As you probably can guess by the beer – Penn State will be in the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl this year. In honor of Penn State playing in the Peach Bowl – New Trail Brewing Company is releasing State Light Peach.

From their social media announcement:

Are you getting ready to see the Lions in a Bowl game?

You’ll need to pick up State Light Peach – we brewed our light beer with a pop of refreshing peach to celebrate the Bowl selection!

State Light Peach won’t be around for long, but it is available in our Tasting Room starting today and shipping out to retailers this week!

New Trail Brewing Company – Facebook Post

State Light is New Trail Brewing Company’s lager designed for Penn State fans and for Penn State games. Its sold at Beaver Stadium during all of the Penn State Football home games. Its a 4.2% ABV lager, perfect for a few to enjoy while watching a great game at Beaver Stadium or at home on your couch.

So it makes perfect sense to use State Light and add Peach for the upcoming Peach Bowl Game.

According to Untappd, State Light Peach is the same beer as State Light with peaches added to it. Stays the same 4.2% ABV American Lager. The Untappd description for the State Light Peach is: “Our State Light brewed with a pop of sweet refreshing peach to celebrate the Bowl Game.”

The Untappd description for the original State Light is: “State Light is brewed for the fans. At 105 calories and 4.6g of carbs, it’s built to be your every-down beer.”

Happy Valley United

Portions of the sales of State Light Peach will be going to Happy Valley United. Happy Valley United helps to support 800+ student athletes across all 31 sports that Penn State University offers.

For more information you can go to their website: Happy Valley United.

Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl Game

No. 11 Ole Miss (10-2) will face No. 10 Penn State (10-2) in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Saturday, December 30th (2023). From Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl’s website:

No. 11 Ole Miss (10-2) will face No. 10 Penn State (10-2) in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as announced by the College Football Playoff selection committee today. The 56th annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will be played Saturday, Dec. 30 at noon ET inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and will be nationally televised by ESPN.

This year’s matchup represents only the sixth Big Ten vs. SEC matchup in the Bowl’s history, but will be the second-consecutive showdown between the conferences following last year’s CFP Semifinal that featured No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 1 Georgia. It also marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

Penn State will make its Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl debut, while Ole Miss will play in the Bowl for only the third time in its history, after defeating Georgia Tech 41-18 in the 1971 game and falling 42-3 to TCU in 2014.

Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl Website Announcement: Ole Miss vs. Penn State

Looking for More Articles on New Trail Brewing

If you are looking for more articles we’ve written on New Trail Brewing Company, then look no further:

• Keystone State Of Mind – New Trail Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing Company’s Newest Collaboration
• Beer Review: Snow Tracks (New Trail Brewing Co.)
• Beer Review: Icicle (New Trail Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Company)
• Multiple Beer Review: Dark Skies (New Trail), Blood Money (Conshohocken Brewing Company), Lost Toys #3 (Wicked Weed), Medora (Wicked Weed)

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I will be forthright here now too…. I’m not the hugest fan of New Trail. Don’t get me wrong – they make wonderful beers. Actually, their IPAs are typically top notch IPAs…. but… here’s where my problem with them kind of lies; every New England IPA (which is practically every IPA they make) is pretty much indistinguishable from the last one. IF they set a sampler flight in front of you of ten different taster glasses of ten different New England IPAs from New Trail Brewing, and then told you, and then asked you to spot differences between them…. you’d be real hard pressed to do so. And then, swerve, they tell you that three of the ten were the exact same beers, and you need to pick which ones out of 1-10 were the same beers, and which seven were unique beers…. again, I think you’d be hard pressed to do so. And thats going off visual and aroma and taste.

This isn’t really a knock on them. They make great beers, and they are good beers. I’ve only had a few times where I’ve been ‘meh’ to them, and then thats usually the rarity. But when it is a ‘meh’ its usually a ‘meh’ out of…. wasn’t that the same as X beer they made? Not because its ‘meh’ bad, or ‘meh’ boring, its more out of the idea of ‘meh’ the same. Like Hallmark movies….

This. This above pretty much sums up New Trail IPAs to me. Could I tell you the difference between Goggles, Hammock, Broken Heels, and Neither Here Nor There, Double Broken Heels, Rocksylvania, or any of the other dozens of NE-IPAs they’ve done? Nope, probably not. Shrug. Maybe this is because its now 5:12PM, and I’ve shoveled, walked the dog, and worked through a few ‘Snowmaggeddon beers’ (a few of which were 10%+ stouts, like the Lickinghole Cookies and Cream); maybe its also me being grumpy old man shaking his fist at the clouds, but I dunno, they all seem so much the same, so much repetitive, but still very good.

According to Untappd, New Trail Brewing Co, has 190 unique beers. Of those 190 unique beers – 50 are New England IPAs, 30 are Double New England IPAs, and 5 are Triple New England IPAs. Of the remaining 105 beers, 11 are Milkshake IPAs, 15 are American IPAs, 2 are Double American IPAs, 2 are Triple American IPAs, and 1 is a White IPA. So thats 190 unique beers and a total of 116 are IPA variants. Leaving a remainder of 74 non-IPA variations in beer. Thats not the worst thing ever, and if you know your strengths, play to them. I agree with that. But, I want to be a fair reviewer, and I’m working my way through a good Snowstorm buzz, and drinking now my second Snow Tracks, so I am trying to be fair and impartial. I have enjoyed all of the IPAs and NE-IPAs I’ve had from New Trail, but, at some point, originality has to factor into the beer review, and I feel like after so many iterations of “Same Beer but with X hop changed” you have to ding them for it. Maybe I’m crazy, I dunno. Online, in Facebook groups, such as Breweries in PA, and others, they are constantly touted as being great. Their beer names lend to some great photo ops (see myself for being a hack, doing just that), with hiking photos, hammock photos, twilight sunset photos, and snow related photos, etc.

So, last night at Breski’s I picked up the 4 pack of Snow Tracks, as well as two mix a six packs, I had also stopped at 2nd and Charles for books (both for Christmas and for myself), and stopped at Rubber Soul for food for the night. Everything I got from Breski’s is pictured above, as well as some others, both from the cellar and the fridge. Working my way through these as I shovel, do indoor stuff, like reading, watching JoJo Rabbit, writing, and just working myself a good buzz. Isn’t it funny though, how much easier it is to drink when with company? When hanging out with my friends, I can kill a four pack in no time, but by myself at home, its a little bit slower. Am I alone on this?

Anyway, enough blabbering, lets get to the review, because I need to walk across town to my parents to shovel their driveway and sidewalk…. because god knows their not going anywhere for the next three days, but it needs done tonight while its still snowing an inch to two inches every hour……… onward review:

Beer: Snow Tracks
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Snow Tracks is a Hazy IPA, brewed with light wheats and honey malt. Impressionally hopped with Ekuanot, Mosaic, & Sabro. Expect big citrus and fruity notes complemented with light tropicals and dankness. Follow your path, or don’t and go make your own.

Ok, lets start off with the obvious – it looks like a New England IPA. And this isn’t another ding on New Trail here. This is what its supposed to look like. Look at all of the New England style IPAs we’ve reviewed here on the blog, both my reviews, as well as Josh’s, as well as reviews on Beer Advocate, or just people’s pics on Untappd. This. Looks. Like. A. New. England. IPA. And. Thats. A. Good. Thing. Don’t know why I typed it like that, but I did, so enjoy. This is orange, its bright, its cloudy, its hazy, it looks dank, its opaque, it has a small minimal head, but its carbonated. So far, it looks like a New England IPA.

And it smells like a New England IPA. It smells hoppy. It smells piney, earthy, citrus, it smells honey, it smells wheat, it smells pretty tasty. So far, its looking like pretty good odds this is a duck – errr – a New England IPA — it smells and looks like a New England IPA; but does it taste like one?

