a light grain bill, milk sugar, and copious amounts of Marshmallow Fluff.
My Untappd Rating: 3.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.36 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Grievance
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Smooth Metal
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Red Ale – Other
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 50
Untappd Write-Up: Smooth Metal showcases a balance between a smooth caramel malt backbone and an assertive floral hop bitterness. The American grown Nugget and Cascade hops provide a classic hop character for this full-bodied ale. Smooth Metal is soft spoken at first, but definitely has a lot to say.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.65 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Mister Bubz
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Dunkelweizen
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 16
Untappd Write-Up: Our dunkelweizen is brewed to the traditional German style. This dark wheat ale (“dunkel” means “dark” and “weizen” means “wheat” in German) is a wheat-based beer with dark malt components. While the malt supports a smooth backbone, the yeast is what shines in this beer. Banana and clove aromas and flavors really standout in this dark brown easy-drinking wheat beer.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.46 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: North St. Stout
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Write-Up: A vanilla-latte inspired Stout brewed in collaboration with the Elementary Coffee Co.
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: ZeroDay Dunkel
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Lager – Munich – Dunkel
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Light in body, dark in color, this Munich Dunkel brings forth notes of roasted malts and chocolate.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

Hopefully you enjoyed this travelogue of our jumpings and hoppins around of Harrisburg. Was a fun day for us, and we do this somewhat often (less now as we get older though). Hopefully there will be more articles like this in the future of more different / diverse places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, etc. I’m looking forward to 2020 and hoping it has a lot more great breweries in store!

For some other articles and beer reviews and brewery reviews, you can check out these past written articles:

• ZeroDay Beer Review
• The Millworks Beer Review
• November Recap
• Cushwa Brewery Review
• Battlefield Brew Works Brewery Review
• Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
• The Trip Day 1
• The Trip Day 2
• The Trip Day 3
• Going On The Road
• Midwest Coast Brewery Opening
• Rotunda Brew Pub Opening
  

As always, there is tons of things to see, read, and do here on the blog. You can also head over and listen to the podcasts me and my friends – Drew, Esteban, Dan, Andrew, and Andy all have done and created. We talk about beer, movies, pop culture, TV, you name it. You can see the podcast listings here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…

Please help us out with word of mouth, share, like, comment, re-tweet, re-blog, whatever works for you. We love to hear from you guys, so please leave a comment. There is still time to get in what you think was the best beer or breweries of 2019, as I’m hoping to have that article fully done and up before the end of 2019. Fingers crossed!

Thank you for reading this long, rambling, blog post. I know its a bit different than some of our past articles. I’m looking to try and expand what all this blog has to offer, so there’ll be tons of different times of articles to read in the future. Not just beer reviews, but brewery reviews, beer related book reviews, home brewing articles, hop growing articles, beer event reviews, news, brewery opening news, travelogues, and so much more!

I have a packed schedule coming up. Looking like at the end of the day on New Years Day I’ll be doing a LOST podcast, Seasons 1 and 2, and then on January 2nd, me and Josh are traveling to Mellow Mink to do a write-up and have some fun with the head brewer Matt Miller. So be on the look out for that. That should be lots of fun!

I also just want to give a shout out – we just hit 100 Followers on Twitter. Thank you all so much for subscribing and following us on Twitter! If you aren’t following us already, you can click here: The Beer Thrillers on Twitter and follow us. That way you won’t miss any great announcements, pictures, and updates! You can also follow us on Facebook at: The Beer Thrillers on Facebook. Thank you everyone!

As always, thank you everyone for reading, and cheers, and Happy New Year!

-B. Kline

This was a first for us here at The Beer Thrillers, we were contacted by a new brewery opening up to discuss their opening and to discuss their brewery and brewing operations. It is an honor to get to do this write-up for them and to help their business start up and grow. We love hearing from breweries and individuals and brewers about their craft and their businesses and always love to help where we can. While we here at The Beer Thrillers are primarily located in Central PA – we do cover breweries across the country (and world) and do beer reviews from breweries all over. Midwest Coast Brewing is located in Chicago, so unfortunately we have not yet gotten to check out their facilities, but I have been in contact with their owners and brewer to write up this article, and they have also sent pictures of their facility (as well as their grand opening) to provide a view for everyone who is interested in checking them out. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to make the visit out and check them out! 

Late September I was contacted by Elena Veckman and Cameron Compton of Midwest Coast Brewing to discuss on our blog their brewery opening. Since I have been unable to make it to their facility, they have graciously answered many questions about their facility, themselves, beer, and then after their grand opening weekend – how the weekend went.  

