Welcome to the Opening Round

Welcome everyone to my newest idea here on the blog. Inspired by the March Madness tournament I’ve done the past two years, I’ve decided to try and do a similar single bracket tournament for “flagship beers”. We all pretty much know what flagship beers are – the beer we most associate with a brewery. Their full year release beer, the one you can find anywhere (if you can find that brewery distributed), the one everyone has most likely had from that brewery, etc, etc. So I decided I would take 32 flagship beers from 32 different breweries, and throw them into a heads up competition.

What could be more fun in the slow (for beer blogging anyway) summer months here at The Beer Thrillers?!

The Selection Process

The selection process is mostly arbitrary (welcome to the world of The Beer Thrillers). Generally, there were a few simple rules I followed:

• It had to be a beer I’ve had before
• It had to have at least a 3 star rating on Untappd
• I tried to pick some well known – nation wide distributed beers, some local breweries (local to us here at The Beer Thrillers), and a few “high end” / “high quality” / “top of the line” brewery flagships.

This is clearly not a list of beers based on any kind of science. This is purely meant for fun and just to have a good time. Please leave all feelings and egos at the door.

The Rules

The rules are quite simple, and they follow pretty much the same guideline as how I did the Battle of the Breweries. This is a 32 beer tournament bracket. Straight bracket, no reseeding after each round. The beers were ranked by their Untappd rating as of last night. In the cases where the beers had the same rating, I flipped a coin to determine which would be the higher seed.

There is no conferences, divisions, etc. – its just one simple straight 32 beer bracket.

As I stated in yesterday’s “heads up” blog post about this: The Battle of the Beers (2022) Tournament.

The rules are pretty simple, every week the tournament bracket will be posted. You go down the line up of heads up matches and pick the beers you like. You can vote once per day. Make sure to share on your social media platforms to try and help the beer / breweries you want to win.

The voting schedule is:

• Round of 32: July 1st – July 7th at 11:59PM (EST)
• Round of 16: July 8th – July 14th at 11:59PM (EST)
• Round of 8: July 15th – July 21st at 11:59PM (EST)
• Round of 4: July 22nd – July 28th at 11:59PM (EST)
• Round of 2: July 29th – August 4th at 11:59PM (EST)

Beers and Breweries Involved

Ok, before we get to the voting, since this is the first round, lets see who all is involved!

Below is a straight list of the 32 breweries with their flagship beers, with their Untappd rating, and the order they are ranked in the tournament:

1. The Alchemist – Headdy Topper (4.54)
2. Tree House – Green (4.43)
3. Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Sip of Sunshine (4.33)
4. Toppling Goliath – Pseudo Sue (4.13)
5. New Holland – Dragon’s Milk (4.06)
6. Dewey Beer – Swishy Pants (4.05)
7. Omnegang – Three Philosophers (3.95)
8. Bell’s Brewery – Two Hearted Ale (3.95)
9. Von C Brewing – Walking on Clouds (3.94)
10. Cigar City – Jai Alai (3.93)
11. Rubber Soul – Dropout (3.92)
12. Pizza Boy – Murren River (3.91)
13. Deschutes – Fresh Squeezed (3.91)
14. Rotunda Brewing – Annville IPA (3.9)
15. Hemauer Brewing – Lucky Lobster (3.89)
16. Dogfish Head – 60 Minute (3.85)
17. Boneshire Brew Works – Green Machine (3.8)
18. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – Perpetual IPA (3.8)
19. RAR Brewing – Nanticoke Nectar (3.8)
20. Bunnyman Brewing – Pink Nightmare (3.78)
21. Victory – Golden Monkey (3.75)
22. Laguinitas – IPA (3.72)
23. Tattered Flag – TMI PA (3.71)
24. Rogue – Dead Guy Ale (3.71)
25. Founder’s – All Day IPA (3.7)
26. Zero-Day Brewing – Mango Habanero (3.69)
27. Snitz Creek Brewery – Blueberry Cream Ale (3.68)
28. Sierra Nevada – Pale Ale (3.63)
29. Moo – Duck Brewery – Hoppy Toad IPA (3.58)
30. New Belgium – Fat Tire (3.58)
31. Yuengling – Lager (3.49)
32. Newcastle – Brown Ale (3.39)

Ok, thats the list of them all. You can see there’s a wide variety of big distributed beers, local to Central PA beers, some high quality high end beers, and some easier to get, obvious lower tier beers.

Lets get to voting!

Voting

Ok, lets get to voting, and let the fun and games begin! You can vote once per day per location. Please be sure to share on social media platforms this page to let others vote in the tournament as well. This should be a lot of fun!

Good luck to the breweries and to the beers and may the best beer win!

Thanks For Reading

I always like to end each blog post saying how I’d like to thank everyone for checking out the page and for reading. You can find all of our links to the right (for now) and to check out some of our newest articles by our different writers. Amy, Josh, Karl, Andy, myself, and past writers like AJ and the guest posts, offer a large sampling of articles to read from. We also have beer reviews, brewery reviews, brewery news, local articles, travelogues, beer fest news, brew fest activities and events, hike reviews, book reviews, brewer interviews, and soon podcasts. We are working on a new layout for the page, so things may look different in the future, but the articles will still all be here.

You can even bookmark this page or the individual page you want and come back for more later!

Thank you all very very very much for reading and sharing. It really means a lot to us!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

To view the results of Round One, and for background information on the tournament – The Battle of the Breweries (2021) (March Madness) click here: Round One Results and Round Two and Moving Forward – The Battle of the Breweries (2021) (The Beer Thriller’s March Madness).

This is the poll for the HEELs Conference – Round Two. You can vote once per day, and you can vote once per poll (there is a poll for each division in round one). Be sure to share and send to your friends and breweries to let everyone vote!

