New England DIPA - The Beer Thrillers

Beer Review: Juicin’ Voorhees (Pariah Brewing Company)

B. Kline — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 00:15:13 +0000

Beer Review: Juicin’ Voorhees (Pariah Brewing Company)

It’s Friday the 13th, and as the chilling wind creeps through the trees and masked slashers stalk our screens, there’s only one beer that belongs in your glass tonight: Juicin’ Voorhees by Pariah Brewing Company. With a name that nods to the hockey-masked legend of horror, this hazy Double IPA doesn’t sneak up on you—it kicks in the door, machete first. But instead of screams, it leaves behind a trail of juicy citrus, smooth bitterness, and pure hop-fueled satisfaction.

Juicin’ Voorhees by Pariah Brewing Company

☁️ Appearance – Haze of the Undead

Much like the fog rolling across Crystal Lake, Juicin’ Voorhees pours an ominously thick golden haze with a glowing, almost radioactive glow. Its creamy white head clings like cobwebs on a rickety cabin, leaving lacing that lingers long after each sip. Ominous, inviting, and impossible to ignore.

👃 Aroma – Frighteningly Fruity

From the first whiff, this beer hits hard with grapefruit zest, peach nectar, and a whisper of dank tropical fruit—like a fruit basket left behind at a murder scene. There’s a sinister edge of orange rind and a faint herbal note in the background, hinting that not everything is as sweet as it seems.

👅 Flavor – Slashingly Smooth

Where most slashers go for the jugular, Juicin’ Voorhees chooses a more subtle, creeping approach.

Up front, you get a wave of peach, grapefruit, and tangerine—a fruit-forward assault that’s bright and punchy.
The mid-palate turns slightly bitter, with soft pith and a touch of earthy dankness.
The finish? Clean, slightly resinous, and just warm enough to remind you this beast clocks in at 8.1% ABV.

It walks the line between sweet and bitter with the finesse of a seasoned stalker—never too cloying, never too aggressive.

👻 Mouthfeel – Smooth as a Silent Stalk

Medium-bodied with a creamy, pillowy mouthfeel, Juicin’ Voorhees glides across the palate like a shadow in the woods. No alcohol burn, no heavy syrup—just a chillingly clean, soft experience that leaves you watching your back… and reaching for another sip.

🩸 Overall Impressions – Hazy Horror Done Right

Pariah Brewing has crafted something special here. Juicin’ Voorhees isn’t just a gimmick beer with a horror-themed name—it’s a legit, well-balanced hazy DIPA that stands tall even among the genre’s heavyweights. The name might scream slasher flick, but the beer inside is all finesse and flavor.

If you’re a fan of juicy IPAs, or just someone looking for the perfect beer to pair with your Friday the 13th binge-watch session, this one’s a no-brainer. Literally.

📊 Stats & Reception

ABV: 8.1%
IBUs: 24
Style: Hazy / New England Double IPA
Untappd Score: 3.9 / 5 (1,200+ check-ins)
Availability: Limited seasonal release, often around Halloween or fall

🍽️ Pairings – What to Eat While You Scream

Buffalo wings with ghost pepper sauce – feel the burn
Sharp cheddar and soft pretzels – smooth meets bold
Pumpkin pie or caramel apple tarts – because horror needs dessert too
Grilled sausage and onions – hearty flavors to match the DIPA bite

🪦 Final Words – Don’t Sleep on This Slasher

Whether you’re hiding under a blanket watching Jason Lives or sitting around a fall campfire waiting for strange noises, Juicin’ Voorhees is a killer choice. Bold, juicy, and just creepy enough to make your skin crawl—in the best way.

So this Friday the 13th, raise a glass to horror, hops, and Pariah Brewing’s tribute to the boogeyman of hazy IPAs. Just don’t turn your back on the fridge. You never know when another can might sneak up behind you…

🍺 Juicin’ Voorhees Review – A Killer Brew for Friday the 13th

Juicin’ Voorhees is a seasonal Double/Hazy IPA from Pariah Brewing (based in San Diego, CA), clocking in at 8.1% ABV and 24 IBUs. With its ominous name—a play on a horror-movie icon—it delivers an inviting yet smooth entry into the fall IPA scene.

For more information on Jason Voorhees – check out the Wikipedia page: Jason Voorhees. As well as check out the series: Friday the 13th. Ironically, soon after posting this article, Hoppy Floppy also posted it to her Instagram. You can check it out (forewarning – NSFW – Juicin Voorhees Post).

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.90 (as of 6.13.25)

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:

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

Heroes of Barcadia:

Rollacrit Partners with Voodoo Ranger IPA for New Kickstarter, Heroes of Barcadia: Heroes for Hire Tabletop Game

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Philadelphia Eagles Running Back – D’Andre Swift – Visits Bald Bird Brewing Company

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Mario:

Beer Review: Level Up (Idiom Brewing)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Seinfeld:

The Muppets:

Jason Voorhees / Friday the 13th:

Beer Review: Juicin’ Voorhees (Pariah Brewing Company)

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.

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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:

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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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 #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of May 2025.) 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!

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Tree House Brewing Releasing Woodstock IPA, Haze, and Julius Cans

B. Kline — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:03:11 +0000

Tree House Brewing Releasing Woodstock IPA, Haze, and Julius Cans at their Woodstock Location

At their Woodstock location – Tree House Brewing Company is releasing Woodstock IPA, Haze, and Julius cans. Located at 54 Joy Road, Woodstock CT – Tree House Brewing’s Orchard Farm and Fermentory is releasing their newest Woodstock (an IPA), as well as Haze, and Julius cans.

Haze is a Double IPA that is 8.2% ABV. Woodstock IPA will be a 6.8% ABV IPA, and Julius is an American IPA that clocks in at 6.8% ABV as well. They will be released in typical 16 oz pounder cans as per normal for Tree House Brewing Company.

Some Articles We’ve Written About Tree House Brewing Company

Tree House Brewing Company Announces the Hottest Beer of 2023 – Jalagreeño
Tree House Opening a Saratoga Springs Location
Tree House Brewing Releases Woodstock Pilsner
Tree House Brewing Releases Woodstock DIPA
Tree House Brewing Releasing Woodstock IPA, Haze, and Julius Cans

Beer Reviews We’ve Done

Looking for some beer reviews of Tree House Brewing Company that we’ve covered? Then check these out:

More Information on Tree House Brewing Company

The following information comes from Untappd.

Tree House Brewing Company is considered one of the best breweries in the country (United States). They are a bucket list brewery and a “must visit” for many people. Untappd has them listed as a regional brewery from Charlton Massachusetts. They have 1094 unique beers with over 4.5 Million ratings. They have a global average rating of 4.33 (as of 12.18.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Tree House Brewing Company brews a vast array of ales. The offerings vary based on the season, our moods, and innovations discovered in the midst of day in and day out brewing. Our artisan brewery knows no bounds and we are driven by an intense curiosity of ingredients and how they blend together to create something special.”

For more information on Tree House Brewing Company, check out their social media pages:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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.

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!

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.

