Rubber Soul Brewery - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:30:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Rubber Soul Brewery - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Rubber Soul Brewing to Open New Taproom Saturday https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/06/21/rubber-soul-brewing-to-open-new-taproom-saturday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rubber-soul-brewing-to-open-new-taproom-saturday Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:18:30 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15185

Rubber Soul Taproom Exterior (photo courtesy of Rubber Soul Brewing)

Rubber Soul Brewing to Open New Taproom Saturday

This Saturday – June 22nd, 2024, Rubber Soul Brewing is set to open their brand new taproom on North Hanover Street, in Hummelstown PA.

After quite a while building the brand new building (and not without some town controversy) the opening is right around the corner. The new taproom will also host their brewery in the lower level (visible from the giant parking lot). Their original location will now just be a full restaurant and taproom. (See: A Sneak Peek at Rubber Soul Brewery.)

Original Location

Rubber Soul Brewing was originally intending to open their first location in Hummelstown around March of 2020, but with the pandemic, things got pushed back, and they finally held their grand opening in October of 2020. Their current location is in the old Hummelstown Police and Borough Building, located at 136 S Hanover St, Hummelstown, PA 17036.

The current plan for the original location is that they have removed the brewing production from the location to their new brewery facility and taproom, and extending the seating and restaurant.

New Location

Rubber Soul Brewing’s New Taproom Interior (photo courtesy of Rubber Soul Brewing)

The new location is located at 17 N Hanover St, Hummelstown, PA 17036, just 0.3 miles north of their current taproom (on the same street). The new facility took over an old warehouse that formerly sat on the property, as well as Maritza’s House of Style, which they had removed for extra parking. The new taproom has their brewing facility on the lower level, and the upper level features a deck and patio area that faces the 7-11 across the street and some abandoned buildings / businesses.

Hummelstown is currently in the midst of a big tourism push, including the mayor, the governor, and other officials and board members (some of which are involved with Rubber Soul Brewing). At a town meeting where they got permission to bulldoze the Maritza House of Style (despite having full ownership technically as per law at the time), Rubber Soul Brewing stated that their parking lot would be usable by the public for events in town including the parades, carnivals, as well as parking for other Main Street square activities (2nd Friday’s, Memorial Day, etc.)

Another interior shot of the new Rubber Soul Brewing taproom (photo courtesy of Rubber Soul Brewing)

Opening on Saturday – June 22nd, 2024

Rubber Soul Brewing’s Promotional Piece for their Grand Opening

The grand opening for the new taproom and facility will be on Saturday, June 22nd, 2024.

🎉 Get ready to tap into the excitement with us at Rubber S𝗢ul’s brand new Tap Room opening weekend! 🎉 We are so excited to share our newest space with the community – Stay tuned for our upcoming summer hours 🍻💥
🍺𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱✨:
𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆: 𝟰-𝟭𝟬𝗽𝗺
𝗪𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗮𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀
𝗠𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗴𝘇
𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆: 𝟯-𝟵𝗽𝗺
𝗥𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗶𝗻’ 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘆𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗕𝗕𝗤
📍𝟮𝟭 𝗡 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘁 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘀𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗻, 𝗣𝗮 𝟭𝟳𝟬𝟯𝟲
Come check out the new space & grab a brew with us in celebration this weekend!🎉🍺
A quick map from their current location to their new location: From Rubber Soul Brewery to Rubber Soul Brewing Company’s New Taproom. Their current location is still not listed on Google Maps. The old warehouse which was removed was listed as 17 North Hanover Street. As per their Facebook post their brewery’s address will be “21 North Hanover Street”.
Rubber Soul Brewing Company was originally a brewery located in Salisbury Maryland. They were bought and are now owned by Ghost Brewing LLC. They were bought whole-stock, meaning the equipment, recipes, and social media passcodes and usage were all part of their purchase.

Other Rubber Soul Articles

More Information on Rubber Soul

The following comes via Untappd.

They are listed as a brew pub from Hummelstown, PA. They have 123 unique beers and over 51,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.77 (as of 6.21.24). Their Untappd description reads: “We are pumping the air back into the tires of Rubber Soul Brewing Company. New location, new owners, new (and familiar) beer…same old sOul! In this world of instant gratification, superficial “likes” and followers instead of friends, we think it’s more important than ever to find your sOul. See, more and more often, people are so focused on doing what’s ‘right’ by someone else’s standards, obsessed with how other view them that they forget who they are. They give and give and give, follow all of the rules and do all of the ‘right’ things, until one day they wake up and realize their empty. Spend 5 minutes on social media and you will see countless bright pictures of smiling faces, but how many of us are genuinely satisfied? We’re talking deep, within your sOul, fire blazing, satisfied. At Rubber Soul, our mission is to refuel each and every sOul that walks through our doors. Our craft beer and local vibe is the end result of people who decided to just go for it and follow their passion, regardless of the opinion of others. We look forward to welcoming you to our brewery. No judgements. No impossible standards. #NoFilter. All that we require is that you do a little sOul searching.

You can find them on these social media platforms:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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:

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 ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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.)

]]>
15185
Rubber Soul Brewing Supporting and Hosting World Down Syndrome Day https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/03/21/rubber-soul-brewing-supporting-and-hosting-world-down-syndrome-day/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rubber-soul-brewing-supporting-and-hosting-world-down-syndrome-day Mon, 21 Mar 2022 12:32:26 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=9002
World Down Syndrome Day at Rubber Soul Brewing Company in Hummelstown, PA

World Down Syndrome Day

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day, and Rubber Soul Brewing Company in Hummelstown is supporting and celebrating the cause. World Down Syndrome Day was started by the World Down Syndrome Day Organization which you can find more information about here: World Down Syndrome Day Organization (Home Page).

From their page:

‘What is Down Syndrome?’

Down syndrome (or Trisomy 21) is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement that has always been a part of the human condition, being universally present across racial, gender or socioeconomic lines in approximately 1 in 800 live births, although there is considerable variation worldwide. Down syndrome usually causes varying degrees of intellectual and physical disability and associated medical issues. Learn more at DSi.

World Down Syndrome Day – What is Down Syndrome?