Voting runs until March 14th, 11:59PM (EST).

For past links, go here:

• March Madness – The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

Round One Voting Polls:

• HEELs Conference:
  * Triple H Division: Round One
  * Ric Flair Division: Round One
• FACEs Conference:
  * Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: Round One
  * The Rock Division: Round One

Vote

Any questions, concerns, or comments about the brackets, or tournament, or breweries in question, you can leave in the comment section or message us directly through our Contact Page.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Voting Polls for Round Two

(Edited: March 8th, 9:02AM). Since this is the landing page when exiting the polls, I am posting the links here for both poll locations, so you can easily jump to the next poll to vote.

• HEELs Conference: Round Two Voting
• FACEs Conference: Round Two Voting

Round One Has Finished

Thank you everyone who has voted in round one. We got 3422 votes in one week and thus has ended round one of the tournament! We have gone from 48 breweries and competitors down to 24 breweries left.

First a word on going forward: due to how I have set-up the brackets and how its not a typical “32” or “64” or “128” tournament, that means we will now go from divisions to two conferences. (We’ll keep the wrestling theme going and still call them the HEELs and FACEs conferences.) At this point we will also re-seed the conferences. Just like before, total global average rating on Untappd will be used to seed the breweries.

But first up, some statistics from the first round:

Round One Statistics

Voting statistics:

• Total votes for round one: 3422
• Total votes for Triple H Division: 388
• Total votes for Ric Flair Division: 305
• Total votes for HEELs conference: 693
• Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in HEELs conference: 2
• Total votes for Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: 870
• Total votes for The Rock Division: 823
• Total votes for FACEs conference: 1693
• Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in FACEs conference: 7

Upsets:

HEELs Conference:

• Gearhouse Brewing Company (9) defeating Levity Brewing (4)
• Desperate Times Brewing Company (10) defeating Yellow Bridge Brewing (3)
• Chatty Monks Brewing (7) defeating Cox Brewing Company (6)

FACEs Conference:

• Three Heads Brewing (11) defeating Idiom Brewing (2)
• Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10) defeating Breaker Brewing (3)
• Tattered Flag (9) defeating ShuBrew Brewing Company (4)
• Rough Edges Brewing (8) defeating Wolfs Ridge Brewing Company (5)
• The Church Brew Works (12) defeating Cushwa Brewing (1)
• The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeating Jackie O’s Brewery (2)
• Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) defeating Mellow Mink Brewing (5)

Results of Round One

HEELs Conference: Triple H Division:

• Fourscore Brewing Company (1 seed) (52 votes) defeated Black Forest Brewing (12 seed) (15 votes)
• Urban Artifact (2 seed) (41 votes) defeated The Ministry of Brewing (11 seed) (23 votes)
• Mad Chef Brewing (3 seed) (39 votes) defeated ZeroDay Brewing Company (10 seed) (25 votes)
• GearHouse Brewing Company (9 seed) (39 votes) defeated Levity Brewing (4 seed) (33 votes)
• Swiftwater Brewing Company (5 seed) (43 votes) defeated Highway Manor (8 seed) (18 votes)
• Sun King Brewery (6 seed) (33 votes) defeated Braxton Brewing Company (7 seed) (27 votes)

HEELs Conference: Ric Flair Division:

• Dewey Beer Company (1 seed) (35 votes) defeated Couch Brewery (12 seed) (16 votes)
• Rotunda Brewing Company (2 seed) (37 votes) defeated Snitz Creek Brewing Company (11 seed) (14 votes)
• Desperate Times Brewing (10 seed) (30 votes) defeated Yellow Bridge Brewing (3 seed) (19 votes)
• Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (4 seed) (48 votes) defeated Saucony Creek Brewing Company (9 seed) (9 votes)
• Twisted Bine Brewing Company (5 seed) (30 votes) defeated Land-Grant Brewing Company (8 seed) (17 votes)
• Chatty Monks Brewing (7 seed) (30 votes) defeated Cox Brewing Company (6 seed) (20 votes)

FACEs Conference: Stone Cold Steve Austin Division:

• Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (85 votes) defeated Mt. Gretna Craft Brewery (12 seed) (49 votes)
• Three Heads Brewing (11 seed) (65 votes) defeated Idiom Brewing (2 seed) (59 votes)
• Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10 seed) (65 votes) defeated Breaker Brewing (3 seed) (57 votes)
• Tattered Flag (9 seed) (102 votes) defeated ShuBrew Brewing (4 seed) (34 votes)
• Rough Edges Brewing (8 seed) (177 votes) defeated Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (5 seed) (40 votes)
• Boneshire Brew Works (6 seed) (70 votes) defeated Liquid Noise Brewing Company (7 seed) (67 votes)

FACEs Conference: The Rock Division:

• The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (82 votes) defeated Cushwa Brewing (1 seed) (43 votes)
• The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11 seed) (146 votes) defeated Jackie O’s Brewery (2 seed) (31 votes)
• Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (3 seed) (106 votes) defeated Taft’s Brewing Company (Taft’s Ale House) (10 seed) (29 votes)
• Funk Brewing Company (4 seed) (95 votes) defeated Olde Bedford Brewing Company (9 seed) (34 votes)
• Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (79 votes) defeated Mellow Mink Brewing (5 seed) (51 votes)
• Moo-Duck Brewing Company (6 seed) (81 votes) defeated Logyard Brewing Company (7 seed) (46 votes)

Round Two

Round two now begins and will run until next Sunday night at Midnight – eastern time. (March 14th – March 15th Midnight). We now do away with the divisions and just go into conferences. So there is now two conferences of 12 breweries / competitors each. The conferences are reseeded (again using Untappd rankings) to create the new brackets for each conference.