Beer Review: The Shining (Foam Brewers)

B. Kline — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 21:35:00 +0000

All Hallow’s Eve

I’ve been saving this review for today – Halloween. All Hallow’s Eve. Because, lets be honest – what a perfect beer for Halloween right? Well… I mean… there’s literally thousands of other craft beers with Halloween inspired names I could choose from too…. but meh… I chose this one.

Anyway, as per the Britannica definition of Halloween and All Hallow’s Eve:

Halloween, contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, a holiday observed on October 31, the evening before All Saints’ (or All Hallows’) Day. The celebration marks the day before the Western Christian feast of All Saints and initiates the season of Allhallowtide, which lasts three days and concludes with All Souls’ Day.
Halloween | Definition, Origin, History, & Facts | Britannica

Its that perfect time for brews and boos and scares and jeers and leers. Walking around town doing Trick or Treat with the kiddos, and a nice craft beer in hand, enjoying the company of other scary bats and ghouls and goblins (or most likely a ton of kids in Marvel inspired outfits like Spider-Man or Iron Man). Nice fall weather, cold, but not frigid, light breeze, hoodie weather. Halloween is always just one of those perfect nights.

Shout Out to Emily

Firstly, I want to give a shout out to Emily at work for giving me the beer. Thanks a lot Em! Definitely one of the benefits of working at a brewery – is all the beer everywhere, and who doesn’t love that?

You can also see my initial impressions of the beer here: YouTube Review: Futurama: How the West was 1010001.

And in this article: Futurama Episode Review – How the West was 1010001 and Beer Review: The Shining (Foam Brewers)

Beer Review: The Shining by Foam Brewers

The Shining by Foam Brewers

Beer: The Shining
Brewery: Foam Brewers
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England / Hazy
ABV: 8%
IBU: N / A
Untappd Description: tasting notes: pineapple, mango, smoothie

All Work and No Play Makes Ben A Dull Boy… All Work and No Play Makes Ben a Dull Boy…

Or as Homer says:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDqfQxPnJo

Homer: All Work and No Beer… Makes Homer… Something… Something…

So let’s dip into this great beer, enough thematics and dramatics. Lets just get down to it.

On appearance – this is a beautifully bright yellow hazy IPA. Almost a Simpsons’ yellow one might even say. This is a gorgeous looking beer. The hue is spot on for a New England (literally a New England) Hazy IPA; and the foam and retention is exactly what you expect from a brewery named “Foam Brewers”.

The aroma is wonderful as well with this, you could just stick your nose in the can, and inhale all day and be a happy hoppy IPA boy. Certainly not a dull boy. A powerful blast of hop notes assails you as soon as you are cracking the can open. A ton of passionfruit, mango, and pineapple overpower the senses almost immediately. All wonderfully blended together for one fantastic and terrific smell.

This certainly doesn’t feel like an 8% IPA. (For comparison’s sake – Perpetual IPA by Troegs Independent Brewing is a 7.5% West Coast IPA.) This is so clean, so smooth, so easy to drink, you would think it was a 4% Session IPA or something. This is a wonderfully rich, delicious drink, it is easy to see why it has tasting notes of “smoothie”, as its just so smooth, so rich, so delicious, and such a great blend of pineapple, mango, and passionfruit notes. The beer is overwhelmingly strong with pineapple and mango notes with background noise of passionfruit flavors. This isn’t a milkshake IPA but it certainly gives you ‘smoothie’ like feelings and ideas, and I’m all here for it. This is definitely one of my favorite ‘gift beers’ I’ve gotten, and I am very appreciative of Emily for it, as well as for the others my co – workers and people visiting the brewery have given me. But, this has been very much top of the pack so far.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.26 (as of 10.31.23)

The Shining

So lets get the question out there – which do you prefer? Stephen King’s novel The Shining or Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation The Shining? They are certainly two different beasts. Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!

Halloween

What is everyone’s plans for Halloween tonight? Amy and I will be taking Scarlet out trick or treating tonight. It will be her first trick or treat, so we’ll see how it goes. We have an Ewok costume for her. We might have pictures on Instagram, if we do, stay tuned for them.

Cheers!

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

Good News Everyone, Futurama is Back: Exploring Futurama – Inspired Craft Beers
Book Review: Futurama and Philosophy (edited by Courtland Lewis)
Futurama Episode Review – The Impossible Stream and Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 (SpaceTime Meadery)
Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 (Space Time Mead and Cider Works)
Futurama Episode Review – Children of a Lesser Bog and Beer Review: Stay on Target (Allusion Brewing Company)
Beer Review: I Apologize For Nothing (Fourscore Beer Co.)
Beer Review: Fing-Longer (Turning Point Beer)
Futurama Episode Review – How the West was 1010001 (and Beer Review: The Shining by Foam Brewers)
Futurama Episode Review – Parasites Regained and Beer Review: Mow and Flow (Eleventh Hour Brewing)
Beer Review: Leela Wake Up (Launch Pad Brewery)
Beer Review: Hop Bender (Local Craft Beer)
Futurama Episode Review – I Know What You Did Next XMas and Beer Review: Bo Katan Red IPA (Brewery Fire)

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

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

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

Stephen King:

Beer Review: The Shining (Foam Brewers)

World Cup:

Phillies:

Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Collaborate Together on Jam the Batter sWheat Tart

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Philadelphia Eagles Running Back – D’Andre Swift – Visits Bald Bird Brewing Company

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

The Shining:

Beer Review: The Shining (Foam Brewers)

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Grandma SueAnn Helps Review More Pumpkin Beers: A Nightmare on East Elm Street (Conshohocken Brewing Company)

Seinfeld:

The Muppets:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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!

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

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!

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.

Keystone State Of Mind – New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company’s Newest Collaboration

B. Kline — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:19:58 +0000

Keystone State of Mind – A Collaboration Between New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company (photos courtesy of New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company’s Facebook)

A (Keystone) State of Mind

In a bit of a twist of the Billy Joel Song – “New York State of Mind” – New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company are releasing their newest collaboration together – Keystone State of Mind.

They previously worked together on “Pennsylvania Nights”; a wonderful and fantastic New England Hazy IPA.

And here they are – back at it together – releasing another New England Hazy IPA collaboration: Keystone State of Mind.

Keystone State of Mind

Keystone State of Mind is a collaboration between New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company. Other Half is one of the preeminent New England Hazy IPA makers on the East Coast; and New Trail is one of the haziest IPA makers in Pennsylvania. Other Half recently moved into PA adding another brewery to their collection.

So it seems like a perfect fit for the two of them to collaborate on making (another) New England Hazy IPA.

Keystone State of Mind clocks in at 8.7% ABV, is considered a Double New England Hazy IPA, and has no IBU listed. The malt bill is Pilsner, Oats, and White Wheat – which gives it that typical, perfect, soft, cloud like hazy mouthfeel. Each can is overflowing with hops – Motueka, Simcoe, Nectaron, and Nelson Sauvin; so a total hop bomb. This gives it notes of gummy peach rings, Pinot aromatics, and dank tropicals.

