Episode 269 of the Beer Busters Podcast will be their final podcast. They dropped it on us just a bit ago today (at 2:57 PM) and said “Thats a Wrap” on what was an amazing, epic, journey through Pennsylvania, Central PA, Jersey, New York, and so much more of the craft beer world. Their very first podcast was on May 6th, 2013; and their final podcast just released today – January 19, 2025. A nearly full 12 year, epic run, of 269+ podcasts, YouTube videos, blog articles, and so much more that helped the brewing community so much over the years.

Beer Busters Podcast – Episode 269: So Long, and Thanks for all the Beer (photo courtesy of Beer Busters Podcast)

Episode 269: So Long, and Thanks for all the Beer

This is the end of the road. The epic journey of the Beer Busters Podcast is ending with their swan song of episode 269. You can find the episode at their website here: 269: So Long, And Thanks For All The Beer. Or YouTube here: Episode 269: So Long, And Thanks For All The Beer.

Episode description:

Episode 269

With Sincere Gratitude

A lot has changed in the last 12 years, including us. We present for you one last free-for-all with just the Beer Busters. Thank you, sincerely, to all of you for riding along. Be true to yourselves and kind to each other.

– Steph, Dan, and Wayne

—Beer Busters Podcast: Episode 269: So Long, and Thanks for all the Beer

Beer Busters Podcast

Meet the Beer Busters

Find the Beer Busters

You can still find the Beer Busters through these different means (websites, podsites, social media, etc.) Their content will most likely be staying online for the near foreseeable future; no word on if or when it will be taken down.

• Website: Beer Busters Podcast
  • Full List of Podcast Episodes: Beer Busters Archive of Episodes
• Facebook: Beer Busters Podcast – Facebook Page
• YouTube: Beer Busters Podcast @ YouTube
• Beer Busters Podcast – Podcast Feed RSS
• Beer Busters Podcast on Twitter: Beer Busters Podcast @ X
• Instagram: Beer Busters Podcast on Instagram

Beer Busters Podcast: 2013 – 2025
(photo courtesy of Beer Busters Podcast)

Beer Busters Legacy

Josh appearing on the Central PA Pour

Josh Appeared on the Central PA Pour Live Recording from the Winter Brew Fest

On the 24th of February, Josh attended the Winter Brew Fest at Double Road House in Red Lion, enjoying the brewfest while Ben and Amy worked / took care of Scarlet. Central PA Pour – found here: Central PA Pour Podcasts and Videos on YouTube – happened to be there hosting a live Podcast. They invited Josh on for part of their recording. To watch Josh’s segment, you can click this link and go directly to his segment: Josh on Central PA Pour. To watch the video in it’s entirety, you can click here: Central PA Pour at the Winter Brew Fest at Double Road House in Red Lion.

Central PA Pour

Make sure you check out Central PA Pour on their YouTube page. They are great guys and do some wonderful podcasts and videos. Subscribe and follow, I highly recommend them.

You can see our other articles with them here:

• Central PA Pour
• Central PA Pour Season 2 Episode 8: The Beer Thrillers

Thank You for Reading

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

Cheers.

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

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

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

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

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

A beautiful mural in Phoenix, Arizona

Four in Phoenix

Being in Phoenix last month was a nice break from a Pennsylvania winter and I also dodged an
Arizona summer. With temps in the mid-sixties during the day and under sunny skies, the
weather demanded that I find some beers to drink. I managed to hit four breweries that are
definitely worth a visit no matter the weather.

Tombstone Brewing Company – North

A flight at Tombstone Brewing Company – North.

Located in a small strip mall in the north of Phoenix, this brewery was a lot of fun. I sat at the
bar where a super-friendly bartender was happy to talk with me about the beer selection. I
also met the owner who told me how happy he was to take over what used to be a poolhall. It
was a great afternoon. I look forward to spending more time here during my next trip. Favorite
Beer: Dry Irish Stout 10% ABV packs a lot of toasted flavor without being overpowering or too
bitter.

Wren House Brewing Company

Beers at Wren House Brewery.

My friend Gina joined me for the next three brewery visits. Wren House was recommended by
Joel from The Brewery Travels Podcast. It was a great recommendation. Gina and I visited
Wren House that’s a small bungalow on a busy street. Stepping inside, the place is a welcoming
respite from the traffic outside. There are a lot of little nooks where you can find an intimate
spot and a large space near the bar if you want to be part of the taproom vibe. A small
courtyard is near the side of the bar for sitting outside. Gina and I had flights at the bar, but
unlike the four small pours that other breweries typically serve, Wren House only serves two at
time. It’s actually a great way to focus more intently on the tastes and flavors of the
beers…they also don’t get warm in the Phoenix heat. My favorite was the Jomax Oatmeal Stout
6.9% ABV made with Ethiopian coffee after fermentation, which gave the beer a drier finish and
a little pep as well. Gina liked the Spellbinder with Citra Hazy IPA 6.9% ABV that had a nice
citrus and peach flavor.

PHX Beer Co

A flight at PHX Brew Co.

Jumping into an Uber, Gina and I headed to PHX Beer Co. Unlike Wren House, PHX Beer Co.
was much more like a familiar craft brewery with cornhole, giant Jenga and board games in a
makeshift courtyard inside the building. Also like most craft breweries, flights with four small
pour were on the menu. My favorite was the Morenci Copper Ale 5.2% ABV with its malty and
caramel notes. Gina’s favorite was the bright and crisp Bird City Lager 4.4% ABV.