Round Two Match-Ups

The new brackets for the conferences, and The Battle of the Breweries (2021) March Madness going forward now looks like this:

HEELs Conference:

• Fourscore Beer Company (1) (4.09) vs. GearHouse Brewing Company (12) (3.68)
• Dewey Beer Company (2) (4.08) vs. Desperate Times Brewing (11) (3.69)
• Rotunda Brewing Company (3) (3.96) vs. Chatty Monks Brewing (10) (3.71)
• Urban Artifact (4) (3.90) vs. Sun King Brewery (9) (3.71)
• Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (5) (3.79) vs. Swiftwater Brewing Company (8) (3.77)
• Mad Chef Brewing Company (6) (3.79) vs. Twisted Bine Brewing Company (7) (3.79)

FACEs Conference:

• Ever Grain Brewing Company (1) (3.93) vs. The Church Brew Works (12) (3.56)
• Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2) (3.88) vs. The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11) (3.69)
• Funk Brewing Company (3) (3.86) vs. Three Heads Brewing Company (10) (3.71)
• Moo-Duck Brewing Company (4) (3.83) vs. Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9) (3.74)
• Boneshire Brew Works (5) (3.83) vs. Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) (3.75)
• Rough Edges Brewing (6) (3.82) vs. Tattered Flag (7) (3.79)

Voting Begins Now

The polls will be going up shortly after this post goes live (about 8:30AM EST). Make sure to share the polls to help your favorite breweries in! And hopefully we can beat round one’s total of votes! (We need 3423 votes to break the first week’s numbers.)

Thank you all for participating in the polls!

For past results and information on the brackets, you can check out the following links:

• March Madness – The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

Round One Voting Polls:

• HEELs Conference:
  * Triple H Division: Round One
  * Ric Flair Division: Round One
• FACEs Conference:
  * Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: Round One
  * The Rock Division: Round One

As always, please like us and follow us here and on our social media pages to stay up to date on The Beer Thrillers. We have plenty of content to check out, so be sure to stop by often to see what we have coming out. Beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, events, news, and more!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think.

The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – VOTING LINKS

Since this is the landing page post – survey, I will keep all of the voting links here for quick reference and jumping point, and so they don’t get lost in all the muddle.

• HEELs Conference:
  * Triple H Division: Round One
  * Ric Flair Division: Round One
• FACEs Conference:
  * Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: Round One
  * The Rock Division: Round One

(Updated: 10AM – March 1st, 2021. Continue on for the original introduction to The Battle of the Breweries [2021] – March Madness tournament – article.)

Who’s ready for some March Madness? Like everyone else, in March, that means we need to fill out some brackets! And we here at The Beer Thrillers are no different!

BUT….

Instead of filling out NCAA or college basketball brackets, we are doing our own take on it – The Battle of the Breweries (2021)!

The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

So how’s this going to work? Who all is invited? What all breweries are going to be in it? How many breweries? How’s voting going to work? Who decides whose in and whose out? Whats the seeding? Why is Rick such a jerk to Morty? Why is Jurassic Bark the saddest episode of Futurama ever? Why is it also B. Kline’s favorite episode? What does that say about him? Why is the sky blue?

Ok…. enough with the questions!

The procedure for this ‘tournament’ will be similar to most other March Madness style tournaments. Similar to the ones you’ve seen Untappd and Breweries in PA have done, but with a bit of a twist. Because we here at The Beer Thrillers have a terrible time making full fledged decisions, the list of competitors will be 48 instead of the normal 32.

How did I decide what breweries will be involved? Simple. Only breweries that I have physically visited in person. The voting is based on the brewery and their beers; but to be included on this list, I personally had to have been to one of their locations.

How is seeding decided? Thats also pretty simple, the seeding is based on global average Untappd ratings. So the decision of the seeding is out of my hands. Also, bonus, you can’t get mad at me for the seeding. “Why is X above Y? Why is Z below D?” Its all decided by Untappd.

So whats the tournament structure? One total grouping of 48 breweries (in lieu of teams), divided by two conferences of 24 each, which is divided further into a total of four divisions of 12 each. So break down is simple: 4 divisions of 12 each, with two divisions per conference, of 24 teams in each, for a total of 48 competitors / teams / breweries.

How did we decide on who is in what division? Simple – random number generator. I rolled the dice (a D4 to be exact, thank you to my old nerdy DnD days, I just ‘happened’ to have one of these lying about). Rolled the dice for each brewery to locate them into a division. If one division was understaffed and another overstaffed, I re-rolled until they were evened out.

Let’s Meet Our Competitors

So who all do we have facing off in this crazy free for all of brewing expertise? Quite an assembly of breweries actually. There are a heavy abundance of local (Central PA local) breweries but there is an assortment of breweries from my various travels and across a few states. We have a few breweries from the Rochester area of New York; some breweries from Maryland, a Delaware brewery, some from Ohio, one from Indiana, and one from Kentucky as well.

Surprisingly; it actually took a while to curate the list. At even 48 entries, I still had many more to include, and even removed a few to make it a bit more diverse. I wanted to try and make this as diverse as possible (so removed a local brewery for one out of state, etc.). Possibly in the future, maybe the 2022 iteration of this, or the 2023, who knows, it’ll expand to even more breweries.

This has taken up pretty much my entire night to create the list, and to roll the dice for their divisions, and then checking their Untappd scores to get them into the correct seedings. In the case of matching Untappd scores, I did make my own decision, and that was primarily based on my thoughts of their size, notoriety, branding; so there is a few judgment calls due to a few ties, but there isn’t too many of them.

Conferences and division names…. I had to decide on what to pick. I was going to go by hop names, but I saw at last second, that the Breweries in PA have done that this year, instead of their normal divisions based on geography, it appears they decided to use hop names for their divisions, so thats out. I debated doing Jedi and Sith for the conferences and then doing different Jedi or Sith Masters for the division names…. but… instead decided to go with WWF/E names due to WrestleMania 37 approaching.