The beer is already available throughout the states, with some beer distributors already having it on their shelves (and not for long if its anything like the Pennsylvania Nights release). You can also find it at New Trail’s Brewery location in both 16 oz cans and on draft. Other Half’s Philadelphia location also has it in cans and on draft. The release should follow the New Trail distribution pattern and footprint, not Other Half’s. Other Half’s non-Pennsylvania locations will not have it available.

Keystone State of Mind (Other Half and New Trail collaboration) (photo courtesy of New Trail Brewing Company’s Facebook)

Billy Joel’s “Keystone State of Mind”

(Lyrics edited)

Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighbourhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I’m taking a Greyhound
On the Delaware River Line
I’m in a Keystone state of mind

I’ve seen all the movie stars
In their fancy cars and their limousines
Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens
But I know what I’m needing
And I don’t want to waste more time
I’m in a Keystone state of mind

It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Patriot News,

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or up on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a Keystone state of mind

It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Patriot News

I’m just taking a Greyhound on the Delaware River Line
‘Cause I’m in a Keystone state of mind

New Trail Articles

Looking for more articles on New Trail? Then check these out:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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!

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

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!

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.

Beer Review: Cream on the Inside, Green on the Outside (Other Half Brewing Co.)

BKline — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:50:00 +0000

Cream on the Inside, Green on the Outside by Other Half Brewing Co.

Other Half

There’s one half…. and then there’s the Other Half….. (see what I did there?). And let me tell you, that Other Half, is some of the best beers that are wonderfully being distributed into Central PA finally. Its like a Christmas day everytime Breski’s gets their Other Half allotments. And Breski’s Beverage isn’t the only one to start getting them, their working their way around to some smaller shops and places too (like West Vault Connection in Hummelstown / Hershey, Brass Rail in Palmyra, The Fridge in Lancaster, and a few other places).

For those who don’t know, Other Half has been pumping out top notch New England IPAs for a long time now, and I mean – top notch.

Here is the Untappd statistics on Other Half:

Regional Brewery
Original Brewery location: Brooklyn, New York
Over 4.09Million check-ins with 256,984 being unique
1309 unique beers
Global average rating of 4.23 (as of 11.16.21)

Untappd Description:

In 2014, Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan and Andrew Burman founded Other Half Brewing Company, a local brewery in New York City with a simple mission: to create beers that they wanted to drink from a company that they wanted to be a part of. Their vision was to build a passionate team that brewed great beers in the state of New York—done so with effort and thoughtfulness—to represent the “Other Half” of the industry. Today, Other Half craft beers in their Brooklyn brewery and are dedicated to collaborating with breweries both in New York as well as across the world in an effort to constantly move the industry forward while elevating the craft. The Other Half team believes that local breweries play an important role in their communities which is why they partner with these other likeminded brewers and brands in local nabes across the country and the world—but always return to their home state of New York and their Brooklyn taproom.
Untappd: Other Half

We’ve covered them in a few other beer reviews here on the blog (I’ll link them at the bottom for you to check out).

Beer Review

Cream on the Inside, Green on the Outside

Now that we know Other Half is amazing and makes some wonderful beers, lets get down to it and review this bad boy.

Beer: Cream on the Inside, Green on the Outside
Brewery: Other Half Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This beer is brewed with 2-row and 50% oats with a small hit of lactose for smoothness. We then furiously hopped it with Citra, Motueka, Riwaka and Galaxy hops at 8 lbs/bbl.

Not quite sure why this is just listed as IPA, because its hazy *AF* as the kids would say, and its very much a New England IPA. There’s very little hop bitterness, and its juicy, hazy, turbulent, and delicious. (Not that west coast IPAs aren’t delicious, but you get my understanding I believe.)

Ok, let’s break this down.

Aroma is bursting with hop flavors. As soon as you crack that can – WA-BAAAAAAM —- HOPS IN YO NOSE. Or something to that affect. But I mean, its a hop flavor and aroma punch right out the gate. You get a very juicy fruity hop nose as soon as you pour it. Its got a hoppy nose of lime, tropical fruit, passionfruit, and lemon.

Appearance is a lovely orange, very hazy, turbulent looking IPA (or New England IPA). Has a wonderful frothy foamy head with unique and varied bubbles. Excellent lacing on the glass as it pours down my gullet so easily. Just a beautiful hue all around to this brew.

Mmmhmmmm mmmhmmmm good. First sip down to the last is very good. No real sediment left at the bottom of the can either for that putrid “ugh what is this” crap that some New England IPAs can be famous for. You just get a very strong hop juiciness from this, with the ever so slightest bit of hop bitterness. It does have a little bit of ‘green’ to it, but its nothing exceptional or bad, or anything that will upset anyone. (Unless you are an adamant anti-IPA -ite, like anti-dentite). This is juicy, this is fruity, this is tropical, and this is so tasty. I get strong notes of lemon, tropical lime, passionfruit, peach, mango, some grapefruit (subtle, thank goodness for my particular tastebuds), some hop greenness, and a slight hop bite / bitterness. But all in all, this is just wonderful, its a well rounded, well crafted IPA. There is some lactose to ‘smooth’ out the edges, and it does that, but I dunno if it would even really be necessary (who knows, would be interesting to try a variant without it just to see). I could sit around all day drinking Other Half IPAs like this, but at 9.4% and with lactose (and also being lactose intolerant technically speaking), it would get to be a bit much. Other Half beers are fantastic, but I’m not sure they lend themselves to drinking pint after pint / can after after can of their IPAs due to the heaviness of the lactose, the New England style, etc. But I could damn well try and see. Had this with a friend who brought Sorbetto #40 by Ever Grain Brewing Co (I believe we will be seeing review of that beer shortly here on the blog… so be on the lookout…) and the sour of the one and the juiciness of this one really accompanied each other and made for a great two-banger.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 4.41 (as of 11.16.21)

I know Breski’s Beverage still has Other Half in their freezer, I say run, don’t walk… actually… drive… and not too fast, just right at the speed limit (don’t wanna be accused of telling people to break the law or anything) and get over there and pick some up. As of 8:30PM last night they had 4 packs and mix-a-six selections of their Other Half beers. So be sure to check them out.

Other Half on The Beer Thrillers

Check out our other Other Half (heh…) beer links:

Thanks For Reading

As always, I like to end an article post thanking everyone for taking the time to read us and liking us and following us on our social media pages. We have lots of big things coming, and being November, you know that means daily articles, so be sure to be checking in with us. Thursday and Friday we are taking a big road trip down through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Philly. So that should make for a few interesting articles.

We also have a new writer who should be posting her first article today or soon thereafter, so be on the lookout for that.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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!

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

BKline — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 13:21:00 +0000

Peace Among Worlds by Cushwa Brewing Company

Happy Father’s Day

Well, let’s first get it right out of the way – Happy Father’s Day to everyone. To all the hard working, hard drinking, rooting, tooting, son of a gun’s….. or… well, you know…. just the dads. The everyday scmucks, the real slubs, the dads of the burbs. The men who work and the men who help. The men who just make it through each week somehow by the skin of their teeth.