OHSO Brewery and Distillery

A flight at OHSO Brewery and Distillery.

Grabbing another Uber, off we went to OHSO Brewery and Distillery. When we pulled up to
OHSO, we noticed right away that a sizable portion of the bar was outside. We took two of
those seats in the softening afternoon sun. The bartender came right over and spent some
time helping us decide what to get for our final flights of the day. Gina and I both agreed that
we should probably eat something. It had already been a full day of beer drinking. The
artichoke dip and the steak and fries were just what we needed…and they were delicious! We
both thought the artichoke dip was one of the best we’d ever had. The beers were great, too.
My favorite was the malty and dry Big Rapid Imperial Red 9.5% ABV. Gina’s favorite was the
citrusy Boom Dynamite American IPA 6.4% ABV.

Phoenix

These four breweries are only a small snapshot of the craft beer scene in Phoenix. There are
dozens of breweries in and around the city, but Tombstone, Wren House, PHX and OHSO are a
good place to start!

A beautiful mural in Phoenix, Arizona

Paul R. Kan

Paul R. Kan is the author of Hawai’i Beer:  A History of Brewing in Paradise which was a North American Guild of Beer Writers’ award winner and a #1 new release on Amazon’s Books on Beer.  He has written for Good Beer Hunting and is Editor-at-Large at The Beer Thrillers.  Along with beer reviews, book reviews and interviews, he also writes about the interesting ways beer intersects with people and society.  His current book project is Red, White and Brew:  The Beers and Battles that Shaped America. He lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

ʻOi kau ka lā, e hana i ola honua (While the sun yet shines, do all you can).

Paul R. Kan Articles

The following are articles that Paul R. Kan has written here for The Beer Thrillers:

• Book Review: Beer and Society: How We Make Beer and Beer Makes Us (Eli Revelle Yano Wilson and Asa B. Stone)
• Book Review: A Woman’s Place is in the Brewhouse – A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs (Tara Nurin)
• From Central PA to the Pacific: A Beer Lover’s Hawaiian Journey An Interview with Alexander B. Gates
• Book Review: The Greatest Beer Run Ever (John Chick Donohue and J.T. Molloy)
• Twofer Brewfer Brewery Reviews: Gearhouse Brewing Co. and Liquid Art Brewing
• Tapping into Heritage and Hope on Maui
• Book Review: Brewed in Japan (Jeffrey Alexander)
• Three Questions and a Pint: with Josh Dourte
• Three Questions and a Pint: with Noah Reighard
• Visiting Four Breweries in Phoenix: Getting to Visit Tombstone Brewing Company, Wren House Brewing, PHX Beer Co, and OHSO Brewery and Distillery

Thank You For Reading

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

Cheers.

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

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

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

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

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

This Saturday – January 6th, 2024 – at 2:00 PM at Boneshire Brew Works, we will be appearing on Lew Bryson’s “Seen Through a Glass” podcast.

Lew Bryson is an all – star in the craft beer and alcohol industry. He’s an accomplished writer, author, traveler, has a podcast, appears on a craft beer TV show, and so much more. To list his full accomplishments and accolades would take far too long to even make a list. (Maybe we will anyway, just to see the stretch of it all.)

So it is a complete honor to get to be on his podcast this Saturday. We will be discussing Boneshire Brew Works’ beers, the state of the industry, and Central PA. We will keep you updated for when the podcast becomes available for download and to listen.

Seen Through a Glass

You can find the podcast directly at its website here: Seen Through a Glass: A Podcast. You can also download individual podcasts through Apple, Google, PodBean, Spotify, and PlayerFM.

The official homepage description reads:

Seen Through A Glass is about drinks and food in central Pennsylvania, hosted by experienced drinks writer Lew Bryson. There are shows about particular products — maple syrup, soft-serve ice cream, whiskey — and about the attractions of individual towns: Lock Haven, Carlisle, Altoona. We do interviews, visit/reviews, and there’s always What I’m Drinking Today, a review of a beverage; might be whiskey, might be beer, might be coffee. Grab a slice and a glass and join us! The show accepts NO money from the businesses and people I talk to. If that ever changes, I’ll let you know.

Be sure to stay tuned for when we have the podcast, and when its available. Also stay up to date with the Seen Through a Glass Facebook Page.

Thank You For Reading

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

Cheers.

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

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

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

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

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

Free Will

What is free will? Do you have free will? Do I have free will? Does anyone have free will? I find myself constantly trying to wrap my head around free will, this way and that, attempting to understand it, from this angle or that. From the determinists, that believe that we don’t have free will – the hard line determinists especially in this regard – that everything is cause and effect, and due to some of the various science experiments and studies done over the years that show our brains actually decide an action up towards 7 seconds before we consciously make the decision or know we are making the decision; so from this, they take the stance that everything is out of our hands, that there is no free will, that we make no decisions, and have no choices. That when you decide on ‘strawberry’ ice cream, instead of ‘chocolate’ ice cream, its due to factors outside of our own decision making. Then there are those who believe we do have free will, and that everything is choice, nothing is decision, etc. Or they walk it back a bit, based on various things (ie. brain tumors, or alcohol, or drugs, etc.).