Elena Veckman (or Lanie as she likes to be called) and Cameron Compton are sister and brother who have decided to chase their dream and open their own brewery. They purchased an old warehouse in the Industrial Corridor / Brewing District of Old West Town Chicago. As Lanie describes their beer and brewery so far: “We’re focusing on more classic beer styles that go down smooth – our British ESB and Hazy IPA (we consider hazy a classic American style now – it’s not going anywhere, thank goodness!) for example have gotten great reviews from bars and people. We’d be thrilled to connect over the phone and tell you more, or have you to the taproom to check it out (and taste it) in person. We’re really proud of the vibe we’re creating in our taproom, we’d love to have you in!” 

The brewery is located at 2137 W. Walnut St. Chicago Illinois. A Google Map showing their location can be found here: Midwest Coast Brewery. Their brewery is a ‘verified venue’ on Untappd and their menu can be found here: Midwest Coast Brewery Menu. 

When asked about their tap room, Cameron Compton replied: “We subjectively think our taproom is gorgeous – the building is nearly 100 years old and has the type of architecture you’d expect from a building that age.  Covered with brick, wooden bowtruss ceilings, concrete floors… We really had a great canvas to work with.  We just “polished” it and chose furniture that would accent the building and provide a timeless look.  We want to be a place that’s welcoming to everyone, where you can bring your dog, bring your kids, and just relax over a few beers. So come enjoy beers in our booths, high tops or cozy corner!” 

As one can see from the two pictures above, the brewery and tap room is very spacious and able to accommodate a large amount of people. The building looks gorgeous and has room for all kinds of seating, from high top chairs, to a bar, to even a sofa (see next picture). There is a very old school motif to it as well as a new-age “hipster” appeal to it that should endear the taproom to all guests who come out to visit. With large open spaces for people to stand and talk as well as mingle and chat and hang out with friends, co-workers, family and the brewers and workers themselves, this looks like an extremely fun and inviting place to visit and grab some local beer and grub. 

As this picture shows, there is a bar area, a couple of rows of booth seating, a nice corner circular sofa area, as well as the large tables for sitting and eating and the open floor space. The lighting looks terrific with lots of ambience, and as this window shows, a beautiful view of their brewing facility. 

Cameron Compton describes the brewing facility: “We purchased our 10BBL system new from Alpha Brewing Operations out of Lincoln, Nebraska.  We (currently) have two 10BBL fermenters, two 20BBL fermenters, and a Brite Tank of each size as well.  We have room to grow, and are already pushing our cellar capacity, so are looking into adding some more fermenters soon.” As you will see from the opening weekend pictures, there is plenty of space in the brewing facility for growth, which should be great news for all fans of beer. 

They currently do not have a running kitchen (although there are plans for one in the future), but they are currently partnered up with an app called 2^nd Kitchen which allows customers at the brewery to take pictures of the QR code at their tables and order food to be delivered to the brewery. There is many excellent local restaurants that this app works with that will gladly deliver to the brewery.  

They currently do not offer brewery tours, but there is plans for this in the future once things are more formalized and set in stone at the facility. You are able to view and see the beautiful brewing facility at your own leisure. As a last minute change to this article, I’ve been informed that informal tours are starting at the brewery and going forward might be progressing towards formal brewery tours. You will need to check (and / or contact) Midwest Coast’s social media and / or onsite personnel to find the full details out of this, as it’s a slowly evolving feature at the brewery, details are sparse and better to check with them yourself. 

There is a host of events lined up at the brewery, with something to do on nearly every night of the week. Monday is service industry night, where customers who work in food, beverage, restaurant, or brewing industries can receive 30% off. Tuesday is taco truck and trivia Tuesday. Wednesday is currently a floating schedule, sometimes there will be live music, sometimes arts and crafts, with a host of different events lined up or soon to be announced. Currently Thursday through Sunday is more of a leisure time aimed around their televisions. There will be a push to air the Chicago Blackhawks hockey games as well as the Chicago Bulls basketball games, as the brewery is just a mere four blocks away from their arena.  