No matter what – no matter how you cut it, thank you to all the dad’s out there. Because, let’s be honest, if it weren’t for them, in a biological speaking sense – we wouldn’t be here. Hopefully all the dads out there can sit back, relax today, watch a baseball game, or the US Open (the 121st US Open), have a beer (or two, or three), a cigar (if he so chooses), and some nice grilled steak or burgers.

…..Unlike me, who is spending the day working. Le. Sigh. x1000.

Anyway…. moving on….

Peace Among the Worlds

Can such a thing really happen? Can there be peace amongst the worlds? Can there be peace on our own world? Best we ask Rick and Morty, well, specifically Rick.

In the sixth episode of season two – “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” – Rick demonstrates that “flipping the bird” means “peace among worlds” to aliens. A basic synopsis of the episode can be described as such: “When Rick’s car breaks down, he and Morty go inside its battery. Morty discovers that Rick has created a miniature universe inside the battery.” (The Ricks Must Be Crazy – Rick and Morty Fandom – Wikipedia Page)

If you YouTube “Peace Among Worlds” you’ll see its Rick and Morty coming down into the cube to figure out why the battery is no longer working. Rick tells Morty to wait for the ramp to fully land, that the people love it, and then he tells Morty to flip all of the inhabitants off. Morty seems hesitant, but Rick tells him he explained it to the inhabitants as meaning “peace among worlds”.

Cushwa Brewing Company

You can read our brewery review of their original location (back on August 15th, 2019) here: Brewery Review: Cushwa Brewing Company. You can also read about me and Ming’s hike at Catoctin Mountain and then visiting several area breweries including Cushwa Brewing at their new location, as well as Homaide Brewing which is located at the OLD Cushwa Brewing Company’s building.

They are located in Williamsport, Maryland. Close to the Antietam Battlefield, and not too far from Pennsylvania and only a hop skip and a throw from Central PA where we are located here at The Beer Thrillers.

Their new location is a lot bigger than their old facility (A LOT BIGGER, and a lot more impressive, better looking, and all around better). Not to say that the old place is horrible, or anything, just to show the scale of how they’ve grown. Homaide is making good use of their old place.

On Untappd they list Cushwa Brewing Company as a Micro Brewery from Williamsport MD. As of June 20th, 2021 they have 263 unique beers and a total of 112,000+ ratings. Their average rating is 4.11. Their Untappd description reads: Cushwa Brewing Co. is located along the C&O Canal in Williamsport, MD. We are passionate in creating innovative beer offerings that we are proud for you to experience and share with friends. Our mission is simple: Exceptional Beer. Positive Impact. Respect.

I honestly cannot recommend them enough, having been to both brewery locations, as well as picking up several of their beers (be on the lookout for more beer reviews from them on the future here on The Beer Thrillers), I have loved every single one I’ve had from them. They are 100% a must-visit and must-try brewery.

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds

Ok, so finally, if this is what you’ve been waiting for, we’ve arrived at it – the actual beer review. So let’s finally get to it then!

Peace Among Worlds by Cushwa Brewing Company

Beer: Peace Among Worlds
Brewery: Cushwa Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Imperial Double / New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: 35
Untappd Write-Up: Peace Among Worlds, our collaboration with White Rabbit Gastropub in Frederick, MD was brewed to commemorate our one year anniversary. This hazy DIPA is loaded with Citra, Mosaic, Vic Secret, and Enigma hops.

For those unfamiliar with my beer reviews, you can see and read more of my beer reviews (as well as Josh’s and LetUsDrinkBeer’s) through the tag / category at the link here – Beer Reviews. Basically I break it down into three categories – aroma, appearance, and taste, and I discuss each of these categories. So, cracking open the beer and pouring it out, and of course, got to keep the cartoon vibe going, so using a Bob’s Burger’s glass. (Keeping it classy.)

As soon as you crack this, you get a great whiff and instant aroma of hop. Its bright and juicy smelling hops straight through. The Vic Secret and Mosaic hops really pop out give a very distinctive aroma. Enigma hops are a relatively newer hop breed and variety coming from Australia. There is so many exciting hop varieties that are new from Australia and New Zealand, that are all so perfect for New England style IPAs. The Enigma adds a slight nuance to this with its ‘red fruit’ aroma and taste.

Appearance is pretty much on par with 99.999999% of the New England IPAs and DIPAs and even TIPAs that you’ve seen. There’s not a whole ton of variation in the style for New England IPAs really. Which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t leave much to say about it. If you’ve seen three or four NE-IPAs, you’ve seen ’em all just about. (Though I have had some interesting ones, and some poorly done funky ones that just looked bad.) That seems to be the easier thing, is finding which NE-IPAs are BAD NE-IPAs by the way they look. This one, is certainly, not bad. By, any, stretch, of any usage of definition. This is a bright orange hazy glow, not fully opaque, but definitely not transparent either. Some sediment and haze, but nothing too bad, no crazy floating chunks that make it look disgusting. Pretty beer all around. Small foamy head.

But let’s take a moment to appreciate the taste of this bad boy. And hmmm, this is a delicious beer. This is a juicy New England (Double) IPA bomb. Full juice, full taste bud explosion here. Happy Father’s Day. Happy Rick and Morty Season Premier day. Happy beer day! This is certainly fruity, citrus, and hoppy. The Mosaic, Vic Secret, and Enigma hops really shine and you get their full flavor profile in this intense beer. The Citra hops round out these and give it just a powerful citrus hop flavor profile. This is very tropical and juicy from the mosaic hops, with just a bit of earthy undertones; from the Vic Secret you get a bit more Vic Secret provides some notes of pineapple, passionfruit, it also helps gives some pine notes to the Mosaic’s earthy undertones, lending a bit of a resinous taste. The Citra hops are obviously providing a more heavy citrus flavor to the beer, lending it notes of grapefruit, melon, lime, and this just boosts the overall juicy flavor of the beer. The enigma hops are interesting in this, as they give off notes of red fruit and berry, you get somewhat of a white raspberry or even grape like taste from it, a bit of a wine – like flavoring profile to go along with the fruity and citrus and tropical juice notes of the other hops. It all makes for a really wonderful and interesting balance. The mouth feel for this is really good too, nothing is watery, nothing is too thin, it just tastes like a beer, proportionate and with a wonderful consistency. Nothing cloying, nothing off flavored, no off flavors or aromas or anything wrong with it. This is a really well crafted beer, not surprising at all coming from Cushwa Brewing, as I’ve yet to have anything less than even average or subpar from them. They know how to create their beers, that’s for damn sure. If you happen to be in the Williamsport (Maryland) area, or just want to make the drive, or find their beers on the shelf; do yourself a favor and stop in or pick up the beer and try them out. You won’t be disappointed at all.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.12 (as of 6.20.21)

Thank you everyone for reading. Hope you all have a wonderful Father’s Day today, and I hope the Rick and Morty Season premier tonight lives up to the hype. (I have no doubt it will.) Love me some Rick and Morty. Such a fantastic show.

Leave your favorite Rick and Morty quotes in the comments section! Also, be sure to check out our other Pop Culture and Nerd Culture beer reviews below.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Other:

Thanks for reading everyone!