Sam Harris takes the side of determinism, and states that we don’t have free will. Others in various medias and forums and debates, from eminent scholars, to scientists, to politicians, to philosophers, to theologians, have taken both sides as well.

Philosophy

As I’m sure many readers of the blog are well aware of now, philosophy is one of my (few? many?) joys and interests. Especially when it comes to reading. If you’ve checked out our Instagram page I’m sure you’ve seen my beer pics and hiking pics where there is a book in the background, and more likely than not, that’s a philosophy book. I am actually hoping to be launching a Podcast soon, where philosophy and books and literature will be a large staple of it. (As will beer of course, I mean, we are The Beer Thrillers, after all.) But, needless to say, philosophy is a strong / big interest here, as well as fun hobby for me. I enjoy reading, writing, dissecting, and thinking philosophically about many, many, many topics, and interests. (I love the union and crossing of pop culture and philosophy, the Pop Culture Philosophy books are a fun starting point for many people into the realm of philosophy.)

I have previously covered ‘What More Philosophers Think‘ here on the blog, and in due time, there will be plenty more philosophy books covered as well. From all walks of philosophy; as much as I want to say ‘no one school of thought’ will be the heavy favorite…. I would be lying, as I will most likely cover existentialism, philosophy of the mind, and ethics philosophy the most. These are my favorite topics and branches of the philosophy tree, with some of my favorite writers being Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Baruch Spinoza, Frederich Nietzsche, Peter Singer, and many more. So buckle up, you will be seeing lots of their works covered here on the blog, as well, as hopefully, the podcast once I get that up and running.

Book Review

This is a relatively short treatise on Free Will. It seems to be honest that most free will treatises are just essays and are typically in the short essay form, and this falls in that category. A quick, easy, read (will help pad out your GoodReads 100 Book Challenge), but ultimately will give you lots to chew on and lots of questions, thoughts, and much more to ponder.

GoodReads has it listed as 96 pages, but that’s being a bit generous. My copy (which should be aligned with the one on GoodReads) has the final page as 83 (and this is including the index but not the ‘About the Author’ page). So its certainly a quick read, but there is definitely a fair bit too it. Sam Harris lays out his thoughts and opinions on determinism, how free will is a myth, and his thoughts in general about the subject rather succinctly and clearly and the prose is good and lively. Your mileage on his thoughts may vary, and your opinion of his thoughts and ideas might be different than another person, but his argument is well laid out, and he writes in a clear enough style, staying relatively clear of jargon. This is ‘academia made for laymen’ or as some call it ‘pop philosophy’ or various other terms. It’s an academic and thought out approach, but written for the general public, rather than twelve scholars and academics sitting in big leather chairs high up in some ivory tower probably covered in ivy.

Sam Harris immediately states that free will doesn’t exist, showcases his deterministic viewpoint on the matter, and then proceeds and moves on to why this shouldn’t change anything (or nothing really).

“We do not have the freedom we think we have… Either our wills are determined by prior causes and we are not responsible for them. Or they are the product of chance and we are not responsible for them.”

Free Will (Sam Harris)

He makes sure to point out that regardless of our inability to actually have free will, that we are unable to determine our own thoughts, actions, or behaviors, that this does not give us moral latitude, or justification, or even immunity. That justice must still be done to criminals, that if you murder, regardless of your lack of free will, you still deserve to be punished based on the law. This is always an interesting point, and a ‘sticking point’ for many in the deterministic vs. free will debate. Justice, law, and theology – are typically the biggest battle lines in the debate. If you have no free will, how can you be punished? I you have no free will, how can God send you to heaven or hell? Does morality matter if you have no free will? Etc. Sam Harris is an atheist and a strong proponent of it, but he still states that regardless of your lack of free will, you don’t have moral freedom. Your actions still do matter, regardless if its YOU acting it out or if its YOU ACTING IT OUT BECAUSE ‘X’. That justice and morality still need to function, elsewise society would crumble. Now, Harris doesn’t go full doom and gloom and say that much, but thats the slippery slope argument to it all.

“The intention to do one thing and not another does not originate in consciousness. Rather it appears in consciousness. As does any thought or impulse that might impose it.”

Free Will (Sam Harris)

This is the main hard line for most determinists. And it starts from the studies done with the MRIs and fRMIs, etc, that Libet did, that showcases a person’s choice happens up towards 7 seconds before the person is fully aware of their choice. This is an oft cited study and experiment that the determinists love to use when discussing and having the free will debate. And many articles and essays will go back to this time and time again.

If you are into philosophy, if you enjoy Sam Harris’s writing style, approach, or thought, if you are curious or interested in free will and the debates therein, I would highly recommend this. It’ll be a quick read, a day’s worth, depending on your reading speed and how much you set aside to thinking and contemplating everything. Will it solve your own internal debate on the topic? Will it let you decide if you have free will or not? Is this the ultimate explanation and answer to the debate? — Obviously no. And you, and I, and we all know this going in (or should anyway). No book of philosophy will give you every answer, neither will any book of religion, or science, or any book in general. That’s not the goal or point, or absolute value of a book. But will it give you something to think about? Will it give you a new perspective? Or new insight? Or a new way to look at the argument? That it will, and that is what any good philosophy book should do.