Oh ho! It does! It does taste like a New England IPA. Huzzah! We got ourselves a duck everyone! A New England IPA Duck! It looks, smells, and tastes just like a New England IPA! Now. Let me be outright clear here – there is nothing, NOTHING, (shouts it for the people in the back of the room who have their hearing aids turned off) N-O-T-H-I-N-G W-R-O-N-G with that. ….Nothing wrong with that. Capiche? Ok? Ok. BUT…. now, lets be forthright and honest again…. there’s nothing AMAZING about that either. Especially if you’ve had a varied amount from New Trail. Maybe I’m just not enough of a New Trail fanboy? Maybe I’m not constantly singing their praises on Breweries in PA’s Facebook group, or the various other PA style Facebook groups, or even Beer Facebook groups en large, but, this tastes good, but it gets a ‘meh’ from me for originality. Is it a good beer? Yes – check. Is it a well made beer? Yes – check. Is it a good New England IPA? Yes – check. Is it pretty much the same as the last four New England IPAs I’ve had from New Trail? Yes – check. Now, your mileage may vary on this. Is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing? Is it a horrible thing? Is it worth writing a blog post or a beer review about? Eh. I dunno, debatable I suppose. Do I like this beer? Yes. Do I ding them for the lack of originality? Yes. Should I do that? Maybe, maybe not. This is where I probably come off as a pretentious hypocritical DBag. (Can you tell I watched a Bill Burr Netflix special this morning?) Do I rag on other breweries for lack of originality? No, and I haven’t yet, but if I get ten beers from Boneshire that are the same style and they taste the same, I should, and hopefully, I do so in the future. Same with Tattered Flag. Or Rubber Soul. Or Troegs. I want to try and stay impartial. But, this is my twenty fifth beer from New Trail (out of their 190 beers), and I feel like most are the same. But, I digress, and will move on. Lets actually discuss the beer itself.

This is a piney, with some citrus, flavored New England IPA. Its smooth, with no hop bitterness or hop bite. This is rich and creamy, and its relatively low ABV too (6.7%), and no booze or heaviness in that way. The pine makes this a nice ‘winter IPA’. Its tasty, its a nice juicy hop bomb with lots of flavor of the pine and citrus and a really well done New England IPA. Juicy. Piney yet fruity / citrusy. Nice flavor. Nice mouthfeel. Nice aroma. Nice texture. Nice appearance. Its a well crafted New England IPA, that I may or may not have had thirty times over by now, who knows. Shrug. I hate to make this beer review sound like a hate fest, but the originality does bug me, and I know some of ‘into craft beer but not fully into craft beer’ friends get a bit annoyed by it too. “So whats the difference between THIS New England IPA and THAT New England IPA? Whys the one 6.7% and the other 6.8%, they both look the same and pretty much taste the same….” etc. But, in all honesty, this is a GOOD, New England IPA, just a bit boring in the sense that its been done to death. Maybe I’m just over the fad of New England IPAs in general? Or maybe I just don’t buy into the New Trail New England IPA hype train? I dunno. Shrug. I’ve enjoyed all of their New England IPAs, just not been ‘wow’d’ or blown away or mesmerized by them, and they all taste so similar as to tell much apart from each other. Shrug. I do hope you at least try it, I do recommend it so far as that goes, if you like New England IPAs, you will like this. Hopefully your mileage will vary better than mine did on this. Again – double shrug.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 12.16.20) (6:00PM)

Well, the snow is coming down a lot heavier now, and I’m bundling up as I write this, to prepare myself and Leela (my 11 year old boarder collie) for the trek across town just to shovel my parent’s sidewalk and driveway, knowing I will have to do the same thing in the morning again. Luckily, my hoodie from Boneshire has a bit in middle pocket to hold a can or bottle beer. Which I will need for this walk.

Cheers all! Stay safe in the snow and the pandemic!

-B. Kline

Sunday me and my friend Ming traveled to Rickett’s Glen to hike the waterfall trails there. Planned, as I mentioned in the previous article here on the blog – A Road Trip to Ricketts Glen. We had planned this out a few weeks before, but left things kind of open ended. It was basically just a simple plan: Sunday – drive to Rickett’s Glen, walk waterfalls, drive home. With of course, a brewery on the way up, and one on the way home, possibly more if time allowed.

So, as I’ve done in the past with road trips and brewery visits, I’ll give a recap of our day here. This post was meant to go up Monday, but didn’t quite work out that way. Though, Monday did see the beer review of Boneshire Brew Works‘ Pandemic Pils go live on LetUsDrinkBeer’s blog (a site I contribute and write for occasionally) as well as on our blog here. (To see the review on their blog – click here: LetUsDrinkBeer Pandemic Pils, and to see it here on my blog – Beer Review: Pandemic Pils by Boneshire Brew Works.) I definitely knew it wasn’t going up Sunday night when we got home, just no chance of that happening.

Thus this was started on Tuesday, but unfortunately I had to pause and finish today (Wednesday) due to chores around the house, mowing, walking the dog, (yadda yadda yadda, boring crap, boring crap, boring crap), but mostly because I had to head over to D. Scott’s to do a podcast (as well as our first YouTube video) with D. Scott, Esty, and Skott. This was our time travel podcast where we discussed time travel in movies, books, and TV shows. Namely Back to the Future, Terminator, Looper, and a host of others (shout outs to Rick and Morty, Futurama, Austin Powers, and Avengers: End Game). That will be going up soon – both for the podcast and the YouTube video. I will make sure to edit this and include the links to those when they are uploaded. You can check out the Podcast channel itself here: So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar…. (Be forewarned – language is a bit in the R category, and most of the episodes are titled “WTF Did I Just Watch”, so you can figure out and parse out what the W… T… F… stand for.) This was our first podcast / YouTube video and our first podcast with Skott on as well, so we’ll see how it goes. I enjoyed Abomz World (Ever Grain and Abomination Brewing collaboration), Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co), and Buddy Shots (Cycle Brewing) while on the video. Finishing up the night with County Line IPA by Neshaminy Brewing. (But enough about that and those beers, lets get to the road trip.)

So, like I said before I interrupted myself, me and Ming planned to take this road trip from Hummelstown (he picked me up) to Rickett’s Glen which is in Benton, Pennsylvania. (See map below). It’s a roughly 2 hour and some minutes drive (depending on speed, traffic, etc.). According to Google Maps its a 2HR-8Min drive.

As I noted in my previous article here – A Road Trip to Ricketts Glen – we planned on hitting a brewery on the way up, and then one (or more) for dinner on the way home. Some of the breweries I had google mapped and looked up (in the vicinity of Ricketts Glen or at least along RT15 and RT11 – which are the main roads we would be on) were:

• Selinsgrove Brewing
• Isle of Que Brewing Co.
• Jackass Brewery
• Eclipse Craft Brewing
• Turkey Hill Brewing
• Old Forge Brewing Co.

Ming gets to my house around 11AM. We load up the backpacks, I add a four-pack in for the actual hike (New Trail’s Hammock, Troegs’ Scratch 415 and 417, Pizza Boy’s The Pen is Mightier). We head out. Stopping at the Sheetz by those strip clubs once you get near Little Buffalo and then we are fully out on the road.

Looking at the breweries on my phone, we decide to stop at Isle of Que Brewing Co. first.

Its just a little over noon when we get there. We are the first to enter for the day, and as soon as walk in, the bartender / owner / brewer Mike immediately recognizes me from the blog here. Which was a bit surreal as it was definitely a first to be recognized for the blog, and especially remotely (not a local [to my area of living] bar or brewery). Was definitely a very cool moment. Ordered a flight, while Ming had a water (since he was driver and basic DD for the day).

Mike was a super cool and chill dude. We talked about podcasts, YouTube, breweries, the COVID-19, quarantine and lockdown, how its affected his business, how the local area of Selinsgrove is / was during the pandemic, etc.

My flight consisted of: Peanut Butter Ale, Coal Wrecker Region Raspberry Ale, Black IPA, and Sexual Chocolate Stout. Mike gave Ming a sample of the Queban Joe (a coffee porter) which I stole a sip of.

My ratings for the beers on Untappd (and their global average ratings):

• Peanut Butter Pale Ale – ****.25 / 3.91 (as of 6.16.20)
• Coal Region Wrecker Raspberry Ale – **** / 3.93 (as of 6.16.20)
• Black IPA – ***.75 / 3.58 (as of 6.16.20)
• Sexual Chocolate Stout – **** / 3.47 (as of 6.16.20)

I would have ordered another flight or perhaps a pint, but Ming wanted to get to the trail, so I paid and we headed out. Selinsgrove Brewing was closed, so we were on the road to Ricketts Glen. Which we arrived at around 2-2:15PM.

For those who’ve never been to Ricketts Glen, it is absolutely gorgeous. We had a beautiful day, sunny, bright skied, no clouds, gorgeous day. Not too hot, just a beautiful early June day (June 14th, 2020). Just an absolutely beautiful gorgeous day. We had a fantastic hike with no problems. It was possibly the most ‘populous’ hike I’ve ever been on (most of the places I’ve hiked, I don’t see anyone on the trails, or if I do its a one time passing), here, its like caravans, and occasional slow-downs at different waterfalls. This is a map of our hike:

I will say there is parts of the hike that are ‘difficult’ for those who might have walking issues or leg problems. Overall, most of the hike is easy to moderate, but there is a few places at some of the various waterfall areas where the steps are tough and can also be a bit slick. Plus, if you actually get close to some waterfalls, its also tough and hard, and I wouldn’t fully recommend doing that.

