Taking it Easy

Well…. after the big hard day on Saturday, we decided to take yesterday (Sunday) a lot easier. After the Cushwa Brewfest, and the big beer share we did in the hotel afterwards, it was time for an easier day. So needless to say, the six brewery tour I had in mind was crossed off a bit and we went a lot slower.

Originally I planned on doing the Antietam Battlefield, then Harper’s Ferry, then Harper’s Ferry Brewing, then Abolitionist Ale Works, and then on the way back through and home hitting a few other breweries (Milkhouse Brewery and Fourscore Beer Co being ones I remember).

Well, we definitely didn’t do quite all that. We left the hotel just before check out time (11AM), and went to Antietam Battlefield. We walked some of it, but mostly did the drive tour, due to how cold it was. After this we went to Harper’s Ferry Historical Park, paid the 20$ to get in…. and decided not to do the shuttle and stuff, due to time, and everything else. So basically, I paid 20$ to park, walk around just a little bit, and read a few signs, get a brochure (20 dollar brochure!) and leave.

Harper’s Ferry

After leaving the historical park, instead of parking down at the train station and checking out the town a bit, being hungry (and me being thirsty), we went to Harper’s Ferry Brewing. The view from the brewery was fantastic, and the beers and food were good.

After this we went back into West Virginia to Abolitionist Ale Works. Checked them out (flight at the top of this article). Cool place, cool vibe. Also took two beers to go home with.

And while in Charlestown, I had to stop at the casino for a bit. If for nothing else professional curiosity. Getting to walk around their casino and compare it to the one I work at, seeing the nuances and differences. Also had two beers while walking around, and stopped at the Sports Book area to watch the end of the Rams and Buccaneers game.

Homeward Bound

Then we were off to home. Skipping the stops in Maryland and Gettysburg that we originally thought / planned on, and just heading home. Nice to finally see the old place again and get to see Leela puppy again (my parents were taking good care of her). Took Leela for a small walk around the town as a few snow flakes fell, and called it a night.

Thanks for reading up on our recap of the three day weekend, you can check out the other articles here:

Big 3 Day Weekend

• Big 3 Day Weekend
• Big 3 Day Weekend: Friday Recap
• Big 3 Day Weekend: Saturday Recap
• Big 3 Day Weekend: Sunday Recap
• Cushwa 5th Anniversary Celebration

Also, be sure to check out Amy’s companion piece as well:

• Brewfests with Anxiety

Thanks For Reading

Don’t worry, I’ll give a more indepth article on the whole weekend in the days ahead (maybe a week or so). Be sure to check that out.

As always, please be sure to leave some comments, questions, concerns for us here or on our social media pages. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-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!

Where we started….

If you read the previous article – Big 3 Day Weekend – this is the first recap article in the series.

So Friday certainly was a day! We got to Dogfish Head at about 11:15AM. (Having left right after I finished and posted yesterday’s article.) And we hit it hard. First beer on the taster was the ‘Rip Van Wrinkle World Wide Stout’ which was a 18.4%. Then proceeded to follow that up with Orloso 120 Minute (a 15.4%) and 120 Minute regular. We did three flights at Dogfish Head Brewery before leaving for Burley Oak.

Well… we had to make an impromptu stop at Dewey Beer Co in Harbeson… then went to Burley Oak. At Dewey Beer we got several 6oz pours.

At Burley Oak we did a flight, and picked up our JREAMS Hydra and JREAMS Swerve that we ordered online. The flight was absolutely tasty.

We then traveled Tall Tales Brewery in Maryland on our way to Loakal Branch in Delaware to dip back into Maryland before hitting RAR Brewing.

RAR Brewing ended up being the last brewery stop of the day – as we got there only around 7PM. Its amazing how fast time travels at breweries. So, needless to say we did not hit the full list of breweries I planned.

Where We Ended Up

Yea… we never quite get to all of the breweries on my itineraries. Just how it is (I often get ‘scolded’ or over-planning or being too ambitious with my plans.

But, after RAR Brewing, we traveled all the way to Hagerstown from basically 9PM to 12-midnight to check in at our hotel in Hagerstown to spend the night and be prepared for the Cushwa Brewfest today. (Which, I am wrapping this article up, with the Uber on its way.)

Friday was still a very good day. We still got to six breweries – Dogfish Head, Dewey Beer Co, Burley Oak, Tall Tales, Loakal Branch, and RAR Brewing. Thats still a lot and we did plenty of traveling! (I got to have 36 beers in total at the various breweries, and quite a bit of food as well too.)

So now, I am wrapping this up, the Uber is nearly here, and we will be on our way to the Historic Springfield Barn for the Cushwa 5th Anniversary Celebration Brewfest. Maybe I’ll see you there! I know I can’t wait for it!

Thanks for Reading

This is definitely a brewfest that looks absolutely banging. You can get the details here: Cushwa 5th Celebration. I hope to be able to see some of you there, and I can’t wait for all the delicious brews!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thank you for reading everyone. Have any questions, comments, or requests? Leave them for us in the comments section or on our social media pages! Thanks for reading! We appreciate you all checking in with us.

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!

My first stop of the day was Salt Fork State Park. Where I sat along the beach and listened to the lapping of the lake’s waves for a while, then hiked the surrounding trails by the camp ground and golf course.

On my way towards Columbus I stopped at my first brewery of the day in Georgetown Ohio – George’s Tavern on the Hill, with a winery and brewery as part of it’s location. The brewery was called Southside Brewing Company.

After this, I then made my way towards Columbus. This is a long, slow drive, especially now that I was a bit leery of speeding too much.

I stopped at Blackhand Gorge and did several of the hikes there, including the tunnel and the quarry. Both gorgeous views and interesting sights. After this it was time to make my way into Columbus itself.