‘What is World Down Syndrome Day?’

World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD) , 21 March, is a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. The date for WDSD being the 21st day of the 3rd month, was selected to signify the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome.

World Down Syndrome Day – What is World Down Syndrome Day?

Rubber Soul Brewing Company Supporting World Down Syndrome Day

Rubber Soul Brewing Company Hosts World Down Syndrome Day on 3.21.22 at their Hummelstown PA Brewery

Rubber Soul Brewing Company is hosting World Down Syndrome Day at their brewery in Hummelstown Pennsylvania, all day Monday 3.21.22. From 11AM to 9PM. They have a whole host of things going on for the day, which you can see here (from their Event page):

Join us on Monday, March 21st to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day for the first annual 3.21 FOR LIFE event! 3.21 FOR LIFE is a non-profit organization that was created by a group of individuals in the Hershey/Hummelstown area who have personal connections to individuals with Down syndrome. To help raise awareness and funds, we have brewed DOWN the Hatch IPA and 50% of the proceeds will be donated to 3.21 For Life! You will be able to purchase this beer on March 21st on draft and in 4 packs to-go! Throughout the day we will have games, raffles, and live bands performing. The PA Dairyman’s Milkshake Truck will also be stopping by from 12-4PM! Mark your calendar and we hope to see you there to celebrate all those with down syndrome CAN do!
Live Band Schedule:
11-11:50AM: The Riders
12-12:50PM: Thomas Emond (Tommy B)
1-1:50PM: Joe Cooney & Friends
2-2:50PM: Amber Nadine
3-3:50PM: Mr. Music
4-4:50PM: Dave Gates
5-5:50PM: Jake Mach
6-7:00PM: Hold Fast

For more information, please visit www.321forlife.com

Rubber Soul Brewing Hosts World Down Syndrome Day

You can view their event page here: Rubber Soul Brewing Hosts World Down Syndrome Day (Event Page).

On 3.14.22 Rubber Soul posted on their Facebook page:

Down the Hatch by Rubber Soul Brewing Company

1 WEEK UNTIL WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY AND OUR INAUGURAL 3.21 FOR LIFE EVENT! can you tell we are really excited?! because we are REALLY excited. the second batch of pre-order for our DOWN the Hatch IPA is being picked up tonight and it’s our final team meeting to iron out day-of details like our raffle items, games, live bands and more! plan to join us next Monday from 11AM-9PM to help us celebrate all of the amazing individuals with Down syndrome and their DOWN right awesome abilities!

Rubber Soul Brewing Company – Facebook

Down the Hatch

Down the Hatch is a New England style hazy IPA that will be released today on 3.21.22 and is named in honor of the World Down Syndrome Day and in support of Down Syndrome. The beer is fully called – 3.21 Down the Hatch.

You will be able to get it in 4 packs and on draft all day on 3.21, and if any makes it past the day (I am not expecting it to last too long after 3.21). This looks like another high quality New England style IPA from Rubber Soul, which has made some fantastic IPAs in the past with Nimbus, Dropout, their Frosted series, and others.

Rubber Soul Brewing Company

Rubber Soul Brewing Company is located in Hummelstown Pennsylvania along South Hanover Street in what was formerly the police station in town. They have been there just over a year, having originally started in Salsbury Maryland.

For more information on the brewery, you can check out our articles on them:

They were a finalist (made it to the final triple threat face off) in our last year’s Battle of the Breweries. This year, they are currently in Round 3 going up against Crooked Run Fermentation. You can vote for them here:

You can find out more information on Rubber Soul here:

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone! Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you there tonight. I will be going after work to meet my mom there for dinner and beer. So I probably won’t be getting there til 7PM’ish. My mom helps teach students with disabilities and learning support issues for Lower Dauphin (the school district of Hummelstown and other nearby townships) and is looking forward to getting to support the organization.

Hopefully you all will be able to come out and support and donate as well! See you there!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

]]>
9002
Rubber Soul’s One Year Anniversary Bash https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/09/06/rubber-souls-one-year-anniversary-bash/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rubber-souls-one-year-anniversary-bash Mon, 06 Sep 2021 22:55:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7937
Rubber Soul is Celebrating Its First Year Anniversary in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania

It’s Time to Celebrate

It’s certainly been a very interesting first year for the (new) Rubber Soul Brewery in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Opening amidst a pandemic, and not only just opening – but surviving and thriving in this difficult new environment for restaurants (including a shutdown around Christmas time), this past – and their first – year has certainly had its set of challenges. Its up and downs. Thats for sure.

So its time to celebrate! On October 3rd, at their Hummelstown Brewery – Rubber Soul Brewing Company is throwing their 1st Year Anniversary Bash!

Year One Anniversary Bash

On October 3rd, 2021, from 11AM to 9PM, Rubber Soul is celebrating, and their celebrating big. With live music, new beers on tap, and a loaded brewery. The brewery is located at: 136 S Hanover St, Hummelstown, PA 17036-2207, United States. The event lasts from 11AM to 9PM with the first music act kicking off at 1:30PM, and the beers going on tap at 11AM.

The following is their Facebook Event page listing:

Event by Rubber Soul Brewing136 S Hanover St, Hummelstown, PA 17036-2207, United StatesPublic  · Anyone on or off FacebookJoin us as we celebrate YEAR 1 with live music, good beer and good food from 11:00AM-9:00PM! Live music:
1:30-3:00PM – The Faves (https://www.facebook.com/thefavesacousticpa)
3:30-5:00PM – Dave McCullough (https://www.mcculloughmusic.net/)
5:30-7:00PM – Pair of Aces (https://www.facebook.com/AcesDuo)Beer:
We will be releasing three new brews just for the party! Year 1 – India Pale Ale – 7.4%, Anniversary IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Idaho #7. Citrusy, tropical and smooth. Hummelsfest Lager – Festbier – 6.1%
Notes of fresh baked bread and dry earthy undertones pave the way for a toasty clean crisp finish. Perfect for a cool Fall day. House Pumpkin Porter – Spiced Porter – 5.8%
Roasty, bold and smooth with just the right amount of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. Like taking your first bite of pumpkin pie.Call us at 717-220-1741 or email us at drinkingbuds@rubbersoulbrewing.com to make a reservation! For more information, visit www.rubbersoulbrewing.com/events

One Year Anniversary Bash – Rubber Soul Event Page

Live Music, New Beers, and a Stein

The above pictures show you the music line – up for the ‘anniversary shindig’. You have ‘The Faves’ kicking things off at 1:30PM, and then Dave McCullough taking over at 3:30PM, and finally ‘Pair of Aces’ takes “the stage” at 5:30PM.