Here is a gallery (of a LOT of pictures) of our hike:

The hike lasted about four hours roughly, and was a good, fun, nice, beautiful hike and trip. As you can see from the pictures, I did enjoy the four pack I brought with me; which consisted of:

• Troegs Independent Craft Brewing: Scratch 415 – Witbier
  * My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.77 (as of 6.16.20)
• Troegs Independent Craft Brewing: Scratch 417 – Orange-Lemon Peel IPA
  * My Rating: **** / Global Rating: 3.89 (as of 6.16.20)
• New Trail Brewing: Hammock
  * My Rating: ****.25 / Global Rating: 4.37 (as of 6.16.20)
• Pizza Boy Brewing: The Pen is Mightier
  * My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.89 (as of 6.16.20)

After our hike, we hit the bathroom one final time, loaded back up, and checked out the breweries map to see what is available and where we would have dinner.

There were several that we looked up – Eclipse Craft Brewing, Pine Knotter Brewing, Old Forge Brewing, and Turkey Hill Brewing. According to the Google Maps and their Facebook (I made sure to check both), Turkey Hill was going to be open til 7PM, and Old Forge was to be open until 9PM. Turkey Hill was closer to Ricketts Glen / Benton than Old Forge, so we decided we’d go to Turkey Hill Brewing, and then from there go to Old Forge Brewing since they were opened later.

We arrived at Turkey Hill Brewing Co. at roughly 6:20-6:30PM, and find out their actually open until 9PM. As we got back there, our reception returned to our phone, and we started getting inundated with texts. Our co-workers were getting called back into work (with Friday, June 19th, Dauphin County Pennsylvania goes green, our work was reopening). So everyone was seeing who got called, how they got called, what information they had, etc. Everyone had different ideas, theories, and stories of their call-backs.

While Ming went and talked to Don about his department that got called back, and their evening plans, I ordered a flight. We sat outside under a beautiful tree, and had a small little table in front of us, it all felt like sitting and eating at a family picnic at someone’s house for say Memorial Day or Fourth of July or Labor Day. Very informal, very interesting, and there were couples all around on various other benches eating in a similar fashion. Due to the current circumstances they do a generic flight of six, so that’s what I got. Once Ming came back from his call, we ordered small things of food (Don was making him dinner, so we weren’t going to get a big meal – just appetizers). I got fries and Ming got Asian Tuna.

The fries were very good, and Ming said he loved the tuna (no way was I having any as I’m allergic to seafood). The beers were also very good.

The beers (not in the particular order I had them in above):

• Donny’s Irish Dry Stout
  * My rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.73 (as of 6.16.20)
• Inflategate NE IPA
  * My Rating: **** / Global Rating: 3.74 (as of 6.16.20)
• St. Abban’s Irish Red Ale
  * My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.56 (as of 6.16.20)
• Oliver’s Twisted Belgian Pale Ale
  * My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.3 (as of 6.16.20)
• Urban Abbey Apricot Pale Ale
  * My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.69 (as of 6.16.20)
• Barn Dance Blonde Ale
  * My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.44 (as of 6.16.20)

The atmosphere there was very beautiful, laid back, and wonderful. The staff was also really nice, wore their masks, handled the food and drinks and everything very nice. Wonderful all around. The beers were good as well. Overall the venue was beautiful, and I’d love to come visit it – outside of a pandemic – and get to really experience the place, as it looked wonderful.

After the dinner and flight, we looked up Old Forge Brewing, checked to make sure it was due to close at 9PM and headed off. We arrived there at a roughly 7:30-7:45PM, possibly going on 8PM. And it was closed up and locked. So either they closed early or their Facebook (as well as Google Maps) was using old – pre-COVID-19 – hours of operation. So sadly, we missed out on that. We climbed back into the car and headed for home with Ming dropping me off around 9:45PM or so; maybe 10PM. (I was probably not the best judge of time by this point.)

All in all, it was an absolute blast, and a wonderful road trip. I highly recommend both breweries – Isle of Que Brewing Co and Turkey Hill Brewing. Going to have to try this trip again on a weekday where we can hit a few more of the breweries, and do the hike, with hopefully less people, and later hours of operation for the breweries, so we can do more of them.

The venue for Turkey Hill was beautiful. The building for Isle of Que was nice and small and quaint, reminded me of the Warwick Hotel in Hummelstown. I enjoyed both places, both staffs, and both drinks. (Probably give the nod to Isle of Que’s beers over Turkey Hill; but there was nothing wrong with Turkey Hill’s beers, they were average / adequate and were very good. I’ve heard from several people online since that they have phenomenal full food, so maybe next time I’ll stop there and have a full meal.)

Of the beers I brought with, I enjoyed all four as well, though I had three of the four before (the Witbier was the only one I hadn’t had before). I did a review for Troeg’s Scratch 417 before. The Hammock is a great NE-IPA; the Scratch 417 was a delicious IPA, the scratch 415 was a very tasty Witbier, and The Pen is Mightier is an interesting and tasty Sour IPA.

I also highly recommend Ricketts Glen. If you love hiking, love the outdoors, love beautiful scenery, love waterfalls, it was all amazing, and just gorgeous. You definitely won’t be disappointed by the beauty of it all, it does get crowded on weekends, but I don’t think once you get out on the actual trail it is that bad. Right now it was a bit awkward with some close proximity to people given the nature of the pandemic and concerns over it, but overall, I don’t think it was too busy, and never felt threatened by their closeness, nor worried. Doing the full hike path that we took though (as shown above) will take you roughly three to four hours, especially if you stop and take in each waterfall, viewing them, and taking pictures. (Also, of course, depending on your speed, gait, etc.). Ming and I are in our thirties, so use that as a barometer I suppose.

I know this wasn’t a typical road trip, and we really only hit two breweries, but felt like making it into a fun little write-up and blog post. Perhaps next time I take the trip I’ll be able to hit more breweries and make it into a bigger brewery related blog post. Also apologize for the massive photo dump in the middle of this post, at least you could skip them (and the horrible pictures of myself, I apologize for anyone who I scared with my appearance).

But, as always, thank you very much for reading. I appreciate any comments, questions, feedback, etc. If you have any recommendations for trails, hike paths, or breweries, I’d love to hear them! Let me know in the comments! Also, be sure to hit the follow, subscribe, and like buttons. Share with friends, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and thank you all so very much for reading! I love writing for you guys, so its always great to hear from you!

Cheers and happy trails!

-B. Kline

August (2019) Road Trip Series:

• Going on the Road
• The Trip: Day 1 Recap
• The Trip: Day 2 Recap
• The Trip: Day 3 Recap

Rickett’s Glen (2020) Road Trip Series:

• A Road Trip to Rickett’s Glen
• The Trip to Rickett’s Glen

Other Brewery Hopping Articles:

• Brewery Hopping – 12.27.19
• Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg – 9.6.19

My Article for Breweries in PA:

• Touring Breweries Around Harrisburg

My Podcast About Breweries in Central PA:

• Beers with Strangers – A Beer Thriller in Hershey

Some other brewery tour and road trip articles:

• A Sneak Peak at the New Rubber Soul Brewery in Hummelstown
• A Brewery Tour of Mellow Mink
• Brewery Review: Battlefield Brew Works
• Brewery Review: Cushwa Brewing
• A Trip to Gettysburg and Beer Review: This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: Road Trip Snacks (Panther Island Brewing)

Well this post was a bit of a long time in coming I suppose. This was meant to be worked on and written and finished many times throughout this week. Sunday night was the usual hang-out at Irgo’s Tavern with co-workers, so that night was definitely a no-go for writing this up. (Especially since then afterwards went back to a co-workers house and watched Elimination Chamber and left his house at 3AM.)