Free will is a tricky subject. Its something we all ‘want’ to have, and also ‘don’t want to have’. Because, we all want to think we have free will – when it obviously benefits us. We want the credit for when we are talented and make an artistic masterpiece, we want credit when we do something right; but at the same time, we don’t want credit (ie. blame) for when we come up short; our failings, our imperfections or flaws, our addictions and vices, etc. Then we want determinism, and to wash our hands and clap and say ‘it was those faulty wires up there’.

Science and philosophy (primarily science) is helping us get closer to the target on this debate, and in the years ahead, it will be interesting to see what new headway and roads we make into this topic and discussion. I’m looking forward to it…. if I chose to or not.

My GoodReads Rating: ****
Average Global GoodReads Rating: 3.87 (as of 8.26.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: ****

Some Interesting Articles on Free Will

Below is a list of some interesting articles, essays, websites, and videos about the subject of free will. Including an hour long discussion by Sam Harris himself on the topic.

• Sam Harris: On Free Will (YouTube)
• Determinism vs. Free Will (Crash Course Philosophy) (YouTube)
• There’s No Such Thing as Free Will (The Atlantic)
• Free Will is Real (Scientific American)
• Free Will (Wikipedia)
• Free Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Free Will (James Clear Book Review)

As always, thank you everyone for reading. Hope you found this informative and are enjoying our new book reviews on the blog. Be sure to check out more of them, as well as our hike reviews, our beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, and much more. And soon – hopefully in the near future – be on the lookout for our podcasts, which will cover a very wide range of topics. (I just have too many hobbies I think!) Including beer, breweries, home brewing, hop growing, books, literature, philosophy, and pop culture.

-B. Kline

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

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

Yes, you heard that right. The Beer Thrillers are starting up their own YouTube Channel. What a crazy world we live in right? What’s next – podcasts? Oh…. wait! But, in the meantime, be sure to check out our YouTube Channel. Some of you might have noticed the YouTube icon added to the ‘social icons’ at the top of each page starting yesterday morning. This was meant to go up yesterday morning before work when I did the work to make the channel but I unfortunately ran out of time, so it’s going up now.

You can click on any of the links in the above paragraph to get to the channel or directly here: The Beer Thrillers YouTube Channel.

There is currently no videos up yet, but we (myself and D. Scott) are filming our first video today, so hopefully editing and everything, I will be posting it Friday. We are also doing our latest podcast – So a Mexican and A Scott Walk Into a Bar… – this edition on The Umbrella Academy; tonight, so be sure to look for that in the future as well.

Some series ideas I have for our YouTube channel are:

• Beer Tastings / Beer Reviews
• Philosophy and Pints (or Pints and Philosophy / Philosophies)
• Let’s Drink and Talk Nerdy
• Beers and Bad Movies
• Books and Brews or Brews and Books
• Fan Mail
• Home Brewing

As you can see, several of the series will be combining my different interests – books, philosophy, movies, nerd culture, etc. There will also be regular series of beer tastings and reviews, and potentially videos of home brewing, once I fully get back into that. Fan Mail will be a mixed bag of things, beers sent for us to review from either fans, breweries, or home brewers; us reading e-mails, texts, etc. And who knows what else.

So please be sure to subscribe to our channel and click the ALERT bell so you get all of our notifications on our videos.

Also, be sure to check out our new Facebook group, you can find our group here: The Beer Thrillers (Group).

Thank you all, and hope you will enjoy the video channel as much as you do about the blog. Don’t worry, I will still continue to do plenty of writing. (And most of the beer review, tastings, will also appear as written blogs too.) Just expanding our horizons and activities.

Cheers Everyone!

-B. Kline

For more reading:

• Check Out our New Interview Series
• Check Out our New Facebook Group
• Changes to The Beer Thrillers

A time of friends getting together, working, hustling, doing a project, calls for something special, calls for something to be shared, enjoyed together as a group… and thats just what we did with Buddy Shots.

We were all together discussing time travel and doing our time travel podcast for So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar… – D. Scott, Esteban, Skot Shneck, and myself. This was also going to be our first filmed one and was going to be put up on YouTube as well, but unfortunately (or fortunately? – depending on your view of my handsome and roguish good looks) there were camera issues, so this stayed as just a podcast. You can find the time travel podcast here: WTF Did I Just Watch – Time Travel Flicks.

And having been looking for an opportunity to crack this open and enjoy, I figured what better way, what better time, what better place than during the podcast as a group to enjoy it. So, of course, thats just what I did. Because I’m an adult and I get to do things when I want – because thats what adults do gosh darn it.

I had gotten this a while back as part of a beer mail trade alongside the bottle of Thursday (2016) from Cycle Brewing Company. You can check the review out here at the link.

I enjoy doing local for local trades, as it gets me an opportunity to try beers I don’t normally get from smaller breweries in areas I don’t travel to, while also supporting my local breweries (by buying their beers to ship to these places) and gets them some word of mouth as well. I was a little bit disappointed with this trade, that I only got two beer bottles, from a relatively well known brewery – Cycle Brewing Company – in exchange for the 8 or 9 beers I had sent from Tattered Flag, Troegs Brewing, Boneshire Brew Works, and Ever Grain Brewing. But it is what it is, both of these beers were delicious, and were expensive bottles, so it wasn’t the worst trade in the world (glares at some of the trades the Phillies have made in the past….). Ok…. so lets get moving on and review this beer!