They are also releasing three beers for the celebration. They are:

  • Hummelfest – this is a Festbier that released when they first opened and was only available for a little bit of time a year ago. “Notes of fresh baked bread and dry earthy undertones pave the way for a toasty clean crisp finish. Perfect for a cool Fall day.” 6.1%
  • Year 1 IPA – “Anniversary IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Idaho #7. Citrusy, tropical and smooth.” 7.4%
  • House Pumpkin Porter – “Roasty, bold and smooth with just the right amount of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. Like taking your first bite of pumpkin pie.” 5.8%

To go along with the great (and free) music, as well as three new beers on tap, they are releasing a commemorative stein you can purchase at the brewery that gives you a free fill.

The One Year Anniversary Bash commemorative stein

Rubber Soul Brewery will be selling these pretty steins for 20$ on October 3rd. If you purchase it at the brewery you get your first fill for free. (For more information and details you can check out their events page. Link provided below.) You can also order it online through their website.

Celebration

Can’t wait for the event! Its been a long, winding, arduous, fun, hard, and tough year, for not just Rubber Soul, and Hummelstown, but for everyone. It’s time to enjoy the fall weather, enjoy some great live music, wonderful food, fantastic beers, and great company.

Hopefully we’ll get to see you all there!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Links

The Beer Thriller’s ‘Rubber Soul Articles’:

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 – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

]]>
7937
The Battle of the Breweries (2021) Winner Is…. https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/04/05/the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-winner-is/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-winner-is Mon, 05 Apr 2021 12:47:54 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7483
The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

It is finally time to announce the winner of the Battle of the Breweries (2021), and what a tournament it was! Obviously, like everything else we do here on The Beer Thrillers, it couldn’t be a normal tournament. Instead of doing regular March Madness style brackets of 32 or 64 (or even smaller ones of 16 or 8), we did 48. So right off the bat, things are going to get odd – ball crazy. With the finals being a Triple Threat that saw Isle of Que Brewing vs. Rubber Soul Brewing Company vs. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company, in one epic showdown final!

So without further adieu…..

Your 2021 Battle of the Breweries Champion is….

Isle of Que Brewing

The Que Brew Crew themselves, the new, and possibly undisputed (we haven’t had any disputes yet) champion of The Beer Thriller’s arbitrary Battle of the Breweries (2021), and your people’s champion – The Isle of Que Brewing, straight out of Selinsgrove Pennsylvania.

A huge and massive shout out to them, as they racked up 3,744 votes in the final round to defeat Rubber Soul Brewing Company and Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company. What an impressive final battle this was too!

The Triple Threat Cage Match

For anyone following along, voting, and checking the results, this was an extremely heated battle. Depending on what time you looked at the results on Saturday and Sunday you could have seen Rubber Soul up by two hundred, or you might have see the Que Brew up by fifty, or as they pulled ahead at the very end on Sunday, the Que Brew jumped to a nearly four hundred vote difference. The battle was extremely heated and intense between Que Brewing and Rubber Soul. Somewhere in this scuffle, Troegs Brewing was left far far and far behind, not sure how that happened, as they consistently got the most votes each round, but sadly, for the finals they only got a total of 90 votes; which in and of itself is a giant shocker.

This was a very fun finals match-up with lots of interesting Facebook and Instagram posts from both Que Brewing and Rubber Soul. Que Brew had a unique and interesting Facebook post each day hyping up the tournament and getting their votes, make sure you head over to their Facebook page to see some of their fun and interesting posts.

The final results and tallies for the Triple Threat Championship is as follows:

  • The Isle of Que Brewing (third seed) won with 3,744 votes.
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (second seed) came in second place with 3,353 votes.
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company (one seed) came in third place with 90 votes.

For a combined total of 7,187 votes.

This was the most votes of any round, and this time with only one question, versus the other rounds which all had more than one question to vote on.

Despite Troegs Brewing poor finals vote count, they were the big dogs going into the match-up against relatively unknown underdog Isle of Que Brewing and the new (opened during the pandemic, version 2.0, rebranding, and moved from Salisbury Maryland to Hummelstown Pennsylvania) Rubber Soul Brewing Company. All three breweries (competitors) did extremely well and deserve their place here in the finals.

The Battle of the Breweries (2021) Results

This was an extremely fun tournament to run and I hope all the breweries, fans of the page, fans of the breweries, and anyone reading the articles had just as much fun with it as we did here at The Beer Thrillers. Yesterday (Sunday, April 4th, 2021, Easter) broke our single day page view on the blog with a whopping 12K+ views. And for that alone, we can’t say thank you enough to everyone who took the time out of their busy lives to visit the blog and vote. Hopefully you all got to look at some of the other articles and liked what you saw here on the blog.

But let’s get to the results, how did we get here?

I already covered the full tournament (minus the finals of course) results in the previous article, where you got to vote, so you can check the results of the tournaments here: “The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – The Triple Threat Finals Match“.

But, let’s look at the road each of our finals competitors took to get to the finals match, and then lets also look at statistics of the tournament as a total.

Isle of Que Brewing Company is The Champion

The Isle of Que Brewing Company (or Que Brew Crew) was the definition of a Cinderella and was akin to a 16 seed in the NCAA March Madness tournament winning. What an incredible road they had to get to their finals victory!

In the first round they defeated Jackie O’s Brewery – as the 11th seed defeating the 2nd seed – 146 votes to 31 votes.

(After each round of voting, the tournament was reseeded, so it wasn’t a strict bracket like March Madness or others.)

In the second round they defeated Pizza Boy Brewing Company – as the 11th seed defeating the 2nd seed – 193 votes to 141 votes.