Where I wish I could have stayed longer, but sadly it was already 5PM when I got to Columbus. Also with it being a Tuesday, and with COVID still going on, it was hard timing myself up with breweries. For example I missed Weasel Boy in Zainesville which I was recommended, but anyway, in Columbus I did get to visit two breweries before moving on.

First stop was Wolf’s Ridge Brewing. Where I had a delicious rauchbier and a fantastic Russian Imperial stout. I highly recommend stopping here. The food looked great too (I didn’t eat there).

Next, I was on to Land-Grant Brewing Company.

Sadly I didn’t have time to fully stay and appreciate Land-Grant or cross the street to BrewDog because I needed to get to Dayton by 8:30. That was my final destination and stop, and there was a brewery right near a hotel, which is becoming a popular thing for me. So I wanted to hit that before it shut down. I definitely will be coming back to Columbus in the future, and hopefully on a weekend and hopefully without a pandemic going on.

My last stop for the day and got there as they were doing their final pours. I had their Oktoberfest which was good (can never turn down an Oktoberfest). I didn’t get as many pictures of the breweries today as I had wished, but, so it goes.

Tomorrow’s itinerary is Indianapolis to visit the Vonnegut Museum for his birthday. I’ll be posting on our Instagram and Facebook and Twitter pages when I get to places, and I’ll do my update at the night like usual. See you then!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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

The Trip to Indianapolis:

• The Trip to Indy
• The Trip to Indy – Day One Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Three Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Four Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Five Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Six Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Seven Recap
• Recap and Stats

I have done a few lists before and will post them at the end of this article.

So this article will be broken down into a few Top 5 lists. Top five beer reviews, top five industry news, top five articles (non-beer review). So lets break it down and see what all we got to show for seventeen months of blogging!

Top 5 Beer Reviews on The Beer Thrillers

1. Beer Review: Dillston (Boneshire Brew Works)

First published on July 15th, 2019. This is our most viewed beer review.

2. Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

Noticing a trend here with Boneshire Brew Works beers and the popularity of the reviews for them. This was published on December 22, 2019.

3. Beer Review: Harrishire (Boneshire Brew Works and Harris Family Brewing)

Did I mention that Boneshire Brew Works beer reviews are popular on here? This time it was a collaboration with the Harris Family Brewery that will soon be opening in Harrisburg. I can’t wait for their opening, been looking forward to them for a long time. This was first published on August 18th, 2019.

4. Beer Review: Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart (Rotunda Brewing Company)

J. Doncevic’s first on this list. This was published on July 18th, 2019.

5. Beer Review: Caucus-Race 6.0 (Zappa Hops) (Boneshire Brew Works)

And once again, rounding out our top 5 viewed beer reviews, is another Boneshire Brew Works beer. Four out of five, an impressive showing. Who knows though, maybe by the next time I do a list article like this they will be beat by another beer or brewery. The This is The Way beer by Broken Goblet gets a lot of search views. So you never know. This was first published on August 13th, 2019.

Top 5 Non-Beer Review Articles

1. A Sneak Preview of the New Rubber Soul Brewery

I was invited out for an early preview and look around the new Rubber Soul brewery that is nearing its completion (now in September 2020). This was my article previewing the brewery and brewing company. It was published on February 29, 2020.

2. Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink

Back in January 2020 (feels like ages ago now), me and J. Doncevic were invited out to Mellow Mink brewery by Matt Miller (co-owner and head brewer) for a tour and visit. Was a fantastic time and we absolutely loved it. Article was published on January 22nd, 2020.

3. The Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing

The celebration and announcement of Hemauer Brewing Company’s Grand Opening. Article was published on April 27th, 2020.

4. Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19)

An article I originally wrote and published elsewhere and then published on my own blog as well. About the breweries (at the time) in the immediate Harrisburg area. Article was published September 6, 2019.

5. Brewing a Traditional Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale – Keptinis

Karl Larsen’s fantastic and amazing blog post for us about brewing Keptinis. If you are a home brewer this is absolutely a must read. This article was published on May 2nd, 2020 for us.

Another fantastic read is Andrew Parys’s piece on What Makes a Great Quarantine Brewery. That was published on May 2nd, 2020 as well.

Some list articles we’ve done in the past:

• Hoppy Easter – IPAs
• November Recap
• Some Old Posts
• End of the Year – 2019
• The Best of 2019
• Our Most Viewed Articles (September 19th, 2019)

Well thank you everyone for reading. Hopefully you’ll find some great articles to read and hopefully you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane!

Until next time.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

2019 has certainly been a big year. For the brewing industry, for myself, for this blog (well… primarily because its been the only year the blog’s been around…), for the country, and for the world as a whole. It was certainly a pivotal year. (Though at the end of each year, it feels like we say this every year.)

I wanted to do a bit of a recap and “best” of series all wrapped up in one. This second part will recap some of 2019; in the sense I’ll talk about my personal favorite beers I had in 2019 for the first time, my favorite new brewery stops, the blog’s top viewed articles, and I’ll show the results of fans top beers / breweries. I asked here in the blog, on my personal Facebook, our Twitter, and in several Facebook beer groups what people’s favorite beers / breweries of 2019 were, and I’ll share the results of that.

First off, I’ll start with the blog, and then work towards my personal, then to our fans.

The Top Ten Viewed Articles Here on The Beer Thrillers:

Working our way up to the #1 most viewed:

10. We actually have a 3-way tie to start off the list, so this really becomes a Top 12 rather than Top 10. The first of the three way tie is:

Caucus-Race 6.0 by Boneshire Brew Works

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg – an article about the various breweries in the Harrisburg / Hershey area

And the third tie for #10 is – A Beer Flight from Ever Grain, reviewed. Their 3rd Anniversary, Cinn-a-bon, etc.

Number 9 on the list is Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour by Newfangled Brew Works

Number 8 on the list is AuZealand 2.0 by Boneshire Brew Works

Number 7 is the Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart beer review by J. Doncevic, brewed by Rotunda Brewing Company

Number 6 is The Hog by Boneshire Brew Works, a recent article, but one that climbed fast and got a ton of views quickly.

