NERD - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Tue, 23 Apr 2024 03:24:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 NERD - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Book Review: Futurama and Philosophy (Edited by Courtland Lewis) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/07/24/book-review-futurama-and-philosophy-edited-by-courtland-lewis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-review-futurama-and-philosophy-edited-by-courtland-lewis Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:05:24 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=12046 We’re Back Baby!

So Futurama returned this morning at 3:00 AM (EST) on Hulu streaming. Who woke up super early to catch it? (I finished off the final Comedy Central season and let it run into it upon waking up this morning, watching Meanwhile and going directly into the new ‘The Impossible Stream’.)

I will give my full thoughts later today in the video I’m going to be doing for the episode review, so I won’t go into too much here. I will say I enjoyed the episode, but its certainly not the funniest episode they’ve made – and its far from the worst too.

We covered previously – Good News Everyone, Futurama is Back: Exploring Futurama – Inspired Craft Beers – that Futurama is back starting today and will be airing a weekly episode for the next ten weeks, and with each episode I want to (try) get a Futurama themed article up on the site, as well as a reaction / review of each episode on YouTube. So make sure you follow us at our YouTube page: The Beer Thrillers on YouTube.

Philosophers in Space

Futurama and Philosophy is the 78th entry into the “…and Philosophy” series. It started many years ago with “Seinfeld in Philosophy” and has ballooned from there covering a wide range of topics from Baseball, Jeopardy, Lady Gaga, to Futurama, Batman, Marvel Movies / Marvel Universe, to Curb Your Enthusiasm and much much more.

I do enjoy the series for what it is. Each book is a collection of essays looking at their particular topic (in this case Futurama) through the lens of philosophy. The articles are hit or miss, just as the writers themselves are. But overall its pretty entertaining / interesting stuff.

We have previously covered the Curb Your Enthusiasm volume here: Curb Your Enthusiasm and Philosophy Book Review.

If you are looking for more philosophy book reviews, you can find that we have covered quite a bit – from The Philosophy of Snoopy to On Bullshit. (I’ll link them at the end of the article in a list to make it easier.)

Book Review

Futurama and Philosophy: Pizza, Paradoxes, and Good News

The back cover blurb (from GoodReads):

Good news everyone! A billion years late and right on time, here’s Futurama and Philosophy. Now at least you can activate your pleasure unit by jacking on to the universe’s deep thought generator! This may be counter-indicated by your operations manual and denounced by Fathers Against Rude Television but at least it won’t make you your own grandfather. And according to the Hypnotoad … ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

Back Cover Blurb: Futurama and Philosophy (GoodReads)

This edition that I’m reviewing is the paperback edition, released on October 8th, 2013, and is 284 pages long. (The editing and formatting for my edition makes me believe it was a galley or pre – release review edition.)

 

As I said about this type of book – the essays can be hit or miss. Luckily this edition is more hit than miss. They do a good job of doing a deep dive into the characters, some of the settings and the make up of the Futurama universe, as well as things like robot ethics, freedom, “sexlexia”, and much more.

The Zapp Brannigan “sexlexia” article while being somewhat interesting discussing the inadequacies of each of the characters when it comes to sex, doesn’t really offer a whole lot of philosophical insight. And this kind of brings to light how these “… and Philosophy” books kind of work. They tend to either be more heavily bent on discussing the particular matter (in this case Futurama) and typically attempting to be humorous, or they come across too heavily focused on the philosophy and lose sight of the source material to a degree. I feel like its an unfortunate ‘nature of the beast’ as far as these collections go. As much as I love philosophy and love Futurama or Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm or whatever the particular book is about, its too hard to truly weave source material with philosophy and keep it engaging for both crowds.

This book does offer a great gateway or introduction to philosophy for younger readers (middle school or high school) who enjoy the source material and are looking to go a bit deeper into it. Seeing how the characters mindsets are, why Robot Ethics are important, how AI is playing out now in 2023 is a bit elucidated by things involving ethics and morality regarding robots and humans alike, the Popplers article discussing eating meat, eating intelligent creatures, and the morality behind it all, using Peter Singer as the backdrop is a great way to get younger people discussing and thinking about important topics and ideas such as that.

None of the “and Philosophy” books are considered official, so you won’t be finding any pictures or promotional material from Futurama; it’s just text – which for a Philosophy book is fine. I know it would be nice to have a picture of the episode or character in question for each chapter, but it is what it is and not a big deal.

By the end it does get a bit repetitive, some of the episodes are more heavily focused on than others, and thus get a fair bit more attention than others, so at times it feels like its being hammered on a bit.

All in all though this is a great introduction book for fans of Futurama to take their first look and step into the greater world that is philosophy.

Average GoodReads Rating: 3.80 (as of 7.24.23)
My GoodReads Rating: ****
My LibraryThing Rating: 3.5

(LibraryThing lets you do half stars where as GoodReads is whole stars only.)

Other Book Reviews

Interested in more book reviews? Then check these out:

All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

Star Wars:

Futurama

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

-B. Kline

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

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. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. 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!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> 12046 New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/07/10/new-belgium-teams-up-with-magic-the-gathering-for-vastwood-seer-ipa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-belgium-teams-up-with-magic-the-gathering-for-vastwood-seer-ipa Mon, 10 Jul 2023 15:45:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=11932

New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Vastwood Seer IPA (photo courtesy of Craft Shack)


New Belgium Brewing is teaming up with Magic the Gathering (TCG) by Wizards of the Coast to release Vastwood Seer IPA

New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA

New Belgium Brewing is teaming up with Magic the Gathering (TCG) by Wizards of the Coast to release Vastwood Seer IPA as part of their VooDoo Ranger series. The Vastwood Seer IPA will be the latest in their long line of VooDoo Ranger series of beers.