In the third round they defeated Fourscore Beer Company – as the 12th seed defeating the 1st seed – 149 votes to 115 votes.

In the fourth round they defeated Rotunda Brewing Company – as the 6th seed defeating the 1st seed – 212 votes to 79 votes.

In the finals, they were the 3rd seed vs. Rubber Soul (2nd seed) and Troegs Brewing (1st) seed, and won with 3,744 votes.

Total votes for the tournament for Isle of Que Brewing was: 4,444. Quite the impressive number!

Rubber Soul Brewing Company – Second Place

Rubber Soul Brewing Company had a fantastic run and came in second place in the tournament. They had some stiff competition along the way to their second place finals finish as well.

In the first round they defeated Breaker Brewing – as the 10th seed defeating the 3rd seed – 65 votes to 57 votes.

In the second round they defeated Moo-Duck Brewing – as the 9th seed defeating the 4th seed – 168 votes to 116 votes.

In the third round they defeated Dewey Beer Company – as the 11th seed defeating the 2nd seed – 182 votes to 65 votes.

In the fourth round they defeated Ever Grain Brewing – as the 5th seed defeating the 2nd seed – 154 votes to 106 votes.

And in the finals (as the 2nd seed) they lost to Isle of Que Brewing. They had 3,353 votes in the final.

Rubber Soul Brewing Company’s total vote count was: 4,102.

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company grabs the bronze

Troegs Brewing is definitely one of the juggernauts of Pennsylvania Brewing, and were a very heavy favorite for this tournament as well (which also saw breweries from New York, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Indiana). Despite their poor showing in the finals, they still had a very impressive tournament run.

In the first round they defeated Saucony Creek Brewing Company – as the 4th seed defeating the 9th seed – 48 votes to 9 votes.

In the second round they defeated Swiftwater Brewing Company – as the 5th seed defeating the 8th seed – 126 votes to 32 votes.

In the third round they defeated Urban Artifact – as the 8th seed defeating the 5th seed – 145 votes to 96 votes.

In the fourth round they defeated Boneshire Brew Works – as the 4th seed defeating the 3rd seed – 143 votes to 117 votes.

In the finals they came up short with third place and only 90 votes.

Troegs Craft Independent Brewing’s total vote count was: 552 votes.

Tournament Statistics

The total vote count for our three finalists were 9,098 votes. The total vote count for the entire tournament was 16,640 votes. (Out of 46 questions, which means the average vote to question was 361.7391304).

(Copy and pasted results from the previous article: The Triple Threat Match).

Now let’s take a look at the round per round results…

Round One Results

Voting statistics:

  • Total votes for round one: 3422
  • Total votes for Triple H Division: 388
  • Total votes for Ric Flair Division: 305
  • Total votes for HEELs conference: 693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in HEELs conference: 2
  • Total votes for Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: 870
  • Total votes for The Rock Division: 823
  • Total votes for FACEs conference: 1693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in FACEs conference: 7

Upsets:

HEELs Conference:

  • Gearhouse Brewing Company (9) defeating Levity Brewing (4)
  • Desperate Times Brewing Company (10) defeating Yellow Bridge Brewing (3)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7) defeating Cox Brewing Company (6)

FACEs Conference:

  • Three Heads Brewing (11) defeating Idiom Brewing (2)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10) defeating Breaker Brewing (3)
  • Tattered Flag (9) defeating ShuBrew Brewing Company (4)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8) defeating Wolfs Ridge Brewing Company (5)
  • The Church Brew Works (12) defeating Cushwa Brewing (1)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeating Jackie O’s Brewery (2)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) defeating Mellow Mink Brewing (5)

Results of Round One

HEELs Conference: Triple H Division:

  • Fourscore Brewing Company (1 seed) (52 votes) defeated Black Forest Brewing (12 seed) (15 votes)
  • Urban Artifact (2 seed) (41 votes) defeated The Ministry of Brewing (11 seed) (23 votes)
  • Mad Chef Brewing (3 seed) (39 votes) defeated ZeroDay Brewing Company (10 seed) (25 votes)
  • GearHouse Brewing Company (9 seed) (39 votes) defeated Levity Brewing (4 seed) (33 votes)
  • Swiftwater Brewing Company (5 seed) (43 votes) defeated Highway Manor (8 seed) (18 votes)
  • Sun King Brewery (6 seed) (33 votes) defeated Braxton Brewing Company (7 seed) (27 votes)

HEELs Conference: Ric Flair Division:

  • Dewey Beer Company (1 seed) (35 votes) defeated Couch Brewery (12 seed) (16 votes)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (2 seed) (37 votes) defeated Snitz Creek Brewing Company (11 seed) (14 votes)
  • Desperate Times Brewing (10 seed) (30 votes) defeated Yellow Bridge Brewing (3 seed) (19 votes)
  • Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (4 seed) (48 votes) defeated Saucony Creek Brewing Company (9 seed) (9 votes)
  • Twisted Bine Brewing Company (5 seed) (30 votes) defeated Land-Grant Brewing Company (8 seed) (17 votes)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7 seed) (30 votes) defeated Cox Brewing Company (6 seed) (20 votes)

FACEs Conference: Stone Cold Steve Austin Division:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (85 votes) defeated Mt. Gretna Craft Brewery (12 seed) (49 votes)
  • Three Heads Brewing (11 seed) (65 votes) defeated Idiom Brewing (2 seed) (59 votes)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10 seed) (65 votes) defeated Breaker Brewing (3 seed) (57 votes)
  • Tattered Flag (9 seed) (102 votes) defeated ShuBrew Brewing (4 seed) (34 votes)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8 seed) (177 votes) defeated Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (5 seed) (40 votes)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (6 seed) (70 votes) defeated Liquid Noise Brewing Company (7 seed) (67 votes)

FACEs Conference: The Rock Division:

  • The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (82 votes) defeated Cushwa Brewing (1 seed) (43 votes)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11 seed) (146 votes) defeated Jackie O’s Brewery (2 seed) (31 votes)
  • Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (3 seed) (106 votes) defeated Taft’s Brewing Company (Taft’s Ale House) (10 seed) (29 votes)
  • Funk Brewing Company (4 seed) (95 votes) defeated Olde Bedford Brewing Company (9 seed) (34 votes)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (79 votes) defeated Mellow Mink Brewing (5 seed) (51 votes)
  • Moo-Duck Brewing Company (6 seed) (81 votes) defeated Logyard Brewing Company (7 seed) (46 votes)

For more information about the Round One Results you can read the article for Round Two and the Round One results here. The Battle of the Breweries (2021) moves on to the conference round.