So I present you two conferences. One is based on HEELs and one is based on FACEs. The names of the breweries are listed in the order of their seedings, and will have their location and their Untappd (global average) rating behind their names.

The Heels Conference

First up, is divisions one and two of the HEELS conference. Triple H and Ric Flair.

Division One: Triple H

• Fourscore Beer Company (Gettysburg, PA) (4.09)
• Urban Artifact (Cincinnati, OH) (3.90)
• Mad Chef (East Petersburg, PA) (3.79)
• Levity Brewing (Indiana, PA) (3.77)
• Swiftwater Brewing Company (Rochester, NY) (3.77)
• Braxton Brewing Company (Covington, KY) (3.75)
• Sun King Brewery (Indianapolis, IN) (3.71)
• Highway Manor (Camp Hill, PA) (3.70)
• Gearhouse Brewing (Chambersburg, PA) (3.68)
• ZeroDay Brewing (Harrisburg, PA) (3.69)
• The Ministry of Brewing (Baltimore, MD) (3.64)
• Black Forest Brewing (Ephrata, PA) (3.62)

Division Two: Ric Flair

• Dewey Beer Company (Dewey Beach, DE) (4.08)
• Rotunda Brewing Company (Annville, PA) (3.96)
• Yellow Bridge Brewing (Pittsburgh, PA) (3.88)
• Troegs Independent Brewing (Hershey, PA) (3.79)
• Twisted Bine Brewing Company (Mount Joy, PA) (3.79)
• Cox Brewing Company (Elizabethtown, PA) (3.71)
• Chatty Monks (Reading, PA) (3.71)
• Land-Grant Brewing Company (Columbus, OH) (3.70)
• Saucony Creek Brewing Company (Kutztown, PA) (3.70)
• Desperate Times Brewing (Carlisle, PA) (3.69)
• Couch Brewery (Pittsburgh, PA) (3.60)

The Faces Conference

The faces conference is made up of two divisions led by Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. First up, is Division Three, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Division Three: Stone Cold Steve Austin

• Ever Grain Brewing (Mechanicsburg, PA) (3.93)
• Idiom Brewery (Frederick, MD) (3.90)
• Breaker Brewing (Wilkes-Barre, PA) (3.85)
• ShuBrew (Zelionople, PA) (3.85)
• Wolf’s Ridge Brewing Company (Columbus, OH) (3.84)
• Liquid Noise (Marysville, PA) (3.84)
• Boneshire Brew Works (Harrisburg, PA) (3.83)
• Rough Edges (Waynesboro, PA) (3.82)
• Tattered Flag (Middletown, PA) (3.79)
• Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown, PA) (3.74)
• Three Heads Brewing (Rochester, NY) (3.71)
• Mount Gretna Craft Brewery (Palmyra, PA) (3.58)

Division Four: The Rock

• Cushwa Brewing (Williamsport, MD) (4.11)
• Jackie O’s Brewery (Athens, OH) (4.02)
• Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (Enola, PA) (3.88)
• Mellow Mink (Mechanicsburg, PA) (3.84)
• Moo-Duck Brewing (Elizabethtown, PA) (3.83)
• Logyard Brewing Company (Kane, PA) (3.78)
• Molly Pitcher Brewing (Carlisle, PA) (3.75)
• Olde Bedford Brewing Company (Bedford, PA) (3.75)
• Taft’s Brewing Company (Taft’s Ale House) (Cincinnati, OH) (3.72)
• Isle of Que Brewing (Selinsgrove, PA) (3.69)
• The Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh, PA) (3.56)

Alright, that’s all 48 competitors. Tomorrow the brackets will be published and you will be allowed to vote on the first round matchups. Here’s where things get a bit screwy…. mainly because I don’t do math so good (sigh, sad subject, really, since I work at a job where I do math all day). Well, what really happened, is that I didn’t think through the breakdown. 32 breaks down easily for each round…. 48…. not so much. So…..

Week one will be divisions with 6 matches in each divisions. After that, the divisions will break for week two, and it will be by conference, with 6 matches in each conference. After this, we break apart the conferences, and do another 6 matches. This leaves us with 3 final competitors, for a triple threat for the ending.

So…. I kinda sorta walked myself into a corner…. and kinda… sorta…. walked my way out of it. Glad I chose to use wrestler themed people, so that the finale “Triple Threat” makes more sense.

*Smacks head* D’oh!

But anyway, there will be 7 days of voting for each round. With the final round taking the remainder of the month and ending on the 31st.

Voting

Each day you will be able to come to the site to make your votes in the polls. It will be set-up by IPS, so it limits you to voting just once per day per vote. You can vote as many times as you want per round, but only once per day.

Following each round, I will update the brackets and post them and make up the new polls for voting. Round one begins on March 1st, 2021 and will last until March 7th at Midnight, when it will then become the next round.

I suggest helping your breweries out and sharing the poll pages so that as many of your friends and brewery lovers can vote as well. Good luck to all of the competitors… err… breweries!

As always, please like us and follow us here and on our social media pages to stay up to date on The Beer Thrillers. We have plenty of content to check out, so be sure to stop by often to see what we have coming out. Beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, events, news, and more!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

This was a juicy, big, bold, IPA that was sent to me as part of that Texas beer mail package. I’ve done a few other reviews from the beers sent to me – Road Trip Snacks, Thursday (2016), Islla en el Cielo, $#!+ Ton, Daebak, Chocolate Confidential, Sunshine and Opportunity, Azathoth, Citraquench’l, Paradise Lost, Irish Table, Athena, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, and Ghost in the Machine. (In short, I love getting beer mail; and love doing beer reviews of them!)

