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Beer Review: Chewbacca (Rotunda Brewing Company)

B. Kline — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 02:45:07 +0000

Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

I first had this beer back in October of 2019. (Which feels like ancient history.) And I remember wanting to write a review of it even back then for the site…. and for some reason I never did. Not sure why exactly. Maybe I just didn’t get around to it or something, but I even kept my photo of the beer on my desktop screen this whole time. Ironically, I recently had it again, so what better opportunity to revisit the beer for my second beer review release for Andor: Season 2. Last week I reviewed – Admiral (J Henry Barrel Aged Grand Stout) by Delta Beer Lab – and so this week, we’ll taking a look at a much closer brewery – Rotunda Brewing Company with their Imperial Black IPA (or Imperial Cascadian IPA). This is one of my favorite styles of beer, I love Black IPAs, and Double Black IPAs are event better.

But before we dive in, I want everyone to please take a look at our stream / podcast / video we made on YouTube. It stars myself, Drew of Knights of Nostalgia, and Tim (Aglets). You can view it here:

In the video we cover the first three episodes of Andor. So please be sure to check it out!

And now, onto the review!

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (at the Rising Sun in 2019)

The Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Beer: Chewbacca
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Black IPA / Double Black IPA
ABV: 8%
IBU: N / A
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Let’s check out this Wookie beast (not to be confused with the Wookie Monster by Fourscore). Will someone get this Walking Carpet out of my way so I can type!

Appearance

Chewbacca pours a deep, opaque brown-almost bordering on black-with a creamy, tan head that lingers like a loyal Wookiee companion. The lacing is impressive, clinging to the glass with each sip, leaving behind a trail reminiscent of hyperspace streaks.

Aroma

Right out of the gate, there’s a punch of roasted malt-think dark chocolate and fresh-brewed coffee-balanced by a piney, resinous hop profile. There’s a subtle undercurrent of caramel and a hint of citrus, like orange peel, that peeks through as it warms. The aroma is bold and inviting, promising complexity.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Taste

The first sip delivers a satisfying interplay between roasted malt bitterness and assertive hop character. Notes of espresso and bittersweet cocoa dominate up front, quickly joined by pine, grapefruit, and a touch of earthy spice. The Black IPA style shines here: the hops never overwhelm the malt backbone, instead weaving together in a harmonious, chewy mouthfeel. The 9.2% ABV is well-hidden, but there’s a gentle warmth in the finish that lets you know this is a beer worthy of a Wookiee.

Mouthfeel

Medium to full-bodied, with a creamy carbonation that lifts the flavors without feeling heavy. The finish is dry, with lingering roast and a pleasant, resinous bitterness that invites another sip.

Overall Impressions

Chewbacca is a robust, well-executed Black IPA that balances dark roast and hop bite with finesse. It’s a bold tribute to its namesake-complex, powerful, and just a little wild. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or simply a lover of big, hoppy dark ales, this is a beer that deserves a spot in your cantina. Untappd’s 3.8/5 rating feels right, but I’d nudge it a bit higher for the sheer fun and craftsmanship.

Wrap Up

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.8 (out of nearly 1000 ratings) (as of 4.25.25)

May the hops be with you-always.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (RBC) (photo courtesy of Rotunda Brewing Company)

I’m gonna have to check the archives of the site here, or on my computer, to see if I have any notes or anything from the initial first time I drank the beer, if maybe I started a review and then sadly – for whatever reason – never got around to finishing it. Maybe I was waiting for the right chance to post it, and never found it. Who knows, there’s over 70+ articles in my “draft” folder here on the site, some day I’ll get around to posting them…. unfortunately that day is not today though. But be sure to come back to the site, who knows, maybe it’ll be tomorrow…..

And check back next Tuesday for another (hopefully) Star Wars themed beer release. Over the weekened is May the Fourth Be With You, so once again, hopefully I’ll be able to grab some of the RAR Star Wars themed beers and will be able to review them weekly!

Cheers all and thank you for reading!