Nissa, The Vastwood Seer

Nissa is the Vastwood Seer, a Legendary Creature – Elf Scout from the Magic Origins set of Magic the Gathering TCG. Nissa, Vastwood Seer card reads:

When Nissa, Vastwood Seer enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic Forest card, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.


Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, if you control seven or more lands, exile Nissa, then return her onto the battlefield transformed under her owner’s control.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer – From the Vault: Transform (V17)
Nissa, Sage Animist

There is also the Nissa, Sage Animist card (which you can see above). Both cards are ‘green’ and come out of the Magic Origins set. The Sage Animist persona is a Legendary Planeswalker rather than a Legendary Creature.

Collaboration

This is VooDoo Ranger Vastwood Seer IPA and it will be a collaboration with Magic the Gathering: TCG by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). The beer will be an IPA brewed with sweet gale, juniper, spruce needles and spice. It will be around the average 7% ABV.

This is the first time Magic the Gathering through parent company Wizards of the Coast and New Belgium have collaborated on a beer. It is not exactly a common endeavor to see Collectible Card Games (TCGs or CCGs) collaborate and help produce craft beer.

Magic the Gathering is one of the oldest TCGs or CCGs on the market. TCG stands for Trading Card Game and CCG stands for Collectible Card Game or Customizable Card Game. Wizards of the Coast releases expansion sets of Magic the Gathering, and players and collectors, can buy the packs of random cards, to help create their decks of cards.

Other popular card games over the years have been Pokemon: The Card Game (by Wizards of the Coast), Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG) (by Decipher), Star Trek Customizable Card Game (STCCG) (by Decipher), Legends of the Five Rings (L5R) (by AEG, and by Wizards of the Coast), and numerous others like Yu – Gi – Oh, .hack, Dooms Day, Lord of the Rings, WWF / WWE Raw Deal, Wars TCG, and many more.

Magic the Gathering

Magic the Gathering is one of the oldest CCGs / TCGs on the market. Their base set was released on August 5th, 1993. They will be celebrating their 30th year next month in August.

From Wikipedia:

Magic: The Gathering (colloquially known as Magic or MTG) is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield.[1] Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018,[2][3][4] and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.[5][6]

A player in Magic takes the role of a Planeswalker, a powerful wizard who can travel (“walk”) between dimensions (“planes”) of the Multiverse, doing battle with other players as Planeswalkers by casting spells, using artifacts, and summoning creatures as depicted on individual cards drawn from their individual decks. A player defeats their opponent typically (but not always) by casting spells and attacking with creatures to deal damage to the opponent’s “life total”, with the objective being to reduce it from 20 to 0, or 40 to 0 in some group formats. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay bears little similarity to paper-and-pencil games, while simultaneously having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

Magic can be played by two or more players, either in person with printed cards or on a computer, smartphone or tablet with virtual cards through the Internet-based software Magic: The Gathering Online or other video games such as Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Duels. It can be played in various rule formats, which fall into two categories: constructed and limited. Limited formats involve players building a deck spontaneously out of a pool of random cards with a minimum deck size of 40 cards;[7] in constructed formats, players create decks from cards they own, usually with a minimum of 60 cards per deck.

New cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets. Further developments include the Wizards Play Network played at the international level and the worldwide community Players Tour, as well as a substantial resale market for Magic cards. Certain cards can be valuable due to their rarity in production and utility in gameplay, with prices ranging from a few cents to tens of thousands of dollars.

In July, 2023, the rare “One Ring” card was found by a retail worker in Toronto, and is estimated to be worth millions of dollars after it was authenticated by Professional Sports Authenticator.

Magic: The Gathering – Wikipedia

Wizards of the Coast

Magic the Gathering is produced and owned by Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast owns, produces, creates, and distributes hundreds of different games. Their most notable are:

They are a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999 on.

From Wikipedia:

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidiary of Hasbro,[1][2] which acquired the company in 1999.[3] During a February 2021 reorganization at Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast became the lead part of the new “Wizards & Digital” division.[4][5]

Originally a role-playing game publisher, the company originated and popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s. It also acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by buying TSR and increased its success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington, part of the Seattle metropolitan area.[6][7]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company also produced sports cards sets, releasing series for association football, baseball, basketball and American football.

Wizards of the Coast – Wikipedia

New Belgium

New Belgium is the producer of the VooDoo Ranger series of beers, which have become more and more mainstream. If you walk into a Rutters, Sheetz, WaWa, 7 – 11, or more, you are likely to find a tall boy of VooDoo Ranger in the fridge, and more variants in the walk in fridge.

They are a subsidiary of Kinn Brewing Company, and are a macro brewery from Fort Collins, Colorado.

VooDoo Ranger Varients

Here is a list of the various VooDoo Rangers you can find (some might not still be in production):

  • VooDoo Ranger Imperial – Imperial IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger Juicy – Hazy IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger IPA – IPA (original)
  • VooDoo Ranger Juice Force – Hazy Imperial IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger Fruit Force – Fruit Punch IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger Hard Charged Tea – Hard Tea
  • VooDoo Ranger Atomic Citrus – Blood Orange Ale
  • VooDoo Ranger Danger Beach – IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger VooDoo Vice – IPA
  • VooDoo Ranger 1985 IPA – Hazy IPA

There is also a series of “X – Perimental Hop” VooDoo Rangers.