Shots! Shots! Shot shot shots! ….sorry for getting that horrible song stuck in your head now, but I just had to do it.

Beer: Buddy Shots
Brewery: Cycle Brewing Company
Style: Strong Ale – American
ABV: 11%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Description: Strong Ale brewed with 6 different malts with a little chocolate then aged in Jameson Whiskey barrels.

This certainly fits the descriptors, so if you like a strong ale, if you like a high alcohol tasting beer, and if you like Whiskey – particularly Jameson – than you are bound to like this. So luckily for myself, this all hit home and found the mark.

This is a solid dark black, ocher like. Razor Ramon jet black hair black. Not a tremendous amount of things to say about its appearance really, its dark black, it has a thin layer of head to it when poured out in the tasters for each of us, as well as the finishing of the bottle into a glass for myself. There is carbonation but not an extreme amount, and the foamy head is extremely thin but is there. Its an off-brown / off-white creamy looking thin head with nice bubbles.

Aroma has that strong kick of alcohol. You get an immediate nose of hard whiskey, Jameson whiskey, just punches through this. This smells like the barrel aged – in particular whiskey barrel aged – beers that you are probably familiar with, ones from Weyerbacher or the Goose Island stouts, etc. You know that nose as soon as you crack the bottle on these types of beers, just a straight heavy alcohol nose to it. The six varieties of malts do get blended in and provide a punch, and there is the faintest hint, like a wisp of it on the wind of baker’s chocolate.

Taste is a fair bit more complex than both its aroma and its appearance, thankfully. Not saying that its nose or appearance is bad or anything, its just in comparison to the taste, their nondescript and pretty much by the book, whereas the taste is complex, flavorful, strong, and downright delicious. There is certainly a complexity to this, mainly because of the six different malts used. I’ve tried looking up the malts (Google searched and checked Untappd) but haven’t found which malts they used exactly. (So if anyone does know, be sure to leave a comment telling me what malts they used.) There is definitely a richness and complexity of flavors to this. But, mostly it has that very high alcohol and barrel aged tasting to it. You get very heavy notes of Jameson Whiskey on this, and it is incredibly strong. This is similar to a lot of barrel aged beers I’ve had, like with Weyerbacher and others where it has that wooden, whiskey infused, heavy alcohol taste that is so rich and delicious, but with this, there is the different notes of malts used, so it adds a lot of differing notes to this, so its not straight strong alcohol. I got notes of roasted caramel, notes of baker’s chocolate, notes of a deep dark roast, slightly coffee, but not heavy, and a bit of an earthyness to it all. There is a slight sweetness to it, but its balanced by some bittering from the coffee and baker’s chocolate. It teeters on a blade’s edge between the two, never becoming too dominant one way or the other. This all creates a nice blend, more apparent in the full glass than in the tasters, as all the different malts, all the different complexities, different notes, all converge together and combine with the Jameson barrel aging, gives it a very deep heavy, sweet and bitter, and downright delicious tasty flavor. This is a well rounded, blended, beer that incorporates a lot of different notes and malts and is perfect to do ‘shots’ of with buddies, a bomber split up amongst four friends at 11% is plenty to have a good night (or to do a good podcast).

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.33 (as of 8.12.20)

Be sure to check out the time travel podcast, it was a lot of fun doing it, and I think it turned out really well. We covered Terminator, Futurama, Back to the Future, LOST, and many others. So be sure to give it a listen!

Cheers everyone!

-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)

It was one year ago, while sitting on my porch, looking over at this arbor, that I started up the blog. Not when I decided to start it – but when I actually did it. When I picked the blog name, when I setup the WordPress site, and when I did all the site work, creating it, building it, etc. I didn’t start it preloaded with articles like some (like some smarter writers / bloggers), and it was a long time probably overdue, but I started it, and made a main page. Started a Archive page, and with it sunny, and with a can of a brand new beer I hadn’t had before (from my shift manager at work – J. M. ) I wrote my first beer review for the site / blog.

The picture above was taken a month or two later during a rainstorm while sitting on the same side-porch swing overlooking the same arbor; which is growing Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook hops by the way; but those hops, not exactly those hops, but hops in general, is part of what led to this all. Its a much longer story than just one year, and probably a lot more convoluted than necessary. Meandering one might even say (just like my writing style tends to be, from what I’ve been told). But basically what I’m getting to (or alluding to), is that hops, and craft beer in particular, is what has led to this blog.

I’ve always been a writer, as far back as I can remember; always a reader and always a writer. (You pretty much can’t be the one without the other to some degree.) In fifth grade I wrote a short story that won a few prizes and was recognized by our governor at the time (Tom Ridge). I won’t say when I started drinking, but I will say my first ‘craft beer’ was Sam Adams. Original Boston Lager Sam Adams. When my friends were getting Budweiser or Bud Lite or Miller Lite or Coors Lite, I was ‘that guy’ who was drinking Sams.

This segued into me finding Troegs and getting into them, especially due to them being so local (first on Paxton Street in Harrisburg and then on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey; basically them starting just to the West of me and then moving just to the East of me). Fast forward a few years and me getting very heavily into craft beer, finding new breweries, trying new styles, and types, and discovering all that there is to know about beer. Fast forward to me helping out at breweries, learning to home brew, going to brewfests, taking some BJCP classes, reading blogs and watching YouTube videos, webinars, and in person seminars. Needless to say – its been a long time in coming in me writing and starting this blog.