As of right now, they currently have 12 taps at their bar. 11 for their own beers, with the 12^th as a rotating tap for any of the various local Chicago craft breweries. Their current tap listing is: 

1) Guest Tap: Very Very Far Off (Off Color Brewing) (Just received a 2019 GABF Gold for “Other Belgian”.) 
2) Red Bandana – American IPA 
3) The Colonies – British ESB 
4) West Town Brown – American Brown 
5) Local Time – American Blonde Ale 
6) Elevator Shaft – Tropical Pale Ale 
7) Oktoberfest  – Marzen 
8) Volkslager – German Pils 
9) The Holly Shed – Saison 
10) Driving to Cashmere – American Pale Ale (brewed with all Cashmere hops) 
11) Canis Rubum – Red Ale (brewed with all Mosaic hops) 
12) AlottaZacca – Hazy Pale Ale (brewed with all Azacca hops) (collaboration with Exit Strategy Brewing) 

As of 10.10.19, their Untappd page has them with a global rating of 3.67 out of 735 ratings, with 15 unique individual beers to their name. The write-up for their Untappd listing is: “We are Midwest Coast Brewing Company – We’re regular folks who love making great beer and sharing it with those around us. In our opinion, Chicago is about the greatest place in these United States, and we’re proud to join the great breweries here in West Town’s Chicago Brewing District. Bring some friends, have some pints, share some laughs, and, as always, #LoveWhereYouLive” You can view their Untappd page here: Midwest Coast Brewing Company. 

When asked about himself, Cameron Compton responded: “I was born and raised in Northern California just outside of San Jose, and first became enamored with Chicago while attending Notre Dame.  I graduated from there in 2010, and started homebrewing immediately.  My roommate and I immediately fell in love with it, and I knew this was something I wanted to do long term.  I continued brewing at home regularly for the next 7 years or so until I, with the encouragement from my fiance and older sister, finally decided to pull the trigger on the brewery, and Chicago seemed like a market poised to explode.  It took us 2.5 years to find a building and navigate the Chicago permitting processes, but ultimately opened our doors in late summer 2019.  As for our preferred styles, we lean on the classics.  We love a good German Pils, British ESB, and balanced American IPA (among others of course).” 

Doing a quick little Q and A with him, I asked him some questions about his favorite breweries, beers, styles, his go-to beer, where he foresees the brewery in the near future. When asked for favorite breweries, Cameron replied: “I love Monday Night out of Atlanta and Modern Times out of San Diego.  Everything both of them make is top notch. Locally for larger breweries I’d say Half Acre, and for smaller breweries I’d say Hopewell and On Tour.” Favorite beers: “I know they’re a little out of style with New Englands taking over, but I was born and raised in Northern California, so I still have a soft spot for West Coast IPAs.  That style was all the rage when I started drinking craft beer.  Love Duet by Alpine (right outside San Diego), and of course have to mention Blind Pig and Pliny by Russian River.” Pound for pound his go to beer, the beer to always stock up his fridge would be: “The American Pale Ale is my go to as a fridge stocker.  For a long time it was Saint Archer Pale Ale (when I lived on the West Coast), but now I’m trying to keep the fridge stocked with Cozmo Pale by Noon Whistle here in the Chicago area.” When pressured to say where he foresees the brewery in five and ten years time, Compton replied: “We’re so new it’s hard to look past the next 5 or 10 minutes, but our long term goals are to be a major player in the Chicago beer seen and then the Midwest as a whole.  We believe slow and steady is the way to do that.   If people start to grow too big too soon, corners tend to get cut and quality can drop.  We want to make sure we’re doing things right as we grow, and the only way to do that in our opinion is to keep the growth measured and organic.” 

They have already been recently covered in several media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune as well as the Chicago Beers Pass podcast. 

Over the last weekend of September, Friday the 27^th, Saturday the 28^th, and Sunday the 29^th, Midwest Coast Brewing hosted their grand opening. It was a fantastic weekend for the brewery, for the community, and for all who came out. It was packed full, with lots of customers leaving happy with big smiles and full of beer joy. In the process of having a fantastic and wonderful grand opening weekend, the brewery also raised 2,200$ for three different charities: The Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago West Community Music Center, and Catcade (a cat rescue). It is always extremely great to see a brewery giving back to their community, and to do so with such great results and so soon into their operation is beyond fantastic. 

You can find more information about the Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital here.  

As well as more information about the Chicago West Community Music Center here.  

And finally you can learn more about the Catcade here.  

It has been a wonderful time getting to talk via with Elena Veckman and Cameron Compton about their brewery, about their love and enthusiasm for brewing, for their love of Chicago, and what they want to do with their dream. They are wonderful people and the brewery and taproom and facility look tremendous. We personally here at The Beer Thrillers cannot wait to get to come out and visit them and take a tour and sample (all of) their beers as they all look delicious in the pictures. We will be keeping a keen interest and look on them as they grow and will be on the lookout for whenever they start canning and bottling to grab some and do some beer reviews here on the blog for them. So if you are in the Chicago area, make sure you stop by and check them out, and let them know you heard about their brewery here, I’m sure they’ll be glad to know how they were recommended and referred.  