Numbers 5 and 4 are actually tied and are both recap / listicles: November Recap and Some Old Posts.

Number 3 is yet another Boneshire Brew Works beer – Harrishire

And number 2, and the last individual page that got the most views was Dillston by Boneshire Brew Works.

Because number one overall, is our main page – The Beer Thrillers homepage. Which I suppose should come as no surprise. But the Boneshire Brew Works beers definitely cleaned up, with several in our top 10 – Dillston, Harrishire, The Hog, AuZealand, and Caucus-Race.

I love seeing the statistics and analytics of what posts get the most views, where the people are coming from or how they find the site through different search engine results and things. So its neat to see some of the local beer reviews we’ve done – for Boneshire and for Rotunda – making the top 10.

Now, onto the personal. I got to check out 17 new breweries or brewpubs this year:

• Columbia Kettle Works (2nd Gear) – Lancaster, PA
• Twisted Bine – Mount Joy, PA
• Tun Tavern and Brewpub – Atlantic City, NJ
• Battlefield Brew Works – Gettysburg, PA
• Straub Visitor Center, Tap Room, and Brewery – St. Mary’s, PA
• Logyard Brewing – Kane, PA
• Twisted Vine – Kane, PA
• ShuBrew Brewery – Zelionople, PA
• Cinderlands Beer Co. Warehouse – Pittsburgh, PA
• The Church Brew Works – Pittsburgh, PA
• Yellow Bridge Brewing – Delmont, PA
• Stone Bridge Brewery – Johnstown, PA
• Olde Bedford Brewery – Bedford, PA
• Cushwa Brewery – Williamsport, MD
• Mad Chef Brewing Company – East Petersburg, PA
• Rotunda Brew Pub – Hershey, PA (formerly Irv’s Pub, I’m counting this as “new” since its now rebranded as a brewpub)
• Official BBQs and Burgers, Pizza Boy’s Second Location – Rutherford, PA

Out of these 17 places, I’m going to have to say my favorite was Logyard. Stopped there, during my three day vacation trip with my daughters, and they loved the brewery, loved the food, loved the atmosphere, and the beer was phenomenal. It was also small, out of the way, not even really on the map. So I think it was super cool for that. A runner-up would definitely be Cushwa. Which had fantastic beer, a great bartender, didn’t get any food, and didn’t get to stay long, so I can’t really speak of the atmosphere. Third place would have to go to The Church Brew Works, which is a must-visit just for the aesthetics of seeing an old church turned into a brewery. A visually stunning location and brewery and worth a trip to see when in the Pittsburgh area.

Top beers is going to be much harder to narrow down and pick and choose. I have so many I could pick. From local breweries, I loved this year’s version of Double Blizzard, by Troegs Brewery, I also loved several of the sWheat Tarts I got to try this year, notably the Juicy Fruit one by Rotunda Brewing. Boneshire Brew Works also pumped out some amazing beers, like the s’Mores Lazaris, The Hog, the 2019 Holiday Reserve, several of their one offs, Caucus-Race 6.0, AuZealand 2.0, Sunburst, almost too many to list. And Tattered Flag really pumped out some great beers this year. The Peach Rings of Fire beer, Inexplicably Juicy, the Should Have Put Him Custardy, the Imperial Churro collaboration, basically any collaboration they made was phenomenal. I loved the beers I had at Yellow Bridge, Cinderlands, Mad Chef, Cushwa, and especially Logyard. I got some great beers from trades that I really liked, like There’s Nuttin Butter Than a Nice Pair of Camo Pants, and Azathoth, I also got gifted Sap and Autumn from Tree House, which were fantastic. So many good beers, so hard to narrow them all down. Had some really great ones at the various brewfests I went to like Lititz, Mount Hope, Atlantic City’s, etc. I’m going to just have to cop out here and say I can’t name just one.

I will provide a link here to my “Your Year in Beer” by Untappd. Ben’s 2019 Year in Beer.

It was certainly a great year with 1,000+ unique beer checkins from a ton of breweries.

Now lets switch again and go to some reader responses.

On my personal Facebook page, Tyler Budwash said his favorite was Should Have Put Him in Custard by Tattered Flag.

On the Central PA Whalerz Facebook group, the answers were varied. Some were:

Collin Short said Trillium’s Max Headroom, Monk’s Western and Del Amo, Solo Hike, Bloom Blossom, Super Fluffy; Veil’s Buried Alive 3, We Ded Mon 3, Good Morning Anxiety; and Aslin’s Castle Hill and Sperryville.

James Nicastro said 3 sons and Voodoo’s Summagick, Aslin’s Luling, Sperryville, Alexandria, and Gang Gets a Barrel; Other Half’s BA Snowbirds; Monkish Space Churro; Hudson Valley’s Amorphia, Other Half’s 5th Anniversary, Tilted Barn’s Space Cactus, Equilibrium’s Dream Wave Distortion, and Dream Wave Fluctuation.

Chris Scott said New Trail’s Red Line.

Greg Brunner liked The Veil’s Patient Man and White Bugatti.