Vastwood Seer IPA would be the official 11th variant of the VooDoo Ranger series.

Vastwood Surge

So expect to see a ‘surge’ of ‘Vastwood’ Seer IPAs coming to beer distributors, grocery stores, and gas stations near you soon.

New Belgium Brewing Company

Looking for more articles about New Belgium Brewing Company? Check these out that we’ve written:

For more information on New Belgium, the following comes from Untappd. They are a subsidiary of Kinn Brewing Company. They are a macro brewery from Fort Collins, Colorado, with 654 unique beers, and over 6.2 Million ratings (as of 7.10.23). Their global average rating is 3.63 (as of 7.10.23). Their Untappd description reads: New Belgium Brewing was founded in 1991 in Fort Collins, Colo., by Kim Jordan, a social worker, who built her company the only way a social worker would: People first. Over the past three decades, New Belgium has turned that ethos into a unique “human-powered” business model through practices that were and still are rare in the business world: fully paid healthcare premiums for all coworkers, paying a living wage, open-book management, renewable energy sourcing, a free onsite medical clinic and physician, a deep commitment to philanthropy and advocacy, and much more. With expansions to Asheville, N.C., in 2016; Denver, Colo., in 2018; San Francisco in 2021; and the 2021 acquisition of Bell’s Brewery, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., this people-centric model has led New Belgium to become arguably the most popular and fastest-growing American craft brewer today. New Belgium is famous for its flagship beer, Fat Tire Amber Ale; year-round favorites like Voodoo Ranger IPA (America’s #1 IPA brand), Dominga Mimosa Sour, and La Folie Sour Brown Ale; and an award-winning wood-aged sour program and innovative limited release beers. To learn more about New Belgium, visit NewBelgium.com.

You can find them on the following social media pages:

 

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

Star Wars:

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

  • New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

-B. Kline

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

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. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. 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!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

 

 

 

]]> 11932 Beer Review: Out of Order: RAWRGWAWGGR (RAR Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/01/19/beer-review-out-of-order-rawrgwawggr-rar-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-out-of-order-rawrgwawggr-rar-brewing Wed, 19 Jan 2022 13:08:28 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=8578
Out of Order – RAWRGWAWGGR by RAR Brewing

Feeling a lot like Hoth lately

If you are in the Central PA, its been feeling a lot like Hoth lately. We’ve had two recent snow / mix storms and just really cold temperatures in general. The picture above was taken from the first snowstorm a bit ago, and you most likely saw the pictures on our Instagram (The Beer Thrillers on Instragram) if you are a follower. And if your not…. why not? Check us out!

It was a perfect day for snow shoveling and using the newly acquired Hoth Lego sets to build up a little scene. Did some shoveling, drank a great beer, and played with Legos taking some fun nerdy Lego pics… like I was a six year old all over again.

And speaking of Star Wars and Legos, be sure to check out my buddy’s YouTube page – and Facebook page (which he just started up). He does Lego builds (primarily Star Wars) as well as all kinds of other videos. Give Josh a subscribe and check him out. MasterMind X Studios.

The Book of Boba Fett

Switching gears now, going from the snow covered planet of Hoth to the desert planet of Tatooine, lets go back to The Book of Boba Fett. As per usual on Wednesdays now, we’ve been doing a weekly Star Wars themed beer review. Some past ones have been:

This is the fourth episode (S1: E4 – “The Gathering Storm”) and thus will be the fourth of this series. But don’t worry, its far from the only Star Wars beers we’ve reviewed on here. You’ll be able to check out all of the others at the end of this article.

As per usual, I’ll also link up to some of the various Book of Boba Fett discussion pages that I follow along with:

And now, just for some interesting background information about Tatooine, a YouTube video by Star Wars Explained:

The Oceans of Tatooine by Star Wars Explained

Just some nerd insight into Tatooine and Star Wars for everyone before we move on to the beer review itself. So how about we get right down to it and actually do that beer review that I say I’m gonna do right?

Beer Review

Out of Order: RAWRGWAWGGR by RAR Brewing

Beer: Out of Order: RAWRGWAWGGR
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Our lactose sour base conditioned on Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Black Currants, Vanilla Cake, and Cream Cheese Icing.

First, quick discussion on RAR Brewing. They are a micro brewery (according to Untappd) from Cambridge, MD. They have 634 unique beers and a total of 404, 881 ratings (as of 1.19.22). They have a global average rating of exactly 4. Their Untappd Description reads: Based in Cambridge, MD on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay. Their link on Untappd is – RealerRevivalBrewing (just as an FYI).

Now let’s break down the beer.

Appearance is a juicy colored fruit drink. Looks like it could be a light cranberry juice or something similar. It looks sweet, looks tart, looks like juice you could pour straight from a carton out of the fridge. Its a slightly reddish hue, transparent mostly, with the thinnest carbonation based head.

Aroma smells like juicy, tart, and definitely a fruited sour. You get the notes of the blueberries, the strawberries, the raspberries, the blackberries, and the black currants all kind of swirling together into one big fruity berry mixture. No real notes (as far as aroma goes) of vanilla, cake, or cream cheese icing.