Round Two Statistics

Statistics:

  • Total Votes: 2659
  • Total votes in the HEELs Conference: 872
  • Total Votes in the FACEs Conference: 1787
  • There was no upsets in the HEELs conference.
  • There was three upsets in the FACEs conference.

Upsets:

  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeated Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2) by 52 votes.
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9) defeated Moo-Duck Brewing (4) by 52 votes.
  • Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery (7) defeated Rough Edges Brewing (6) by 46 votes.

Round Two Results

HEELs Conference:

  • Fourscore Beer Company (1 seed) (71 votes) defeated GearHouse Brewing Company (12 seed) (61 votes).
  • Dewey Beer Company (2 seed) (70 votes) defeated Desperate Times Brewing Company (11 seed) (67 votes).
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (3 seed) (96 votes) defeated Chatty Monks Brewing (10 seed) (51 votes).
  • Urban Artifact (4 seed) (79 votes) defeated Sun King Brewery (9 seed) (48 votes).
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company (5 seed) (126 votes) defeated Swiftwater Brewing Company (8 seed) (32 votes).
  • Mad Chef Brewing Company (6 seed) (117 votes) defeated Twisted Bine Brewing Company (7 seed) (54 votes).

FACEs Conference:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (170 votes) defeated The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (119 votes).
  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11 seed) (193 votes) defeated Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2 seed) (141 votes).
  • Funk Brewing Company (3 seed) (178 votes) defeated Three Heads Brewing (10 seed) (103 votes).
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9 seed) (168 votes) defeated Moo-Duck Brewing (4 seed) (116 votes).
  • Boneshire Brew Works (5 seed) (155 votes) defeated Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (134 votes).
  • Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery (7 seed) (178 votes) defeated Rough Edges Brewing (6 seed) (132 votes).

To read more about Round Three and the Round Two Results, you can click here to see the Round Two Results and Round Three voting page.

Round Three Statistics

Statistics:

  • Total Votes: 1,447 (six questions)
  • There was four upsets (out of six match-ups)

Upsets:

  • Isle of Que Brewing (12) defeated Fourscore Beer Company (1) – 149 to 115
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (11) defeated Dewey Beer Company (2) – 182 to 65
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing (8) defeated Urban Artifact (5) – 145 to 96
  • Boneshire Brew Works (7) defeated Funk Brewing Company (6) – 118 to 115

Results of Round Three

  • Isle of Que Brewing (12 seed) (149 votes) defeated Fourscore Beer Company (1 seed) (115 votes)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (11) (182 votes) defeated Dewey Beer Company (2 seed) (65 votes)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (3 seed) (127 votes) defeated Mad Chef Brewing Company (10 seed) (101 votes)
  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (4 seed) (129 votes) defeated Tattered Flag Brewery (9 seed) (108 votes)
  • Troegs Brewing Company (8 seed) (145 votes) defeated Urban Artifact (5 seed) (96 votes)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (7 seed) (118 votes) defeated Funk Brewing Company (6 seed) (115 votes)

To read more about the results of round three, and the voting for round four, you can click here to read about it – this was the last round before the championship (round five) (current round).

Round Four Statistics and Results

In a shocking twist, all three match-ups from Round Three were won by the underdogs. (I re-ranked the seeds after each round.) The number six seed Isle of Que Brewing has kept their Cinderella tournament streak alive and pulled a major upset over Rotunda Brewing Company. Rubber Soul Brewing Company (fifth seed) posted a big upset over Ever Grain Brewing Company, and despite being the big dog in Pennsylvania, but ranked lower (due to ranking being based on Untappd average score) Troegs Independent Craft Brewing (fourth seed) pulled up an upset over Boneshire Brew Works.

Results:

  • Isle of Que Brewing (sixth seed) (212 votes) defeated Rotunda Brewing Company (one seed) (79 votes).
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (fifth seed) (154 votes) defeated Ever Grain Brewing Company (second seed) (106 votes).
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company (fourth seed) (143 votes) defeated Boneshire Brew Works (third seed) (117 votes).

There was a total of 811 votes for round four.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

I cannot underestimate how awesome this was, and how appreciative I am of everyone who came to the site and blog and voted. Who visited our social media pages (our Facebook, our Twitter, and our Instagram). This was such a tremendous and huge turnout, I am already thinking of March Madness 2022! Which will definitely be an even bigger Battle of the Breweries! I’m thinking of keeping it the same theme – only breweries I’ve visited, and maybe including ones that Josh has also visited, and ones that some of our writers have as well. And putting no limits on it. So by March 2022, this could be a list of two hundred or more breweries competing! Could do it state by state leading to when the states are down to their final one or two and then moving on into a bigger tournament. Not sure yet, if you have any ideas or suggestions, be sure to leave them in the comments or leave us some feedback through our contact page.

If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, or anything you’d like to say about how the tournament was ran, made, or done, or anything at all really, you can always leave a comment here on each blog post, or you can contact us specifically using the CONTACT US page. This directly e-mails your comment to use (as well as leaving one in a specific folder only viewable to us, on the site).

I want to give a huge shout out to Isle of Que Brewing and Michael Salter who was promoting the tournament nearly daily on their media pages. Big kudos for them for winning the tournament. Hopefully we can do something with them in the future to celebrate!

Also a big shout out to Rubber Soul Brewing Company for such an impressive run in the tournament. Coming so close to winning it, with the tremendous year they had in opening, and the pandemic, and everything going on.

And of course a shout out to Troegs Brewing as well for reaching the finals. This was definitely a very interesting tournament, and was great to see one of the “OGs” – original pioneers – of Pennsylvania’s brewing scene make it to the finals.

