Last night was another ‘stream night’ with my friend Drew over at Knights of Nostalgia. I had four amazing beers last night (and will be doing a review of each). I had this – Pixels; Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary Beer, Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villenage, and Great Notion’s Fruit Monster. This was my first time having all four of these beers, and my first time having a beer from Seminar Brewing, from Elder Pine Brewing and Blending, and from Great Notion Brewing. And none of them disappointed.

Don’t worry, I will be doing a review for all four of these. They were way to good not to do a review for each. (And made for quite the costly mix-a-six at Breski’s too, so I better put the drinking to good use!)

I had been saving the Pixels for a night of doing video game streaming with Knights of Nostalgia just due to its image and name-sake. Funnily though, we didn’t play a pixelated game, we did a more modern game (normally on Knights of Nostalgia we play old school NES or SNES games, like Zelda, or Metroid, or Mario, etc.). But, either way, it still made for a good fit for the stream. We played the Friday the 13th game, which you can play against people multi-player online. You are either Jason (the killer) or a camp counselor (someone who wants to escape). You play from various levels like Crystal Lake, Jarvis House, etc. Drew has all of the different Jason’s unlocked, so if you are Jason, you can play as any of the Jason’s from Parts I through X, including NES Jason. (Which looks absolutely horrible by the way, I do not recommend that Jason; just on aesthetics alone.) The game is ridiculously fun, and every time you play it, it’s simple, same yet different, and has endless possibilities. The surprise and shock factor of Jason appearing and things like that are always great too. Absolutely a blast to play with friends, definitely worth checking out. (Or go to Knights of Nostalgia and watch us play it.)

So after work yesterday, I ran home and got the beer and then went to his house and from 7:30 to roughly 12:30 we played Friday the 13th, and then hung around chatting until about 2:30 while having another beverage or two (St. Boniface’s Theory and Reality; and lots of water).

Enough jibber jabbering; let’s get on with the review!

Beer: Pixels
Brewery: Seminar Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: New England Style IPA – Juicy, hoppy and cloudy, just like it should be!

This beer comes from a co-worker (shout out to Jam; who also brought me Up a Creek Extreme Ale) who grabbed this and a few other beers for me from South Carolina. Interesting note on this – the can’s tag price was 4.19$. Not sure why it’s such an odd amount, but possibly / probably because of tax I would assume. This is my first time having anything from them, and I was not disappointed. On Untappd their listed as having 60 unique beers. You can find the link to them above.

It’s hard to tell from the picture above (didn’t want to detract from the streaming by taking a beautiful photo, so you’ll have to deal with the crappy photo pic of the beer, half drank), but this looks like a juicy dank normal New England IPA. It’s hazy and opaque, and it foamed up a lot more than I imagined it would (could be traveling causing some shaking), but it had a lot of head to this. White foamy, billowy head to it, that left a fair bit of lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a very juicy, citrus, hoppy New England IPA. Its bright, powerful, and strong hop notes, this smells every bit as what you’re expecting from a hoppy and hop forward New England IPA. It’s definitely taken the knob and turned it up to max on the hop aroma, and there ain’t a thing wrong with that.

Taste is just like the above two – spot on for a New England hoppy / hop forward IPA. Very juicy, very strong hop notes and flavors, very powerful hop presence, that will really knock your socks off (be careful; drink this with shoes on to protect yourself from flying socks). There isn’t a crazy amount of things going on with this beer, its pretty much standard, by the numbers, but its done extremely well. You get a lot of juicy citrus hop notes up front, that taper off into more subtle earthy hop notes, with a slight background of mango hops flavors. It all blends pretty much by the end, and all blends very well to boot. Sometimes the best beer is just a beer done extremely well. Doesn’t need to have five thousand adjuncts or forty million different ingredients or a bunch of crazy recipe additions, late hop this, or dry hopped that, just a well brewed, delicious, tasty, and drinkable beer is all you really need most times; and this is just that beer. It hits all of the palate well, and spot on, doesn’t have any lingering or bad off flavors, and gets you wanting more when you are finished. At 7.2% ABV its not super strong and comparison wise, that puts it near Perpetual IPA (7.5%) by Troegs Brewing; so its not incredibly strong, and easy to drink a few of these at a time. A great beer to have while hanging out with friends and playing video games and streaming the game, while being chased and hacked to pieces by Jason.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 10.22.20)

Thanks for reading everyone. Today has been a slow day for me, I had wanted to go hiking and taking the dog walking and checking out a brewery or two or something, but that doesn’t look to be happening (started off slow… I may or may not have a pretty decent size headache when I woke up this morning, and woke up at 7AM thinking it was a work day, and then went back to sleep and woke up at 8:30-9AM). But hopefully tomorrow will be a hiking and traveling day. I’m thinking of hitting up the Hamburg area for hiking and obviously the breweries in the nearby areas.