As is typical with me, I start a bit behind the curve, where many others had been doing blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos for years, I get in after the wave pretty much crests. So, something I should have done a few years ago (say 2012 or 2013) here I am, in 2020, having started in 2019. Not a bad thing, and not a problem.

But enough about me, lets talk about the blog itself. Its the blog’s One-Year Anniversary today; not mine. (If you are reading this, you care much more about the blog than myself anyway.) So, one year ago today, the blog itself started. Started with the main page, and a four-pack of beers my co-worker gave me that I decided to use to start beer reviewing. Just like doing an Untappd review, but upped in scale and scope and size. My first few reviews were crude, rather short, and probably not as entertaining as they are now (if they are considered entertaining now). I started off with: Scratch 375 – CocoNator by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing. After that was Painting with Light by South County Brewing; followed by the first beer I did a review of that I had worked on (canning) – a collaboration with Tattered Flag and the soon to be opened Wolf Brewing: Boulangerie Stout. (You also get to see my faithful companion for at home drinking; and occasional breweries – Leela, my border collie who will turn 11 this December.)

Over the year there’s been a lot of ups and downs, in life, as well as on the blog. Stressful at times writing, and finding an audience, and getting people to see or read, I wouldn’t change it, and honestly can say its been 99.999999% fun. Very few times has there been ‘issues’ or problems, and its more on my end of frustrations with writing and basically struggling to write at times. Even something so simple as this blog can be daunting to write at times, getting the energy to do it after work (or before work), and with kids, etc. Over the past year has seen me branch out from just doing beer reviews to also doing brewery reviews, to discussing my trips to the Kinzua Bridge area and to Pittsburgh with my daughters, as well as all manner of things like brewfests, canning for Tattered Flag, growing my hops, etc.

Volunteering for Tattered Flag and helping them can has been great fun, and very informative, and has helped me learn a lot about the brewery industry and beer, and brewing. Seeing brewers come and go through Tattered Flag and learning bits and pieces from all of them.

As well as visiting and traveling to many different breweries, not just in Pennsylvania, but also in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Reminds me of my sister’s wedding where the reception went to four different breweries and a cidery as a ‘brew-tour’ in the Rochester area. Getting to do the brewery tour and listen to the head brewers at Three Heads Brewing was great fun and informative as well.

Getting to see a great brewery pop up basically right in my backyard (Boneshire Brew Works) and watching them grow as also been great. Getting to meet Alan, Carson, and Alex, and talk to them a lot, and then meet a ton of great people at the brewery; like Karl Larson, Josh Doncevic, Owen, Jason Millar, Kirby, and so many more people I can’t even begin to list or this blog post will just look like a list of names.

Becoming a regular (well, technically I was long before the blog, but just saying) at Boneshire Brew Works, Troegs Brewery, and Tattered Flag, I’ve gotten to meet so many great people, and get to pick the brains of so many top brewers in the area. All of which has definitely helped the blog here (hopefully, something you can tell, and hopefully something that does help and add to the blog).

I always envisioned this blog as being a big giant web of things; but all beer and brewery related. Articles on beer reviews, brewery reviews, articles on home brewing, on hop growing, on BJCP judging, articles about various brewfests or beer events, book reviews of beer or brewing books and textbooks, articles from ‘insiders’ working in the beer industry, those brewing, or serving you the beer, those from home brewers who know how to brew some amazing beers on small 1 to 5 gallon systems. From hop growers (like myself) who can tell you what you need to do to grow hops. Just a whole slew of things. And I think I have succeeded in that to some degree. Not quite the massive diversification and a ton of articles about the various aspects as I had planned; but some.

Interestingly enough, this is (ironically perhaps?) the 200th blog post of the blog, as well as the Anniversary blog posting. I have done a few other recap blog posts for people over the year, like my November Recap, or my End of 2019 Recap, or the Best of 2019 Article. I have to say, I can’t believe how this has grown, how big this blog has gotten, how well it has done, and how many talented people have graced the digital web of this humble blog.

Over the year, I have had several people writing for me. Josh Doncevic (J. Doncevic) has written several beer reviews and articles for us, and he is an amazing guy with a wealth of insight on beer reviews, breweries, and he regularly helps out at Rotunda Brewing as well as Boneshire Brew Works, and is just a fantastic guy to hang out with. AJ Brechbiel has also written a few articles about home brewing and stuff and his brew-club Default Brewing. With everything going on, and getting to work for Rough Edges Brewing, his time has sadly become limited, but hopefully (fingers, toes, nostrils crossed) we will get to see some more writings from him. Recently, I have also been graced with two friends who have also taken up writing for the blog – Andy Parys (A. Parys) and Karl Larson (ihackbeer). Both great guys who can write well, know their stuff. Karl Larson brings a massive wealth of knowledge to the blog, having won more awards for home brewing than I can count, as well as brewing commercially for Boneshire Brew Works and now for Newfangled Brew Works. The man is a walking encyclopedia; just try him sometime.

At the bottom of all of the posts and pages here on The Beer Thrillers you can see a list of the most recent articles from each writer under their name. From AJ to Josh, to Karl, to myself, to Andy, you can see all of our most recent articles, as well as the recent tweets from our Twitter page.