Monday night was a bit busy and hectic as well. A family member was taken to the hospital where she has been since. (Not coronavirus or COVID-19, so don’t worry, I’m not infected. Obviously, I mean no offense to anyone, I’m just using humor to keep things together and keep the stress at bay, much like I use this blog itself.) Tuesday night after work, was the annual co-worker fantasy draft. Typically what ends up happening at these drafts is – my co-workers get my pretty good and drunk and they let me draft for a person who can’t make it. Inevitably that team lands Top 3. Doesn’t matter the sport, baseball or basketball (the ones we do). I don’t even watch basketball, NBA, college, whatever, so I know next to nothing about it, yet the one year I drafted the team that ended up winning. (The guy only made 5 roster moves all season.) I even drafted a guy with the last name DUDLEY solely because I liked the Dudley Boyz; ECW / WWE / TNA / ROH / etc. tag team.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was spent at the hospital. With the daughters. And doing a host of other things; which also consisted of my oldest daughter’s first softball practice of the season. I had walked a combined total of 9 some miles. And this was on a day where I only got home at 4:15 from the festivities the night before. (The fantasy draft, then led to going to a bar doing Irish Car Bombs, then led to hanging out for a bit before getting home.) So needless to say, the week quickly went by and we find ourselves here at Thursday morning.

Not sure how we got here, but all I know is, we made it to this point, and its about time I do this review, and owe it to you guys. You’ve been patiently waiting, so its time I get around and get writing! (I’d say “get off my fat butt”, but I sit to write, so I literally have to sit ON my fat butt to write it.)

So where do we find ourselves at? Ahh yes, reviewing some New Trail beer. Friday night while waiting out my youngest’s ballet class, I was at Funck’s Restaurant in Palmyra. They have a pretty heft selection (56 taps). Found two good New Trail beers on tap, and enjoyed them both immensely. Now, sometimes in the past I’d do this as a double-beer review, and I’m even thinking of doing it now…. but I think I’m going to hold off and make this two separate beer reviews. (In the past I’ve done “Two Beer Review” and “Multiple Beer Review” posts; especially when its the same brewery, at the same location, drank at the same time.) I think going forward with the blog I’m going to restrain from doing that (except perhaps in particular circumstances). I’ll do multiple beer review posts for beer flights I have at breweries, and outside of that always keep it to single beer reviews.

Thus this will be a single beer review and I’ll first cover Icicle by New Trail Brewing; the next post will most likely be the Sticky Barrel Aged Porter I also had by New Trail Brewing there at Funck’s. (Unless I decide to split it up with another beer that I’ve had.)

Let’s get to this!

Beer: Icicle
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: Icicle is a Hazy IPA brewed with a blend of oats, wheat, & spelt. Drippingly hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, & Centennial. Expect luscious citrus flavor mixed with that earthy green. Enjoy the long thaw with us.

One thing that can be said for New Trail; they pretty much deliver spot on with their descriptions. If they say a beer tastes like 1930s bubble-gum wrapped in bacon with a hint of ranch dressing; then you better believe thats what it’ll taste like.

Appearance for this is typical straight up hazy New England IPA. (Which is pretty much typical for all New Trail beers; IPA at least; which is their bread and butter anyway.) Turbid, dank, murky, dark orange to orange juice in hue. My friend (D. Scott) ordered the same as his second beer, and his looked a bit more brighter and fluorescent than mine, but same similar appearance, and both very dank and hazy. Certainly no clarity with these beers. Slight bit of sediment, but nothing to extreme.

Aroma is hop… hop… hop bomb through and through. Citrus and strong tropical notes but all hop and all day and all throughout hop. Strong citrus, strong tropical fruit, some stone fruit, late notes of grass.

This is a New Trail IPA, through and through; meaning be prepared for a juicy, strong hoppy, New England hazy style IPA. There is no denying they know their style and ability to make these are great, but you know all this going in, and they confirm it with each new IPA they release. Your not going to get a bad IPA from them… but, overall you also probably are not getting a massive variety of IPA from them. Insofar as I mean that their substituting a few hops for a few different hops and you get a more X (say citrus) flavor and then in the next one you get more Y (say stone fruit) or something similar. They are all GREAT and AMAZING beers. I’ve yet to have had a West Coast IPA from them (not sure if they’ve even made one and released one). And like I’ve said, I’ve yet to have had a BAD beer from them. I do think with NE-IPAs that they all tend to flow together. Substitute Hop 1X for Hop Y, meanwhile keeping hops Hops 2X and 3X the same, and then in beer 2, you substitute Hop 2X for Hop Y2, etc. For just subtle, slight, nuanced variations. But they sell, and they sell good, and you can keep re-naming them all too, and super inflate your ultimate Untappd, Beer Advocate, and other beer rating platform totals. Its a great marketing idea. This isn’t a hounding on them or hating on them, just something I’ve noticed with them, and a few other breweries have done the same. Its not a horrible practice, in fact its downright smart. But enough of that, lets talk the flavor of THIS particular beer.

Like the description says, you are getting oats, wheat, and spelt; so you are getting a hazy, dank, juicy IPA. Haze. Craze. For hops they used simcoe, amarillo, and centennial, giving this a massive amount of tropic flavor. Immediately on sipping you get the tropical juice, up front, coming straight at you, then it leads itself into a bit of stone fruit, a bit dryer, a bit off the sweet side, nothing tangy, nothng off, nothing bitter, but then it ends in the earth, giving you a bit of a grassy, green, earthy finish. Like working through a weird and exotic forest; starting with tropical fruits then seguing into stone fruits before you finish on the forest floor getting the grass and earthyness. This is certainly a fun, full, luscious beer. Its nothing too dry, sweet, or cloying, its just right all over. A fun, tasty beer all around.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.07 (as of 3.12.20)

As I said at the start of this, sorry for the delay in getting this blog post out, as I’m sure you can all understand why. Depending on my night, I might do a second (I know I say this a lot and then it doesn’t happen), or I might fire one off before work tomorrow morning. Saturday, all fingers and toes and other appendages crossed, I will be attending the Kegs & Eggs at Rotunda Brewery / The Batdorf. J. Doncevic will also be there. You can find the event listing here: Kegs & Eggs 2020. Money goes towards Elliot’s CP Journey. So come on out and support a good cause.

In other blog news, I edited the Haze Charmer article to include the links and articles like I said I would at the end of it. Forgot to do that on initial release of the post.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cheers, prost, and slainte!

-B. Kline

I debated this morning on which beer to do next. I have a few on the ‘docket’ from Friday. At Funck’s, while waiting for my daughter’s ballet class to end, I had Icicle by New Trail and their Cinnamon Barrel Aged Sticky. Both of those are ones I want to review. Also, I don’t normally do flagship beers; or full yearly releases and stuff. And thats what Haze Charmer is – its Troeg’s first new yearly in four years. But, I wanted to do a beer from Friday, and wanted to do tie it in with Seinfeld, so I figured the more recent beer I had before going. Plus, lets me do a bit of promotion for The Mill as well as handle a popular buzz-worthy beer (the Haze Charmer). I don’t normally like to do back-to-back beers from the same brewery; so I might break up the New Trail beers. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do the Sticky and then Tuesday try one of the California beers to do, then Wednesday do Icicle.

I do like to help promote local businesses and restaurants when I can; so helping out both Troegs and The Mill is kind of a win-win. And since Haze Charmer is pretty darn good, it’ll make for a good beer review. Especially since there’s a fair bit of history to do with this beer, since like Nimble Giant and some of their other beers its started off life as a scratch beer and gone through several iterations before becoming the beer you might be drinking right now.

Upon its release, this certainly got lots of media attention. Hitting all kinds of news outlets, beer blogs, beer sites, from everything from little blogs to big news sites (locally). PennLive, NewsBreak, MyBeerBuzz, BrewFinder, BrewBound, TheFullPint, etc, etc, etc. So needless to say, it’s gotten a fair amount of buzz. For good reason too. I’ll provide some links to their various sites at the end of this review – though be forewarned, I’ve come to discover most of them are just the exact same article; basically a written press release by Troegs and then copied and pasted by the various media outlets. (If you take note on this blog, I do my own news articles, I don’t like doing press release copy and paste jobs.)