Beer Review: The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I (Ghost 907) (Adroit Theory)

BKline — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:42:38 +0000

The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion by Adroit Theory

Another streaming session with my good friend Drew of Knights of Nostalgia means me drinking some fine craft beers and of course, that also then means, future beer reviews of said fine craft beers. And I couldn’t think of a finer craft beer I had that night than Adroit Theory’s ‘The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I’ (Ghost 907).

My buddy and co-writer here at The Beer Thrillers – Josh Doncevic – absolutely loves and raves about Adroit Theory and is constantly pushing their beers. And I can see why! I’ve had a few in the past, but sadly not many, and hopefully now in the future I will be getting to try plenty more!

(See Josh’s Adroit Theory reviews here):

Lets Have a Discussion on Can Art….

First, lets have a discussion on can art. I think Adroit Theory is absolutely nailing it. (Here is an article I found from January 31st, 2015 about the can labels for Adroit Theory: Shawn Johnson Signs Can Labels for a Contest). If you are a fan of Warhammer 40K, or steampunk or futuristic dystopic landscape looking art, Mad Max, Fury Road, stuff like that, you’ll love these can labels. Here is a link to The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I on Adroit Theory’s page, it gives some of the same information thats on the can label here; such as pairings, ingredients, percentages, etc. (It is for a different version of this beer, but the artwork and information mostly holds up.)

For those unaware, Warhammer 40K is a massive tabletop miniatures game that has been around since at least the 90s (back in the day when I used to play it at Omnidon’s in Hummelstown, and then when they moved to be Twilight Games in Paxtonia). My faction of choice was the Chaos Space Marines and the Chaos army in general with the Chaotic God of Korde. Warhammer 40K has gone on to be a massive book library with hundreds of books, as well as some video games, and I believe there is a movie or a Netflix TV show in the works.

Here is a sampling of artwork from Warhammer 40K courtesy of “Inside the Artwork of Warhammer 40K”:

A small sampling of Warhammer 40K artwork

For comparison sake, here is a small sampling of Adroit Theory artwork:

A sampling of Adroit Theory artwork

You can definitely see some interesting comparisons between the two. And I absolutely love it. Its gorgeous artwork and deserves all the praise it can get. I also love how Adroit Theory does dabble a bit into the pop cultural realm (they’ve sported GI Joe and Cobra beers this past summer over quarantine / COVID-19 as well as the above Cthulhu reference. Interesting note to point out, in the past I did a beer review about Azathoth – see above reference to Cthulhu for why I am mentioning this. You can find that review here: Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewery)

But keeping this to a discussion on the can art, I have to continue my gushing and say about how much I love it. I can admit to being guilty and buying quite a few beers based on can labels and beer art – usually due to some pop cultural or nerd culture reference (and oh boy, is there a long list of them that I’ve reviewed here on The Beer Thrillers; I’ll post the full list of links at the bottom of this post), but I am also just as guilty of buying beers based on beautiful artwork as well. And this can be a hit or miss practice. I’ve been burnt many a time, as well as been uplifted and surprised by how good a beer is. Thankfully this provides a wonderful segue here, speaking of beautiful can art…. ….and beautiful can liquid…..

Beer Review: The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I (Ghost 907)

The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion by Adroit Theory

Beer: The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I (Ghost 907)
Brewery: Adroit Theory
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: A pillowy texture, slight bitterness, and an aroma of tropical fruit with Pineapple and Mango forward notes and Berry and Pine on the finish.

Appearance for this is a beautiful orange, golden glow, and very hazy. Holds up perfectly to the style. Nothing transparent or translucent here, this is pure golden, hazy, dank New England (D)IPA goodness. Wonderful head to it as well, nice carbonation, head retention, and lacing on the glass, with nice dispersed and varied bubbles.

Hmmmm hmmmm hmmm the aroma on this smells just perfectly wonderful. Like a beautiful fruity hoppy aromatic dream. You get a great hop nose-kicking aroma right as soon as you crack open the can, and it mixes in with mango, pineapple, and a wee bit of pine notes from the hops, edging and giving the tropical fruits something to combine with.

Good great Wilbur’s ghost this is a wonderfully smooth beer! It is delicious, tasty, smooth, all the main characteristics of a great New England (D)IPA. There is a wee bit of hop burn at the end, some nice hop bitterness with those pine notes, that makes this not a completely full juicy bomb, and thats just perfect. It compliments the overall hop experience so perfectly well. You get mango, pineapple, berry notes, and the pine notes from the hops, providing a very nice, smooth, fruity, flowery, fluffy like New England (D)IPA. This is (or should be) a standard for the New England IPA and DIPA and TIPA style, like textbook, “Oh you want to learn how to make a New England DIPA? Or you want to know what a really good New England DIPA tastes like? Well here you go!” Textbook definition excellence. The mouthfeel is on point, not too heavy, not watery, not thin, no cloying notes to stick to your tongue or mouth, just a well drinkable beer. The 8% ABV is very nice too; thats a good middle ground. Its not substantially high and its not terribly low either. (For comparison’s sake – Troegs Brewing’s Perpetual IPA – their flagship IPA – is a 7.5%, and Nugget Nectar – their flagship Amber Ale / Red Ale is a 7.5% as well.) So this is really only .5% higher than those two beers, and with how smooth this is, its probably a good thing it’s not much higher. Sometimes too smooth and high ABV just don’t go well together…. especially the next morning. This is a beautiful beer too, well crafted and well made, and an exceptionally terrific smelling beer. The hops work really well in this, and the flavor profile is perfect and on point. The mango, pineapple, pine, and berry are all superb and work so well in conjunction with each other that this is just so extremely tasty. Perfect for a video game session with a buddy.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.14 (as of 2.4.21)

Adroit Theory

Ah, don’t worry, I didn’t forget to include it. Previously, in my last beer review I did – Dunkel Shaun (by Great Barn Brewery) I mentioned that going forward, in each beer review, I will devote a section to the brewery behind the beer. In the above mentioned, previous, beer review, I did it before getting to the review, but due to my beautiful segue in this review, I figured I’d post it at the end. So here you have it.

The following stats all come from Untappd. Adroit Theory is located in Purcellville, Virginia. They are labeled a micro brewery and they have a total of 139 unique beers and just a few shy of 354K ratings. They have a global average rating of 4.04 (as of 2.4.21). Their Untappd description reads: “PUSHING BEER BOUNDARIES IN LOUDOUN COUNTY VIRGINIA Located in Purcellville, Virginia, Adroit Theory makes esoteric + style challenging beers with an emphasis on Hazy IPAs, Fruited Sours, Pastry Stouts, and Barrel Aging Projects. CONSUME LIFE x DRINK ART We typically have 16 beers on draft plus 10-20 options in bottles or cans. Be sure to check our constantly changing Tap List and our full Menu. Message of the Day: METAL + EVIL = DESTRUCTION.”