Chewbacca at Rotunda Brewery

All of Our Nerd Content

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

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

Star Wars:

Futurama

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

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

Heroes of Barcadia:

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

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

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

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Philadelphia Eagles:

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

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Mario:

Beer Review: Level Up (Idiom Brewing)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

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

Seinfeld:

The Muppets:

Other:

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Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Team Up With ‘Jam The Batter’ Collaboration

B. Kline — Tue, 17 May 2022 13:08:06 +0000

Jam the Batter (sWheat Tart) – A collaboration between Rotunda Brewing Company and Drunk Phils Fans

Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Teaming Up

As an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan (god have mercy upon my soul), I’ve always followed various Philly related blogs and pages (like Crossing Broad, Drunk Phils Fans, etc, etc.), and obviously I’m quite an avid drinker and beer fan as well (shocker right?!?) so I immediately jumped when I saw Drunk Phils Fans was teaming up with a beer – and with local favorites Rotunda Brewing Company of all breweries. Such a perfect fit!

So I immediately reached out to Drunk Phils Fans to get the low-down on their page, the beer, and everything else.

The Drunk Phils Fan

You will most likely know Drunk Phils Fans from their Facebook page: Drunk Phils Fans. They currently have 24, 977 likes and 26, 588 followers. So needless to say they have been around and garner quite a bit of attention. You can follow their website here: Drunk Phils Fans .com.

So I asked them some questions about how they started up, what they are, what they are up to, and how their beer collaboration with Rotunda Brewing Company came to be.

(For brevity’s sake, I will have The Beer Thrillers abbreviated to ‘TBT’ and Drunk Phils Fans abbreviated to ‘DPF’ after the first usage.)

The Beer Thrillers: How did you start the Drunk Phils Fans page? (How long ago, when/where/how, etc.) How has it evolved since then?
Drunk Phils Fans: This all started as a blog, which was named the same and first post was in 2010. I then started a FB group in 2010 and then switched over to a page once the group hit 1000 followers. The idea for the blog was to highlight some past Phillies season and players (mostly “forgotten” players, as well at to talk about prior and upcoming games. The FB page was always intended to be some of the talk and chatter you may hear at the local pub from intense Phillies fans. On Point, sometime irreverent analysis of the front office, games, players, opponents, etc

Rob G is an original member that is still providing content. The page evolved by adding in some talented authors: Chris D, who does all of the meme work and we added Waz, Al, Russell, Sean and Ashley as people providing content and helping to manage the page. I can’t point to a single element of how or when the page became more popular, but I constantly hear that people go to our page because of great content and valid observations/talking points about the team. Some of our posts did go “viral” with over a million views, but the growth was organic by building the audience through content.

TBT: How did this beer idea come up? Did you reach out to Rotunda Brewing? Did they reach out to you? What interested you in this beer and this brewery?
DPF: It has always been a dream of mine to have a beer that I created or somehow named/linked with me. I figured once the page got a large enough audience, it would be more enticing for a brewery to collaborate with us.

My wife and I went to Hershey this winter for a weekend getaway and toured some of the Hershey area breweries. Rotunda was on my list for two reasons: 1. A DPF fan, Brent, is a manager at Rotunda and offered a brewery tour for me and an insight on their process and facilities and 2. Rotunda has a GREAT lineup of different styles of beers, all highly rated and respected on Untappd, so I knew I had to try them. With Brent being a big DPF fan and me being a fan of Rotunda, I think it was a good match and I do not remember who “made the first move” while talking collaboration. To me it seemed mutually advantageous.

TBT: Stevie Glick absolutely nailed it with the logo. Just want to throw that out there right now, he does their artwork for them, and is absolutely phenomenal.

TBT: Did you have any input on the beer; style, ingredients, recipe, etc? Did you help them brew it?
DPF: We did have input on style. I am not a particular fan of IPA, so I did not want this beer to be of that style. I am a huge fan of darker beers and stouts, but wanted a beer for the summertime. So we collaborated with the sWheat line that Rotunda is well known for and created a fruited sour at 5.9%. We did send Rotunda about 30 name ideas for the beer, of which “Jam the Batter” won because of the double entendre of jam in the baseball sense and the fruit we are adding to the beer often seen as a jam. I did not physically help with the brewing process, mostly because of proximity to Rotunda from my home in Philly. However, it is something I would like to be involved with in the next go round!

TBT: What are some of your favorite breweries? Favorite beers? Go to beers? Preferences when it comes to alcohol in general?
DPF: Fave Breweries: I will do a top 5 in the Philly area no particular order. Rotunda, Imprint, Human Robot, Troegs, and 2SP.

Fave Beers: This answer could be really long, so I will try and give the Cliff Notes. If I go to a corner bar that does not have craft beers, I will have Miller High Life, In the summer, I am a huge Hefeweizen fan. My fave is Weihenstephaner. In the Winter, especially leading up to Christmas, I look forward to the Troeg’s Mad Elf release. Otherwise, I spend a lot of the winter trying different dark beers (Stouts and Lagers). I have recently gotten into Rum and Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts even more and will always try them when available. I am also a Union season ticket holder and recently really liked 2SP’s Delco Lager. Supremely drinkable with a lower ABV.