This is a juicy juicy juicy boi right here. Chewbeccca definitely knows how to get down with the berries. Be it on Hoth, Tatooine, or Endor, and no matter what berries or where they come from; Chewbacca … gets… down. This is a fruity punch of a beer right here. There is some definite tartness to it, there is a lot going on with the flavor profile too. You get everything the Untappd description lists. You get ‘all the berries’. The Blueberries. The strawberries. The raspberries. The blackberries. The black currants. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Five berries. Five checks. Done and done. There is a hint of vanilla cake and cream cheese icing I suppose, in the lactose thats added to the beer. I don’t think its more than just the lactose giving it some kind of creamy feel and taste; than it is exactly vanilla or cream cheese icing per say. But you get this creamy hint to it all. Its still got the tartness and the juiceness, so its not like that lactose takes away from that. The mouth feel could maybe be a bit heavier, but I think its still right on with the beer, and there’s nothing cloying or any real bad aftertaste. It pairs well with shoveling and cold Pizza Boy pizza, as well as reading books and playing with Legos on a day off (natural day off; not a day off due to snow). All in all its another impressive outing from RAR Brewing and the Out of Order series, and in particular the Star Wars Out of Order series.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.31 (as of 1.19.22)

The Book of Boba Fett – Episode 4 Thoughts

So, just finished Episode 4 thoughts, and will give you some quick spoiler free thoughts on it. I enjoyed it, and thought it was one of the better episodes of the season. Light years better than the horrific episode last week, which I honestly thought was out and out drek. Some cool scenes in this episode, but nothing crazy, and definitely a ‘building’ episode, a “calm before the storm’ episode.

Here’s another YouTube video for any interested:

Temuera Morrison Interview

Popular Culture and Nerd Culture Beer Reviews

Now moving on…. to listing and showing all of pop and nerd culture beer reviews:

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

Well, we only got three episodes left for ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, so please stay tuned each Wednesday for another Star Wars themed beer review for at least the next three Wednesdays. Who knows…. maybe I’ll extend it past that. Because I still got plenty of Star Wars themed beers.

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!

If you like Star Wars and like our Star Wars themed beers, be sure to check out every Wednesday while The Book of Boba Fett is airing, as I will do a new Star Wars themed beer each week!

Thanks for reading, and cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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.

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]]> 8578 Beer Review: The Soft Glow of Electric Sex (RAR Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/12/24/beer-review-the-soft-glow-of-electric-sex-rar-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-the-soft-glow-of-electric-sex-rar-brewing Thu, 24 Dec 2020 23:17:41 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=6614 It is Christmas Eve and there is no greater tradition on Christmas Eve than TBS airing A Christmas Story nonstop for the next 24 hours straight. TBS started this back in the fertile Nile Delta River Valley around 3996 B.C. and they have continued it every year since, all the way up to – and including – 2020. Not even a global pandemic could stop them from airing it for a continuous 6016 years. Thank God!

This one comes flying in right into the “IP” (Intellectual Property) theft debates I’ve been having with a lot of friends, from both in and out of the industry, on my personal Facebook page. Hershey’s recently sued a brewery over their marketing of Jolly Ranchers used in a beer they made. Their lawsuit was for 8,500$, which was the amount the brewery made on the beer made and sold. IP Theft has been a big issue I’ve been thinking about a lot lately with the craft beer industry, and is something I’d like to do an article on, and the Hershey’s lawsuit has given a lot of ammunition to the idea of the article (perfect timing in a way…. well… not perfect if you are the brewery in question I suppose). This is an interesting topic, and I think there’s a lot of merit to both sides. Look at this beer in question – the quote is a direct quote from the movie, and the can / bottle logo for the beer and packaging for it is spot on too, so do you consider that IP Theft? RAR Brewing is no stranger to using pop culture, nerd culture, mainstream, etc, for their beers. Look at their lineups of the “Out of Order” series. One of which I reviewed – Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing). Or take a look at another one I reviewed from RAR Brewing, Jon Voight’s Car. This one has an exact replica of George Castanza on the can label, as well as having the car in question in the background. You can see that review here – Beer Review: Jon Voight’s Car (RAR Brewing).

Here is the can and bottle label for “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex”:

The Soft Glow of Electric Sex

It has the “fragile” box in the background, the lamp itself, and of course the iconic quote from the movie (which is the beer title). Where do you all stand on this – does this look like IP Theft to you? Is this fair ground? Is it just a cool and fun little cultural nod? A way to sell beers? I’d love to hear from all of you and your thoughts on this.

 

Like I said, I love diving into pop culture named and themed beers here for the blog. I have done – a TON – of them. (As with most of the pop culture beer reviews, I’ve included a section at the end of the review listing all of the other ones for you to easily find them, as well as tagged it so you can search through the blog itself easier for them). I’ve done beers from The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Space Balls, etc. Josh has also done a few, with one recently being a play on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co), and there is no shortage of beers out there to review. My most recent beer review (before this beer of course) was “This is the Whey” by Bolero Snort, a play on “This is the Way” which is a catchphrase from The Mandalorian. (Which, I also did a This is the Way beer review, by Broken Goblet). You can see those here: “Beer Review: This is the Whey (Bolero Snort)” and “Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet)“.