You can find their social media and website links below:

Thanks For Coming

Thanks for checking us out here at The Beer Thrillers. We really appreciate everyone reading our beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, hiking adventures, book reviews, and all kinds of other news and notes we post here on the site and blog. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave us a comment here. You can also contact us through our FEEDBACK – CONTACT US page. And as always, be sure to like, follow, subscribe; here and on our social media pages.

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

I’m off to Breski’s Beverage to take advantage of their mix – a – six double discount for the remainder of the week (leading up to the Super Bowl Sunday), as well as picking up the New Trail collaboration expedition pack. I’m sure you’ll see quite a few of these beers up here on the blog soon reviewed.

As always everyone, stay safe out there. (Here in Central PA it looks like their calling for another snowstorm Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, possibly giving us another foot of snow. So be careful!)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Pop Culture Beer Reviews

As promised, here is all of our “pop culture” / “nerd culture” / etc. beer reviews:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Other:

Beer Review: F*CK 2020 (Abomination Brewing Company)

BKline — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 13:24:00 +0000

F*CK 2020

Seriously. F*CK 2020. I don’t think I’ll hear too many disagreements with this statement. F*CK it. 2020 has been everything everyone keeps saying it is: a train wreck, a dumpster fire, a dumpster fire full of dog excrement traveling on a train headed right for a train carrying a dumpster fire of ostrich excrement, it sucked, it blew, etc, etc, etc…..

This has been a crazy time for all of us. Terms like “unprecedented times” became the norm for news stations, hundreds of thousands of people dying to a pandemic level virus, ….a pandemic level virus!…., shut downs and lock downs and quarantines, civil unrest, altered sports leagues, massive economic changes, unemployment and furloughs from the shut downs and just loss of jobs due to the pandemic, all in all,…. yea…. F*CK 2020 and F*CK COVID-19.

This has been a hard time here for me, and for The Beer Thrillers in general as well, as I’m sure its been for a lot of you. Dealt with two lock down / shut downs by the government that closed my work and forced me into unemployment twice. (The latest of which, due to how horrible our unemployment system, I still haven’t received a penny for the three weeks I was unemployed – thankfully I’m back to work now.) A divorce amidst the pandemic and quarantine and lockdown.

But, it hasn’t been all bad (no year is all bad); I did get to do a lot more hiking. I did get to do a little bit more traveling due to now being single and having a lot more extra time, I got to hike lots of new places that I never did before, got to visit 57 (new to me) new breweries. And I got to do a lot more work on the blog and site here. Which has been a great bit of fun. My friend started his streaming and got do do that a lot with him, and we got to do some more podcasts with his podcast group.

(I will have a whole “End of 2020” and recap of the year, as well as a “Looking Forward to 2021” post coming soon, the site migration and things have kind of made things wonky with getting it all moved over and posts published up, due to us hitting our bandwidth wall on the old site and having to migrate, so some things got all garbled up.)

I went to Breski’s Beverage and had to pick up a four pack of this – and knew – I needed to make it the last beer of 2020 and the first beer of 2021. Thankfully it’s a fantastic beer and its not just a “cool name / bad beer” like some of the other cool name, cool can art, cool pop culture reference beers, I’ve had in the past. I also picked up the RBG beer as well as Breski’s.

So my 31st was pretty simple; being by myself, with no places open, and my first New Years Eve / New Years Day off in quite a while – due to the shut down of Pennsylvania. Early in the day I went to Breski’s and picked up the four packs. Despite the rain, I took my dog (Leela) to the Greenbelt walk off of Derry Street, stopped at Boneshire Brew Works for my last pint of 2020 at their location, and then stopped at Rubber Soul Brewery for take-out (pierogies…. *drools like Homer at thought of food*….) and then pretty much just went home, read, wrote, and stayed in my bed. My friend did an overnight stream on his site – Knights of Nostalgia – and I had that up on one screen and tuned in just for the last 2 minutes to a ball dropping ceremony on another screen. All in all – a lame New Years Eve. Which about sums up how 2020 was.

So I also started this post and beer review on December 31st, but with the bandwidth limits, and the problems of the migration, I didn’t get to finish it until January 1st. So this is a “two year project”. Hahahahaha…. oh I crack myself up. It was written and finished on January 1st, but with the bandwidth and everything, and having to re-upload media, I’m not sure when it’ll finally get published, hopefully soon into the new year.

I’m not too great and technically savvy, so this move of nearly 300 blog posts, and several pages, as well as a homepage, users, links, followers, and everything else, was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. I started everything on December 31st, and wanted it all set to go on January 1st, but noooooope….. that didn’t happen. Was really hoping everything would go smoothly into 2021…. but 2020…. said NOPE to that, and I’m thinking 2021 might have a rockier start than we all wanted it to have.

But anyway…. we have beer!

So let’s do it and drink!

Beer Review

F*CK 2020 by Abomination Brewing Company

Beer: F*CK 2020
Brewery: Abomination Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 9.1%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: “Fuck 2020” is a slightly amped up 9.1% version of our Fog series, double dry hopped with a blend of two of our most popular variants … Galaxy & Citra.

Abomination Brewing Company has had some amazing beers, and they have done a ton of collaborations with a lot of local Pennsylvania breweries. Rotunda Brewing Company, Tattered Flag, and stuff with multi-collaborations with Pilger Ruh Brewing, Snitz Creek Brewing, Wolf Brewing Co, etc. Untappd lists them as a micro brewery from North Haven, Connecticut. They have 159 unique beers on Untappd with a global average rating of 4.04 out of 140K+ ratings. Their Untappd description simply reads: “Crafting liquid chaos. #beermonster”

Starting off with appearance; this has a beautiful golden orange hue. A gorgeous looking New England IPA appearance, its got a nice dank hazy orange look, its not full of turbid and sediment, but its still dank and hazy looking, and its opaque and not see through. It had a thin white foamy head and great carbonation from the can.

Aroma is a lovely hoppy New England IPA nose. The nose comes through with the galaxy and citra very heavily, you get lots of tropical fruit, citrus, some peach, mango, and wee bits of passionfruit, guava, and grapefruit. It smells juicy, it smells delicious.

Whooo…. this is the way to go out of 2020! With a banger of a good beer and a way to say F*CK YOU 2020 with both middle fingers up like Stone Cold Steve Austin. This was just a delicious all around good beer. A perfect end note to 2020 and a wonderful start note to 2021 (drank one early in the day of 2020, had one right before midnight, and cracked open another one two minutes into the New Years). Galaxy and Citra hops are wonderful hops and work very well together. You get a very heavy dose of citrus, peach, mango, the tropical fruits, and there is so much more hidden and buried underneath that adds to those heavy hitter flavors – like the passionfruit, guava, and grapefruit. There’s a right balance to all of this. The mouth feel feels right on, not oily, slick, not watery or thin, no cloying; just a nice drinking NE IPA. This is is a consistent beer and reason for why the New England IPA style has caught on so much with craft beer drinkers. There’s a bit of hop bite, but its covered in all of the fruity wonderful flavors, there’s no bitter aftertaste, no bad off flavors, and its a really drinkable beer. Even the 9.1% ABV is hidden by how wonderful the flavors are. You don’t taste that ABV, and you don’t even notice it until you’re done. This isn’t a crushable beer where you could drink the whole four pack in one sitting, but you could have two, and be happy and content afterwards, especially with a really good meal to go along with it. This is a great ‘nap inducer’ as I like to call some of the mid-range double IPA area beers (8-9.5/10%), especially with a meal, it just fills the belly and makes you sleepy. This was the perfect way to end out 2020.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.34 (as of 1.1.21).