TBT: Any other big plans with the page? Any other beer related collaborations in the works / in the future or anything you are interested in trying or wanting to do?
DPF: We are currently having a beer release party at Rotunda on May 21st at their Annville location from 1-4. We are also having some Phillies Watch Parties at local bars: May 25th at Jerzees Glenside and June 26 at Nick’s Roast Beef Cottman along with a special guests, Corner Sports Podcast where I will be in the show with them live on-site 1-3, followed by the Phillies game at 4. We would also like to do these watch parties at interested breweries in the near future. As far as the future of the page, we hope everyone loves our Rotunda collaboration and would love to collaborate with them or another Philly / Montco / Bucks brewery for a playoff beer for the Phils! I’d like to be more hand on to learn the process and work that goes into each step. I guess the big dreams would be a brewery of our own at some point. I dreamed of having a beer and that came true, so who knows!

sWheat Tart Series

Rotunda Brewing Company has been well known for their sWheat Tart series for a while. (We’ve even covered a few various sWheat Tarts here on the blog for beer reviews. You can read them here: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart – Beer Review and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart – Beer Review.) It is possibly their most popular line of beers, and they have done just about every imaginable flavor profile and combination with them. Definitely be on the lookout for this series whenever you see them in cans or whenever you visit either of their brewery locations in person (the Annville Brewery or the Hershey brewpub.)

Rotunda Brewing Company Tailgate

On May 21st (2022), the Rotunda Brewing Company is hosting a Tailgate party to celebrate the release of ‘Jam the Batter’. From their Facebook page:

“We’re releasing a collaboration beer with our friends at, Drunk Phils Fans and throwing a kick ass tailgate at our Annville location, this Saturday from 1-4 pm! Wear your best philly gear and drink some of our new Jam The Batter sWheat Tart, loaded with thick mango, pineapple & strawberry puree! More details to come! Drunk Phils Fans Rotunda Restaurant & Brewery“
Rotunda Brewing Company (Facebook)

It looks to be a fun time, and I might be able to squeeze it into my busy schedule and stop out for a bit. Hope I get to see some of you out there. And we can all root on the Phillies and drink some delicious beers.

Philadelphia Phillies

I would be amiss to make this article, and not mention the Phillies even a little bit. They are currently sitting at 17 – 18 and 5.5 games behind in the NL East. Its a long season, and the Mets are looking tough this year, but we also all know how the Mets are…. so hopefully late season Phils can kick it into overdrive. Looks like we are coming out of a current slump and are starting to hit stride. (And my dad recently put down a 100$ wager at Hollywood Casino that the Phils will win the division, so for his sake, lets go Phils!).

The bats are finally starting to warm up with what we all thought they should be. Defense will be a struggle all season. And hopefully by trade deadline we can shore up the pitching staff and make this team a true contender. Long overdue for another deep playoff run and hopeful World Series.

Thanks For Reading

The May 21st date might just be as busy as the May 14th date was for me. First off, its my daughter’s 13th birthday. (So, preemptive and early Happy Birthday to Lilyana Rose.) Also, its the day of the Imprint “Haze” brewfest, as well as the Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company’s beer tailgate. As well as a host of other personal stuff for me and other staff members here at The Beer Thrillers.

I would like to say thanks to the Drunk Phils Fans for letting me reach out to them and talking to them and exchanging e-mails. I can’t wait to try their beer. They are great people over there (and at Rotunda as well), so its looking to be a great thing all the ways around.

As always, I do greatly appreciate you all reading this. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Comments, suggestions, and otherwise. Always love to hear from my readers! Either by comment here on the blog, or through e-mail or our contact page. Let us know your thoughts!

Cheers all! And lets go Phillies!

-B. Kline

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Valentine’s Day Beers

BKline — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 15:32:34 +0000

Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works from their firkin tapping last night at their brewery. Happy Valentine’s Day!

In the Hershey – through Middletown and Harrisburg area, you go to a brewery, you can find yourself a chocolate covered…. strawberry or cherry something or other. Tattered Flag, Rotunda Brewing Company, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, Boneshire Brew Works, and you can even make a variant at Lancaster Brewing Company. So, I’ve gone and done the legwork for all of you. I’ve traveled to the places, seen the sights, experienced the sounds and the smells, and I drank the beers, so you don’t have to …. or so you can know which ones you might like best. Or, so you can too. Either way…. whew, this is a tough gig. But I guess I’m the only one man enough for it.