I have been wanting to get out a lot more articles than I have recently, and I apologize for that, life has taken a bit of a crazy turn in recent days. I figured with the local (Pennsylvania Mandates and Shutdown) that we had starting on December 12th and lasting until January 4th, I would be able to get out a lot of beer reviews, and other articles, and I wanted to do a lot of local ones. But sadly, my life has gone ‘full crazy’ right before the Christmas season. So I sadly haven’t gotten as much written as I have had wanted to do. I have gone through a bout of several health related things, some familial things, dealing with my own second unemployment of the year, and fighting with unemployment itself, as well as a host of other things. (Firstly, let me just say, I would never wish insomnia on the worst of my enemies, that is honestly one of the worst things in the world, and its not nearly as “productive” as you might think, writing with insomnia is no where near as easy as you would imagine.) I haven’t even gotten much reading done, something I figured with a snowstorm, snowy and cold weather, as well as lockdown, that I would, but sadly, I haven’t. I’ve found my hours becoming less and less productive and more and more just me staring at walls, more and more of me just trying to figure out whats going on, and working to get past a lot of blocks in the road. Hopefully this writing and getting this beer review out will help with that. Fingers crossed anyway. Tomorrow is Christmas afterall, and we all need to be in the festive spirit, even if I am quarantining and unable to see my family and being all alone for Christmas, I am keeping my head up high, and will be wishing all of you out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays.

Ok, so lets move on. Lets get past that crap, and get to why we’re here. A beer review about a beer named after a holiday staple and a holiday tradition. My daughters have grown up with A Christmas Story playing on loop in the background of our Christmas’s in the house starting on Christmas Eve when it first airs. Its how I’ve fallen asleep every Christmas since I was probably 16 or 18, whenever TBS first (legitimately) did start airing it.

There is so many classic scenes, many of which remind me of my own childhood. I think I learned most of the words I now use as an adult from listening to my dad assemble various Christmas gifts (one of which was a basketball hoop we got for Christmas one year, that the instructions said could be done with the simple tools around the house; apparently my dad didn’t have a dowel rod, and he made sure to write to Huffy and explain to them in three page – five hundred or so word essay – how a dowel rod was not a common thing around the household; …they promptly shipped him a dowel rod and a 5$ coupon). I think this is why A Christmas Story stands the test of time for so many people. Its an agglomeration of stories, of all the ways Christmas can get screwed up, that it fills us with our own memories, like nostalgia. We remember the Christmas’s where things went helter skelter. I recall the time my Grandparents had a Christmas tree with worms and we could hear them eating the tree. Or my parents “Christmas Bush”. Its much like Christmas Vacation and Home Alone. The mistakes, the missteps, the crazy, is why we love it; because it reminds us of the various Christmas’s where things went off the rails in our own lives. I have often thought about this with my own daughters. The trips we have taken where things didn’t go as planned, have become more memorable than the ones where they went perfectly planned. Like our trip this year to Monocacy where I got sick and we ended up making it a two day trip, rather than a four hour trip.

But lets move on, and get to the beer review shall we? Enough about A Christmas Story, and enough about my own crazy Christmas’s in my past. Lets review some beer!

HO HO HO
The Soft Glow of Electric Sex by RAR Brewing

Beer: The Soft Glow of Electric Sex
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Brewed with Mangos, Lactose, Citra, Amarillo, Ella, and Columbus. Tons of citrus and ripe mango juice flavors.

 

HO HO HO

Appearance is a bright glowing orange. This is probably much closer to a New England IPA, but when first created for Untappd they didn’t really have the New England designation for their IPAs on there, otherwise I’d imagine this would fit it. This is hazy, its orange juice in appearance, has a nice foam head, and well carbonated with nice lacing on the glass as well.

HO…. HO…. HO…..

Aroma is very heavy … very… very heavy mango. I love it. One of the few fruit flavors I really love, and its mango, and it works so well in IPAs (especially New England IPAs), that this is just wonderful. Theres a hint of peach to round it out, but its so much mango and so much upfront it just smells amazing.

Schwartz: Hey, smart ass. I asked my old man about sticking your tongue to a flagpole in the winter, and he says that it’ll freeze right to the pole, just like I told ya.

This is delicious. Maybe for some it might be too much mango, I don’t know, but I love it. Its so heavy mango flavored, but that fits most New England IPAs, and I love it. Very heavy citrus, some lactose, some creamy smoothness to it, a nice slick mouthfeel, but the hops shine through wonderfully here. Citra, Amarillo, Columbus, and Ella hops are used, and they are all lead towards that juicy mango flavor, with some peach, some stone fruit, some zest and citrus, but at the end of the day its all mango flavor all the time. I think the peach rounds it out a fair bit, but overall its very subtle, like a hidden note you can only find after unlocking all the mango flavor. Its a well rounded New England IPA too, it has a little hop bite to it, but nothing substantial, nothing too acidic, nothing cloying, nothing poor or off putting with this. No off flavors. No bad aftertaste, etc. This was the very first RAR Brewing beer I had, and I traded for it back in January 2018. When I first started to get into doing some trading for beers or buying and having people mule beers. I had gotten this and I had gotten the Jon Voight’s Car beer. Fell in love with both, and I’ve enjoyed RAR Brewing ever since pretty much, though I think their Out of Order series has been taken over and changed a bit too much over recent years, and I think they lean a bit too much on the gimmicks for that series (they just released a whole slew of Home Alone themed Out of Order beers, with the can art and the beers being slightly different in each, some representing Kevin, Marv, The Wet Bandits, Pesci, and the Shovel Slayer), but ultimately I think RAR Brewing still makes some fine good beers and they aren’t lacking in quality. The internet can be a bit harsher on them with respects to their Out of Order series, but thats also the internet for you, and who reads the internet anyway…….. (…oh….). But anyway, back to this beer, it is a bold, bright, beautiful, tasty Mango flavor bomb, and a wonderful New England IPA. Its juicy, its tasty, slight hop bitterness, but full on hop flavor, no off flavors, nothing cloying, nice mouth feel, no aftertaste, this is just a fine well made beer, with a cool logo and name, and definitely an eye catcher. And perfect for Christmas Eve and watching A Christmas Story on loop for 24 hours!