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

Final notes – be sure to check out our article on Pilger Ruh Brewing and their crowd funding, they begin construction work on their brewery tomorrow, and need every cent they can get, so check that out and see if you are able to help out. Also, tomorrow, Tattered Flag released their Pitties beer; which some of the proceeds go towards helping Pittie Rescues. Be sure to check that out.

Ok everyone, have a great Thursday, and it’s time I get my butt moving instead of doing nothing all day. Alright, cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Pilger Ruh Brewing is currently looking for your help. They have finally found the location for their future home, in Pottsville Pennsylvania, they just need your help to get this dream up off the ground and get those taps flowing.

As with any older building, its going to need a lot of renovations, innovations, changes, and modifications to get it turned into a thriving business… let alone a bustling brewery. Which is one of the great thing about craft breweries – turning old buildings into brand new beautiful rustic but modern restaurants and breweries. Look at how Rubber Soul has turned the old police station (borough office building) in Hummelstown into their brewery. Or how Tattered Flag renovated their old building in Middletown. Its a common theme for many breweries; take an old building in a town they like, and renovate and modify it to meet their needs. It preserves the building, gives the brewery a unique look, helps the town, and helps the brewery. Seems like a win all around right?

Right.

So let’s help out Pilger Ruh Brewing get the money they need so they can do the same in Pottsville!

How can you help? Well, its really simple. Similar to a GoFundMe page, they have a indigogo page. You go there, donate what you can, and it all adds up. Want to help Pilger Ruh Brewing out and help them hit their goals and meet their dreams? Click here to donate: Pilger Ruh Brewing IndieGoGo Page.

Why should you help out?

Well…. firstly, you would be helping a brand new brewery start up. You would be helping brewers, community members, friends, and family meet their dreams and achieve their goals. And secondly… you’ll get some perks out of it too!

Some perks include: free t-shirts, hoodies, limited edition glasswear, tickets to conventions, discounts on mug club memberships, getting to name some of their fermenters and tanks, brewing with them, hats, and getting to name some of their beers.

Thats a lot of incentive just right there to help them out.

Want to read their story? (You can go to their IndieGoGo page to read it) or read the following:

“Pilger Ruh Brewing is a new craft brewery coming to Schuylkill County PA! The whole dream started three years ago in the summer of 2017 when owners Tyler Budwash, Anthony Deppen, Conlan Budwash, along with friends Matt and Alex started brewing together.  We quickly joined the beer festival circuit and received great reviews from consumers all over the state.  Our brewery has over 14 years of combined brewing experience and we plan to bring great local beers of all styles to Pottsville PA in 2021!  Co-Owner Tyler has been homebrewing since 2013, started the Schuylkill County Brew Fest, and has been to over 250 different breweries in the US, a graduate of Kutztown University where he has a BA in Political Science.  He currently lives in Schuylkill County with his 2 children and girlfriend Corine.  Co-Owner Anthony Deppen has been homebrewing since 2017, world traveled professional wrestler, currently lives in New Cumberland PA with his wife Cassidy where they are expecting their first child in November 2020.  Head Brewer Conlan Budwash has been the assistant brewer at Snitz Creek the last 4 years, worked at Troegs Brewing Company the last 5 years, lives in Pine Grove, and graduated from the Brew Science course through HACC.

We started this campaign to help raise some money to cover additional renovations to complete our taproom and gain some extra working capital upon opening. (we aren’t asking for a lot).  Getting this brewery off the ground has been financially challenging for us, but we have faith that we can make this work no matter what the situation is. Instead of asking for money outright, we want to offer you a number of different options where you gain something as well.  No matter what you decide to give we are very appreciative of you for that and each and every person that has supported us on this journey.

Our goal is to raise at least $25,000 to complete our renovations (floors, walls, bathrooms, reinforcing the basement etc). As we said earlier, we want to offer you something for helping us.  Some of the perks we have lined up are limited edition glasses, shirts, deals on mug club memberships, naming tanks, brewing with us, exclusive beers, hoodies, hats, free tickets to events ran by us and more!  We set our goal a bit higher than we wanted to, so no matter what amount we reach, ALL proceeds will be going into getting the taproom ready for early next year.