When posed the question to the Breweries in PA Facebook group, I got a large range of answers as well:

Douglas Allen – MissileToad by Ever Grain
Anthony Ferraro – New Trail Backast Double IPA and Victory’s Cloudwalker IPA.
Kaela Williams – anything by Imprint
Michael Dunmore – Special Cookie by Free Will Brewing
Michael Keener – North County Brewing White Tea, Abjuration Brewing WCPM v1.0
Shawn Bryne – Broken Goblet Brewing – Hazenberg IPA
Dean Horning – Yuengling’s Hershey Porter
John Welsh – Ralphius – Free Will (and variants)
David Villafane – Lollihop – Troegs
James Frank – Wild Berry Pineapple Puffsicle
Tim Kilian – A Nap in the Pollen – Forest and Main
Nevile Mehta – Schmoojee beers – Imprint
Scott Bombeck – Shallow and Pointless – New Trail
Wilson Myers – Frost – Robin Hood Brewing
Chris Ciccarone – Raspberry Heliocentric – New Trail
Teri Smith – Morning Blonde – Hop Hill Brewing
Matthew David Prince – Double Guava Milkshake IPA – Tired Hands
Andie Bicho – Stratophonic – Levante
Siobhan Royack – Lost in Suspension, Apricot – Lost Tavern
Thomas Slovik – Chaka – Schaylor Brewing and Sunny Side Up by Pizza Boy

So this kind of wraps up 2019. Sums it up to some degree. Between this and the “End of the Year – 2019” article, I think I wrapped up the year of 2019; for the blog, for myself personally, and for some of our readers. Hopefully you enjoyed what we’ve done in 2019, and even more importantly, hopefully you are looking forward to what we have in store for 2020. I know I am.

I just want to say thank you for reading, for myself, Josh, AJ, Default Brewing, Let Us Drink Beer, and everyone else who has worked to help me with this blog behind the scenes, we all want to thank you – the readers – for checking us out, and reading. Thank you!

Happy New Year. Happy start to 2020, and lets make it a fantastic year!

Cheers, toast, and prost!

-B. Kline

(Just a quick note, late addition on this, this is going to be a two-part article. First part a look-back at The Beer Thrillers articles of 2019, and the second part about our top beers, top breweries, and other happenings of 2019 for myself personally and the blog, and some of our friends in general. So make sure to check out both parts.)

So its the end of the year… end of decade even…. and thus its time to reflect back on where we came from, how we got to where we are, and where we are going. Humanity, since the inception of time, and creating of calendars and years and New Years Eves and New Years Days have always taken the last few days of each year to look back on their year, their life, and reflected, and thought about how they could better themselves, come up with “resolutions” for the upcoming year, and join in with friends and families as they ring in the new year. “New Year New You.”

We here at The Beer Thrillers are going to do something …. similar. Not fully introspective though, because we don’t take ourselves that seriously. But just a fun look back at the year that was 2019. I can’t speak for my co-writers, but I can say for me, personally, 2019 had its fair share of ups, downs, in-betweens, lefts, rights, diagonals, crosses, bounces, turns, jukes, and jives. But I’m still here and better for it all. But I’m not going to go on and on too much about myself personally.

Rather, I’m going to write about how the blog has done, where we started from, where we’re headed, etc. And yea, I’ll probably get a little personal. But nothing deep or philosophical or introspective. More along the lines of what were some of the best beers, breweries, or events I’ve done of the year. So don’t worry, the blog will uphold the Seinfeld idea of “Nobody learns, nobody grows, nobody hugs”.

I started this blog back on May 17th, 2019. (This year!) It was a Thursday, my girls (my daughters) were at school, I was bored, and trying to figure out what I’m doing / was doing. I needed something for my days off while the kids were at school, something that was fun, something I was passionate about, something that let me feel like I was being creative, using my talents, and something I knew about. I’ve been reading blogs, and news sites, and all kinds of things about beer for so long, and I have a lot of experience drinking… …and writing… that I figured why not combine the two? I was feeling like I was in a rut, my job is the same its been for the past seven years, I wasn’t doing anything outright ‘creative’ and needed an outlet for it, and we are in a review culture. I do all kinds of reviews all the time, in small nondescript and unimportant ways. Like reading books when I’m finished, I write up a review of them when I check them off on GoodReads. Same with Untappd, when I drink a beer, I write up a small (Tweet size) review of it. I also felt, I was in a unique spot to start this up. I was getting to a spot where I knew enough people “on the inside” or “in the business”, and I was also doing stuff beyond just being a consumer; like home brewing, growing hops, helping can at Tattered Flag, being engaged in conversations with home brewers and professional brewers a lot, that I felt like I could provide some interesting conversations and articles to the world.

Mainly…. I was looking to not be bored, and to do something I love doing – writing and drinking beer.

So I started the blog up on May 17th, 2019. Basically having no clue what I was doing. I started up using WordPress and here we are. Its still WordPress, albeit the ‘weaker’ version (fingers crossed come sometime the new year, I switch over to the more advanced version, where I have more control over the site and the appearance). I did a little bit of research, chose a name – which to be frankly speaking – the name “The Beer Thrillers” just popped up to me. Nothing too deep or crazy or interesting behind it. I was honestly conjuring up the idea that it would be me, and a few of my friends writing, thus the “Thrillers” and not “Thriller”. I thought me, Drew, Dan maybe, and a few others would all writing all kinds of blog posts and contributing. Maybe some of the insiders in the business I know too… …while this hasn’t happened exactly; I have enlisted friends and other writers over the year to help out. (More on that as I get to their participation.)

Outside of creating the home page and starting up the site, my very first article on the blog was a beer review of Troegs’ Scratch 375 – The CocoNator. As far as first time articles go, I have no problems with it. Counting the writing of my colleagues and fellow contributors and cowriters to the blog, we’re now up to 130 blog posts (this being #131). I definitely think I’ve come a long way from that first blog. But I also like to think I laid the foundation there. I set up a system for how the beer reviews (I do) are written, presented, and I hope they are written in a fun, interesting, educational, and most importantly entertaining way.

When I started this in May, I had just gotten a couple of cans from my shift manager at work – Jordan and used them a the base for my first few beer reviews. The CocoNator was quickly followed by two South County beer reviews – Painting with Light (May 19th) and Sundrifter (May 30th). Also during this time, from my recent volunteer work helping can at Tattered Flag I worked with and gotten quite a few of their cans (hard work and sweat at their brewery resulted in many cans of whatever beer was being canned that day, as well as lots of other cans they still had from past canning runs). Two of these resulted in the beer reviews of Boulangerie Stout – Imperial Churro (May 22nd) which was a collaboration between Derek Wolf of Wolf Brewing Co. and Tattered Flag and You Hoppin’ On Me? (May 24th).