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.01 (as of 12.24.20)

 

Thinking about how this was one of the first beers I traded for, makes me think back to the early days of trading for me, when I first started getting into that. When I was at Breski’s Beverages just last week preparing for the big snow blizzard we got, I saw Zombie Dust and Alpha Space Station from 3 Floyd’s on the shelf for 3.50$ each, and I remember trading and buying that from people in a Facebook beer group who muled it back. Crazy to seeing it being a “shelfie” now. Just like seeing JREAMS making it up into the Central PA midstate area and in places like The Fridge, Breski’s, etc for their crowler machines. Definitely not complaining about that! That’s for sure!

 

Well thank you all for reading this, and thanks for checking out another Pop Culture beer and “IP Theft” potential beer. I could almost make that its own category now on the blog. Like I said at the top, would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions on that, and what they think is acceptable or not. Just in general, I always love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave comments, questions, etc, either here on the blog, or on our social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. We recently hit 1K followers and likes on Facebook which is a pretty big deal and I love how its bringing all kinds of people together.

Also, AJ Brechbiel is likely to be writing some new posts for the blog again, so be sure to check out his stuff when he releases it. I’m eagerly looking forward to that.

Another note I wanna make, there is another beer that was released with the same title as this. “The Soft Electric Glow of Sex” by Turning Point Beer, which is a brewery from Texas, and I have done a beer review from them before (from a beer trade); that beer was: Beer Review: $#!+ Ton (Turning Point Beer) as well as a beer review of one they were collaborated with – Beer Review: Virtually Inseparable (Celestial Beerworks and Turning Point Beer). But anyway, they did the exact same name as this beer, but made it a stout, and with a very similar logo too:

Turning Point Beer – The Electric Glow of Sex (photo courtesy of Untappd)

Their beer is a 15.6% Stout. I would love to get my hands on it and try it out for a future beer review as well (…well… and just because I like to drink stouts, and because the beer sounds good).

If I wanted to be really proper with this beer, I should have went out and gotten the “leg lamp” beer glass to drink it in:

The Leg Lamp Beer Glass

Maybe if I get that stout, I’ll make myself buy this glass to review it in. Who knows. I wanted to get a Festivus beer for yesterday (Dec. 23rd, 2020; Festivus), but sadly, wasn’t able to get one in time to do a review here on the blog for it. Next year!

That Star is Crooked….

Thank you everyone for reading. And I am hoping to get a lot more reviews and articles out from here to the end of the year. I feel like I have about a thousand beer reviews to do, and no time to do them, despite being stuck at home on quarantine. I have so many things I need to do from now until December 31st, 11:59:59, and not sure if I’ll get it all done. The pressure and the anxiety is mounting up, but the stuff’s not getting done. Fingers crossed it will. Thank you all for putting up with it, and for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the beer review! Cheers! As someone who just took a COVID test today, please stay safe out there, mask up, wash your hands, and take care of each other and your local breweries, they need it! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone! Happy Festivus!

-B. Kline

FRA-GEE-LAY
It’s a Major Award!
The Soft Glow of Electric Sex

 

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!

The various pop culture / nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done here on The Beer Thrillers:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Other:

 

]]> 6614 Beer Review: I Voted for Kang (Second Sin Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/12/05/beer-review-i-voted-for-kang-second-sin-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-i-voted-for-kang-second-sin-brewing-company Sun, 06 Dec 2020 03:10:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=6199
I Voted for Kang by Second Sin Brewing Company

There is nothing better than coming home from a seven day road trip to finding a beer mail package on your front step. I want to give a big shout out to Steve Orbanek for the beer mail! Very very very very very grateful and thankful for this.

Being a typical kid of the 80s and 90s I grew up on The Simpsons. Simpsons, Seinfeld, Conan O’Brien, The Angry Beavers, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Animaniacs, were the primary sources of my comedy as a young boy growing up. This has evolved and grown into many more options – from comics like Peanuts, B.C., Fox Trot, to late night talkshow hosts – Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Johnny Carson, to more shows like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, BoJack Horseman, Futurama, South Park, Rick and Morty, to stand up comedians like George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, to dark humor writers like Kurt Vonnegut; I could spend all day prattling on with a list of my comedic ancestors and inspirations and roots, but there is probably no bigger defining factor to my humor than The Simpsons. Early season Simpsons. Seasons 1-9 Simpsons. The Conan O’Brien episodes, the Treehouse of Horror episodes, the absurdism, the Sideshow Bob episodes, etc.

When quoting things it will come from one of three sources: 1) Simpsons / Futurama, 2) Seinfeld / Curb Your Enthusiasm, 3) Literature. And in that order. And I know which will be recognized…. and its not when I quote from group three.

Hanging out with friends, drinking at the bars, breweries, or home (especially now – at home) with buddies, the endless quoting of early Simpsons, the “that reminds me of X episode” comparisons, etc. “Remember that time X” or “this could have been something The Simpsons did” or when watching a show or movie “they are clearly ripping that from The Simpsons”, etc.