I hope you all enjoyed this. Its not everyday we get approached by a brewery so it was great fun getting to work with them to promote their business and to help them as they start out. We are always looking to help breweries and brewers get the word out about their product. If you wish to contact us, you can do so by clicking on the “Contact The Beer Thrillers” at the top and that will directly send us an e-mail. We are always more then willing and gladly able to work with brewers, breweries, and other people in the industry on articles and blog posts, beer reviews, and brewery reviews, and will do so to the best of our abilities. So don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us and we will gladly do all that we can.  

Enjoy and cheers everyone! 

-B. Kline 

Post Script: I would like to thank Cameron Compton and Elena Veckman for working on me to get this article published. We have been in communications nearly daily to get this article written with lots of Q and A and back and forth e-mails. Even me sending Cameron emails over his wedding weekend, which he had a very nice and humorous auto-reply email setup for emails received over his wedding weekend. This was a lot of fun to work with them and get to help build this article and see this small piece of their vision come to fruition. Their brewery looks beautiful and wonderful and I am completely looking forward to a trip out to Chicago and getting to see their facility.

There is also a lot of stuff going on with the blog. Yesterday I finally got a beer review up (a bit overdo), and today I am looking to post two more throughout the day (Thursday and Friday being my days off from my REAL job, you can always expect to see more content on these days), the reviews are varied on the beers I’ve had recently, including the Hershey’s Chocolate Porter from Yuengling, a Boneshire Brew Works beer, a flight from Troegs Independent Craft Brewery, as well as some beers from my beer mail from South Carolina. I am also due to receive a beer mail package tomorrow, so that might result in some beer reviews as well. I also have backlogged beer reviews of Fuzzy Nudge, Tattered Abomination, and several others from breweries like Troegs and Tattered Flag.

Also, J. Doncevic is coming out of retirement with a beer review that should go live tonight. So be on the lookout for that as his beer reviews are definitely not ones to be missed.

I also have a fair amount of backlogged blog posts to put up, including one about my hop harvest at home, a canning day from Tattered Flag back in the day, some beer events like a home brew event, the Ffej of July, my trip to the western edges of Pennsylvania, as well as a small news article about some GABF winners. So please be on the lookout for those. They might get pre-dated since they were started at a previous time, so I’ll have to check out how that all works and might have to re-post links or something. Not sure yet on that, but be on the lookout for them!

Thanks for reading this (possibly the longest blog post yet, even over the Harrisburg Breweries blog post). This blog wouldn’t be what it is if it weren’t all of you loyal readers. So please comment, like, subscribe, follow, and follow us on Twitter at: @TheBeerThrillers. You can also follow us on Instagram at: The Beer Thrillers on Instagram, or Pintrest: TheBeerThrillers. Or even our brand new Facebook page (which we just created and opened today): The Beer Thrillers.

So as a final send-off, please check out Midwest Coast Brewing, they are good people and care about their craft and their community. Keep checking out their social media sites like their Facebook, Twitter, etc, and keep updated on them (I know we will be!), and keep up to date on us here at The Beer Thrillers as well.

Keep drinking and keep putting those livers to work everyone!

-B. Kline
–The Beer Thrillers

Oooh boy that was a classic of a game. Lead off with a 3-0 lead and then the Cincinnati Bengals quickly let it all slip away and allow Steelers to go and score 27 points unanswered for a 27-3 thrashing that would leave Freddy Krueger with nightmares.

It was ugly. It was brutal (five sacks that were less than four seconds from snap). It was…. it was typical Cincinnati Bengals in primetime. Thats about the gist of it all right there. Zac Taylor. Marvin Lewis. It doesn’t matter. Just the same old same old.

So how do you handle mediocrity going depressing into complete and utter dumpsterfire? By drinking at your local saloon, thats how! And by local saloon I mean Boneshire Brwe Works, and by drinking I mean having some excellent craft beers.

I started off with the Tried and True Mango. Which was absolutely phenomenal. If you click the link there, you can read my review on it. I have loved the other Tried and True variant as well (pineapple), and of course the original Tried and True is outstanding.

So after having a delicious and juicy beer, I decided to flip gears a bit, but still stay in the supposedly “lighter” territory (going from Witbier to IPA)…. but with TWIST! (Cue Adult Swim M. Night Shamalayan voice.) Its a Black IPA! A style not done a whole lot, not just in this area, but in general it would seem. And a style that… can go either way and be either a flop or be a great beer. It is easy to get some off flavors with this style (in my opinion) and get some astringency and really bitter burning flavors.

The BJCP has the following to say on Black IPAs:

21B. Specialty IPA: Black IPA

Overall Impression

A beer with the dryness, hop-forward balance, and flavor characteristics of an American IPA, only darker in color – but without strongly roasted or burnt flavors. The flavor of darker malts is gentle and supportive, not a major flavor component. Drinkability is a key characteristic.