So what all beers are we going to be taking a look at today? We’re going to be taking a look at: Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works, Beautiful Trauma by Rotunda Brewing Company, Chocolate Cherry Stout by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Cherry) and Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Strawberry) by Tattered Flag, and finally Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry by Lancaster Brewing Company.

This is going to be a multiple-beer-review article posting. It’s a total of six beer reviews; and from five different breweries. All from the Hershey-Middletown-Harrisburg area. (Hershey’s contributions are Troegs’ Chocolate Cherry Stout, and Rotunda’s Beautiful Trauma [Rotunda Brew Pub in Hershey], Middletown’s contributions are the Tattered Flag beers, and Harrisburg’s are the Boneshire and Lancaster Brewing beers.) Most of these will still be on tap today. And possibly even the firkin at Boneshire Brew Works might not have kicked and still might be available. The Troegs Chocolate Cherry Stout was also canned yesterday (2.13.20) and still might be available in cans as well. Beautiful Trauma is still available in cans, and you can get it on draft and in crowlers at their Rotunda Brew Pub (as well as at The Batdorf attached to their brewery in Annville).

Let’s start with Middletown and break down the two beers from Tattered Flag. They have two offerings for us, and both are somewhat similar. Because I Was Inverted is their signature line of Milkshake IPAs, that they’ve done with a variety of different flavors (or adjuncts). Some notables were Mango, Kiwi, Plum, and they released two recently – Chocolate Covered Cherry and Chocolate Covered Strawberry. Both were canned and put on draft.

Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry)

Beer: Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry)
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Because I was Inverted (BIWI) black milkshake IPA blends sweet lactose with midnight wheat to bring you a subtle bitterness followed by a silky finish and earthly yet fruity notes of Mosaic. Conditioned with cocoa and strawberry puree just in time for Valentines day!

This looks like its a stout, but it tastes so much different. Appearance for this is dark black with a light foam head. Its Razor Ramone hair black (ahhhh, a term I haven’t gotten to use in a long time, been a while since I’ve reviewed a black / dark beer), fully opaque, and looking nothing like an IPA, let alone a milkshake IPA. Good carbonation, good head, and it leaves good lacing.

Aroma is pretty interesting. You definitely get notes of chocolate, and faint notes of strawberry. You get vanilla, and you get slight faint fruity hoppy notes. Nothing outstanding on the hoppy notes, nothing that blows you away, its all very subtle letting the chocolate come out much more prevalent in aromas.

This is very smooth, very tasty, very creamy. Its a bit heavy on your tongue in a way most IPAs aren’t. Strong chocolate, strong malt backbone, very vanilla and lactose and creamy, with some strawberry. The strawberry is probably a bit too subtle given that it should be more prominent, but its not too bad, and you do know its there. Strawberry can also be an overpowering addition that sometimes makes a beer far worse. There is no hop presence in taste. No bitterness, just smoothness and creamyness.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 2.14.20)

Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Cherry)

Beer: Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Cherry)
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Because I was Inverted (BIWI) black milkshake IPA blends sweet lactose with midnight wheat to bring you a subtle bitterness followed by a silky finish and earthly yet fruity notes of Mosaic. Conditioned with cocoa and sweet cherry puree just in time for Valentines day!

This might sound a lot like deja vu, but nearly everything for the above beer can be said for this one as well. Appearance is the same as the above, dark black, jet black, Razor Ramone hair black, nice foamy small head, nice lacing, good carbonation. Interspersed bubbles.

Aroma is pretty much the exact same as well. Instead of faint strawberry, you get faint cherry. Still heavy chocolate, some vanilla, faint faint faint hop, with the cherry a bit more prominent than the strawberry, but only barely, and it could just be my nostrils more open to that particular smell.

Taste is again similar, and again the only real difference is cherry puree rather than strawberry puree. Its noticeable the difference, in the same way you can notice mango instead of peach, or orange instead of kumquat. Heavy chocolate notes, vanilla notes, no hop presence, no bitterness, just super smooth, with a heavy mouthfeel. Slight cherry, possibly lighter than the strawberry, which is odd because I felt there was more of a nose of cherry on this than the strawberry had, but could all be tricks of the mind.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.72 (as of 2.14.20)

Lets move on to Hershey and their offerings, we’ll start with Rotunda Brewing Company’s Beautiful Trauma.