The Simpsons are a form of cultural identity, especially for people of my age. The mid-late 30s to early 40s. We grew up on a steady diet of Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Captain Planet, Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, The Angry Beavers, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, etc. Our lives were viewed through the prisms of animated comedy and action. Our adolescence we spent learning why yellowed people with spiky hair and only four fingers on each hand were so much funnier than the people around us, their lives wackier, their antics ratcheted up a notch above the normalcy of our boring mundane lives.

As is a common theme on the blog here, if I have access to a pop culture beer to review – you best bet I’ll be reviewing it on here. There’s a long list of them (and I’ll put it at the end), from Star Wars, to Simpsons, to Seinfeld, to Turtles, to even a beer from Space Balls. If I have a chance to drink it, I’ll review it.

Previously I did – I Voted for Kodos, and this is the companion beer to that. I highly recommend giving that a read when you are done here as the two beers are companion beers and are meant to go together.

So, lets discuss KANG. As per the Simpsons Wikia:

“Kang Johnson is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Kodos) of the series. He is a Rigellian from Rigel 7. He and his sister Kodos are continuously try to take over Earth and are usually seen attacking Springfield. He usually appears in Treehouse of Horrors but either him or Kodos have been seen in other episodes such as “The Springfield Files” and “Gump Roast” Kang and Kodos have a lot of space weaponry at hand and have their own spaceship. They speak the Rigellian language, which, by coincidence, is identical to English. Although they look identical, Kang has a deeper voice than Kodos. He is the featured character on the on the Season 14 DVD/Blu-ray box set as well as the iTunes cover.”

Kang and Kodos from CITIZEN KANG

The Citizen Kang segment from Treehouse of Horror VII is one of the best segments from Simpsons / Treehouse of Horror altogether. Lots of great quotes, lines, gags, and an outright funny segment. And despite being about Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, it still holds up well, especially the jokes about third parties and Ross Perot and people not wanting to vote third party.

Homer revealing Kang and Kodos

It all seems almost prescient of our last two elections, alien vs. alien and still nobody voted third party. Sorry Gary Johnson (2016) and sorry Jo Jorgenson (2020). …or Kanye West (2020)…. seems people rather vote for aliens.

Homer Revealing Bill Clinton and Bob Dole to be Kang and Kodos

There is one thing though, that I am looking for in a President, and that is his stance on twirling….

Twirling Towards Freedom

Regardless of your political stance, there is one thing we can get together on and agree on – and thats that these beers from Second Sin Brewing Company have been top notch. (Unfortunately) I never had anything from Second Sin Brewing Company before the two beers – I Voted for Kodos and I Voted for Kang. They both absolutely blew me out of the water, and I can see why they are a Top 10 PA Brewery for 2020 according to Untappd. I have quickly added their brewery as a ‘must visit’ on my list of breweries to check out for 2021.

Second Sin Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Bristol Pennsylvania, located at 1500 Grundy Lane, the former site of Broken Goblet Brewing. (Broken Goblet has since moved on to a new location – they are also a very heavy pop culture referencing brewery, with a Gritty beer, several beers about the Eagles, and of course the popular This is the Way – Mandalorian beer). According to Untappd, Second Sin Brewing Company has 138 unique beers, and over 7.5K ratings with a global average rating of 4.07 (as of 12.5.20). (There is no description on their Untappd page.)

I Voted for Kang

Beer: I Voted for Kang
Brewery: Second Sin Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: I Voted For Kang and I Voted For Kodos, conceptually, are like two peas in a pod. They both started with the same base of 2 row malt, Malted Oats, and light Crystal. Both are supported with Galaxy and Idaho 7 hops to round out their flavor profiles.

However, don’t let anyone tell you that these candidates are the same…oh, no. Kang is primarily hopped with the tropical and fruity Citra, while Kodos is loaded with dank and melony Mosaic.

Appearance looks very similar to that of I Voted for Kodos – a bright orange, hazy, dank, cloudy, opaque New England IPA. Like darker orange juice. This is a beautiful looking beer. Rich foamy head and left lovely lacing on the glass. Great carbonation from the can.

Aroma is a tropical hop blast. Large notes of tropical hop nose on this that you can smell as soon as you crack open the can and start to pour. This has the staple New England IPA hop combo of Mosaic and Citra to give it that punch of tropical, melon, juicy / dank hop aroma. The Galaxy and Idaho 7 hops accentuate this nicely and provides a very hop forward nose.

Taste is where there’s the bigger difference in comparison to I Voted for Kodos. While its similar in taste, there’s a notable difference (for me) – there’s no ‘kick’. I found there was a bit of a kick to the Kodos beer. Almost like a spice kick, but with a hop twist. This is much more smooth, much more juicer, much more dank, and easier drinking, and downright crushable. This is nothing to say against the I Voted for Kodos. That was a terrific beer and I loved it and drank it down just as easily, but I feel that I Voted for Kang is probably smoother, juicier, and therefore more crushable. The mouth feel on this is wonderful too, its heavy but not cloying, its not too heavy, but just right, the silky smoothness of it works well too and makes it an enjoyable drink. There is no hop bite or hop bitterness, and its a typical and well crafted New England IPA in that aspect that its pure flavor and taste. The combo of Mosaic and Citra (see insert of Hallmark meme that has been going around and around and around on beer groups on Facebook lately) works well here. Sometimes you just can’t beat a trusted and well done hop combo, and this proves it. This is tropical, with a bit of zest, some melon, a bit of peach, a good dose of mango, and the wee faintest hint of melon rind, pine, and passionfruit. There is no off flavors, nothing acidic, nothing cloying, no bad or awkward aftertaste, nothing lingering or off putting – this is just a very well crafted, well made New England IPA that goes down easy and smooth and is extremely tasty and drinkable. Both of these beers (I Voted for Kang and I Voted for Kodos) has sold me on Second Sin Brewing Company, and hopefully anyone else who has tried these it has sold them on the brewery as well, because these were phenomenal beers and they certainly deserve the praise they’ve been getting.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.22 (as of 12.5.20)

Out of the two, if hard pressed – I would pick I Voted for Kang over I Voted for Kodos. But thats an extremely close call, and both are extremely delicious beers.