So this might be the first post of 2021, or it might not be; and it might be the first post on the new The Beer Thrillers page, or it might not be. Who knows with migration, work starting back up, moving domain hosts, moving links, uploading pictures (since the bandwidth put a halt to that), etc. There’s a lot of other posts that are in various states of being done, that also will be published soon too, once again, with the migration and start of the new year, who knows. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Been a little hectic here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2020. Hopefully despite everything, you still had a great 2020, and lets hope 2021 starts off so much better. Things are looking up. The vaccines are rolling out. Hopefully by the end of 2021 we are back to a level of normalcy. One can only hope. I want to get to some brewfests in 2021!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

See some of our latest beer reviews here:

Beer Review: Space Broccoli (Other Half Brewing Co)

BKline — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 16:37:33 +0000

Space Broccoli by Other Half Brewing Co.

So Thursday was certainly an interesting day for the restaurant, bar, brewery, …. well just the service industry in general in Pennsylvania. I was out walking my dog and doing yard work, and then I had to grab my daughter Lily to run to the Hershey Library before they closed (had a book that was due), and while at the library and on the road with her, all hell broke loose basically.

Had about a hundred texts from co-workers, people in the brewery industry, my parents, everyone wanting to know whats going on, or telling us whats going on, or saying ‘where do we stand now’ or ‘should we defy orders’ etc.

Needless to say, I get Lily back to her mom’s, I handle some of the texts I can, and head home. Reading the news then at home, I see we had until Friday night at midnight to do our inside dining. Drew invited me out to his place as he was starting a stream, I told him I needed to get something to eat, so I walked down to Rubber Soul, ate in – had their fantastic and delicious pierogies and their newest release – Soul Breaker (beer review coming soon), and then walked home. Then went over to Drew’s.

He was playing Super Mario RPG for the SNES on his stream – Knights of Nostalgia. So I joined him and drank along with him as he played. His brother in law from New York sent him a shipment of beers he tells me, a whole assortment of beers, so I check out his mini-fridge and “oh hot damn!” moment, the beer is stocked full of Other Half beer! His brother in law sent him Other Half. Drew loves his craft beer, but didn’t know just how great Other Half was. So we proceeded to drink four and share some others while he finished out his stream.

(Oh, and for those who were wondering – yes, Drew was able to beat Super Mario RPG for the stream. Sorry, spoiler alert.)

I finally left Drew’s at 5:20AM. Now that the mandates and restrictions, both me and Drew are effectively unemployed for the next three weeks. So, you will probably get a lot more streams, and a lot more content here on the blog. Enjoy!

Now, lets get to the beer review!

Space Broccoli by Other Half Brewing Co

Beer: Space Broccoli
Brewery: Other Half Brewing Co
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 7.9%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Our classic Broccoli recipe with Mosaic, Simcoe, Hallertau Blanc and then we swapped the Cascade for a ton of Galaxy.

For those ‘not in the know’ Other Half Brewing Co is one of the top notch East Coast breweries, and one of the more traded and sought after breweries from New York. Other Half started in 2014, they have 975 unique beers according to Untappd, with over 2.4 Million (nearly 2.5 Million) ratings. Their average rating is 4.24. Which is just incredible to think about considering the sheer volume of ratings and number of unique beers. Their Untappd Description reads: “In 2014, Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan and Andrew Burman founded Other Half Brewing Company, a local brewery in New York City with a simple mission: to create beers that they wanted to drink from a company that they wanted to be a part of. Their vision was to build a passionate team that brewed great beers in the state of New York—done so with effort and thoughtfulness—to represent the “Other Half” of the industry. Today, Other Half craft beers in their Brooklyn brewery and are dedicated to collaborating with breweries both in New York as well as across the world in an effort to constantly move the industry forward while elevating the craft. The Other Half team believes that local breweries play an important role in their communities which is why they partner with these other likeminded brewers and brands in local nabes across the country and the world—but always return to their home state of New York and their Brooklyn taproom.” Their top beers are listed as – Forever Ever, Green City, All Green Everything, and a lot of various double dry hopped variants of their other beers.

Firstly, this is basically a New England IPA. It doesn’t say that on the label or on Untappd, but thats what it is. As you can see from the picture, it is a gorgeous, beautiful beer. Perfect New England hazy IPA look. Its bright orange, like orange juice, its hazy, cloudy, opaque, beautiful head to it – white, with interspersed and varied bubbles, and left a lovely lacing on the glass as I drank it down (quickly too).

Aroma is a heavenly bouquet of hops. It has that nice heavy handed hop aroma that comes with a very juicy New England IPA. The Simcoe and Mosaic hops come through on the nose the most. The Galaxy is a nice addition, and probably helps this better than the Cascade would have, I do love Galaxy Hops.

Wooooh booooooy….. this drank waaaaaaaay too easily. Especially for a DIPA…. not that I’m really complaining, and really at 7.9% its not too crazy ridiculous high, though its getting on the higher end of the spectrum. (I consider 7.5% the tipping point.) This is one of the best New England IPAs / DIPAs I’ve had, in a long time, or period, for that matter. Its downright juicy and so tasty. This is very smooth with no hop bite, no bitterness, no acidity at all. The mosaic hops give this a nice berry, fruity, stone fruit taste. The simcoe gives it a piney, earthy undertone, and the galaxy hops give it a very strong peach, citrus, passionfruit. The hops blend together very nicely in this. Nothing is too overpowering or too strong. You don’t get too much pine or too much berry or too much peach or citrus or passionfruit, you get them all in equal measures, and this works very well together. Its a very nice conjunction of hops and tastes and flavors, with nothing being too strong, nothing being off, nothing tasting funky or wrong or different. It all just blends so well together, like its a peaceful orchestra harmony or some kind of poetic crap like that. This is a beautiful New England Double IPA. Hands down, it looks beautiful, it tastes wonderful, its just amazing and fantastic. So mad props to Drew for letting me snag this from him (he got some of it too), and for his brother in law shipping quality beers like Other Half down to Harrisburg, and of course to Other Half itself for brewing such a great beer. Seriously, if you’ve never had the pleasure of Other Half, make a note, make ten notes, but make sure you get yourself some Other Half at some point. You won’t be disappointed, I know that much, their IPAs and DIPAs and TIPAs are complete ‘fire’ right now as all the cool kids would say. If you’re not from New York or NYC, your best bet might be to look up some Facebook beer trade groups or Beer Advocate and try and get it that way (trade or $); though $$ might be expensive with secondary mark up. But it will still be worth it. But in the meantime, in the Pennsylvania area, support your local breweries; first, otherwise they might not be here in the future. Anyway, I digress. Summary: Fantastic beer. Delicious. Great NE-DIPA. End summary.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 4.24 (as of 12.13.20)

Alright everyone, this is technically day two of the mandatory restrictions. I know a lot of places, restaurants, bars, breweries, etc, are disobeying the Governor’s orders. Its your decision on who to patronize and who to help and support. I’m not taking a side here or there. This is a tough climate and tough decisions for all of these businesses. I know its going to make things harder with them staying open, and gives the Governor more cause to keep the mandates and things going, but hopefully not, and hopefully the numbers will start lowering soon. Fingers crossed. The vaccines are rolling out. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Lets just get there! I want to go to some brewfests in 2021 dammnit!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

For some other beer reviews check out:

Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)

BKline — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:36:43 +0000

Its another Friday, and we all know what that means – another episode of The Mandalorian. So of course, I waited til today to drop this review. As soon as I heard them announce this, I had to grab a four pack of this.