Which brings me to another thing about the blog – all the side stuff. Over the year, to help with the blog, I’ve begun to learn ‘social media’. Which is nowhere near as easy as you would think or sounds. The Beer Thrillers now has a Facebook, a Twitter, and an Instagram page that I regularly keep up with. (In descending order of how often I post to them.) As of 5.17.20, we currently have 562 likes and 593 followers on Facebook, 162 followers on Twitter, and 113 followers on Instagram.

Likewise with the side stuff, I have begun podcasting with my good friends that I’ve known since 5th grade – D. Scott, Dan Arndt, Esteban, and a host of other random people who pass through the garage and basement we broadcast from (including A. Parys). I am featured on several podcasts as well as commentary tracks. You can check out the Podcast at: So A Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar….. I have also been featured on a call-in podcast all about beer: Beer with Strangers. My particular podcast episode is – A Beer Thriller in Hershey.

Back in February and March of this year (before the ‘dark times’, before the Empire, before COVID-19), things really were looking up for the blog here. I was featured on the above mentioned podcast. I was invited out to Extol to do an in-person beer podcast. Me and Josh visited Mellow Mink for a behind the scenes tour of the brewery. I was invited to visit the new (future home) Rubber Soul Brewery which will be opening in Hummelstown. There, I toured the facility with Jaime (head of marketing for the new Rubber Soul) and got to take visits and get A Sneak Peak of Rubber Soul. I met a representative from Visit Hershey & Harrisburg PA at the Hershey Tattered Flag location, where we discussed numerous upcoming projects and got press credentials for myself and my ‘team’ of writers. Also, in recent months, Let Us Drink Beer blog has been guest writing an article as well for us, about once a month about the Georgia beer scene, and I’ve been writing a blog entry for them about the Hershey-Harrisburg beer scene.

I have also written a rather lengthy piece back in September for Breweries in PA – which you can find both on their blog site and my blog as well. Breweries in PA – Touring the Harrisburg Area Breweries. My entry: Touring the Breweries that Surround the Harrisburg Area.

Unfortunately then, middle of March saw the coronavirus / COVID-19 really enter the American landscape, and by end of March, I’m on furlough from my job, and the brewery industry upended. Not just the brewery industry, but the restaurant industry, as well as the entertainment industry (that I work in) – which includes event planning, event type things like fests, casinos, resorts, tourist attractions, etc; all got hit hard by the disease and the restrictions placed to help maintain and safeguard the disease. The last few months have certainly been a very tough time for all; not just in the industry. With the pandemic affecting so many, and costing many lives, as well as affecting so many people’s jobs, incomes, and families in various ways, this has certainly been a troubling and trying time. No different for my blog. I like to think I have been lucky; my blog isn’t the biggest deal, its not even my job or sole source of income; this is more for fun than anything else. I still have my health, my home, and my family’s health. Times could be a lot harder for myself. So I am truly fortunate there. But, the blog has been hindered by this world-wide pandemic all the same. Things I would have been doing by now (AC Brewfest, Harrisburg Beer Week, Little Big Beerfest, RenFaire Brewfest at Mount Hope, amongst numerous other events, and happenings) have all been sidelined or postponed. Some outright cancelled. Some breweries have closed and expansions cancelled (Stoudt’s, Full Pint, Crystal Ball, Night Shift), while there has also been some good news – like Hemauer’s Opening. This has certainly been troubling times indeed. But we will get through, I know of that. Humans are resilient, we’re tough to kill, we’re hardy, we’re tenacious, and we love our beer. We will survive, prosper, and come back. This I am sure of.

On the more – amusing side of things, my friend D. Scott has started a gaming live-stream page on Facebook that I have guest-starred on a few occasions. You can check it out at Knights of Nostalgia. We play mostly old school NES, SNES, and similar video games. Please check it out, give a like, follow, and check out some of our live-streams.

I am hoping that everyone has been enjoying the blog. That you’ve all have found something of interest, read something you have liked, or have enjoyed your time reading and viewing the blog. Perhaps you have found a beer review interesting, or a brewery review interesting. Or found one of my other entries entertaining, possibly even chuckling at something. I hope I have brightened at least every reader’s day a bit, or informed, or educated, or made your day better in some way by checking out this blog.

I am looking forward to a wonderful second year. With the blog expanding even moreso. With new series and features, new types of articles, more podcasts, perhaps even solo beer related podcasts, or even just beer only related podcasts. Possibly YouTube videos. I will soon be wrapping up the Beer Education Series, which I’ve hoped everyone who has been following along with me has found informative as well as entertaining (and perhaps even educational?). I am looking forward to doing more things like this. More book reviews. More beerfest events (once the current climate changes).

Please, as always, if you have enjoyed the blog, give me a like, click the follow, sign up for the emails, and even more importantly, talk to me, let me know in the comments section, or if you rather stay private – contact me through the CONTACT US page. I love hearing from you, all of you, all of our readers. Tell me what I screwed up. Let me know where I was wrong. Tell me how I’m an idiot. That the beer I liked was actually bad, etc. Or, hey, maybe even a bit of praise? Sure, why not, never hurt the ego to hear something good right? Just leave a comment. Love hearing from all of you. It is really, honestly, so great to hear from everyone. I really truly do enjoy it, and it helps at least brighten my day even a smidge, to see a new like, or comment or a new subscriber, so don’t be shy.