The brewery plans to be very community oriented, which is why we chose to move our operations to Pottsville PA.  We want to bring something new to the area and help it gain more traction and give back to the community as much as we could.  Five years ago there weren’t any actual craft breweries in Schuylkill County, now after we open there will be technically six. Anyone that has had our beers over the last 3.5 years knows what to expect when we open, and that’s quality beers.  Our beers have been speaking for themselves at each and every event and we plan to continue that quality when we open next year.

We are aware that starting a new business comes with a ton of risks, especially when it comes to beer.  I mean we could fail in a year and be gone, but we will not let that happen because we cannot fail and we will not fail.  We chose the not so expensive route for all of our equipment, we bought things that made sense with our budget, not dropping thousands of dollars to look good or buy huge name brands.  This project has been trying to get off the ground  for 2 years now, we were unable to obtain funding from quite some time before we were able to save up a lot of our own money and gain a small SBA loan for our equipment.  Unfortunately COVID19 set up back a few months with getting our plans and permits ready, but we are now ready to go.  We’re very happy to be in the situation we are in now and want to finish up renovations so we can open and start paying back all of our debts.  Every last penny will be going towards the brewery, whether it be our glassware or something as small as a floor mat. 

If our perks aren’t something you’re interested in you can still help.  We would greatly appreciate you sharing our Facebook page and inviting all of your friends to like it.  Give us a Like on Instagram, tell all your friends and family about us, and when we open come say hi!

Thank you!

-Tyler, Tony, and Conlan”

The building’s location is 213 N. Centre Street in Pottsville, PA. They have quite a few renovations they need to do to make the building into a brewery. Namely flooring, walls, reinforcing the basement, drainage, ditches, new bathrooms, etc.

Their current goal is 25,000$. As of posting time (9.23.20 – 10PM) they are up to 3,468$. So there is a ways to go, and every penny will help add up!

You most likely have met, known, or heard of Pilger Ruh Brewing, or the Budwash brothers from the various events and brewfests. They are typically a staple at the Litiz, Mount Hope, Lancaster, and Schukyll Brewfests (they actually run the Schukyll Brewfest). They are also usually seen at Ffej of July, at the Kegs and Eggs at Rotunda, and many other events, brewfests, and charity events. They have been working at Troegs Brewing and Snitz Creek Brewery, behind the scenes things, and as of now, brewing for Snitz Creek. You can also find their own Pilger Ruh beers on tap at the Snitz Creek Annville (the old Funck’s – right next to the Fort Indiantown Gap Cemetery) location.

I’ve gotten to know all three quite well over the years, from different events, from the Central PA Whalerz, from Tyler’s love of the civil war, all three’s love for professional wrestling (Anthony Deppen is actually a professional wrestler – Tony Deppen – who wrestles for promotions such as Ring of Honor [ROH], amongst many others), and their collaborations with Tattered Flag.

They are all a bunch of great dudes, so let’s help them make this happen. The world needs more great beers and more great breweries and brewers. So lets band together and help them out!

You can follow them on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You can read our interview with Tyler Budwash here. Brewer Interview Series: Tyler Budwash.

Some beer reviews of their collaborations:

• Beer Review: Social Distancing
• Beer Review: Should Have Put Him In Custardy
• Beer Review: Abbra Collabra 6-Way Collaboration: Banana Milkshake

So let’s get this done guys! Donate now!

Donation Link: Pilger Ruh Brewing IndieGoGo

Links:

• Pilger Ruh Brewing
• Pilger Ruh Brewing – IndieGoGo – Donations

Lots more stuff happening here with the blog. Look for an interview with Scott Smith (of East End Brewing) soon. An interview with a Cape May brewing scientist. More beer reviews. A Poconos trip soon. (Finally!) The YouTube Video. Highway Manor’s Opening. And lots more. So be sure to stay here and check it all out. So be sure to follow, like, subscribe, and follow us on our social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Thanks!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Welcome to our first of the brewer interview series that I am introducing to the blog. This is going to be a new section to the blog that will include interviews with head brewers, assistant brewers, beer scientists, home brewers, fellow beer bloggers, and other craft beer industry workers. This has long been a segment and series I wanted to introduce to the blog, but finally got off the ground. If you are a brewer or industry worker and would be interested in doing an interview, contact us through the CONTACT PAGE (link here or see above in the menu).