Appearance

Color ranges from dark brown to black. Should be clear, although unfiltered dry-hopped versions may be a bit hazy; if opaque, should not be murky. Good head stand with light tan to tan color should persist.

Aroma

A moderate to high hop aroma, often with a stone fruit, tropical, citrusy, resinous, piney, berry, or melon character. If dry hopped, can have an additional floral, herbal, or grassy aroma, although this is not required. Very low to moderate dark malt aroma, which can optionally include light chocolate, coffee, or toast notes. Some clean or lightly caramelly malty sweetness may be found in the background. Fruitiness, either from esters or from hops, may also be detected in some versions, although a neutral fermentation character is also acceptable.

Flavor

Medium-low to high hop flavor with tropical, stone fruit, melon, citrusy, berry, piney or resinous aspects. Medium-high to very high hop bitterness, although dark malts may contribute to the perceived bitterness. The base malt flavor is generally clean and of low to medium intensity, and can optionally have low caramel or toffee flavors. Dark malt flavors are low to medium-low; restrained chocolate or coffee flavors may be present, but the roasted notes should not be intense, ashy, or burnt, and should not clash with the hops. Low to moderate fruitiness (from yeast or hops) is acceptable but not required. Dry to slightly off-dry finish. The finish may include a light roast character that contributes to perceived dryness, although this is not required. The bitterness may linger into the aftertaste but should not be harsh. Some clean alcohol flavor can be noted in stronger versions.

Mouthfeel

Smooth, medium-light to medium-bodied mouthfeel without significant hop- or (especially) roasted malt-derived astringency. Dry-hopped versions may be a bit resiny. Medium carbonation. A bit of creaminess may be present but is not required. Some smooth alcohol warming can and should be sensed in stronger (but not all) versions.

Comments

Most examples are standard strength. Strong examples can sometimes seem like big, hoppy porters if made too extreme, which hurts their drinkability. The hops and malt can combine to produce interesting interactions.

History

A variation of the American IPA style first commercially produced by Greg Noonan as Blackwatch IPA around 1990. Popularized in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California of the US starting in the early-mid 2000s. This style is sometimes known as Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA), mainly in the Pacific Northwest.

Characteristic Ingredients

Debittered roast malts for color and some flavor without harshness and burnt qualities; American or New World hop varieties that don’t clash with roasted malts. Hop characteristics cited are typical of these type of hops; others characteristics are possible, particularly if derived from newer varietals.

Style Comparison

Balance and overall impression of an American or Double IPA with restrained roast similar to the type found in Schwarzbiers. Not as roasty-burnt as American stouts and porters, and with less body and increased smoothness and drinkability.

Vital Statistics

IBU

50 – 90

SRM

25 – 40

OG

1.050 – 1.085

FG

1.010 – 1.018

ABV

5.5% – 9%

Commercial Examples

21st Amendment Back in Black (standard), Deschutes Hop in the Dark CDA (standard), Rogue Dad’s Little Helper (standard), Southern Tier Iniquity (double), Widmer Pitch Black IPA (standard).

Iscariot has been a staple for Boneshire Brew Works, cycling on their tap lists and through their brite tanks / fermenters regularly, and is one of my favorites. So let’s break her down.

Beer: Iscariot
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Black / Cascadian Dark Ale
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 75
Untappd Write-Up: Torn between the Light and the Dark, Iscariot is a juxtaposition of flavors at war with itself. Roasted malts initially blanket your palate, only to be quickly stabbed with the bite of bitter hops. Which side do you
prefer? Enjoy the internal struggle.

The Untappd write-up is pretty accurate. There is two sides to how this beer tastes and plays out in your mouth, but ultimately it makes for a good combination, and works in a wonderful tandem (…not necessarily how the tandem of the original Iscariot worked with his ‘boss’….. ….just saying…).

Appearance is a lovely darker brown going to black. It has a very rich creamy looking head with a light brown coloring. Varied bubbles, good carbonation, nice dark black IPA coloring, everything is looking right and correct so far. Slight murkyness but overall its able to have a light shine through it.

Aroma is roasty malts, hoppy, and stone fruit. Very little stone fruit, the majority of the aroma on this is coming from the very roast forward malts and then the hops taking a big kick out of your nostrils as well. It all matches very nicely to make for a wonderful smelling beer.