This is another gem from a beer mail / beer trade. Haven’t had too many misses on my beer mail and beer trades (thank the maker). While we’re all stuck inside due to the snow squalls and cold May weather here in Central PA; lets check this out.

Beer: Virtually Inseparable
Brewery: Celestial Beerworks
Collaborator: Turning Point Beer
Style: IPA – Triple New England
ABV: 10%
IBU: None listed
Untappd Description: A “virtual collaboration” with our cyber pals at Turning Point Beer. It’s a triple IPA brewed with Citra, Strata and Sabro. It has aromas of passionfruit and pineapple, and is jam packed with flavors of coconut, mango, taffy, and melon. It has a soft and fluffy mouthfeel and is the absolute brightest 10% glass of juice.

Interesting hops for this – Citra, Strata, and Sabro. People seem to be on the fence with sabro hops (some love it, some hate it).

This looks pure orange juice. Bright, beautiful golden orange color. Little foam to the head, not crazy head to it, but enough to be good. The bubbles are interspersed and varied. This is certainly hazy, with a few ‘floaters’ but nothing egregious.

Aroma is strong, super strong hoppyness. As obvious as the appearance of the beer is, the aroma kicks in as soon as you crack the can and lets you know right away that this is a Triple IPA. You get immediate notes of coconut, passionfruit, mango, pineapple, and a bit of melon.

Lets take this opportunity to look at the hops involved in this delicious triple IPA:
* Sabro – Sabro is an aroma hop that is notable for its complexity of fruity and citrus flavors. It imparts distinct tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit aromas, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream. Sabro’s pedigree is the result of a unique cross pollination of a female neomexicanus hop.
* Citra – Citra hops are now one of the most coveted aroma hops in the US and have a strong citrusy profile with elements of grapefruit, lime and tropical fruit.
* Strata – Bittering with Strata brings a nice balanced bitterness. Flavor and aroma additions bring out the fruity side with tropical fruit and fresh berry brightness. Brewers say that dry hopping deepens the grapefruit and dank/herbal/cannabis elements.
(Information comes from Yakima Valley Hops, Hopslist, and Learn.Kegerator; respectively for all three.)

This has a soft mouthfeel. Its very juicy, very dank, but extremely drinkable and no booze or strong bite despite its 10% ABV. The flavor this is fantastic. You get notes of coconut, passionfruit, mango, slight berry notes, a bit of citrus poking through at points (primarily in a tangerine or orange taste), a little bit of pineapple. I think the biggest hop fruit flavor is mango, which explains why I enjoy it so much, thats always one of my favorite hop or fruit flavors in beers. (Funny because I don’t eat mangos as actual food, but love the flavor of them in beer.) There is little bits of floaters in this, but nothing you actually taste or detect as you drink. There is no dryness to this, and very little bitter or hop burn as well, its just genuinely a smooth beer, with a decently heavy mouthfeel but overall it tastes light and airy but still juicy. It goes down relatively quickly too, especially for a 10% beer. Having multiples of this around could be a danger that’s for sure.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.46 (as of 5.10.20)

This was a wonderful beer to have at home, sitting relaxing, after I did a 10+ mile walk with my dog (Leela) walking the Conewago Recreational Trail. I walked it from the start on Rt. 230 near where Elizabethtown begins, and took it all the way to the Lebanon County line (where it becomes the Lebanon Valley Rails and Trails) and, went a bit further, than turned around. After the walk, stopped at Moo-Duck to support local breweries. I got a taco flatbread pizza, and a crowler of Hades Chocolate Rye (which I drank later that night with my friend and was delicious).

We’re rolling through May everyone, its now May 10th, which means we’re 1/3rd of the way through the month. I hope everyone is having a wonderful May, and is enjoying the blog, hopefully also, everyone is staying safe, staying (primarily) home, helping local small businesses and breweries, and doing their part to beat this virus. We’re all in this together.

Would love to give a shout out to all the hard working nurses, doctors, people who are volunteering for their communities by handing out lunches at schools, taking care of elderly, or doing whatever they can for their fellow neighbors and people. And a big thank you to people still working at some of the ‘centers’ of this; grocery store workers, cashiers, hospital employees, medical professionals, firefighters, etc. Thank you to all of you!

We’ll get through this. We’ll get back out there to life, and we’ll all sit down for some beers together! Until then, cheers from afar!

-B. Kline

We have no idea how devastating this coronavirus / COVID-19 will be; either on a physical / societal level for people’s health and well being, or financially, especially on the mom and pop, on the small businesses, on your local craft brewery. Currently, Pennsylvania (currently as of 3.18.20) is on a two week lock-down. But this could be extended, with some discussing it going til May 1st. But here’s the thing, nobody knows. This is a time of uncertainty.

BUT – thankfully, many local breweries, restaurants, and businesses are doing what they can to a) stay afloat and b) to help us (regular people) out. Many are offering curbside to go, take out, delivery, and sales by online or phone.

In my attempt to help out where I can, I am writing up this blog article, to let everyone know what breweries and restaurants are doing what, so that people can stay informed, and be able to purchase and support their favorite local breweries. I’ve attempted to start up several coronavirus / COVID-19 posts over the last several days. But as soon as I’d get information; there’d be more information, or things would change. I tried keeping up with what local-ish breweries were closing (like Guinness and Flying Dog) but it soon became too overwhelming to keep up, especially once Governor Wolf’s mandate came down at 2PM on Monday (3.16.20). But, this is something I can do, and keep people informed. Hopefully, people will see this, and help support their local breweries.