Our very first interviewee for the segment is Tyler Budwash of Pilger Ruh Brewing. Tyler is a great guy, I’ve gotten to know him through helping out with Tattered Flag’s canning line where Pilger Ruh has done a few collaborations, as well as several brewfests, Ffej of July, and discussing Civil War battlefields with him; as well as the Central PA Whalerz.

Our interviews will follow a pretty simplistic and easy formula for everyone we interview. Topics will be introduced in bold and underline, questions will be asked in bold, and answers will be in regular font. TBT stands for The Beer Thrillers. The interviewee’s name will be initialized in his answers. (Example: TB = Tyler Budwash).

Starting off with the simple, softball, questions:

TBT: What is your name and do you currently work for a brewery?

TB:  My name is Tyler Budwash, I currently work for the Social Security Administration, but will also be working at my brewery when we open.

TBT: What is your brewing background?

TB: I got into homebrewing in early 2012 (Mr Beer Kit). At the time I wasn’t aware that alot of extract beer is kind of gross the way it is so I had some okay beers but quite a few misses before I got into all grain brewing in 2013 or so. I then stopped brewing all together in late 2014 as I was preparing to have my first child and didn’t get back into it until 2017. Both Conyngham Brewing and Rotunda let me come in and collab on some beers for my fest (Schuylkill County Brew Fest) and I haven’t looked back since.

TBT: What are your interests in and out of the industry?

TB: Pro Wrestling, history, weight lifting, Carolina Panther Football, coordinating events.

TBT: How did you get into beer? What were your ‘starting beer’ days like? What were the first craft breweries you tasted / visited?

TB: My starting beers were Miller Lite, Yuengling Lager, Budweiser, and Hurricanes. Some of the first “craft beers” I got into at the time were Sam Adams, Magic Hat, and Saranac..I always got variety packs to try as many different beers as I could. This was pre – Untappd days so I wasn’t even getting any check-ins/badges! As far as actual breweries that I first visited…it’d have to be ABC in Harrisburg, Troegs, and a brew pub in Myrtle Beach that’s now closed called Liberty. ABC and Troegs definitely got me more into the scene. I ended up going to a ton of beer fests just to see what else was out there. I had no idea there were as many PA breweries as there were and this was back in 2013.

TBT: How did you get into brewing?

TB: The love of beer, beer fests, and starting my own festival all gave me the itch.

Brewing Specific:

TBT: What is / will be your full job at Pilger Ruh Brewing?

TB: We didn’t give ourselves any fancy titles yet, but I’ll be Co-Owner/Brewmaster? I’ll basically be running the day to day activities (brew/personnel scheduling, event coordinating, ordering etc) while our other Co-Owner Tony Deppen is more of the big picture. My brother Conlan Budwash will take the Head Brewer position and he’s also a minority owner.

TBT: What do you like to brew? What styles do you like most?

TB: I like brewing stouts, whether it’s going to be heavily adjuncted or straight up. I also like brewing Pilsners, they’re not an easy beer to brew so I enjoyed the challenge.I’m going to sound just like every other beer boi out there right now but I enjoy my hazy IPAs and fruited sours, but again my palate had come full circle and I’m enjoying alot of Pilsners, hefeweizens, and kolsches as of late.

TBT: Who are some of your favorite current brewers and breweries? What do you like about them, why do you like them, etc?

TB: This is a loaded question. Favorite brewers? My favorite brewers are the friends I’ve made over the last couple years, so it’d  be Dave Morrow (Chatty Monks), Justin Hoak (Tattered Flag), Derek Wolf (Wolf Brewing), Brad Moyer( Liquid Noise), and Eric Stubbs (Rotunda). I’ve been picking their brains for years now and they’ve all been nothing but great to me and Pilger Ruh. Favorite breweries… I’ll do it like this. Locally I really like Tattered Flag (great beer and chicken sammiches), The Millworks (I love the not so over the top styles and of course their chicken sammiches), Hidden River (awesome beer and ambiance) , and South County (they knock everything out of the park and I miss the Gelato line beer shares). Outside of this general area I really like The Veil, Urban South Htx, Dancing Gnome, Cinderlands, Cushwa.

TBT: What styles do you think you do best? What are some of your hardest styles to nail down? 