I just want to close this article by saying how thankful I am for everyone. For every person that has clicked on any of my articles, who has read even a single word of any of my pages, who have clicked the like, followed us, commented on one of the articles, or in any small way supported this page and blog by forwarding or sharing posts or entries or articles or whatever you have done. I cannot say this enough, I cannot express it enough, THANK YOU. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you x1000000000 infinitum. Thank you. It really means the world to me and my fellow writers, for everything that you have all done. I appreciate it more than I can describe. Thank you so much once again.

Thank you for visiting, I just want to give you our homepage link one last time for you to click and bookmark: The Beer Thrillers Homepage.

Cheers everyone. Thanks for making this a fun, fantastic, great year writing for all of you. Please, click the like, follow us, subscribe to us, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And most importantly, cheers, enjoy a good craft beer or home brew for us. Support your local small breweries struggling during these unprecedented and difficult times. Stay healthy, stay happy, and please come back again. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

As you might have noticed, there’s been a few changes and some new faces here at The Beer Thrillers. Don’t worry, I’m still here (B. Kline), and somewhere out there J. Doncevic is still lurking around. But as you saw yesterday, we have two other new writers.

Firstly, Karl Larson (ihackbeer) is going to be writing for us periodically, mostly about brewing, home brewing, commercial brewing, and various informative pieces about beer, history, brewing, etc. He comes with an extreme wealth of knowledge, and it is such a privilege to have him writing for us. He is an award winning home brewer (gold medal winner), he is also a BJCP judge, as well as having brewed commercially for both Boneshire Brew Works and (currently) for Newfangled Brew Works. You can follow him on Twitter at: @ihackbeer. You can view Karl’s first post here: Brewing a Traditional Lithuanian Farmhouse Beer – Keptinis.

Our other new writer is Andrew Parys (A. Parys) (aka thesugarfoot). A local to Central Pennsylvania like myself and Josh (J. Doncevic) and Karl, he is an avid craft beer enthusiast and brewery traveler as well. He has been part of the extended Beer Thrillers family doing a podcast here or there with D. Scott and Esteban and myself over at “So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar…” Saturday featured his first article for us, a thought-piece about what makes a good “quarantine” brewery during these ‘crazy’ times: What Makes a Great Quarantine Brewery? I suggest you head over there, read it and leave a comment!

Also, speaking of podcasts (and the ilk), I’m looking at possibly trying to do beer specific podcasts in the near future for The Beer Thrillers, as well as possible YouTube videos and reviews done that way as well. So stay tuned for that. As always, I am still doing sporadic podcasts with D. Scott, Dan, A. Parys, Esteban, and a host of others through their pop-culture series – So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar…

As for the blog itself, we are celebrating one year this month. And we are most likely going to be moving to a full page and new host and having things look a lot more formal, professional, and nicer by the end of the month (fingers crossed). With that, there might be a few moving parts and some construction, but it should be quick and minimal (hopefully). The site’s links might change too, but if they do, I will set-up redirects so it should be no trouble to find us.

I also have had two other people from our Facebook group – the Central PA Whalerz (that me and Josh are members of) express interest writing for us, so you might be getting some more new faces as well. Hopefully we can poke and prod and get Mr. J. Doncevic to write us something new as well. Also, Let Us Drink Beer Blog is still guest writing with us (as well as we are for them) giving us about a monthly article about the beer scene down in the Atlanta Georgia area.

As far as the coming days go, this month, since I am still furloughed, for the foreseeable future (who knows how slow / fast things will begin to open up), and since its our One-Year anniversary, I am looking to make sure we get a blog post (or two!) every day. Tomorrow, being May 4th, I’d like to do a Star Wars themed one. Went down to Gettysburg today with my girls, but unfortunately struck out at Fourscore Beer Co (their Star Wars themed beer – Wookie Monster; sold out Saturday night). (Hint hint if anyone has one their willing to part with, to message / comment / PM me / DM me / etc.)

Then following that up we have Cinco De Mayo or Revenge of the Fifth, which I will take a look at some Mexican Lagers or Cervezas . So stay tuned for those articles.

If you are new to the blog, you can follow us on the various social media outlets. And I will take this opportunity to toot our own horn, and plug our statistics. I am amazed at how well, how fast, and how great the community has been in supporting us, in less than a full year. Thank you all so very much for your support! I will list our social media accounts next, as well as with the followers for each, just for people to get a scope of how far we’ve come and grown over this year!

As of May 3rd (10PM):

• Facebook: 550 Likes / 583 Followers
• Twitter: 159 Followers
• Instagram: 106 Followers
• WordPress: 53 Followers / 11 E-Mail Followers

We are currently #9 on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs. (Where it lists our Domain Authority as 76 and our Alexa Rank as 4.3K.)

So again, I would just like to say thank you so much for supporting us, especially amidst these crazy and troubling and unprecedented times. We have a lot more in store for the future so be sure to stick around and check us out!

Thank you everyone! Cheers!

-B. Kline
The Beer Thrillers Staff: Ben, Josh, Karl, Andrew
The Extended Beer Thrillers Staff: Let Us Drink Beer, Drew, Dan, Esteban