My primary source for information on this beautiful beer comes from the Troegs Blog itself. Where they discuss its process a bit more in-depth (though they don’t list which exact Scratches this was, I’ve done some digging, and think I can piece it together.) Using on Untappd, I searched Troegs Beers and filtered it for “PALE ALE” and selected Newest to Oldest. And based on logos, and descriptions of “hazy pale ale” I think I’ve broken down its chain of scratches:

* Scratch 404 – Scratch 404 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale #6
* Scratch 403 – Scratch 403 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale #5
* Scratch 401 – Scratch 401 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale #4
* Scratch 399 – Scratch 399 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale

There’s also a few other scratch pale ales:

* Scratch 398 – Scratch 398 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale #2
* Scratch 397 – Scratch 397 – Dry-Hopped Hazy Pale Ale
* Scratch 396 – Scratch 396 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale
* Scratch 393 – Scratch 393 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale (Azacca, Comet & Idaho 7)
* Scratch 390 – Scratch 390 – Amarillo Fresh Hop Ale
* Scratch 374 – Scratch 374 – Oat Pale Ale (w/ Azacca, Citra & Denali)

Going back further, there is even more scratches. There’s also the Trail Day Pale Ale they released in 2019, that I reviewed. I also reviewed Scratch 396 – Dry Hopped Pale Ale; as part of a flight and beer review I did a while back as well. So looking back over those, you get a semblance of an idea where they were going with the creation of this new Haze Charmer. According to Untappd Troegs has 33 Pale Ale – American beers, 5 Pale Ale – Belgians, and 1 Pale Ale – New England variants. The New England was the precursor for the Trail Day Pale Ale that they released in cans: Scratch 380 – Trail Day Dry-hopped Pale Ale.

Most of their listings are the non-specific; Pale Ale – American Ale. Which is the typical default standard setting for pale ales (made in America). Though, with the “haze” and the “flaked oats” and stuff of a few of these pale ales, they could fall under the category of “Pale Ale – New England”, so its interesting to see that they have just one listed that way.

I love how Troegs’ lists what hops, oats, grain, yeast strain, etc, that they use in their brewing process. Gives homebrewers some ideas of how to make their own near-clones and gives you a look at the process, a peak behind the curtain if you will. So let’s first take a look at the hops included in this beer.

Hops included are: Comet, Azacca, and Idaho 7.
First up on our list is Comet:

“Comet’s flavor profile rests heavily on a strong accent of grapefruit. It does feature solid bittering capabilities and traditionally brewers considered it best suited as a bittering agent for American-style lagers. Recently however, there has been a surge in its use as a dry-hop in ales and IPA’s.” (Hopslist – Comet)

Next up is Azacca:
“Even with its high alpha acids, Azacca still works well as a dual-use hop, giving off a pleasant mix of tropical fruits kissed with citrus. On the palate it’s particularly spicy, with mango, pineapple and some pine and tangerine-esque qualities. It has also been likened in nature to some New Zealand-bred varieties.” (Hopslist – Azacca)

Last is Idaho 7:
“Idaho #7 hops are known for their piney, tropical, fruity, citrusy, earthy, and floral flavors and aromas. Typically used as an Aroma/Flavor hop with high alpha acid levels and average cohumulone content. Its strong hop character makes it ideal for IPAs, APAs and any other hop forward beer.” (MoreBeer – Idaho 7)

Now we’re starting to piece together this beer. Getting an idea of how it ticks. We’re going to skip over the yeast involved, primarily because there’s not much to discuss. And for homebrewers its not something they can really do anything with. The label lists the yeast strain as “DIPA Ale”, meaning their in house Double IPA strain. It is important to point out that their using a Double IPA yeast strain rather than a regular IPA yeast strain, so their using a strain able to handle a higher ABV and hop usage (even though Haze Charmer only clocks in at 5.5% ABV).

Moving to the grains, they list: Pale Malt Oats and Unmalted Wheat.

For Pale Malt Oats, Deer Creak Malt House has this:
“Pale Oats are versatile with plenty of character for Saison or Pale Ale recipes. Also well suited to add body and mouth-feel to Stout, Porter, and IPA recipes” (Deer Creek Malthouse – Pale Malt Oats)

Northern Brewer has this to say about Unmalted Wheat:
“This is raw wheat kernels that haven’t been malted – perfect for some traditional styles like Wit and Lambic. It adds a ton of mouthfeel and provides a very cloudy finished beer in a Wit or Hefeweizen. A multi-step or decoction mash is recommended.” (Northern Brewer – Unmalted Wheat)

I think we got a good idea what kind of beer we have now. We’ve broken down the scratch beer process to get from Point A to Point B; we’ve taken a look at the ingredients – hops, yeast, grain; now its just time to actually sit back, drink it, and review it!

Beer: Haze Charmer
Brewery: Troegs Independnt Brewing
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: Haze Charmer emerges from a soft, swirling cloud of oats and unfiltered wheat. Vigorous dry-hopping adds a second phase of Haze, propping up the oils of El Dorado and Citra hops. Each step delivers notes of juicy pineapple, fresh grapefruit and candied peach balanced by a hint of white pine and low bitterness. We taste: juicy pineapple, fresh grapefruit, candied peach, hint of white pine.

Firstly, let me say this paired wonderfully with The Mill burger and fries. Love my hamburgers rare, and this was practically still mooing. Good delicious bloody, where I need the fries to soak up all the grease and fat and blood. Delicious! (And yes, I know I’ve said on here time and again, how I’m not a foodie, but when I do eat, I EAT.) Definitely try out their burgers sometime if you’re ever in the Hershey area. Fantastic. Great fries too.

Anyway, appearance for the beer is pretty spot on for a hazy, danky, New England IPA. Except its a pale ale, and not “technically” considered a New England Pale Ale. Pouring this from the bottle to glass at the bar, it takes on a beautiful bright orange hue. Almost yellow, but definitely golden. Its bubbly, got a great fluffy super well carbonated head. Good bubbles, various sizes, good lacing, great carbonation, great color.

Aroma is fantastic too. Out of the bottle and into the glass, you get strong notes of the fruity hops involved. A lot of pineapple hop notes, peach, a hint of mango perhaps, some grapefruit – juicy not tart, sweet, not tart, with a bit of a foresty earthy musky hint underneath all of these great strong fruity hoppy notes.

This just tastes like a wonderful beer. And thats where this beer really shines, and where all beers either fall or live up to its standards, not by appearance and color, and smell and aroma, but by taste. Yes, we first eat (and drink) with our eyes, but the flavor, the taste, determines how much we love or like or hate a beer. But have no fear… you won’t be hating this one! This is juicy, straight delicious juicyness. No bitterness, nothing detracting or taking away from the floral and fruity hop notes. Juicy grapefruit, rather than tart grapefruit, juicy peach, with kind of a carmalized candyness to it, kinda like those peach ring fruit gummies, pineapple in spades, a hint of earthy musky, forest, perhaps pine or cedar, something like frosted tips, perhaps vanilla. There is certainly a smoothness to this. There is no off flavors, nothing detracting from this, its just a smooth sweet, juicy, delicious, tasty beer, that goes down quick. And at 5.5% there is no massive buzz or anything to this. Could easily kill a six-pack of this myself while watching a game, and come summer time this beer will be even more delicious sitting out on a patio or after mowing. And six-packs of this at Sheetz and such are only going for 11-13$. Can’t beat that price at all!

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 3.8.20)

After my father and I finished our meal at The Mill, we went to the Hershey Theater, and saw Jerry Seinfeld do his stand-up comedy. Mario Joyner was his opening act. Both guys killed it, was a fantastic show. But in a typical Seinfeldian bit, my dad and I didn’t even sit next to each other. My dad doesn’t buy or do anything online, so he went to the actual box office to get tickets. Well, by the time he got there, they were practically sold out, but had two tickets remaining… just in different sections. So, my dad got the tickets because… well, tickets are better than no tickets. Overall, it was a great show. His Pop Tarts bit was probably my favorite, followed up by maybe the horse bit. Mario’s bit on why the GPS is great was also really good.

Finally, a last shout out to The Mill in Hershey. Fantastic food, great servers and bartenders, and a beautiful restaurant. Located close to the Giant Center, Hershey Theater, etc. Pretty good selection of beers as well (nothing crazy, but better than just Coors and Miller). So be sure to check them out if your in the area.

This definitely turned out to be a much longer review than intended, but I like it. Hope you all did too. Look for some New Trail beer reviews coming up. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and click the subscribe and like buttons here on the blog.

Slainte!

-B. Kline

CITATIONS and SOURCES:

• The Full Pint – Troegs to Release Haze Charmer
• BrewBound – Troegs to Release Haze Charmer
• PennLive – Troegs to Release Haze Charmer
• NewsBreak – Troegs Releases Haze Charmer
• MyBeerBuzz – Troegs to Release Haze Charmer
• Troegs Craft Brewery Press Release on Haze Charmer
• Troegs Blog Announces and Discusses Haze Charmer

On February 8th, 2020, Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA co-hosted an event at the Tattered Flag Brewery in Middletown PA. It was a ticketed event and promoted across Tattered Flag’s social media and Breweries in PA’s social media (their Facebook page and their Facebook group). Tickets were free. Welcome to all that were to come out. According to Justin (brewer for Tattered Flag) 62 tickets were given out. Myself and my friend were two of those tickets, and so let me take you through the event.