Happy Repeal Day everyone. Make sure you go out and support a local craft brewery and drink some beer!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Ok, lets break down some of the nerdy pop culture beers I’ve reviewed:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Other:

Seinfeld:

]]> 6199 Beer Review: Furious IPA (Surly Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/02/23/beer-review-furious-ipa-surly-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-furious-ipa-surly-brewing-company Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:26:23 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=2338
Furious IPA by Surly Brewing Company, has finally hit distribution in the mid-state Central PA area. Appearing at places like Breski’s Beverage.

Finally Surly Brewing Company has hit Central PA on a regular basis and on their own. They were featured in the Around the World case that Sierra Nevada released a few years ago where they did a group of collaborations with a ton of different top-notch breweries. But this time, its now Surly Brewing on their own reaching the mid-state area with several of their cans available at Breski’s Beverage and other similar outlets.

As the name suggests, this is a furiously hopped, aggressive IPA. Traditional West Coast style, nothing new or fancy about it like the new Milkshake IPAs or even New England hazy IPAs. This is an old fashion, powerfully hoppy, aggressive, angry, furious beer. Built for a MegaDeath, Metallica, or GWAR concert.

This is certainly a hoppy beer, so you better be prepared and happy knowing that going in. Because if you don’t like hops, or hoppy beers, or bitter hoppy beers, then this definitely will not be for you. It is a powerful hop punch right to the jaw that would make Tyson Fury proud. So let’s crack her open and get all up in that hoppy business.

Furious IPA by Surly Brewing Company

Beer: Furious (IPA)
Brewery: Surly Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: 100
Untappd Write-Up: The beer that built Surly. Aggressively hopped and citrusy, but with a chewy, caramel malt backbone.

Right there the stats should give you some indication of this beer, 100 IBU on the outset, is a high target, especially when all those New England and Milkshake IPAs you’ve been pounding at the latest brewfest have an IBU count of < 15. For comparison’s sake, Perpetual IPA by Troegs Independent Brewing has 85 IBU, Green Machine by Boneshire Brew Works has 75 IBU, TMI PA by Tattered Flag has 80 IBU, but their triple IPA Manghost has 120 IBU. So this should kind of give you a modest starting indication where this beer falls.

Appearance is on par with traditional, American, West Coast style IPAs. Light amber brown beer looking coloring, slightly translucent and see through but also a bit dark and opaque, clarity is definitely refined and you can see through this. Its filtered so theres no sediment or hop bits floating around. It has the looks of a well made, well honed style, thats been obviously made for a long while now and crafted and made for mass consumption. Practiced, honed, tuned in, dialed down the right degree, this looks just well made and well presented.

Aroma is a fireball of hops hitting you from a Hop Mage. (NEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDD!!!!!). At 100 IBU you’re expecting a big hop punch in the nostrils, and this certainly doesn’t disappoint. You get a very heavy citrus, pine, cedar, earthy hop aroma. I get mostly pine, a friend of mine found the citrus a bit more heavy, but overall its not much of a difference, I’d say the split is pine / citrus – 60 / 40, and he’d say the split is 40 / 60 the other way. Basically negligible. You get a nice malt to this as well.

And now its time to take a soft… nice… gentle…. sip…… and…… BLAAAMMMMO. HOPS. HOPS. HOPS. (sing it like SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS). Right up front, right in the middle, right at the end, you are getting worked over in the midsection, the face, the nose, uppercuts, left hooks, right jabs, all kind of hop punches getting thrown at you. Firstly, actually breaking down the taste, there’s more to it than just hops. It has a very heavy malty, caramel malty, backbone to this, its thick, its heavy, and it does give the beer a surprisingly heavy mouthfeel. The caramel doesn’t provide much sweetness and it definitely doesn’t alter how bitter and hoppy this is, as the bitterness of the hops still push through whatever sweetness the caramel malt might impart. Like with the aroma, there is a lot of hops here. You get a lot of citrus and pine and cedar and earthy hop notes. A lot of bitter hops, not too floral or bright, and not light. This is certainly not for the “haze craze only” or “White Claw” crowd, thats for sure. This has a lot of flavor between the hops and malt, but it is overly bitter, so if you can’t really get past that, which some can’t, then it might be a problem. Same goes with that hop bite (which is basically the bitterness), if you can’t really get past it, you won’t like this. It is the definition of “aggressively hopped” thats a guarantee.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.89 (as of 2.23.20)

Thanks for reading everyone, if you want to check out some recent beer reviews, you can check out: Chocolate Confidential, Sunshine and Opportunity, Pete’s Secret Stache, Loki – Wild IPA, Back to Reality, I Cannot Tell a Lie, and Valentine’s Day Beers.

Enjoy, cheers, prost!

-B. Kline

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