I’m working on trying to get listed as many places as I can. This won’t be completely comprehensive. It can’t possibly be. But I will do my best to list as as much as I can list. If you feel left out, message me, and I will update and include your brewery, restaurant, etc. I want it to be as comprehensive as I can, but I just know it won’t be.

I’m going to try and do it by county / larger municipality areas. There might not be a rhyme or reason to the order of the counties, but you can do a search function and find your county / large municipality to find what you need.

DAUPHIN COUNTY:

• BONESHIRE BREW WORKS
  Boneshire Brew Works is offering: (From their Facebook page): With the mitigation practices to fight the spread of COVID-19 we are open from 4pm to 7pm daily for to-go sales. You can come in and get 4-packs to-go as well as growler fills. For those of you that want to reduce contact even more we have set up an online ordering system to allow for Pick Up. We have knocked off up to $5 per 4-pack depending on the variety. Please be patient with us as we try this out. Again thank you for the support and remember we are all in this together! https://boneshirebrewworks.square.site/
• OFFICIAL BBQ and BURGERS
  Official BBQ and Burgers (Pizza Boy’s secondary location) announced on their Facebook: We care! We apologize for the inconvenience but we will only be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 12PM-9PM. In effort to protect our employees and you we will be offering two modified ways to order: Call in ordering – we will be providing carside service! Delivery within 5 miles. YES! You read that right! We want to help people who aren’t comfortable leaving their house still have access to food. (Over the phone CC payments required for all orders. No cash accepted.)
• MOO-DUCK BREWERY
  Moo-Duck is offering to-go food and beer. With precautions that only up to 10 people can be inside their brewery at once. Their hours of operation are: Wednesday-Friday 3-7PM, Saturday 11-7PM, and Sunday 12-5PM. Call: (570) 242-5658 for more information or details.
• FUNK BREWING E-TOWN
  On Funk’s E-Town Facebook page: We are Open today for take out and to go 4pks at 12. You can order online from our website www.funkbrewing.com or use this link to go straight to our menu http://toasttab.com/funk-brewing-elizabethtown New cans of Mixed Tape: Sour Peach IPA will arrive sometime in the afternoon. Call ahead or check social media for availability.
• COX BREWING COMPANY
  On Cox Brewing Company’s Facebook page: Growler and Howler fills available with amended hours. Please share and follow closely as things may change. Special shout out to first responders, nurses and doctors during this time. 💪🍻🇺🇸 #nursesrock #togobeer #lancaster #elizabethtownpa #cbc #coxbrewingcompany. Hours: Wednesday and Friday 5-8PM, Saturday 12-3PM.
• TATTERED FLAG
  Tattered Flag has options from both their brewery in Middletown as well as their Hershey location (the former Hershey Biergarten); their distillery lounge. On their brewery Facebook page: Thanks to each and every one of you who ordered take out food, beer, spirits, and canned cocktails today! You can’t possibly understand how grateful we are. Tomorrow (Wednesday), we will be open in Middletown from 11-7 (food, beer, spirits, canned cocktails, limited coffee), Hershey from 4-7 (bottled spirits and canned cocktails only), and Gettysburg from 4-7 (beer, spirits, and canned cocktails). We hear that state stores are now closed, so be sure to see us for all you quarantine needs! #grateful #community #thankyou #proudtoraiseaflagwithyou
  Their distillery lounge page posted this yesterday on 3.17.20: We will be offering Togo liquor/ can cocktail sales starting tomorrow Wednesday March 18th from 4-7pm. Check out our website for our wide variety of spirits.
• APPALACHIAN BREWING COMPANY
  This is was on their ‘overall’ Facebook page. It applies to their Harrisburg, Lititz, Mechanicsburg, and Shippensburg locations. They are all doing the same. Their Facebook page posted today (Wednesday, 3.18.20) around noon:

As restaurants and breweries everywhere work to come out strong on the other side of current closures, the National Restaurant Association has declared today #CarryOutWednesday!

Support local restaurants like our own by ordering food 🍔and beer🍺 to go; our kitchens 👨🏼‍🍳 and our phones 📞 are open and ready to take your takeout orders from 12-8 p.m. today!

Call (717) 221-1080 to order, and view our full menu online here (as well as our Irish Fest menu in the comments)! ⤵️
https://www.abcbrew.com/menu/brew-pub-menu

• TROEGS BREWING
  Troegs announced on Wednesday that starting Thursday – 3.19.20 they would be starting curbside pickup (beer and food). Their website for their curbside pick up is: http://troegs.com/curbside

MECHANICSBURG / ENOLA / MARYSVILLE AREA

• EVER GRAIN BREWING
  On March 16th, Ever Grain posted on their Facebook:

We’ve been listening to your requests and in light of the current situation have come up with the following solution to keep fresh beer and food available to you!
•
Beginning Tuesday 3/17/2020 we are implementing take out & delivery service during the hours of 11am to 7pm until further notice.
•
Delivery service will be available in the following areas:
-Camp Hill
-Mechanicsburg
-Silver Springs
-Lemoyne
-New Cumberland
-Wormleysburg
-Enola
•
We will post menus of food, and beers available in 4-pack and in crowlers.
•
In addition, we have the following specials available:
~4 Crowlers for $40, please pick from the daily posted list.
~Gift cards: buy $100 get $10, buy $50 get $5 – these can be added on to your orders.
•
We ask that all transactions are done via credit card with deliveries having 18% tip included at the time of order.
•
Please call us at 717.525.8222 to place all orders!