TB: I’ll have to go back to stouts as the styles I do best, along with sours, and Pilsners. Believe it or not IPAs were very hard for me to nail at first (oxygen and shit). Luckily that’s no longer an issue.

TBT: What do you think are defining qualities of a good beer?

TB: Your water. Does it match your description?

TBT: What do you think are defining qualities of a good brewer?

TB: Being able to adapt, never think you know everything because you never stop learning.

TBT: Same vein as the last two – what do you think are defining qualities of a good brewery?

TB: Good beer, ambiance, and friendliness.

Pilger Ruh Brewing Specific:

TBT: Tell us about Pilger Ruh. What is Pilger Ruh Brewing? How did it form? Who all is involved? What are the plans for the brewery/etc?

TB: Pilger Ruh started when myself and 4 others wanted to start a homebrew club. At that point we were going by Keyhop Homebrew Club. One thing led to another and we found ourselves on festivals around the state.Right now, as I said earlier it’s myself, Tony Deppen, and my brother Conlan as the three owners/brewers. We have 2 others (Matt and Alex) who have been helping us along the way.Plans for the brewery, well we are going to open on a 5 barrel system in a 2400 square foot building in Pottsville PA. We’ll have 12-15 rotating taps from Milkshake IPAs to Dark Milds. We will be focusing on the popular hype beers but will have something for everyone.

TBT: Where do you foresee Pilger Ruh Brewing in 5, 10, 15 years from now?

TB: I hope to see ourselves growing with production, and paying off all our debts ASAP as possible. Buying a canning line. My personal goal would be to open a second location, where we’d get a bigger system.

COVID-19 and Beer Industry Specific:

TBT: How has COVID-19 impacted Pilger Ruh Brewing? Impacted your brewing and impacted your current work?

TB: I’ve been working from home since mid March. I actually get less work done with the brewery than I do when I’m at my office. It impacted the brewery by the cancelling of all the beer festivals, closing on our loan, but at the same time it bought us time as I wouldn’t want to open during this pandemic.

TBT: How do you think COVID-19 has impacted the beer industry as a whole? Specifically the craft beer market, and even more so in PA?

TB: It shows that people care about their local breweries and that you better have a crowler machine or canning line. I guess now you have to have your permit to sell food.

TBT: What do you think will be the big trends in the foreseeable future?

TB: People reverting back to easy drinking beers and doing everything you do to sours to some classic styles (blondes, hefes, wits).

TBT: What are some trends you think have benefited the craft beer industry?

TB: Seltzers, low cals, all around light beers. I feel fruited sours and IPAs bring people in, but there’s only so many you can drink. I can drink PBR all day.

TBT: What are some things, aspects, or trends of the craft beer industry you don’t like, or think has been a negative on the craft beer market?

TB: Oh God, well you’re in some of the same beer groups as me so you can see whatever negatives there are. I think as a brewery you always got to put your customers first, never think you’re above them or anyone. There’s lots of people making good beer, it doesn’t mean you have to be a douchebag about it.

TBT: Is there such a thing as the “craft beer bubble” and if so, do you feel like it’s going to burst – soon, in the future, or is currently happening?

TB: Are we seeing the bubble burst right now?  Look how many breweries in the last year or so that closed because they got too big too quick, got locked into a distributor contract, or there was no market for their beer. One thing I want to absolutely avoid is distribution. If we ever did distro our beer we will do it ourselves. Too big or too small may be an issue going forward.  However, I do think there could be a brewery in every other town and everyone could be successful. You have to pick the right location and know your market.

TBT: What are some ultimate goals you have for Pilger Ruh Brewing, for your own brewing, etc?

TB: I want to help build a community around us in Schuylkill County. We owe alot of breweries collabs, but I want to bring non beer people into the scene and get them involved. I want to show my area that a brewery like us can succeed. I want us to be able to give back to the community, make it better for others, and leave the area better than we found it.

TBT: What do you foresee being the big changes happening to the craft beer market in 5, 10, 15 years?

TB: More breweries getting bought out by the big guys and competing for shelf space while we sell all of our beer from our taproom. More seltzers and easy drinkers, fruited sours/hazy IPAs will still be here.