I was trying to write fast, furiously, and get some articles out there as a starting blog, I knew content was going to be the main driving force (and still is). Quality content even better. Hopefully I provided the quality content. I guess thats all up to you guys to decide, but I like to think I did (or at least, like I said, hope I did). As you can see from my picture of the Imperial Churro; often times in the background or foreground or beside the beers you’ll see some of the recent books I’m reading, as well as my dog Leela – especially if I’m drinking at home where she typically has to get her nose into the business of all involved. On May 27th, I conducted a bit of a science experiment when I found an old (over a year old) Black and Blue Tastee from The Veil. I had gotten a four pack from one of my favorite bartenders – Chris – who had traveled down and muled some back up. I wrapped up May, my first month of writing for the blog, with my first beer review from a bar – Warwick Hotel – on May 31st with a beer review of Cinnamon Toast Crunch by Collusion Tap Works.

May finished, and my first month done; even if I had only started late in the month on the 17th, I felt accomplished with the blog. I published 9 total blog pages; which included the home-page, the author-bio page, the contact page, and other necessary background pages. Word was slowly trickling out about the blog, I was up to 59 visitors and 121 views. Not a bad first month – especially considering it was basically just two weeks (the 17th through the 31st). Lets say I was “pleased as punch” with the start of the blog. June was looking bright!

June started with a beer review from the Bissell Brothers Brewing Company – Baby Genius on June 3rd. Followed up by a bottle of LazerSnake by Three Floyds on June 9th.

On June 13th, I did my first multiple beer review, and my first beer flight review – from Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – of course. What other place would I do my first beer flight review? Troegs was basically my initiation into the craft beer scene when I was ….cough turning 21…. and was the start of my craft beer love. Troegs is still a wonderful brewery, a fantastic venue there in Hershey, and overall holds a definite soft spot in my craft beer loving heart.

June 14th ended up being my first “double blog post” day. Earlier in the day I had stopped in at Tattered Flag to pick up a four-pack, had a beer, and when home, wrote a review, and later that night, with my daughters, I stopped in at Boneshire Brew Works, had a beer, and did a review before bed. At Tattered Flag I had the Abra Collabra beer, and at Boneshire I had the Sunburst beer. A week later I did my first brewery review, when I took my oldest daughter to Gettysburg for the day to visit the battlefields and monuments. Before visiting the sites, we stopped for lunch at the Battlefield Brew Works. A day later I was back at Warwick for another beer and review – Manayunk’s King Crunch.

Around this time, looking to expand, I enlisted the help of a buddy and fellow craft beer aficionado and enthusiast, and Boneshire lover – Josh Doncevic. We had a few talks at Boneshire Brew Works, and we chatted on the Central PA Whalerz group, and discussed this and that and everything beer related, and I thought he’d be a perfect fit for the blog – and he is and still has been. And on June 27th, he took his plunge into the world of blogging with his first beer review Northmont by Yellow Bridge.

A flurry of beer reviews followed – Should Have Put Him in Custardy, a beer flight from Hershey Biergarten, helped close out June and start July with Josh’s review of Ectogasm. June saw the blog grow by massive leaps and bounds, we went from 59 visitors in May to 848 visitors in June with 1100 some views. July was looking to be a great month for The Beer Thrillers, and it certainly delivered some amazing beer reviews! Pink Guava, Inexplicably Juicy, Miami Vice, Old 51, Dillston, Saison and Hurry up and Wait, a beer flight from Tony’s travels up north at the Black Gryphon, Wolf Prints, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart.

On July 19th we launched our Twitter page. Which just a few days ago, we hit our 100th follower! (Time for me to plug in here and suggest everyone head over there briefly to follow us, then come back here.) On July 23rd we also started our Instagram page. I will be the first to admit that we don’t do as much with Instagram, primarily because I don’t know enough about it yet. Looking to learn more about it in 2020 and get that page going a lot more.

July continued with some more beer reviews like Enigma, Green Zebra and Next Coast, Good Walk Spoiled, another beer flight from Troegs, and Road Less Traveled. I ended the month by discussing my upcoming road trip with my daughters.

July also saw some fun and interesting events I got to do for the first time. I lost my Ffej of July cherry, getting to make it out to possibly the biggest, baddest, most sickest birthday bash / lawn party ever. Me and Drew also attended the Moo-Funk Home Brew event as well. July was certainly a fun month, but August was looking to be even better.

August started off with a bang, I took my daughters up north PA to visit Elk Country, then we visited Straub Brewery, then we went to Kinzua Bridge and after that stopped at Logyard Brewery and next door to it was Twisted Vine Brewery. That was Day One. Day two saw us hitting the Pittsburgh area. First at dawn we hiked McConnell’s Creek, then went to ShuBrew before going into Pittsburgh proper and visit the city where we did a whole slew of things like see Fort Pitt, take the Duquesne Lift, check out medieval Catholic relics, stop by a Jewish synagogue, see the outfield wall still standing, and we also checked out a few breweries like Cinderlands Warehouse, The Church Brew Works, and we finished the day staying at a motel right next door to Yellow Bridge Brewing. Day Two was a lot busier than day one, but just a much fun.

We didn’t slow down for Day Three. We had a whole host of driving to do on day three. We started at Bushy Run to watch the reenactment and check out the events, then went to the Alleghany Portage and Railroad Museum, and then went into Johnstown to see the Johnstown Flood Memorial and there we checked out the brewery Stone Bridge Brewing. From there we Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and then we stopped and paid our respects at the Flight 93 Memorial. On the way back home to the Hershey area we stopped at Olde Bedford Brewing.

Was a fun three days where we got to see lots of cool places, museums, memorials, monuments, and nine breweries to boot. Can’t beat that!