Beautiful Trauma

Firstly, let’s do a big shout out to Steve Glick for the great artwork on this. If you’ve seen the artwork from Rotunda Brewing, its all courtesy of Steve Glick, and he is absolutely killing it. Fantastic artwork.

Beer: Beautiful Trauma
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Pastry
ABV: 8.9%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Imperial stout conditioned on strawberry puree, cocao nibs, and milk sugar.

Rotunda has been making some beautiful beers and this is no exception. Its dark black like a stout pastry should be. Fully opaque. A nice foamy head that did go away pretty quickly, but had the interspersed bubbles. There was nice lacing on the glass as you drank (or gulped) this beauty down.

Smell is fantastic. Its pure pastry. You get wonderful notes of cocao, lactose, vanilla, it smells like pastries. It smells creamy, it smells sugary, it smells sweet. Then you get hit with the strawberry under it all, and it comes up pretty strong at you, stronger than in some other versions of this beer (from other breweries).

Tasting this, you almost want to finish it all right away… but have to pull yourself back so you don’t over-indulge and drain it too fast. This is like drinking a chocolate covered strawberry pastry. You get strong grain, strong chocolate, strong vanilla, strong sugar, strong strawberry, in an absolutely wonderful blend. Its heavy on your tongue but not cloying. Its super smooth and hides its 8.9% ABV rather well.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 2.14.20)

Moving on to the next Hershey beer….

Chocolate Cherry Stout by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

As you can see I drained this one a bit too much before taking a picture of it. (Ran into my cousin while at Troegs, and quickly got to drinking and talking more than taking a picture of it.)

Beer: Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
ABV: 7.8%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: This special Valentine’s release starts with big, vibrant, red Balaton cherries. They’re sweet. They’re tart. They’re juicy. Now wrap those thoughts in a warm, roasty chocolate stout and drizzle with vanilla. It was this cherry cordial daydream that set our brewers on this path, and lo and behold, dreams do come true.

As similar to all of the above, this was a dark beer. Fully opaque. Outside of the firkin from Boneshire Brew Works, this had the biggest and most resilient head to it. Foamy off-white (leaning towards brown) creamy head that retained for quite a while. Nice full looking body. Dark black but with a hint of brown to it.

Aroma on this one was far more cherry than any of the others so far. Most likely due to the usage of real fruits rather than purees. This had a sparkling cherry smell to it. You get good notes of chocolate and you get vanilla and sugary notes as well. The malts are a roasted sort that you pick up on as well, with almost a caramelized smell to them.

This one is tart but stout tart. You get a tartness from the cherries up front that then transitions into chocolate and its heavy. Some vanilla, some cream, some sugar, but the chocolate, kind of a bitter, cooking chocolate, is the most heaviest after the tartness of the cherries subsides. Its a very nice juxtaposition between the two that works very well into a blended stout here that makes its sum far more than its parts. This is re-drinkable easily, but not a full four pack by yourself in one sitting type. Two at most I’d say, but at its 7.8% ABV thats probably a good thing. This has a full thick body like a nice brickhouse (if you know what I mean, and if you’re having a good Valentine’s Day, hopefully you do) and it has a wonderful mouthfeel. Nothing cloying. The bitterness works nice with the creamyness. The tartness works great with the chocolate.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: (as of 8:30AM, 2.14.20, there isn’t enough of a global Untappd rating yet, when there is, I’ll edit this and add it in).

Now let’s go into Harrisburg, and start off with Lancaster Brewing Company.

Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry by Lancaster Brewing Company

Beer: Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry
Brewery: Lancaster Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double Milk
ABV: 5.75%
IBU: 29
Untappd Write-Up: Mixture of Double chocolate milk stout and strawberry wheat

Firstly, you won’t typically see this on the menu at Lancaster Brewing Company in Harrisburg (off of Eisenhower Boulevard). But if you ask for it, they’ll make it. Short story on it, is that its 50/50 Double Chocolate Stout and Strawberry Wheat. Then on top they drizzle strawberry sauce. (Thus the appearance in the picture.) Troegs used to do something similar with Mad Elf and their Chocolate Stout as well as Mad Elf and Dreamweaver (Chocolate Elf and Mad Dreams respectively). Cuvees or mixing beers has been a long practice with varying results.