Thank you everyone who visited, voted, and shared. We appreciate it so much. And again, big time congratulations to our champions of the inaugural Battle of the Breweries (2021) – The Isle of Que Brewing Company. We can’t wait for March 2022 and see if they are able to repeat as champions!

Cheers everyone, please stay safe, and make sure to use Uber when driving, now that bars and everyone is open more fully, and don’t have to sell food, make sure you are taking care of your liver, and more importantly, taking care of yourself and others on the road.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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.

]]>
7483
The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – The Finals – Triple Threat Match https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/03/29/the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-the-finals-triple-threat-match/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-the-finals-triple-threat-match Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:45:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7467
The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

Its Time to Find Out The Winner

This is it everyone, this is the finals, the championship, the triple threat main event of The Battle of the Breweries (2021). The culmination of a month’s ‘hard work’ of voting by you and everyone you’ve shared these posts with.

Who will take home the crown, the championship, the title bout (not a physical one mind you), of the most arbitrary beer blog Battle of the Breweries in possibly writing history?

Will it be The Isle of Que Brewing Company?

Or will it be Rubber Soul Brewing Company?

Or Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company?

This is certainly an interesting and diverse match-up for the finals. But how did we get here?

The Results, Working Our Way Back Through the Tournament

Let’s take a look back over the tournament and see how we got here to the finals. Firstly, we started with an odd choice of breweries – 48 breweries to be exact. How did we select these 48 breweries? They had to be a brewery that I physically had been to their location. The selection of breweries comes from the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. I used a random dice generator (a D4 for the fellow nerds out there) to put them into brackets, and once in the brackets they were seeded based on Untappd global average ratings.

Since March – April is WrestleMania season, I decided to give the tournament a bit of a “Wrestling” bent to it. With the two conferences being called FACEs and HEELs. With the divisions (two per conference) being named after Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and Ric Flair.

Now let’s take a look at the round per round results…

Round One Results

Voting statistics:

  • Total votes for round one: 3422
  • Total votes for Triple H Division: 388
  • Total votes for Ric Flair Division: 305
  • Total votes for HEELs conference: 693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in HEELs conference: 2
  • Total votes for Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: 870
  • Total votes for The Rock Division: 823
  • Total votes for FACEs conference: 1693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in FACEs conference: 7

Upsets:

HEELs Conference:

  • Gearhouse Brewing Company (9) defeating Levity Brewing (4)
  • Desperate Times Brewing Company (10) defeating Yellow Bridge Brewing (3)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7) defeating Cox Brewing Company (6)

FACEs Conference:

  • Three Heads Brewing (11) defeating Idiom Brewing (2)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10) defeating Breaker Brewing (3)
  • Tattered Flag (9) defeating ShuBrew Brewing Company (4)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8) defeating Wolfs Ridge Brewing Company (5)
  • The Church Brew Works (12) defeating Cushwa Brewing (1)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeating Jackie O’s Brewery (2)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) defeating Mellow Mink Brewing (5)

Results of Round One

HEELs Conference: Triple H Division:

  • Fourscore Brewing Company (1 seed) (52 votes) defeated Black Forest Brewing (12 seed) (15 votes)
  • Urban Artifact (2 seed) (41 votes) defeated The Ministry of Brewing (11 seed) (23 votes)
  • Mad Chef Brewing (3 seed) (39 votes) defeated ZeroDay Brewing Company (10 seed) (25 votes)
  • GearHouse Brewing Company (9 seed) (39 votes) defeated Levity Brewing (4 seed) (33 votes)
  • Swiftwater Brewing Company (5 seed) (43 votes) defeated Highway Manor (8 seed) (18 votes)
  • Sun King Brewery (6 seed) (33 votes) defeated Braxton Brewing Company (7 seed) (27 votes)

HEELs Conference: Ric Flair Division:

  • Dewey Beer Company (1 seed) (35 votes) defeated Couch Brewery (12 seed) (16 votes)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (2 seed) (37 votes) defeated Snitz Creek Brewing Company (11 seed) (14 votes)
  • Desperate Times Brewing (10 seed) (30 votes) defeated Yellow Bridge Brewing (3 seed) (19 votes)
  • Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (4 seed) (48 votes) defeated Saucony Creek Brewing Company (9 seed) (9 votes)
  • Twisted Bine Brewing Company (5 seed) (30 votes) defeated Land-Grant Brewing Company (8 seed) (17 votes)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7 seed) (30 votes) defeated Cox Brewing Company (6 seed) (20 votes)

FACEs Conference: Stone Cold Steve Austin Division:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (85 votes) defeated Mt. Gretna Craft Brewery (12 seed) (49 votes)
  • Three Heads Brewing (11 seed) (65 votes) defeated Idiom Brewing (2 seed) (59 votes)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10 seed) (65 votes) defeated Breaker Brewing (3 seed) (57 votes)
  • Tattered Flag (9 seed) (102 votes) defeated ShuBrew Brewing (4 seed) (34 votes)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8 seed) (177 votes) defeated Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (5 seed) (40 votes)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (6 seed) (70 votes) defeated Liquid Noise Brewing Company (7 seed) (67 votes)

FACEs Conference: The Rock Division:

  • The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (82 votes) defeated Cushwa Brewing (1 seed) (43 votes)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11 seed) (146 votes) defeated Jackie O’s Brewery (2 seed) (31 votes)
  • Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (3 seed) (106 votes) defeated Taft’s Brewing Company (Taft’s Ale House) (10 seed) (29 votes)
  • Funk Brewing Company (4 seed) (95 votes) defeated Olde Bedford Brewing Company (9 seed) (34 votes)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (79 votes) defeated Mellow Mink Brewing (5 seed) (51 votes)
  • Moo-Duck Brewing Company (6 seed) (81 votes) defeated Logyard Brewing Company (7 seed) (46 votes)

For more information about the Round One Results you can read the article for Round Two and the Round One results here. The Battle of the Breweries (2021) moves on to the conference round.

Round Two Statistics

Statistics:

  • Total Votes: 2659
  • Total votes in the HEELs Conference: 872
  • Total Votes in the FACEs Conference: 1787
  • There was no upsets in the HEELs conference.
  • There was three upsets in the FACEs conference.