The beer reviews weren’t going to slow down in August either. Ghost in the Machine by Josh, a beer flight at Twisted Bine, Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, and Caucus Race 6.0. Then shortly before my oldest daughter’s birthday I took her and my second oldest down to Antietam to see the battlefield there and on the way back home we stopped at Cushwa Brewing. Which I did a brewery review of.

They have since moved out of that building but they are still close by to the location. August still had plenty more beer reviews for you guys starting with Harrishire, Kettle Sour Series – Raspberry, Ghost in the Machine by B. Kline, Good Vibrations, and then I did a dual beer review from two beers I had at a Harrisburg Senators game – a Pineapple Kolsch and a Dry Irish Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, Rye for an Eye (my birthday blog post and beer), and that closed out the month of August. As for events in August, me and my friend Ming went to the Lancaster Brewfest and afterwards went to Mad Chef Brewing (my first time there) which was an overall fun event.

Moving onto September started with my cashing in my birthday taco coupon at Newfangled Brew Works and had a really tasty Kettle Sour from them. In September I wrote a piece for Breweries in PA and also posted it on my blog – the version on the blog is found here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19). It has become one of the most popular pieces on our blog, and I believe it has done very well for the Breweries in PA crew as well. Beer reviews certainly didn’t slow down: a flight of Levante and Tattered Flag beers, a flight of Troegs beers, Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale, a flight of beers from Mount Gretna Brewery, and Spundae.

September also saw me do our first listicle articles. With two – one celebrating our oldest posts – and one celebrating our most viewed posts. Followed by, as always, more beer reviews – Key Lime Pie, They Burn Them All Away, AuZealand, a flight of Ever Grain beer, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, and a Sour Blueberry wrapped up September.

October started off with a couple of Boneshire Brew Works beers – Tried and True (Mango) and Iscariot. I then got to attend Dr. Alison Feeney’s seminar and event at Mid-Town Scholar “For the Love of Beer“. Afterwards I went to The Millworks and had a flight. I did a book review of Dr. Alison Feeney’s book – For the Love of Beer. We finally joined Facebook on October 17th, you can find our Facebook page here. We are now up to 154 followers on Facebook, hoping to grow more! Did a beer review of Salted Caramel Moo-Hoo next.

I was contacted back in September by Midwest Coast Brewing Company to do an advertisement article and announcement article about their brewery opening. And I think it turned out very well. This was the first time a brewery reached out to us and asked us to do a piece for them and I think it turned out very well. I did a bit of an interview with the owners / brewers, and talked about their brewery’s opening. This has led to Mellow Mink reaching out to us and inviting us to their place to check them out and do an article (January 2nd we’ll be doing that).

J. Doncevic did a review of Ekaunot by Barebottle. We then covered Rotunda Brewing Company’s rebranding of Irv’s Pub into Rotunda Brew Pub. Also did a news article on Pennsylvania breweries that won at the 2019 GABF. That was my first straight up news article for the blog.

More beer reviews: Athena, Sour Me Peach, Irish Table, Envie and Envie 4X, Yuengling’s Hershey’s Chocolate Porter, and to wrap up the beer reviews of October I did Fatum Series: Member Berries. We also covered Boneshire Brew Works’ 3rd Anniversary Celebration.

November was a crazy month for me. I challenged myself to doing 30 blog posts, one per day – MINIMUM, and I am proud to say I achieved that and met my goal. It was certainly daunting a task, but I did achieve it.

Here’s the list of my articles in November: Pumpkin Stout, St. Thomas, Walker Station Stout, a flight by ZeroDay, King Sue, Intergalactic Warrior, s’Mores LazaRIS, There’s Nuttin Butter Than a Nice Pair of Camo Pants, Secret Machine, Broken Heels, Animal Adjective, 556 Stout, Boat Drinks, a flight of Tattered Flag – Newfangled Brew Works – and Cox Brewing beers, Alpha Abstraction, Double IPA, Lager, Birra Di Levante, Tickle Parts – Passionfruit, a flight of beers from Appalachian Brewing Company, Default Brewing, Darwin’s Salted Forehead, Newfangled Pils, Gotta Get up to Get Down, Paradise Lost, Moon of Vega, Citraquench’l, Azathoth, a flight of Troegs including Mad Elf, and finally a review of Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s second location. WHEW! That was a lot to get out, you can read about it in the November Recap.

November also saw Default Brewing join us here at The Beer Thrillers. Headed by AJ Brechbiel, they are a group of home brewers who will be providing home brewing articles for the blog from time to time. They gave us a welcoming post in November: Cheers from Default Brewing.

I also started up a collaboration with Let Us Drink Beer blog. Where we would be guest writing and contributing to each other’s blogs occasionally. They are down south, and with us being here in PA, it seemed like it’d be a nice fit. Provide some information and beers and breweries that readers might not normally get to see. They posted their first article “Five Must See Breweries in Atlanta” in November.

Josh also wrote two beer reviews in November: Ghost 782 and Ghost 779.

December started off a little slower here for us, probably because I was a bit tired from November, or perhaps just because its the holiday season, I don’t know. But my first beer review was Ice Dreamz. I did a few more beer reviews in December – My Watch Has Ended, The Hog, Scrooge IPA, Sap, and Autumn.

Default Brewing gave us an introduction to their crew: “Meet The Crew at Default Brewing“.

I covered the guest blogging that was going on and Let Us Drink Beer gave us a review of Koki Bunni.

Finally, the last article posted in all of 2019 (outside of this one now) was a travelogue of me and Drew brewery hopping around Harrisburg. Starting at Boneshire Brew Works, and going to The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturges Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Was a fun day jumping around from place to place.

Hopefully you enjoyed this look back on 2019 with The Beer Thrillers. The second part of this article will most likely be posted January 1st, possibly before work, possibly after work. I have to leave for work now, and work until (at least) 8PM, and will most likely be going right out to enjoying New Years Eve festivities with my daughters. Tomorrow I work 10-6, and afterwards will be doing a podcast with Esteban about LOST.