Appearance for this is going to be odder than most. The beer itself is fifty percent Lancaster Brewing’s Strawberry Wheat and fifty percent Lancaster Brewing’s Double Chocolate Stout. It also has the drizzle of strawberry sauce on top. So it almost has the look of a large mixed drink rather than a beer. The chocolate stout overpowers the wheat beer and makes this a black, dark, stout looking beer. Its not quite fully black due to the wheat beer, but it is still fully opaque. The mixture makes a head that doesn’t retain once the drizzle eats through it.

Smell is all over the place too due to the mixture. You get strong strawberry, strong chocolate, strong milk, strong strawberry drizzle, strong wheat. You get a lot of strong aromas all hitting you at once. Their all attacking from all sides with strong fronts and your nose has no combat for it, no defenses, and no way to guide them correctly to their proper places. Its just all a bit much.

Taste is interesting. I’m a fan of their Double Chocolate Stout, but not a fan of their strawberry wheat (at all, just one of the beers I’ve never enjoyed). But this is actually a pretty good mixture of the two, and the stout does away with the flavors and reasons I’m not a fan of the strawberry wheat. The drizzle makes it super sweet and super strawberry, but the stout provides a nice dark backbone, a nice chocolate malty support structure for the strawberry to play on. Lancaster Brewing could probably make a good strawberry stout that would be better than this rather than having to use the subpar strawberry wheat to make the mixture.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 4.19 (as of 2.14.20)

And finally, our last Harrisburg, and our last beer on the list:

Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS

Beer: Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Stout – Russian Imperial
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Our Russian Imperial Stout, LazaRIS, with chocolate and cherry added.
Firkin.

Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Its just such a wonderful word. I don’t know (or remember) if the last time Boneshire produced this variant of LazaRIS if that was in a firkin as well; but this time it was.

I will admit, I love LazaRIS and there hasn’t been a variant of it yet that I haven’t loved either. I had this variant (Chocolate Cherry) first back in March 2017, and now again on February 13th, 2020.

Appearance is dark black like all of the above. Fully opaque, but with probably the biggest and most profound head of all of them. Could be because of the firkin or the beer, either way, it had a nice white brown foamy creamy head with interspersed bubbles and wonderful lacing on the glass as you drank this down. This is jet black, Razor Ramone hair black, Snoopy writing about a dark and stormy night black, black like the souls and hearts of some on Valentine’s Day. (Ooh, I like that last one, might have to remember to use that one more often!)

Aroma is heavy stout, heavy Russian Imperial Stout. Lots of deep dark malts. Lots of heavy grain, but it gets tempered with by the addition of the chocolate and cherry in this. You get strong cocao, strong chocolate, strong cherry that rounds out the usual smell of LazaRIS. This is just an extremely aromatic beer in all of its variants. Which I think is one of the biggest reasons I love this beer so much, I love smelling, inhaling, and savoring a beer before I even take that first sip, and LazaRIS is perfect for that.

Taste is immediate dark, immediate heavy, powerful malt, powerful dark grain, roasted, caramelized to a degree, and then you get the new additions, the chocolate, the cherry, the cocao, the heavy hitters come out firing on all cylinders and punching in every direction like the Tazmanian Devil. A whirling dervish of flavors assaults you suddenly, you get the chocolate, the cherry, the malt, the rich roasted notes, and they get you and hit you hard. There is so much to enjoy in this beer as you get all of these flavors in spades.

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.08 (as of 2.14.20)

Ok, so lets break down the beers I reviewed here, and give some stats on them. First, my Untappd Ratings for all of them:

* Because I was Inverted (Chocolate Cherry) – ****
* Because I was Inverted (Chocolate Strawberry) – ****
* Beautiful Trauma – ****.25
* Chocolate Cherry Stout (Troegs) – ****
* Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry – ***.75
* Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – ****.50

By style:
* Because I was Inverted (both variants) – Milkshake IPA
* Beautiful Trauma – Pastry Stout
* Chocolate Cherry Stout – Milk Sweet Stout
* Double Chocolate Strawberry – Double Milk Sweet Stout
* Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – Russian Imperial Stout

ABV:
* Because I was Inverted (both variants) – 7.2%
* Beautiful Trauma – 8.9%
* Chocolate Cherry Stout – 7.8%
* Double Chocolate Strawberry – 5.75%
* Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – 9.5%

So thats the breakdown of all of the Valentine’s Day beers in the Hershey / Harrisburg / Middletown area. Did I miss any? Let me know! Hopefully you’ll have as much fun finding these and trying them out as I did.

Cheers everyone!