Be safe everyone! 🍻🙏🏼
#evergrainbrewing #hopculture #breweriesinpa #pabeer #camphill #pennsylvania #craftbeer #instabeer #beerporn #supportpabeer #independentbeer #seektheseal #hibernate #paproud #craftbrewery #craftbeerporn #beertography #pouredinpa #drinklocal #supportlocal #craftbeernation #beerthirty #brewerylife #dreambeer #pahandcrafted #pacraftbeer

• BREWHOUSE GRILLE and 2050 STATE BREWING
  Brewhouse Grille posted on their Faceook: We added BURGERS, WINGS, Buffalo Chicken Wrap as well as some delicious Salads & Kids Meals. We will be open for takeout from 11am-7pm. Just call 717-737-0030. Don’t forget you can purchase Gift Cards & 6pks! Free $5 with a $50 gift card purchase and Free $10 with a $100 gift card purchase.

• AL’S of HAMPDEN / PIZZA BOY BREWING
  On Al’s of Hampden (and their Pizza Boy) Facebook pages:

Starting tomorrow Tuesday March 17th we will be-
OPEN from 11am-8pmish all seven days.
3 types of orders
1-PICK -UP
2-DELIVERY
3-TO GO
Telephone orders (717-728-3840)
Online orders www.alsofhampden.com
And the app.

***IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO COME INSIDE, ORDER TO GO, OR GET CURBSIDE SERVICE, LET US KNOW!

Any of the orders above can include FOOD AND BEER. Yes we will deliver beer (@pizzaboybrewing products only) they will be on the online and the app. No limits. Cans, 6packs,pre mixed 6packs (no choice) cases, 750s, and crowlers.
Please bare with us as we are in uncharted territory. The app and online will be updated tomorrow morning. Wash your hands.
#getfrontsided

• LIQUID NOISE BREWING
  From their Facebook page: Hey everyone don’t forget, we are open for growler fills , Gift Cards and merchandise, from 4-7pm stop on by stock up and hunker down while you stay safe! Bring a clean growler with and we will double sanitize it just in case before you head home. #craftlikearockstar #smallbusiness #craftbeer #harrisburgpa #marysvillepa
• MELLOW MINK
  Mellow Mink announced on their Facebook page that they would be starting to-go / curbside on Thursday 3.19.20. They posted a video from Cole saying: Hi Everyone,

It’s Cole from Mellow Mink! I hope this message finds you safe and healthy. Just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow evening (3/19), from 5pm-8pm, I’ll be available to fill growlers to go.

We will sanitize and fill your own growler. Or, if you’d like to purchase a growler, we have two styles of Mellow Mink growlers available. We have both 1 liter glass ($20) and 1 liter stainless steel ($8) growlers.

We also have bottles of our Scarlet Sunrise Blackberry and Blueberry sour red ale (750mL, 6.8% ABV) available. $20 per bottle.

#mellowmink #craftbeer #growler

LEBANON COUNTY

• MT GRETNA BREWERY
  From their Facebook page: Take-out begins today (3.17)! Check-out our take-out menu and Ready-made Casseroles Menu (Casseroles start 3.18) https://www.facebook.com/gretnabrewery/menu/ We appreciate your support of local business during this difficult time. Call in time: 3-7PM, pickup from 4PM to 7:30PM.
• ROTUNDA BREWING / THE BATDORF
  From their Facebook page: We are offering our full menu for pick up and delivery! Call 717-867-0113 to place your order! Any order over $10 receives 1 free role of toilet paper! @ Batdorf Restaurant

LANCASTER COUNTY

• SPRING HOUSE BREWING
  (NO LONGER DOING CURBSIDE / TO GO / DELIVERY)
• MAD CHEF BREWING
  Mad Chef announced on their Facebook page that they are doing to-go pickups. You can order by phone or at the brewery. Their post stated on 3.17.20: Hey Mad Chef family! Like every other business affected by COVID-19, we are operating in uncharted territory and will be taking things day by day. Tomorrow, we will be open from 4 to 8 for takeout only. Orders can be placed over the phone or at the pub. We’ll be offering our full menu and you can purchase crowlers or growlers from us to go (please don’t bring in your own growlers). You can also support us by purchasing gift cards and merchandise during this time! Thank you for all your support!🍻
  (EDIT: ON 3.19.20 MAD CHEF HAS ANNOUNCED THEY ARE FULLY CLOSING THEIR DOORS FOR A FEW WEEKS.)
  
• ST. BONIFACE BREWING
  Announced on their Facebook page that they are doing to-go orders of beer and food, Monday-Thursday 4-9PM and Friday and Saturday from 11AM-9PM.
• FETISH BREWING
  Fetish Brewing announced on their Facebook page on 3.17.20 roadside service: Here we go — roadside pick-up 4-8pm today at Fetish. We are offering all of the below in 32oz crawler cans and we’ll make you a bunch. Everything below costs $11, except Wild American Sour and Peat Scottish Wee Heavy, which are $21. Text Aaron at 717-917-0974, tell us what you’d like, come on up to Rock Lititz and we’ll get it ready for you! We still accept cash, cards, and bitcoin. See you people today!

• LANCASTER BREWING COMPANY
  The Lancaster Brewing Company’s Lancaster Facebook page posted the following on 3.16.20: !!!!!IMPORTANT NEWS – WE ARE OPEN FOR TAKEOUT & CURBSIDE PICK-UP BEGINNING TOMORROW!!!!! Dear friends of Lancaster Brewing Co – In response to the recent COVID-19 Pandemic, we are encouraging takeout & curbside pickup beginning tomorrow (3/17) – just call to place your order, and we will bring your order to your car. So whether you’re looking for a quick bite, a family dinner a growler fill or just a case of beer, we’ll be here for you. This situation is a fluid one, and we will make adjustments based on any further guidelines given by the authorities. Until then, we are working on a limited menu with takeout & curbside delivery from 12pm – 6pm every day. To prepare you the best takeout meals for your family, please give us a call at 717-391-6258. Cheers, and thank you for your support! https://www.lancasterbrewing.com/lancaster to view menus ***Takeout + Curbside Pick-up*** EVERYDAY – 12pm – 6pm

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

• ROUND GUYS BREWING
  Their Facebook posted on March 17th:

🚨 Online ordering and delivery 🚨

Delivery hours will be between 12pm-8pm. We will be adding a food menu very soon!
Four packs and crowlers available. Place your order at https://roundguys.square.site/

I am going to go ahead and post this now, and then come back in and update this blog post as I get more to add to it. (And yes, I know I have lots more to add.) (I will post a EDIT tag at the bottom with what I’ve added when I make my edits.) The original version of this blog is going live at – 3PM (EST) 3.18.20. I will put the date and time with each EDIT.