Flavor is again, malt forward, but with a hop bite afterwards. There is a some caramel to the malts but for the most part its straight roasty. Due to the malt bill, its not super easy to pin down what exact hops are used but it has an earthy / grassy hop note. The flavors are kind of all bouncing around in your mouth fighting back and forth – the light and the dark – but it makes for an very tasty and interesting conclusion. Mouthfeel is nice and consistent, nothing cloying, no astringency, nothing off, nothing bad, its a like drinking an IPA as far as mouth feel goes, just with more roast notes, and with a darker look, thats all.

No after taste that’s off putting or causing weird burps, just a nice tasty flow and ending.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.7 (as of 10.1.19)

Midwest Coast Brewing Company reached out to me tonight and we finished our interview and got some pictures from their big grand opening weekend there in Chicago, so look for that to get posted sometime between Wednesday – Friday (most likely Thursday). Should be a good look at a promising new upcoming brewery!

Keep drinking tatter tots!

-B. Kline

Its been a hot minute since I’ve been to Ever Grain (the brewery), so I figured it was about time and I was due to try some delicious beers from them (absolutely always love their beers). They have such a fantastic brewery and a lovely place that is just so inviting (inside and outside) that I always love going there. Sadly, it just feels “so far away” from the Hummelstown area. Its really only a 18-22 minute drive (Google Maps flips and flops on this, depending on time of day, traffic, local events, etc.), so in actuality its not REALLY that far away, more like it just feels that way (due to having to cross the river I suspect) so its kind of a mental impediment.

Saturday while at work a co-worker mentioned about how she saw the Cinn-a-Bun and the other beers that Ever Grain was posting on their Instagram. You can actually check out our first post on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B24Mt-FgJD8/ . Hopefully as I figure out more about it, we’ll be posting more on there (I know a lot of people use Instagram rather than FaceBook or Twitter or even Untappd or ….. Myspace?!). But needless to say, she saw the post on their Instagram about it and got excited about it and was talking about how much she loves pastry stouts and such, and to be honest, I definitely do too. And over this past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, the 21st and 22nd of September) Ever Grain celebrated their 3rd Anniversary. (Feels like they’ve been open much longer, especially with the quality of their beers!). So I had to stop and get her a crowler of the Cinn-a-bun, plus, I definitely wanted to try out all these lovely delicious sounding beers myself. So… thats just what I did!

The brewery has undergone a few changes since I was last there (probably back in maybe October or November of LAST year). They now have a side-bar and restaurant (ran by Kurt, and its called Little Bird at Ever Grain) and their main bar area now opens up in two different directions. On a nice (and still warm) September night like Tuesday was, it was lovely. I chose to sit out in the patio area and read while drinking (like I usually do) and watched a cornhole tournament (or at least a cornhole competition) unfold.

I unfortunately didn’t have a lot of time to spend (pretty much just enough time to grab the flight, sample it, read about 15 pages in the process, take in the ambience, and get the crowler to go), so I didn’t get anything to order from Little Bird. I also got there at 8:50 and the place was due to close at 10PM, though when I left at 9:20-9:30 it was still hopping and the tournament/competition was just ending. But all I’ve heard is amazing things and seeing Kurt’s posts on Facebook, the food looks absolutely phenomenal and delicious.

I was quite surprised by how busy they were at even 930 at night, on a Tuesday, especially given that their Google Maps, Untappd, and Hop Plotter, listings all had them scheduled to close at 10PM.

It was a fun, loud, jovial atmosphere both inside the brewery and outside, especially in the grass area between Ever Grain and the boxing studio and the oyster restaurant. This is what is so great about breweries – bringing communities and people together. All kinds of groups of people hanging out inside at the bar area, at the tables, families with kids, guys watching sports on the TV, outside people playing cornhole and having a blast together, and I think the couple at the table near me were on a first or second date (a lot of new questions about each other), possibly even met there at the brewery.

Looking at the extensive (13+) beers they had available, I decided to go the route of dark, heavy, boozy, and I definitely loved the flight I picked out, and would highly recommend it to everyone making a one-time stop in at Ever Grain. My flight consisted of a (barrel aged) barleywine, a porter, a (barrel aged) Imperial / Double stout, and a milk / sweet / pastry stout. So it was definitely a heavy, boozy flight, and also a very dark one. It was delicious! Let’s break it down.

Beer: Barrel Aged Barleywine
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Style: Barleywine – American
ABV: 14%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: Smooth, lively & fruity we barrel aged this beer in Buffalo Trace barrels for a year. On a cold evening, you will be warmed from the inside out!

This was an absolutely wonderful barleywine, and as anyone who knows me knows, I love barleywines. The bigger, the bolder, the higher the ABV, the better. And this matches all of that. This is what a barleywine should be, and its definitely everything I love in a barleywine. Aged in Buffalo Trace barrels; which gives it an edge and a kick that just adds to the beer and puts it over the top.