Let’s back this up a bit from the time of the event. Starting with the event itself. It was first announced near the beginning of the year. Luckily it was a Saturday I was able to get off from work (a rarity in my case). And my friend D. Scott was also off and along for the idea. So, the premise of the event is simple – bring 2-3 (or more) beers. Everyone who comes to the event, does so, and once the event is underway you place your beers in the corresponding coolers (IPA, Sours, Wheats and Kolsches, Stouts), and then after everyone has grouped up, you start cracking beers and sampling and moving on.

The premise is simple and neat. Anyone whose ever done a beer / bottle / can share or swap at home with friends, its the same premise just on a much larger scale. (A 62+ person scale that is.)

Leading up to the event my friend stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up a four-pack of larger beers to bring with. He grabbed Thief Share (2016) by Strange Roots Experimental Ales, Blue Farm (2017) by Free Will Brewing Co, a German Chocolate Cake Stout from a brewery I’m drawing a blank on, and New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk (2019).

I had set up to do a beer trade with a guy from Eureka California. We were both set to send our packages on either January 31st, or February 1st. (I sent on 31st and showed proof.) He unfortunately, kept saying he would get to it… and get to it….. and he kept NOT getting to it…. and NOT getting to it. Finally, he promised he would expedite it next day to make up for its tardiness…. and I get a message from him “Sorry, it’d be 200$+ to expedite, so I sent it regular. Sorry it won’t be there in time.” …..Massive annoyance and disappointment on those fronts. So at last second, I had to figure out what I was bringing.

Unfortunately I had just ran through my cans from Tree House brought home by my friend D. Arndt. If I would have known…. I would have brought the Sap, Autumn, Julius, Haze, or Doppelganger I had. So I likewise stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up some beer for the event. I got Grimm Artisanal Ale’s I Still Love the Old World (2018), Lickinhole’s Virginia Black Bear, Clown Shoe’s Coffee Sombrero, and Trial by Wombat (mainly for the name and picture).

Saturday morning comes and I do my typical morning chores and errands and take Leela (my border collie) for a run. D. Scott is Ubering to Tattered Flag, and I’m going to meet him there. Planned to get there at 10:40, but ended up getting there closer to 10:50 with our tickets and my beer and meet him just inside the door. He shows me the beer he’s bringing and we go over our small sample size. At just a bit before 11AM, Justin comes through and tells everyone to follow him down into the brewhouse.

Since 2018 I’ve done some volunteer canning work with Tattered Flag – though recently they’ve stopped using volunteers now that their employee force is big enough to keep it all done in-house, so I’m quite familiar with their brewhouse and back of the brewery operations and location.

At the time, there’s not too many people yet. Maybe 15-20. Justin goes over the rules. (Big rule: don’t touch any valves. Little rule: throw your trash away. Big rule: DON’T TOUCH ANY VALVES. Little rule: put your beers in their appropriate tubs.) They had bussing tubs with a label for each: IPA, Sour / Saisons, Wheats / Kolsches, and Stouts. Bigger bottles were kept in the front or where room was for them.

The guys from Breweries in PA introduced themselves. And then we were off to the races (…or beers). Talked with the lady from Breweries in PA and she was saying how the Dayman can was the last “known in the wild” can to exist, due to them getting hit with a Cease and Desist from Disney. And we talked about Disney with recent news, and how past places have gotten hit with some C & D’s.

After sampling Dayman, and then Nightman, I saw a lovely looking Smoked Porter big bottle. Unfortunately I forget the name of it, and it appears I never checked it into Untappd (something I didn’t do too good of a job of). (Just like pictures, unfortunately I took no pictures of the event either, so I have no pictures of my own, and had to try and remember the beers I tried for Untappd later on.) So whoever brought the big bottle Smoked Porter, I’d love to know what it was. ….but also… oh boy that carbonation! As soon as I popped the cap on it, it just gushed. Foam everywhere, so much so that I had to set it down under the table over the grate, it just wouldn’t stop, for a good solid 2 minutes it kept going. (So yes, I apologize for being ‘that guy’, but….. it wasn’t my fault!)

Me and D. Scott kinda hovered over the Stouts area. Talked to Justin and his girlfriend Aimee, about recent events with Tattered Flag, as well as Hibrewnation that took place, as well as the upcoming Prototype Brewery and Meadery and the Prototype Invitation Brewing Event.

After a few more samples, me and D. Scott headed back into the caverns a bit, where there was more space, as by now we were likely up to about 40+ people in attendance. And out by the brite tanks and fermenters it was getting pretty crowded. After a bit, the guys from Breweries in PA brought a few of the bussing trubs out into the side-room where we used to do the labeling for Tattered Flag’s canning run. They brought out a few beers of each type as well and so there was now a more mixed variety in the different areas.

While in the side-room, I branched out a bit from my stouts and sours and had a few IPAs. Bearded Iris’ Homestyle, Psycho Simcoe by Three 3’s, Ex Novo Brewing’s Spirits of the Dead, and Double Luv by East Branch Brewing. Hanging out, talking with D. Scott and some of our fellow drinkers in the area, we also cracked open the Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery, which was amazingly fantastic. While discussing the ridiculously high ABV on it (19.5%), one of the guys talked about the beer he brought from Nimble Hill, a Maple Stout in their Mysteria Series, that was a 25%. I’ve always been a huge fan of big ABV beers…. so my ears and eyes and nose, and mouth, all perked up. The kind gentleman went back and got it and brought it out. After a bit of a struggle getting the cork off of it, we each drew a good sample size of it (and I won’t lie and say I didn’t have two samples of it).

The description on Untappd for it reads:

MAPLE SYRUP STOUT
This super limited creation is an off shoot of Turbo Diesel.
But instead of using hops, we added a few gallons of maple syrup and a dash of molasses and fermented it to the limits.
The result is a thick dessert stout with a strong maple syrup and imperial stout finish, followed by hearty warming from the 25% abv. Served without carbonation for a smooth and velvety finish.

It was smooth, dry, but with an amazing maple syrup flavor. Tasted like drinking a maple syrup wine. It was pretty much fantastic. And the nice 25% ABV to it, certainly didn’t hurt. I would like to throw a shout out to Ryan Haraschak. Fantastic, gorgeous gem to bring to the bottle share! Kudos my man!

We also tried a gentleman’s RIS Homebrew that was wonderful as well. And somehow, quickly, we realized we were approaching the end of the time for the bottle share, so me and D. Scott went back by the fermenters to try some of the beers still over there.

While hanging out there, and chopping on some tortilla chips, the Harris Brewery guys came in. Got to talk to Harris guys for a long time about their upcoming brewery, black culture in brewing and craft beer, Allison Hill, the impact their hoping to make, the old Coke-Cola building / factory on the corner of 19th and Derry, the obstacles their having to overcome for their brewery, their GoFundMe vs. the Kickstarter, and much more. We also drank from their growler of their collaboration with The Vegetable Hunter which was fantastic. If you would like to support the Harris Family Brewery, and add to their GoFundMe you can do so here:

Harris Family Brewery Start-Up Go Fund Me

As the time dwindled down, we quickly tried to sample a last few beers. There was an Intuition Ales that I tried with a large dragon on it (wax sealed originally, no idea on the name), as well as two Hegemony Anniversary Beers from St. Boniface. Also back to back Black IPAs; one from Pour Man’s Brewing – Black Market, and the other from Heavy Seas – Night Swell. Also tried the 2SP and WaWa coffee stout – Winter Reserve. As well as a last sampling of the Candy Hearts by New Trail Brewing.

As it wrapped up, they told us to take anything we wanted that was unopened. Seeing my Lickinghole Virginia Black Bear unopened I grabbed that, as well as an IPA from Mainstay Brewing and one of the bakeries from The Bruery. My buddy grabbed a couple and we put them in the six-pack holder and took them out to my car and then came back in to use our free beer and food discount.

Tattered Flag with the (free) ticket, being the gracious host was giving one free pour with the ticket as well as 10% off food. D. Scott got an order of loaded chips, and I got Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry). His free drink was either the Custardy Tropic Like Its Hot or the Custardy Black Crumble. We had also sampled these in cans during the bottle share.