I hope this helps! Lets pull through together. Practice your social distancing, and help those in need. Spend this time reading blogs (hint hint hint), read a book, learn to cook, learn to play an instrument, take an online course, do house work, call the elderly on the phone and listen, etc, etc.

EDIT: 4:33PM 3.18.20: Updated Dauphin County. Included Appalachian Brewing Company.

EDIT: 12:16PM 3.19.20: Updated Dauphin County. Updated Mechanicsburg. Added Lancaster County. Added Montgomery County.

EDIT: 2:19PM 3.19.20: Mad Chef no longer serving.

Cheers everyone, and hope you all stay healthy and safe!

-B. Kline

I got to pick up this book by Dr. Alison E. Feeney last Thursday at the Mid-Town Scholar ahead of her panel discussion (alongside Hannah Ison, Jeffrey Musselman, and Sara Bozich). You can read about that here: “For The Love of Beer – Panel Discussion“. It was a fun and entertaining (and informative) night at the Mid-Town Scholar getting to listen to the three of them discuss breweries, beer, brewing, and community.

And that is the heart of this book. Communities. Even moreso than the breweries this is ‘about’, the heart of the book though is communities. And at the heart of a lot of communities, and growing, is craft breweries. Breweries, in particular craft breweries, are the seat of many things in communities now adays. Places like Boneshire, Moo-Duck, Troegs, and many other breweries that give back to their communities through charities and other activities. Breweries like ZeroDay and Millworks that act like centerpieces for revitalization of downtown areas.

There is so much to love about craft breweries and what all they do (and can do). And Dr. Feeney’s book covers that so well. From revitalizing downtown areas, or old historic buildings, to providing a center and a place for a community, to being an employment opportunity for the local town, to sustainability and environmental help, providing spent grain for local farmers, to helping charities, to hosting events, to having delicious food, to having local ingredients, etc, there is so much that breweries do for their local communities.

Dr. Alison Feeney has traveled all across Pennsylvania checking out various breweries, hop farms, malts, grains, communities, universities, etc, and has gotten a feel for the state, its history, its brewing industry, and the breweries and the people. She’s interviewed tons of people, she’s talked to customers, brewers, hop growers, home brew shop owners, just about everyone you can think of attached to the industry.

The book covers a lot of different breweries across the state. From big to little. From regional powerhouses like Victory and Troegs to smaller localized shops like Moo-Duck, Boneshire, Bonn Place, etc. She has traveled all across the state, all of the regions covered.

There is a wealth of information in the book detailing the history of beer, the history of brewing, the history of Pennsylvania, and brewing and beer in Pennsylvania, as well as a wealth of information and knowledge on brewing, the beer industry, and hops and other things in general. There is a ton of information on the breweries she’s visited as well, small details like the beers they have, or the information on how they restored the buildings they occupied, or little bits and info on the brewers or their styles.

The book is filled with pictures and images from all assortments of things, like hops, to the various breweries, to beer, to the workers at the breweries, to signs, to locations, etc. These pictures help fill in an overall image and idea of the breweries from across the state for those who haven’t gotten to visit them yet. Also with each brewery mentioned there is a small map of Pennsylvania showing where its located with an actual address as well. Its not a complete map of every brewery, and Dr. Feeney even states at the beginning that she isn’t providing a comprehensive listing of every brewery in PA as it’d be out of date before the book even saw print. Case in point – the book mentions Harty Brewing which has since folded up (relatively recently). But don’t let that fool you, this book is chock full of information and knowledge about PA beer and breweries.

At the beginning of the book is a note saying that a portion of the proceeds of the book are going to animal shelters and local places for animals. After this is the chapter previews which list which breweries are mentioned in which chapters and provides an outline for the book. Early chapters discuss beer and the history of it, progressing from Europe and Africa and Asia to America. Detailing the early pioneers to America and bringing beer over on the Mayflower, etc. It then discusses the history of beer and brewing in Pennsylvania.

Following this is how breweries affect communities, how they revitalize communities and buildings, and a chapter on historic buildings and how breweries are reusing old buildings. A chapter on the sustainability and environmental issues and help that breweries are doing and then a closing chapter on looking forward.

This book is a good read for anyone interested in beer, brewing, and especially for those interested in the craft breweries of Pennsylvania. She has provided lots of knowledge on the inner workings from the beginning to the present day on just about every tangential topic with the beer industry. I would certainly recommend this for anyone looking to learn about brewing and beer in Pennsylvania or just loves reading about breweries in Pennsylvania.

My GoodReads Score: ****
Global GoodReads Score: 4.00 (two ratings, three now, as of 10.9.19)

This was the first book review on the blog, hopefully you all like it, I know its a bit different then the beer and brewery reviews. But I am looking forward to doing a few more of these as I have a lot of beer books to read and go through. This is combining two of my loves – literature / books and beers, so this is definitely a double-win for me getting to review books about beer here for the blog. So if you are interested in this, let us know! Also if you have any beer book recommendations, be sure to leave them in the comments!

Thanks and cheers all!

-B. Kline
My GoodReads review link can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3007622590