The second part of this series will cover top beers, top breweries, and other things about the year for The Beer Thrillers and myself. For example – podcasting.

So make sure you check out part two then as well!

As always, I hope you have a Happy New Year, enjoyed the blog, and continue to do so! Without you, we don’t need to write, so we hope you are having as much fun and entertainment with this as we are!

-B. Kline on behalf of The Beer Thrillers staff.

Some days the blog posts were easy. Other days not so much. Some days I had the blog post done at 7:30 or 8AM… other days I’m struggling to get the blog post done, and wrapping it up at 11:58PM.

I never truly felt like I had burnt myself out…. until I came to doing this recap blog post. Thats why its now December 7th and its getting posted; when this was meant to be posted on December 1st. And I still don’t think I’m ‘burnt out’. I think its a case of ‘start-up issues’. The hardest part about any blog post is starting the blog post. Like writing anything, the hardest part is the beginning, is putting ink to paper, or to type those first few words. So, as the time stretched from December 1st… to December 2nd…. to December 3rd…. I hesitated and procrastinated more and more, and this post went further and further by the wayside. So for that, and for the fact that the blog as a whole hasn’t had a single post in December, and no new blog post in a week, I apologize. For those of you who were looking forward to this recap posting of my “November NaNoWriMo Challenge”, I apologize. And yes, I know I’m not REALLY doing a NaNoWriMo, and I know I’m not using the term correctly.

But this is the recap post, and it is finally going live. I apologize for its tardiness, but hopefully you will enjoy it all the same.

I met all three of my self-set hard challenges for November, and fell short of a soft-challenge for myself. My hard challenges were: 1) One new blog post per day, 2) One new unique beer per day, and 3) One 1-mile or more walk per day. These challenges I completed. (Figured the 1-mile or more walk would counter-balance the fact I was drinking every day.) The soft challenge I failed was hitting my 10K steps per day. And I only failed that one day…. ironically the second day of the month. I only got 8.8K steps that day, mainly due to a friend gathering and party and having gone to it right after work.

But you all don’t really care about the challenges, and just want to see the recap right?! So here’s whats going with that. I’m going to make a list here of the dates (November 1st, November 2nd, November 3rd, etc.) as headings, and then underneath it, list the different blog posts we posted that day (mine, J. Doncevic’s reviews, AJ’s Default Brewing post, and the guest writing blog post by Let Us Drink Beer). I will also list what new unique beer I had each of those days (or in the cases of some days, ‘unique beers’). So lets to it!

NOVEMBER 1st:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Pumpkin Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Pumpkin Spice Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Catchin’ Feels (Tattered Flag)

NOVEMBER 2nd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Rose Cider (Wyndridge Farm)
• Blood Orange Cranberry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Strawberry (Delp Brother’s Home Brewing) (Friend’s Homebrew at the party)

NOVEMBER 3rd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Walker Station Stout (Pretoria Fields Collective)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Watermelon (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 4th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Sogni D’oro, Wastin’ Daylight, Market Research, Peach Novelty, Oktobock, Lucky Cat Lien (ZeroDay Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)
• Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)
• King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 5th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Black Cherry (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 6th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Apple (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 7th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: S’Mores LazaRIS (Boneshire Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 8th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory (J. Doncevic)
• Beer Review: There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 9th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)

Unique Beers:

• Schwarzbier (The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery)

NOVEMBER 10th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 11th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Colonization (Ghost 779) – Adroit Theory

Unique Beers:

• Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag)
• Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Government Overspending (2019) (Tattered Flag)
• Seven. Point. Six. Two. (Tattered Flag)
• 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company – CBC)

NOVEMBER 12th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )

Unique Beers:

• Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 13th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Alcatraz Sour Apple (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 14th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag), Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works), Government Spending 2019 (Tattered Flag), Seven.Point.Six.Two (Tattered Flag), 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

NOVEMBER 15th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 16th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Birra di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 17th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Syndicate City Sour Peach (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 18th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Birra Di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 19th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beer:

• Great American Apple Pie (Stout Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 20th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Mechanicsberry, Bargain Black IPA, Embers Remain, Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Mechanicsberry (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Bargain Black IPA (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Embers Remain (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 21st:

Blog Posts:

• Default Brewing

Unique Beers:

• Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Nitro Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 22nd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)
• NVP (Nitro Series) (Breckenridge Brewery)

NOVEMBER 23rd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 24th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Cheers from Default Brewing!

Unique Beers:

• Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 25th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Crowd Control (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 26th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery(

NOVEMBER 27th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 396 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Mad Elf 2019 Vintage (technically not a ‘new’ beer, but my first of this year’s vintage) (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Coco-Nator (non-scratch version) (Troegs Independent Brewing)

NOVEMBER 28th: (Thanksgiving)

Blog Posts:

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

Unique Beers:

• Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 29th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Not My Style, Might Rate Anyway (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)
• Visions of Yesterday (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 30th:

Blog Posts:

• Official BBQ & Burgers: Pizza Boy Secondary Location
• Five Must See Breweries When Visiting Atlanta (Let Us Drink Beer)

Unique Beers:

• Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Gose (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Whew, what an exhausting month November was. I think part of the reason it took me so long to get the energy to do this recap post, was knowing the amount of formatting involved and the photos…. and now that the challenge is over, a malaise kind of settled over me. Like my job was completed. I started this post this morning before work, and had to finish it now after an extra hour or so of work on it this evening. I still want to put in some statistics of the month, for the blog, and for myself, and will most likely come in and do the edit for that later tonight or tomorrow. I will also add the tags and categories. But for now, I just want to get this live and up on the internet. Its 7PM and this is long overdo.

I would like to thank my contributors and co-authors on this blog for making this month (and all the time in general) go so well, and for providing so much help, fun and entertaining blog posts to read, and for helping so much with the blog! Thank you J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (Default Brewing), and Let us Drink Beer Blog. My blog post for Let us Drink Beer’s blog will go live tomorrow and I will provide a link here for that in the statistics edit I will do. In the meantime you can read their post about their upcoming additions to their blog here: Let us Drink Beer: Exciting Additions Coming Soon!