Aroma is strong malt, strong notes of the boozyness before you even dive into the taste. It has a spicey and stone fruit smell that is heavy and stays in your nostrils.

Appearance is light to dark brown, an earthy brown one might say (or tobacco spit coloring if you’re feeling for an apt and disgusting coloring description). Its mostly on the light-brown spectrum moving upwards. Not a whole lot of head nor does there ever need to be for this. (I was also granted this for free since someone had ordered a taster of it and then didn’t want it, so even though I picked this for my flight, I didn’t have to pay for it, so it might have sat for a few minutes.)

Taste is splendid. Immediately heavy booze, heavy traces of the wood and barrel aging process, bourbon-scotch notes. Dry finish but nothing too dry and nothing bitter. No cloying, no off flavors, no astringency, no sourness. Mouthfeel is heavy but in the right ways.

This was definitely the right beer to start off this flight with!

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.18 (as of 9.26.19)

Beer: You Think Darkness is Your Ally?
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Collaboration: H.L. Horse
Style: Porter – Baltic Imperial / Double
ABV: 8%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: You like dark beers? You’ve merely adopted the dark; this beer was born in it. In the cold, dark lager cellar it grew strong & emerged a deep, complex porter slightly roasty with a rich malty sweetness.

Didn’t realize it until after I checked it in and saw that it was a collaboration beer (no mentioning it on the sign or anywhere else). The Untappd page lists it as a collaboration with a “home brewery” named H.L. Horse. The page on H.L. Horse has no description or information, and lists them as having 18 unique beers to their name and 31 ratings (so no total global rating). So not sure the history on this collaboration.

Aroma is roasty, malt forward and heavy. It has a complex nose but generally speaking its more malt forward and roasty then it is anything else that I can fully distinguish.

Appearance is jet engine fuel black. Its sucking in light and not letting any of it return, ala a black hole. For a taster glass, it had a nice head to it, a nice simple foam with varying bubbles and a creamy look to it. This is the abyss that Nietzsche talks about, and if you keep staring at it, you will fall in.

Taste is a complex matter on this one. It is very dry, very bitter, at times too bitter, and at times too dry, but ultimately as a whole, it tastes alright. It tastes like first sip is overly bitter and dry, but middle sip is ok, and last sip the dryness and bitterness kind of even out. Hard to explain in that. This is heavy too, you can feel and taste some of that 8% that lurks in the depths of this dark beer. You get the roasty malts and even possibly a slight smokiness but that is very subliminal and very limited.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.01 (as of 9.26.19)

Beer: 3rd Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 14.3%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: A complex Imperial Stout aged in Wolford Reserve & Apple Brandy barrels which impart rich bourbon, chocolate, and roasted flavors.

This one surprisingly clocks in higher than the barleywine on the ABV charts for this fun outing. Climbing all the way up to 14.3% (the barleywine was a 14%). And this one felt heavy, but not as boozy as the barleywine. Aged in Wolford Reserve and Apple Brandy barrels rather than Buffalo Trace. Their 2nd Anniversary Stout was an aged Dark Necessity stout and clocked in at 11.2%. Their first anniversary stout was an 11% bourbon barrel aged stout. So you may or may not be noticing a theme with their anniversary stouts.

Aroma is kind of your typical for a stout. Malt, some chocolate, a bit of coffee maybe, a richness and a creamyness to it, a little bit of bourbon from the barrel aging.

Appearance is just like the Your Darkness, very black, maybe not quite as dark as the prior, but definitely dark. The head is a white slight foam, creamy in appearance. Unlike the Porter (Your Darkness) which had a more dark brown / peanut butter colored head to it.

Taste on this one is a bit interesting, and I found it sadly lacking. Not completely and overly lacking, but just… not quite what my expectations were probably before going in. I definitely imagined it being their big, bad, best stout, especially with a 14.3% ABV and with it being their “3rd Anniversary Stout”, plus anytime I have a “barrel aged” beer, I expect just a bit more out of it. Primarily due to cost going up on it (cost both for us as consumer and cost by the brewer). But also because of all the added work that goes in, to the transferring, to the procuring, to the sampling, etc, etc, etc. Just to reiterate, I did like this beer, it just didn’t fit the description and didn’t fit with my mental head on it. It tasted a bit thin, not flat, but thin, almost going towards watery but not there. It didn’t have a concrete bourbon flavoring to it either that I really expected it to have. There was a sweetness to it, which kind of surprised me. Could be the chocolate? I don’t know, it definitely didn’t have the bitter chocolate or the cooking chocolate flavor and taste to it. Thats for sure. Some roast malt notes but very slight.