First, Tattered Flag is one of my favorite local breweries, and secondly, its a Mandalorian themed beer, and thirdly…. Pandas. Seriously, what could go wrong here?

Absolutely. Nothing.

The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

So, since I am still doing some ‘at home’ quarantining after my trip out to Indianapolis from work, yesterday I did a bit of day drinking and had to make sure this was one of the several wonderful beers I had, and as you can see, I made sure to use my new glass I got from the Vonnegut Museum and Library.

On The Beer Thrillers we have done several Mandalorian and Star Wars themed beers before, so it should be obvious to any reader of ours that I am a huge Star Wars fan. You can see our Mandalorian themed beer reviews here:

And our Star Wars themed beers here:

Space Balls themed beer:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

If you use our search function on our blog and type in STAR WARS, these are some of the various articles where I mention Star Wars in them: STAR WARS on THE BEER THRILLERS.

Rotunda Brewing Company in Annville (and their brewpub in Hershey) are re-releasing their Chewbacca beer this weekend, a black IPA which I have had before. I am going to be getting a can and doing a review for that as well. (Can never have enough Star Wars themed beers to review on here, believe me. So if you know of any, or have any and would like to see me review it, contact us through the CONTACT US page.)

As you can see, like I said above, I am also using my brand new Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library glass. It has such a great quote of Vonnegut which he also used in Slaughter-House Five:

“I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”

Story had it, he would drink and call people, just to basically yell something poignant and quick to them over the phone, and then slam the phone down. Not to strangers or random numbers, but to his friends and colleagues. I can certainly relate to some late night drunk texts (I think a lot of people can actually). So I see where he is coming at with this.

Alright, now that we’ve established the background for the beer and for the glass, let’s actually review this beer shall we.

The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

Beer: The Pandalorian
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Hazy Imperial IPA made from a blend of base malts, generous wheat addition, oats, and flaked maze bring forth a sweet backbone complimented by Sabro in the kettle and a massive Sabro Cryo dry hop. Expect sweet coconut ? up front followed by citrus lime and a sweet creamy finish.

As you can see above, this is hazy, but on the lighter, softer orange – yellow – golden scale. Not the deep heavy dank, but a lighter, softer looking hazy New England style IPA / DIPA. Justin, the head brewer for Tattered Flag does a lot of New England style IPAs (and a lot of sours) and does them all very well, making them different from each other too, which is sometimes hard to do with the style. You have some that look bright orange to golden with a very dank and heavy haze, and then you have some that are lighter softer yellow to golden like this, with some haze. There is some orange here, but I would say its mostly yellow and golden. There is a thin head to it, and great carbonation, and left nice lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a blend of hop, mainly a blend of coconut, tangerine, the fruity and citrus hop aromas. Sabro is a pretty strong hop and gives this a very strong hop presence and nose. On the nose you get coconut, tangerine, hint of cedar and mint, with some cream, some lime.

This is a very smooth and drinkable DIPA. At 7.5% its in a middle ground of ABV for IPAs and DIPAs. In comparison, Troegs Brewing’s Perpetual IPA (their flagship West Coast IPA) is a 7.5% (and right there is where the comparison between the two of these stop). 7-8% is a good middle ground area for IPAs and DIPA’s I feel. Its enough to get you to notice the ABV, but not enough to make it boozy, to heavy, or to get you too drunk. A nice general buzz is all that is needed and required. This looks and tastes similar to New England IPAs, but its not a generic New England IPA / DIPA. The Sabro hops gives it a very different taste than most New England IPAs, as Sabro isn’t really a much used hop, especially in the Cryo style. This gives The Pandalorian an interesting start with a different finish to it. It has a coconut, tangerine, citrus, taste at the beginning, but it ends on more of a zest lime, cream flavor. Overall its a silky smooth drink that is very easy to drink. There is a bit of an ending bite as you get to the bottom of the glass, but that is typical for most IPAs especially as you get closer to the finishing last sips. Despite the Sabro hops and the nose, there isn’t much of a cedar or mint flavoring that I was able to pick up on, but I did get tangerine, coconut, lime, and cream. My one friend suggested grapefruit, but I wasn’t able to pick up any grapefruit, and thats also not typically a characteristic of Sabro hops either. I very much enjoyed the smoothness of this, and the flavor profile, the aroma was on point, and the ABV was nice for a good buzz, a four pack is nice for sharing with buddies while streaming (which me and my friend did during the Konami games live stream we did on Knights of Nostalgia). This adds to the growing list of good and great New England IPAs that Tattered Flag has put out over the recent year. Definitely make sure to check this out, either for namesake or for the beer itself. Not sure how much longer the four packs will last at the brewery, so if you want the great can art be sure to pop in soon, they also have it on draft which will probably last a bit longer. This is a good smooth, tasty New England DIPA that will certainly not disappoint.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 11.20.20)

You can check out more beer reviews I’ve done from Tattered Flag below:

Also, Tattered Flag now does statewide shipping through their SUPPLY DROP. Make sure to take advantage of that if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania and are unable to make it to their brewery.

On Black Friday they are doing a big bottle release at their upcoming Lancaster Barrel House location. More details can be found on their Facebook page – Tattered Flag @ Facebook and Tattered Flag Barrel House @ Facebook. I will be doing an article covering that shortly as well.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I got the pint glass from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. You can visit them and donate as well as order online, and if you are a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, I highly recommend it.

You can read about my trip (in recap form) to Indianapolis and back through the following:

The Trip to Indianapolis:

My time in Indianapolis is covered specifically in the Day Four recap.

The books behind the beer in today’s blog post are: “Happy Birthday Wanda June” by Kurt Vonnegut, “Armageddon in Retrospect” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron” by Alexander Freed.

Also, be sure to check out some of our other beer reviews in recent history:

Star Wars themed articles:

You can check out the tabs at the top of each page to visit our BEER REVIEWS, BEER EDUCATION, TRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

Thanks for reading everyone, please stay safe out there, I know cases are on the rise and spiking, so make sure to wash your hands, stay distant, enjoy your craft beer, and wear a mask. Cheers and May the Force Be With You!

-B. Kline

New England DIPA - The Beer Thrillers

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