You can follow Pilger Ruh Brewing on their following social media platforms:
Facebook: Pilger Ruh Brewing
Twitter: @PilgerRuhBrews
Instagram: Pilger Ruh Brewing
Untappd: Pilger Ruh Brewing

For articles on or about Pilger Ruh Brewing here on The Beer Thrillers, you can check out:

• Beer Review: Social Distancing (Abomination Brewing, Pilger Ruh Brewing, and Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Should Have Put Him In Custardy (Tattered Flag and Pilger Ruh Brewing)
• Beer Review: Abbra Collabra 6 Way Banana Split Milkshake IPA (Tattered Flag, Pilger Ruh Brewing, Rotunda Brewing Company, Collusion Tap Works, Snitz Creek Brewing, Abomination Brewing, Wolf Brewing Company)

This article has impeccable timing on its release, as today is Tyler Budwash’s birthday. So make sure you give him a big Happy Birthday.

Make sure to check out our growing Brewer Interview series. A. Parys is currently wrapping up his interview with a beer scientist from Cape May Brewing Company, so be sure to check that out. If you would like to be interviewed or know of someone who would like to be or would make for a good interview, be sure to either comment here or contact us using our CONTACT PAGE.

Cheers Everyone!

-B. Kline

Friday, as you guys have read, I was lucky enough to help out at Tattered Flag’s canning run for their collaboration effort with Abomination Brewing and Pilger Ruh Brewing for their version of Social Distancing. Abomination Brewing has set this collaboration up, and they have done it with a few varied other breweries (notable ones include Ever Grain Brewing and Breaker Brewing).

Abomination Brewing’s press release on the beer:

“The Beer industry has always relied on community, now more than ever. And since we can’t drink a beer together, we’ll BREW a beer together, but responsibly apart, to get us through these hard times. Social Distancing is a massive collaboration with some of our favorite folks in the industry! Each collaborating brewery will be brewing up their own unique version of this DDH DIPA, so trust us, you’re going to want to try them all! We will be updating the list below as we announce collaborating breweries!” (Abomination Brewing – Social Distancing)

A full list of participating breweries include:

• Saints Row Brewing
• Kinsmen Brewing
• Hoof Hearted Brewing
• The North Brewery
• Breaker Brewing
• Ever Grain Brewing Co.
• Pilger Ruh Brewing
• Ten7 Brewing Company
• Rotunda Brewing Company
• Tattered Flag
• Front Porch Brewing
• Icarus Brewing
• Bolero Snort
• Lost Tavern Brewing

Its quite a hefty list. Each beer brewed is a collaboration, all with Abomination Brewing as the genesis. For example; Rotunda Brewing is a collaboration with them and Abomination Brewing. Ever Grain Brewing is them and Abomination Brewing; Breaker is them and Abomination Brewing, and the one I will be reviewing here today – Tattered Flag’s – is a collaboration with Tattered Flag, Abomination Brewing, and the guys at Pilger Ruh Brewing.

So grab a chair, sit six feet away, grab a glass and a Social Distancing, and lets check this bad boy out!

Firstly, lets look at the breweries involved – Tattered Flag, Abomination Brewing, and Pilger Ruh Brewing. For many readers, Tattered Flag will be very recognizable, especially on this blog as I’ve reviewed several beers from them (Tattered Soul, You Hoppin On Me?, Tattered Dreamz, Member Berry, Wasted Away Again, Inexplicably Juicy, Should Have Put Him in Custardy, Pink Guava, Boulangerie Stout, and lastly another collaboration involving Pilger Ruh Brewing and Abomination Brewing [as well as three other breweries – Wolf Brewing, Rotunda Brewing Company, and Snitz Creek Brewing] – Abbra Collabra Six-Way Banana Milkshake IPA).

So, astute readers of the blog should recognize Pilger Ruh and Abomination Brewing as well. From the various reviews as well as event coverage I’ve done (like Ffej of July, and different brewfests). Tattered Flag and Pilger Ruh have ‘hooked up’ several times over the recent years, and each time has resulted in a homerun, and this certainly is no different.

For some background information all the same:

Pilger Ruh Brewing – Nano Brewery, 63 unique beers, a global average rating of 4.03 (as of 5.25.20). Untappd Description: Future nano brewery coming to Schuylkill County PA!
Abomination Brewing – Contract Brewery, 133 unique beers, a global average rating of 3.94 (as of 5.25.20). Untappd Description: Nomadic brewers specializing in out of this world experimental ales. #beermonster.
Tattered Flag – Micro Brewery, 416 unique beers, a global average rating of 3.79 (as of 5.25.20). Untappd Description: (blank).