My list of beers sampled (that I was able to record on Untappd) was:
* Nightman (Stable 12 Brewing Company)
* Schmoojee Strawberry Orange Banana (Imprint Beer Co)
* Bible Belt (2019) (Evil Twin Brewing)
* Frucht: Fruit Punch (The Bruery Terreux)
* Churro Sombrero (Clown Shoes)
* Autumn Friend (Forest & Main Brewing Company)
* Spirits of the Dead (Ex Novo Brewing)
* Psycho Simcoe (Three 3’s Brewing Co.)
* Black Tuesday (2017) (The Bruery)
* Maple Stout, Mysteria Series (Nimble Hill Brewing)
* Double Luv (East Branch Brewing)
* Kriek Marriage Parfait (2015) (Brouwerji Boon)
* Black Market (Pour Man’s Brewing Company
* Night Swell (Heavy Seas Beer)
* Pack & Brass Coffee IPA (Wallenpaupack Brewing Company)
* I Still Love the Old World (Grimm Artisanal Ales)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver7ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver8ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Cold Pro (Union Craft Brewing)
* Winter Reserve Coffee Stout (2SP Brewing Company / WaWa)
* Candy Hearts (New Trail Brewing Co.)
* Homestyle (Bearded Iris)
* Custardy: Blackberry Crumble (Tattered Flag)
* Custardy: Tropic Like Its Hot (Tattered Flag)
* Thief Share (2016) (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)
* Blue Farm (2017) (Free Will Brewing Co.)
* Gingerbread Crunchee (Other Half Brewing Co.)
* Double Vice Coffee Porter (Grist House Craft Brewery)
* Chili Nelson Hazy Habenero (The Vegetable Hunter)
* Winter Wassailand (The Vegetable Hunter / Harris Family Brewing)
* Dayman (Stable 12 Brewing)

These are the ones I remembered / checked-in on Untappd anyway. There were so many more I didn’t get to try, some I definitely wanted to. I saw some Aslin cans, I believe 4th Anniversary Sours, that I missed out on, as well as a few Other Half’s and similar. In the comments – for those of you who went – I’d love to see what you brought, had, and what was your favorites.

This was a fantastic event. I’ve been to some friend / home beer bottle / can shares, and its always a blast. Passing around beers, sampling, and talking about beer and just hanging out with good people. The craft beer community is an exceptional and diverse community and its so great to talk to so many different people. Bottle shares are like mini-brewfests in a way, sampling a ton of different beers from different places / breweries that you most likely won’t get into contact with. Its not a bad way to kill a Saturday morning, thats for sure.

My favorites that I got to sample were: Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery and the Nimble Hill Maple Stout Mysteria (the 25%). D. Scott said his favorite was also the 25% Maple Stout as well as the Custardy: Blackberry Crumble.

It was great of Tattered Flag to put up some of their own beers in the share, a great gesture on their part. Also, humorous note, I think I did see a Blue Moon in one of the tubs, not 100% sure though, but I think I did. Kudos to whoever brought that. I did think it’d be funny to bring a single Coors Light bottle or Miller Lite High Life bottle and sneak it in, but didn’t know how it’d go over.

As you can see from the kill shot, there was a ton of great beer brought in, and sampled and served. Breweries from all over Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other big breweries like Other Half, Bearded Iris, Aslin, Dogfish Head, Brewery of Omnegang, Grimm Artisanal Ales, as well as some homebrew, and some heavy PA hitters like Free Will, Tattered Flag, Strange Roots, Imprint Beer Co, Dancing Gnome, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, and New Trail, and even upcoming brewery Harris Family. It was a wonderful and diverse selection, bottles, bombers, growlers, crowlers, cans, and even wine bottles.

Interested in reading some reviews of beers from some of these places, you can check out my beer blog: The Beer Thrillers. We’ve reviewed beers from Tattered Flag like: Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, Inexplicably Juicy, Pink Guava, Fatum Series: Member Berries, and more. New Trail’s Broken Heels. Broken Goblet’s This Is The Way, Burn Them All Away. Boneshire Brew Work’s The Hog, Dillston, Harrishire (with Harris Family), Sunburst, Good Walk Spoiled, Road Less Traveled, and more. Wolf Brewing collaboration with Tattered Flag – Imperial Churro and collaboration with Imprint – Wolf Prints. Rotunda Brewing’s sWheat Tarts: Mango Guyabano and Juicy Fruit. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing’s Fuzzy Nudge, Coco-Nator, and Scratch 400. You can check out our brewery visit and recap (and review) of Mellow Mink and their Scarlet Sunrise. Or our brewery reviews of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery. Or the recent, unfortunate news of the closings – Crystal Ball and Stoudt’s.

You can also read our other article on Breweries in PA: Touring the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg. (Also located here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg.)

We are currently listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs at #9, and have been there for a few weeks now (moved up from #11). (If you would like to write for us, you can contact us through our contact page. Or if you would like us to write for you.)

You can check us out on Facebook as well as Twitter. Or just search for us – Facebook – The Beer Thrillers – and on Twitter – @thebeerthriller.

The blog is ran by me – B. Kline, and mainly written by me, but other writers for the blog include J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (of Default Brewing). We also have Let Us Drink Beer Blog do some contributions as a guest writer.

I also do podcasts with D. Scott and Esteban – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… where we discuss beer, pop culture, movies, TV shows, and much more. Always hilarious and always insightful, so make sure to check that out as well.

(Ok, that concludes the article for Breweries in PA. The rest from here on out, is just for the Beer Thrillers faithful and my blog only. Its also a little more personal and detailed than the above, so keep reading if you want to hear more.)

So as per usual with me, after the beer share event, my night didn’t end. It was about 3:30-4PM by the time we finished up at the Tattered Flag bar. Way too early to call it a day. Being in the area, we decided to check out the Lancaster Brewing spot off of Eisenhower Boulevard in Harrisburg. Neither me nor D. Scott had ever been there. And this checks off a “new brewery location” that I want to do each month. (January was Liquid Noise Brewing, so February will be Lancaster Brewing, and hopefully March – before they close up – will be Stoudt’s.) Its funny that neither of us have ever been here to this location. Its so close, and we’ve jumped and hit all of the Harrisburg breweries numerous times before.

While there we met up with friends D. Arndt, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend. I did a flight, D. Scott got a draft of their eggnog, and I have no recollection of what the others got. My flight included:
* Jam Series #22 Mexican Style Lager
* Jam Series #21 Gingerbread Spiced Brown Ale
* Lancaster Lager
* Jam Series – Track #20 Eggnog Blond
* Jam Series – Track #19 Chili Smoked Baltic Porter
* Winter Warmer

All were pretty tasty. I enjoyed the Smoked Porter the most with the Spiced Gingerbread coming in second. Wasn’t a huge fan of the eggnog blond, but I’m not a fan of eggnog so kind of knew that going into it. Drew loved his, but then again, he’s a huge eggnog fan. So mileage may vary on that type of beer.

Finally around 730-8PM or so we left and went to D. Arndt’s house, where we hung out with him and his fiance Kat and his dogs (the one of which is a Corgi named Indiana Bones). While there he had a can of Intemperance by Tree House which was absolutely delicious.

Look for me to be adding the Intemperance to my series on Tree House. Also, most likely tonight Doppelganger will be going up to finish what was originally the series. But now, with the addition of Intemperance, the series will be going from 5 to 6, making it a nice easy and sensible six-pack. Makes sense for a beer blog (a beer blog making sense?!), I like it.

So, this was supposed to be written and was supposed to go up Sunday, the 9th. But… work was crazy, as it was a ticket promotion give-away and we were swamped there, and afterwards, I was supposed to go to D. Scott to watch the Oscar’s (and drink the remaining of the beer share beers), but… Haley forgot the crowler of Rotunda Brewing Company’s ‘Beautiful Trauma’ that I got her, so I had to swing back to work and then deliver it to her at Irgo’s Tavern. Where I then proceeded to stay and play pool with several co-workers until 1AM. So obviously… no posting that night.

Then Monday I did go over to D. Scott’s and we watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (finally got around to seeing it, fantastic movie, and Tarantino is still just as good as he always was). So once again, no blog posting Monday. But, last night I did start this, and sadly, only after editing, getting to finish it this morning. Sorry for the delay in things, but I rather edit and make sure I like the way blog looks, and that there’s no misspellings or grammar problems or anything (though I’m sure one or two will still sneak through). There’s two ways to write:

“You either write sober and edit drunk, or write drunk and edit sober.”

I also finally got that California beer mail Tuesday. Looks like some delicious brews to drink down and dive into and review for you all.

So definitely expect to see some beer reviews come out of that 10-pack. There’s a lot of tasty ones (I am super looking forward to the Chocolate Donut porter.)