Cheers and I hope you all enjoyed all of our blog posts in November. Heres to the rest of 2019, and then on to the future, 2020, and the next decade!

-B. Kline

EDIT:

Some statistics from the month here at The Beer Thrillers:

Blog posts:

• 34

Unique authors:

• 4
• B. Kline, J. Doncevic, AJ – Default Brewing, and Let Us Drink Beer

Visitors and Views:

• 2,767 Unique Visitors
• 6,293 Total Views

Twitter Followers:

• 95
• (Goal was 100, just missed it)

FaceBook Followers:

• 130

Most Vewied Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Breweries reviewed/beers of their’s reviewed:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Cox Brewing Company
• Adroit Theory
• Troegs Independent Brewing
• Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
• Levante Brewing
• WISEACRE Brewing
• Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
• Southern Prohibition Brewing
• Heist Brewery
• Toppling Goliath Brewing
• Dewey Beer Co.
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Appalachian Brewing Company
• Crosstown Brewing
• Fonta Flora Brewing
• Westbrook Brewng Co.
• Equilibrium Brewery
• Pretoria Fields Collective
• Wild Leap Brew Co.
• New Trail Brewing

Styles:

• IPA
• Double IPA
• Black IPA
• Brown Porter
• Stout
• Pilsner
• Lager
• New England IPA
• Belgian Dubbel
• Sour – Fruited
• Sour – Other
• Fruited Beer
• Gose
• Sour
• Belgian Strong Dark Ale
• Pale Ale

Some personal stats for me:

Unique Beers:

• 50

Total Beers:

• 68

Breweries Visited:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Appalachian Brewing Company

New Restaurants/Bars:

• The Gin Mill
• Official BBQ and Burgers

Again, thank you all for reading. This post has now been updated with tags and categories. Please leave a like, a comment, and please follow us!

Thank you everyone!

Cheers!!

-B. Kline

Day three was our last and final day of the trip and we packed as much into it all as we could. Starting off with the morning, going to Bushy Run, checking out the battlefield, the visitor center, the encampment, and watching the Reenactment of the Battle at Bushy Run (1763; making this the 256th Anniversary) at 1:30.

After this we went to the Alleghany Portage and Railroad Museum, from there we traveled to the Johnstown Flood Memorial, and down into the town of Johnstown, where we stopped at our first brewery of the day – Stone Bridge Brewing.

A nice little small brewery in the back corner of the town that I have to feel doesn’t get too much traffic, but had some really excellent beers (and a very interesting Sour Brown Ale).

From there, we traveled to the Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and from there made our way to pay respects to the Flight 93 Memorial.

After this we hit the last brewery of our trip, Olde Bedford Brewing in Bedford, PA.

A fantastic little brewery with a great flight of beers, and a wonderful (very sweet) root beer that my daughters absolutely loved. A great friendly staff of two beautiful bartenders served us, and we were then on our way for a two hour (and twenty minute) drive back home.

It was a fun trip through Elk Country, Kinzua Bridge, (Clarion), Pittsburgh, Bushy Run, Johnstown, and Sommerset. The girls and I had a blast and all of the breweries we stopped at were top notch.

As a recap of the breweries, we visited:

Thursday:
– Straub Brewing
– Logyard Brewing
– Twisted Vine Beverages
– (We missed out on Clarion River Brewing)

Friday:
– ShuBrew
– Cinderlands Beer Co.
– The Church Brew Works
– Yellow Bridge Brewing

Saturday:
– Stone Bridge Brewing
– Olde Bedford Brewing Co.

More detailed reports of the trips will be forthcoming, as well as individual brewery reviews of the 9 breweries we hit. (As well as the Moo-Funk Homebrew Competition, Ffej of July, Moo-Duck flight, Fuzzy Nudge review, Naked Elf Review, and so much more in the coming days! Sorry for the backlog but now that the trip is over, there will be plenty of time to write up lots of great beer content and articles for you all!)

Enjoy!

-B. Kline

August Road Trip Series:

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

Up bright early to leave Clarion as intrepid explorers on a mission. Started the morning hiking the McConnell’s Mill Creek paths as well as checking out the Grist Mill and Covered Bridge there, as well as the Kiddoo Falls. From there, the first stop as far as breweries go, occurred in a small borough outside of Pittsburgh called Zelionople. Here we stopped at ShuBrew, enjoyed a large ice cream sandwhich and a flight. Then we moved on.

We next traversed Fort Pitt and used the Duquesne Icline to go up to Mount Washington and back down, getting caught in a brief thunderstorm before checking out two breweries in quick succession.

First, was Cinderlands Beer Co.

Beautiful place, and absolutely packed (5:30 on a Friday afterall). Sadly, I am neither millenial/hipster enough nor beautiful enough myself to stay in a place like this with so many gorgeous people for too long.

So from there, we went to The Church Brew Works, which is a stunning brewery, notable because it is a former church that has been turned into a brewery.

After discovering these two great breweries we traversed Pittsburgh, checking out St. Anthony’s Chapel, Forbes Field (Outfield Wall still standing) and the Mary Schenley Plaza and the Memorial Fountain.

Our last stop, was right down the road from our motel, in Delmont.

Standing room only when we first got there (930 at night), Yellow Bridge Brewing was packed. Live music draws them in Delmont right off the highway… that… and the absolutely fantastic beers. After enjoying a pizza and a few beers, we traveled two minutes down the road to our motel and promptly crashed.

Now for day 3 to start, which will bring us to Bushy Run Battlefield, Johnstown Dam Memorial, Allegheny Portage, and Flight 93 Memorial, as well as the breweries Stone Bridge Brewing and Olde Bedford Brewery.

-B. Kline

August Road Trip Series:

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