So we canned this just Friday; 5.22.20 at the Tattered Flag brewery. Have no fear, we all maintained social distancing and practiced safety and precautions given everything going on. Justin as head brewer for Tattered Flag supervised the canning and the guys from Pilger Ruh Brewing (Tyler and Conlan Budwash, and Anthony Deppen) were on hand as well. As well as myself and two other volunteers. The canning run went smoothly, very few low-fills and no disasters (like a few times in the past). Starting at 10AM and ending around 1:30PM, not a bad, quick, easy, smooth canning day. I got to hang out with the guys, drink a few (…ok three) of the Social Distancing beers, as well as sample the Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Custardy series), and try out the Breaker Brewing and Ever Grain Brewing Co’s variants of the Social Distancing beer.

I figured for the review though, getting to have this beer with family on Memorial Day (again, social distancing was performed, and all people mostly quarantined together, and all in good health, as well as only an attendance of 7 people counting little ones), this would be the perfect, appropriate time to review the beer. So without further adieu, lets review!

Beer: Social Distancing
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaborators: Pilger Ruh Brewing and Abomination Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: (none listed)
Untappd Description: Social distancing is our newest collab hosted by Abomination Brewing co and brewed in our facility with Pilger Ruh Brewing Co. With a base of 2-row, wheat, and oats each brewery put a spin on this collab by selecting different hop varieties. Our version was whirlpooled with Motueka, fermented with Kviek Voss, then slammed with a Citra and Strata dry hop for notes of mango, fresh berry, bright citrus, and gooseberry. Please enjoy no less than 6′ from your drinking buddy!

Canning day the whole brewery smelled delicious, like walking into a hop filled bakery. And cracking this beer just three days later retained that same smell. Strong juicy New England style hoppy deliciousness as soon as the tab cracked and the can opened. Very strong, citrus, floral and fruity notes, hint of peach and mango especially out of the fruit.

Appearance is very pretty, as my dad even noted “looks like you have lemonade and mixed a little bit of orange juice in it… boy” (…….thats a direct quote to. Also after he admonished me for using Petunia Pig instead of the Sylvester Cat pint glass too. He stands by his statement that Petunia wouldn’t drink but that Sylvester was a lush.) He is pretty right about the appearance; it is a lighter orange juice coloring. Typical for a New England IPA, its unfiltered, its juicy, its dank, its hazy (or as the cool kids would say “hazy AF”…. no clue what the A and the F stand for…). There is floaters but nothing crazy snow-globe like. It did manage to turn Petunia’s eyes an evil Sith Lord like yellow / orange.

Taste is genuinely juicy delicious. No hop bite, even the day of canning there was no ‘green-ness’ to it and hop bitterness. This is just a juicy, fluid, smooth beer. Immediate notes of peach, mango, floral, juicy, citrus hops; smaller notes of berry flavors like fresh picked mixture of blackberry, raspberry, and gooseberries. There is a floral note to the hops as well, and just a bit of an underlying wheat and oat tasting to it. The dry-hopping really brings out the bright and juicy hop notes, and keeps the bitterness down especially. No strong hop bite makes this extraordinarily smooth and juice like drink. It also masks the 8% making this feel a lot lighter and airy. With the small foamy pillowy head, you definitely get a vibe of lightness and airyness from this, just a gentle nice summer drink. Perfect for parties, or by the pool, or hanging out…. while being six feet (minimum) apart from friends. Made for a wonderful Memorial Day weekend beer (had a few the night before and then one at the party), also made for a fantastic post-7 mile hike at Gifford Pinchot beer as well Saturday night. This is definitely a fantastic and easy juicy beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.16 (as of 5.25.20)

Hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll wrap up Module Ten in our beer education series (which is the last module), and we’ll have that all finished. Also, make sure to check out the canning article from my day volunteering and helping the canning run for this wonderful beer. Thank you everyone for checking us out, make sure to like, subscribe, follow, share, etc, etc, etc, etc. We here at The Beer Thrillers greatly appreciate it!

Also, make sure your staying healthy out there, make sure to drink plenty of juice (wink wink nudge nudge) and stay six feet apart (…social distancing one might say…). Enjoy your Memorial Weekend, and remember why we celebrate it. Why you would have the day off (even if you weren’t furloughed like I am), and respect and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Cheers everyone! Happy Memorial Day, happy beer, and see you guys once this is all behind us! We’re getting there, almost out of the woods!

-B. Kline