Upsets:

  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeated Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2) by 52 votes.
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9) defeated Moo-Duck Brewing (4) by 52 votes.
  • Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery (7) defeated Rough Edges Brewing (6) by 46 votes.

Round Two Results

HEELs Conference:

  • Fourscore Beer Company (1 seed) (71 votes) defeated GearHouse Brewing Company (12 seed) (61 votes).
  • Dewey Beer Company (2 seed) (70 votes) defeated Desperate Times Brewing Company (11 seed) (67 votes).
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (3 seed) (96 votes) defeated Chatty Monks Brewing (10 seed) (51 votes).
  • Urban Artifact (4 seed) (79 votes) defeated Sun King Brewery (9 seed) (48 votes).
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company (5 seed) (126 votes) defeated Swiftwater Brewing Company (8 seed) (32 votes).
  • Mad Chef Brewing Company (6 seed) (117 votes) defeated Twisted Bine Brewing Company (7 seed) (54 votes).

FACEs Conference:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (170 votes) defeated The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (119 votes).
  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11 seed) (193 votes) defeated Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2 seed) (141 votes).
  • Funk Brewing Company (3 seed) (178 votes) defeated Three Heads Brewing (10 seed) (103 votes).
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9 seed) (168 votes) defeated Moo-Duck Brewing (4 seed) (116 votes).
  • Boneshire Brew Works (5 seed) (155 votes) defeated Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (134 votes).
  • Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery (7 seed) (178 votes) defeated Rough Edges Brewing (6 seed) (132 votes).

To read more about Round Three and the Round Two Results, you can click here to see the Round Two Results and Round Three voting page.

Round Three Statistics

Statistics:

  • Total Votes: 1,447 (six questions)
  • There was four upsets (out of six match-ups)

Upsets:

  • Isle of Que Brewing (12) defeated Fourscore Beer Company (1) – 149 to 115
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (11) defeated Dewey Beer Company (2) – 182 to 65
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing (8) defeated Urban Artifact (5) – 145 to 96
  • Boneshire Brew Works (7) defeated Funk Brewing Company (6) – 118 to 115

Results of Round Three

  • Isle of Que Brewing (12 seed) (149 votes) defeated Fourscore Beer Company (1 seed) (115 votes)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (11) (182 votes) defeated Dewey Beer Company (2 seed) (65 votes)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (3 seed) (127 votes) defeated Mad Chef Brewing Company (10 seed) (101 votes)
  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (4 seed) (129 votes) defeated Tattered Flag Brewery (9 seed) (108 votes)
  • Troegs Brewing Company (8 seed) (145 votes) defeated Urban Artifact (5 seed) (96 votes)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (7 seed) (118 votes) defeated Funk Brewing Company (6 seed) (115 votes)

To read more about the results of round three, and the voting for round four, you can click here to read about it – this was the last round before the championship (round five) (current round).

Round Four Statistics and Results

In a shocking twist, all three match-ups from Round Three were won by the underdogs. (I re-ranked the seeds after each round.) The number six seed Isle of Que Brewing has kept their Cinderella tournament streak alive and pulled a major upset over Rotunda Brewing Company. Rubber Soul Brewing Company (fifth seed) posted a big upset over Ever Grain Brewing Company, and despite being the big dog in Pennsylvania, but ranked lower (due to ranking being based on Untappd average score) Troegs Independent Craft Brewing (fourth seed) pulled up an upset over Boneshire Brew Works.

Results:

  • Isle of Que Brewing (sixth seed) (212 votes) defeated Rotunda Brewing Company (one seed) (79 votes).
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (fifth seed) (154 votes) defeated Ever Grain Brewing Company (second seed) (106 votes).
  • Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company (fourth seed) (143 votes) defeated Boneshire Brew Works (third seed) (117 votes).

There was a total of 811 votes for round four.

So this now brings us…. to the final… to the main event…. to the triple threat match, for all the marbles, for the championship, for the fake title belt that doesn’t really exist (except inside our heads and hearts), the whole shebang, the whole enchelada…. the Triple Threat to Determine the Winner of The Battle of the Breweries (2021)……. (insert dramatic drum-roll).

The Triple Threat Main Event

The Triple Threat Main Event, is pitting the Cinderella Isle of Que Brewing, vs. newly opened – rebranded Rubber Soul Brewing Company vs. The Big Dog of Pennsylvania Craft Beer – Troegs Independent Craft Brewing. This should be a very interesting match-up. Three interesting contenders. One hailing from Selinsgrove Pennsylvania, one from Hummelstown Pennsylvania, and then a hop skip and a throw over the third hailing from Hershey Pennsylvania. In the coming days I will be posting an article detailing each brewery, and giving readers some kind of information on how main event participants.

Let the battle commence!

Triple Threat Main Event Voting

[perfect_survey id=”7464″]

Just as a reminder, voting will end on Sunday April 4th at 11:59PM – Midnight (EST). So make sure you get your votes in before then!

Sharing is Caring

To help your favorite breweries win, be sure to share this page as much as you would like. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Myspace, your own sites, your local newspaper…. whatever you like. Also, be sure to follow us on our social media accounts to stay up to date on the tournament and our other articles, which include brewery reviews, beer reviews, travelogues, hiking trips, brewery news, events, and much much more!

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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.

Thank you everyone for making this tournament such a rousing success. It has been a blast running it. Can’t wait to see who the winner will be and who will walk away as the Most Arbitrary Battle of the Brewery Champion in the History of Beer Blogging!

]]>
7467
Beer Review: Dúlachán IPA (Lavery Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/03/18/beer-review-dulachan-ipa-lavery-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-dulachan-ipa-lavery-brewing-company Thu, 18 Mar 2021 11:30:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7451
Dúlachán IPA by Lavery Brewing Company

Firstly, a big shout out to Steve Orbanek who gifted me this beer for free (all he asked was I do a review of it for the blog). He traded me the two Second Sins beers I reviewed, and gifted this one along with them free. To read the Second Sins reviews I did – check them out here: “I Voted for Kang” and “I Voted for Kodos“.