My gut reaction response when I had it (encapsulated on m Untappd check-in): ” Interesting stout, kind of a sweet taste to it. Tastes thin and light, but is 14%, no real bourbon flavor. I like it, but doesn’t exactly fit the description or seem right, not sure. I do like it though, can’t fully put my finger on it.”

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.18 (as of 9.26.19)

Beer: Cinn-a-Bun
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: A decadent dessert Stout brewed with milk sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, & dozens of fresh cinnamon buns from The Pennsylvania Bakery in Camp Hill. All of the rich flavors & aromas you’d expect from a cinnamon bun, conveniently infused in a Stout!

The purpose of the trip, to grab a crowler of this for Haley, my co-worker who saw this on Ever Grain’s Instagram or Twitter or whatever on Saturday (yea, I’m not very social media savvy but trying to get there for the sake of this blog). So I grabbed a crowler of this, got the flight for myself (can’t stop at a brewery without having at least one beer), and the total came to 19.25$ (well, 23$ after tip). So hopefully when I go back to work Saturday (yea… Saturday is my Monday) and I surprise her with it, she’ll like it. Fingers crossed. Always good to earn brownie points.

Interestingly, with the lead ingredient being fresh cinnamon buns from The Pennsylvania Bakery, it reminds me of the various cakes I’ve gotten from there in the past (ones for various parties and such like my moms birthday). Its one of the best bakeries around, an absolutely fantastic place.

So there is definitely a lot to unpack with this beer, and surprisingly its also the lowest ABV of my flight (by a fair margin, the other beers being a 14%, 8%, 14.3%).

Aroma is cinnamon heavy, bready, notes of vanilla and sugar. You can smell the cinnamon buns from The PA Bakery upfront and heavy. The cinnamon itself dominating most of all. But you can definitely get a bready quality there, and notes of the vanilla.

Appearance is like the last three, jet engine fuel black. (This is always one of my favorite descriptors, only followed up by “Razor Ramon hair black”, which maybe I’ll switch to using that more.) Nice small ring of head to this, whitish to slight cream colored.

Taste is a pastry stout bomb in your mouth going off. Everything you think about in a pastry stout is right there exploding immediately. Breadyness, sugary, creamy, vanilla, all sorts of flavors. Lactose. Bread. Vanilla. Smoothness and creamyness. The cinnamon is pretty heavy to going mild and adds a nice note to the beer. I think the cinnamon kind of overpowers some of the vanilla and creamy lactose notes, but not too much, and definitely not enough to offset the beer. This finishes just as good as it starts and it never gets bad at any point. Nice aftertaste of a cinnamon bun, just like it was fresh from Grammy’s oven.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.93 (as of 9.26.19)

For those curious, the book I’m reading is “How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems” by Randall Munroe of XKCD fame. Very funny book and I highly recommend it (I’ll soon be done with it and posting a review of it on my GoodReads if you want to check it out.)

As you can see I’m getting better with linking things, and working harder to incorporate more links and pingbacks to our other articles and such, and will be combing back over some of our older articles to start adding in links and updating them.

We were recently approached by a brewery named MidWest Coast Brewing Company to cover their opening of their brewery and taproom. They are a new brewery in Chicago and they invited us to do a brewery tour (which won’t be a while due to travel issues) as well as to do a write-up and kind of an interview with them to help grab some attention for their opening of their new brewery and taproom. So expect to see that article soon.

Likewise, expect to see quite a few new beer reviews, and comb back through for some others that got date-logged backwards due to when I started writing them. Also, my event write-up for the Lititz Brewfest I attended Sunday should be completed tomorrow, and will be posted here, as well as submitted to Breweries in PA. So you’ll be able to read it in both places. (Likely our blog will contain a bit more than their version will, mostly personal stuff I’ll post here before posting there.)

Also, for the second week we stayed at #11 on The Top 100 Beer Blogs on FeedSpot. We’ve only been listed for 3 weeks, and we debuted at #120, and then went to #11 in week 2 and stayed there for week 3. So that is definitely a high honor for us.

Last night, spent a fair amount of time at D.Scott’s practicing and setting up stuff for the podcast we’ll be doing together. He is currently thinking of the name of “Off the Rails” and it will be the two of us playing old NES and SNES games and discussing everything under the sun, while drinking beer, and talking craft beer as well. I’ll be sure to plug that here when things progress. (As a heads up, it will be a bit more ‘edgy’ than this blog is.)

Thanks for the look, hopefully you liked the beer flight review, I highly recommend checking out Ever Grain soon before these leave the taps (and not likely to come back), and make sure you all keep clicking the like, the subscribe and follow, and comment whenever you want, we appreciate hearing from you!

-B. Kline

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