Blog news – I am going to be trying to get 2 blogs up a day for the next few days to catch up some of the beer reviews I’m behind on. Fingers crossed anyway. This blog post is also going up on Breweries in PA’s website, so you’ll be able to check it out there (albeit abbreviated). Once its live, I’ll come in and edit this to include it here.

Tomorrow (Thursday, the 13th), I have yet another funeral to go to. This time my Uncle (mother’s brother in law) passed away. (Last Thursday was a funeral for my Great Uncle, my father’s Uncle.) In the evening Funck’s in Palmyra is doing a tap takeover for New Trail. I might be stopping out for that (might not, depends on time). New Trail makes some great beers, so I’d love to check it out.

Some beer reviews that are due up are Doppelganger and Intemperance, New Heights I Cannot Tell a Lie, Boneshire Brew Work’s Anagnorsis, Revision’s Pete’s Stache, Rivertown’s Triple Belgian, and much more. So be on the lookout for a lot of beer reviews coming at you in the upcoming days.

Like I said earlier in the post (mainly for the Breweries in PA page), please check out our Facebook, Twitter, and other social medias, and please click follow, like, subscribe, both on those platforms and here on the blog itself. You can enter your e-mail at the bottom to get notifications immediately whenever a new blog post hits the internet, and we’d greatly appreciate it. We also love it when you use the ‘rating’ at the bottom so we know how we are performing, and click the LIKE down below as well. Also, even more importantly, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, feedback. So leave us a comment, or two, or three, or forty-four. I try to respond and reply as quickly as I’m able to. And if you ever want, you can contact us at our contact page and leave me a message.

Thanks everyone so much for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed it, and if you were at the event, hopefully you had as much of a blast as I did (and D. Scott). (Which speaking of, be on the lookout for some new podcasts on LOST Seasons 3 & 4, Fullmetal Alchemist, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and potentially / possibly / hopefully BoJack Horseman.)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Keeping the streak alive, much like the Philadelphia Flyers are currently doing (are they possibly good this year? Is Carter Hart the future of goaltending in Philadelphia? am I losing my mind? The answer might be yes to all three of those questions by the way), I have managed to continue writing – and often – and keeping it going into today with this being the 10th blog in 10 days. I have also kept the streak going with a new beer each day. (And since its 9AM on a work-day…. I have not yet had my new beer today, sorry to disappoint, but I will as soon as work is over, I promise that.)

Friday’s new beer, and the topic of today’s review is: Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Co. For anyone who has been following the Breweries in PA Facebook group or page will know, New Trails is the “hot new” “it” brewery in Pennsylvania currently. Along with Imprint Beer, they are the most talked about brewery in Pennsylvania in that group. And I’m not going to flip the script here and say their wrong, its for good reason.

Just taking a look at their Untappd page, their top ten beers are (as per how Untappd has them listed on the side-bar of their Untappd page) :
1) Broken Heels – IPA – American – 3.95
2) Shades – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 4.19
3) Neither Here Nor There – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 4.16
4) W.E.S.P – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 4.11
5) No Brakes – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 3.99
6) SOB Hill IPA – IPA – American – 3.78
7) Bonfire – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 4.16
8) Strawberry Haze – IPA – New England – 3.75
9) Broken Paddle – IPA – New England – 4.00
10) Rained Out – IPA – Imperial Double / New England – 4.01

Notice a theme here at all? …..I think I have…..

I did one other review of them before, and it was part of a flight I had at the Hershey Biergarten; I had their Dark Skies: Corvus – a Schwarzbier. It was an exceptional beer. So make sure you check out that review as well, and check out that beer too if you like dark style beers – which isn’t what they are primarily known for (seeing as how the list above is all IPAs or Double IPAs), but I still highly recommend it.

New Trails Brewing Co. has their base and brewery in Williamsport Pennsylvania. They currently have 117 unique beers with a total global rating of 3.97. Their Untappd page description reads: ” We love the outdoors and we love beer. At New Trail Brewing we encourage our friends and neighbors to spend more quality time outdoors experiencing the natural environment around us. We are woodsy types – hikers and bikers, paddlers and kayakers, birdwatchers and stargazers. We are beer enthusiasts. We love beer, and we believe great beer makes life’s experiences taste even better. That’s why we started New Trail Brewing Company, to make great beer for everyone to enjoy when you dare to explore new places, do new things, take new trails, and have truly memorable adventures. We preserve the great outdoors and enhance the experience of getting out there. New trail brewing company is committed to preserving the wild wonders of Pennsylvania. We connect with a wide range of people and organizations in our area dedicated to elevating the quality of, and access to, our region’s outdoor resources, including local trails, PA Trail Dogs and more. Our brewery culture seeks to facilitate meaningful relationships between our neighbors and our natural heritage. We feel there is a creative connection between nature and beer. That’s why we brew fresh, great tasting, locally made beer for people active in outdoor recreation, and why we strive to manage our beer making process to have the least impact on our resources. We want to help people get out in the natural universe. It’s good for them, for our community and for the outdoors. We hope you’ll join us. “

Beer: Broken Heels
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Broken Heels is a “Hazy” India Pale Ale. Brewed with oats and pilsner malts and hopped aggressively with an assortment of newer American grown hops in the Pacific Northwest. This beer has a full mouthfeel with low bitterness meant to be soft on the palette. High aromatics lead the consumer through a treasure trove of their favorite tropical fruits and wanting more of the very quaffable beer.

Appearance from draft pour is straight orange juice. Pictures from can looks the exact same way as well. Which is always a good indicator of quality and consistency. A draft pour shouldn’t look too much different than a pour from a can or a bottle (assuming the cans and bottles were handled properly and stored properly). Its hazy, unfiltered, glowing orange, with a small ring of head at the top that dissipates quickly, but as you drink this down it leaves a wonderful lacing.

Aroma is citrusy and fruity hops. Its not a complete hop bomb but you get a very aromatic fruity and citrus hop aroma as soon as its set-down in front of you. It smells like a clear crisp IPA should.

This is like drinking hoppy juicy dank orange juice. It is so full of citrus fruit juicy hop taste and is just so easy to drink. You get a flourish of hop notes as soon as you start sipping, you get citrus, you get the tropical fruits, you get practically no bitterness, you just get a smooth drink. The pilsner malts and the flaked oats gives this a really smooth and tasty brew and just makes it like a wonderful NEIPA that drinks easy. After one sip of this you can quickly see why New Trails Brewing Co. is known for their outstanding IPAs.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 11.10.19)

Ten days down, ten blog posts down. One third of the way there! Only twenty more to go! This is flying by and is easy breezy! (….sort of.)

Ok folks, check back in tomorrow for the next one! Cheers!

-B. Kline

A few weeks back the 2019 Great American Beer Festival ended and at the closing ceremony they always announce the winners for Gold, Silver, and Bronze in various categories. The categories range from style (IPA, Stout, Brown Ale, Amber Ale, etc) to breweries (nano, regional, etc.) and all kinds of other things in between.

I know we cover many different breweries here and are not just Pennsylvania based, but since we are FROM Pennsylvania, I thought I’d start there and announce the medal winners from PA. Glad to celebrate how well Pennsylvania is doing in brewing and great to see it recognized at one of the biggest events of the year. Pennsylvania won 7 medals in total, 3 in gold, 3 in silver, and 1 in bronze. I’ll break it down by gold, silver, bronze.

GOLD

Category: Contemporary American-Style Pilsner
Brewery: New Trails Brewing
Beer: Lazy River Pils

Category: German-Style Dark Lager
Brewery: The Church Brew Works
Beer: Monk Dunkel

Category: Imperial Stout
Brewery: 2SP Brewing
Beer: The Russian

Category: Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale
Brewery: Free Will Brewing
Beer: Olly

Category: Brett Beer
Brewery: Cellar Works Brewing
Beer: St. Eldritch

Category: German-Style Wheat Ale
Brewery: Swashbuckler Brewing Co.
Beer: Dunkelweisse

Category: English-Style Brown Ale
Brewery: Helltown Brewing
Beer: Mischievous Brown

Was a good year for Pennsylvania breweries. Hopefully next year we can win more awards, last year (2018) we had six medals earned, and this year we had seven, so thats definite improvement. Here’s to 10 next year!

As a final closing note, here’s a great list article on the top 10 breweries in Pennsylvania ranked by Untappd, check it out: Top 10 Breweries in PA According to Untappd(by Breweries in PA).

Until next time everyone! Cheers!

-B. Kline