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day 2021… the second “under COVID-19” or “coronavirus” and how much it has changed the world, least of all the bar scene. Whereas St. Patrick’s Day 2020 was the start to everything, with bars closing, even Guinness closing, this year, things were open, but very subdued, and reserved, but optimistic with the vaccines rolling out. With the stimulus in hand for most people the morning of St. Patrick’s Day, and with the vaccines getting into more and more hands (and arms) the future is looking promising for many people.

I figured this was as much a St. Paddy’s Day beer as I could conceivably think to try, other than the obvious stouts and Irish Red’s. So it made for the perfect ‘night cap’ beer to my day, which started with a ten hour work shift (8AM to 6PM), an abysmal Irish Car Bomb at a local dive bar by my work, and dinner and a few beers at Rubber Soul’s Brewery in Hummelstown.

The Worst Irish Car Bomb in History

So, just to provide physical evidence of this, this is probably the worst Irish Car Bomb I’ve ever had in my entire existence and possibly in the entire existence if Irish Car Bombs and in shots and liquor history. I’m not sure. But outside of me spilling it, it probably couldn’t be much worse.

The worst Irish Car Bomb I’ve ever had

Normally I wouldn’t call a place out for something like this, but I almost feel I am compelled to do so. Because, firstly, let us know if you can’t do the shot glass for whatever reason – COVID, or don’t want the risk of glasses breaking, etc, but at least let us know ahead of time. Secondly…. thats the shot? And thirdly…. thats the Guinness amount to drop it in? W…T…F….

Also, weirdest thing too, was the pricing. Me and my co-worker stopped in and I offered to get the shots. The bartender charged us 13.25$ for the two…. so not quite sure how they came to that pricing decision. Makes me wonder whose car bomb was more expensive, mine or his?


(And if you are wondering what the bar was – it was Thoroughbreads in Grantville. There, I didn’t really want to name drop them, but I feel like I have to here.)

Dinner

Alright, moving right on past that horrific car bomb, I got home, and walked down to Rubber Soul for dinner. I debated where I was having dinner on St. Paddy’s Day, and it didn’t seem like any breweries that were too too close to my home were doing anything too special. I was tempted to drive out to Liquid Noise to try their green beer, but opted instead for the walk to the local brewery and have their new 317 stout. You can check out information on both Liquid Noise’s green beer, and Rubber Soul’s 317 stout at my write-up for St. Patrick’s Day local beers here.

Dúlachán

The Dúlachán
Photo courtesy of Cryptid Wiki.

I knew this had to mean something in Irish or in Gallic or something, so I Google’d it up, and found the Cryptid Wiki which details different mythologies and things. And here is what it had to say about the Dúlachán.

The Dullahan, Durahan or Dullaghan (Irish: dúlachán, /ˈduːləˌhɑːn/), also called Gan Ceann (meaning “without a head” in Irish), is a type of mythological creature in Irish folklore.

The Dullahan is depicted as a headless rider, usually on a black horse, who carries his own head on his arm. Usually, the Dullahan is male, but there are some female versions. It is said to be the embodiment of the Celtic God Crom Dubh. The myth of the Dullahan comes from Ireland.

The mouth is usually in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head. Its eyes are constantly moving about and can see across the countryside even during the darkest nights. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The Dullahan is believed to use the spine of a human corpse for a whip, and its wagon is adorned with funeral objects: it has candles in skulls to light the way, the spokes of the wheels are made from thigh bones, and the wagon’s covering is made from a worm-chewed pall or dried human skin. The ancient Irish believed that where the Dullahan stops riding, a person is due to die. The Dullahan calls out the person’s name, drawing away the soul of his victim, at which point the person immediately drops dead.

There are rumors that golden objects can force the Dullahan to disappear.

Dullahan (Cryptid Wiki)

There you go, now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Lavery Brewing Company

As I have done with the recent beer reviews, I am going to devote a segment to each beer review to the brewery behind the beer itself. I think this is a good way to help people learn about the breweries and not just the beers we review here on The Beer Thrillers. (And once again, like GI Joe has taught me, knowledge is power!)

Lavery Brewing Company is a micro brewery located in Erie Pennsylvania. According to Untappd they have 197 unique beers with a global average rating of 3.71 (as of 3.18.21). They have 76K check-ins. Their Untappd description reads: “Brewing Innovative Ales in Small Batches!”. I have not yet been to their brewery, but Erie is a place I want to check out sometime in the near future (lots of cool places to visit, hike, and check out, as well as some great breweries to try out). So hopefully soon I’ll get the chance to check them out.

Beer Review

Dúlachán by Lavery Brewing Company

Beer: Dúlachán IPA
Brewery: Lavery Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 70
Untappd Description: Dulachan is an in-your-face/upfront-and-center/West-Coast-style American IPA.

Nice to get back to doing a beer review of a traditional IPA (an American IPA or a West Coast IPA), rather than the continuous flow of of New England IPAs or Milkshake IPAs or Heavy Lactose Kill Your Stomach IPAs. So, I actually get to discuss a mostly clear and non-turbid and non-hazy IPA. Which this is! Its a darker colored but clear and see throughable beer, non-hazy, non-turbid, non-floaties. Its got an amber-ish hue, but barely on the spectrum for it. It looks like good old fashion IPAs from your childhood look like.

Aroma is a swift kick of pine and hop. There is some malt note, but it is predominantly pure pine and pure hop notes, particularly piney hops (go figure right?). Not a whole lot to discuss with the aroma, other than think back to your childhood days of IPAs like Sierra Nevada’s, and Troeg’s Perpetual IPA, and Boneshire’s Green Machine, and others like it, and just take a second to relive that, and inhale it, and here you go. A nice well crafted, well smelling West Coast IPA.

It is so nice to get to drink and review these old school West Coast style IPAs. I feel its a rarity to find them on a menu or find them in stores, let alone, actually get them and review them. I was given this by Steve Orbanek, when we did a beer trade. He got me two beers from Second Sins brewery (like I said earlier in the post – I Voted for Kang and I Voted for Kodos) and threw this in out of his own good will, for me to review and post up here on the blog. So here I am, finally getting to it. Sorry for the delay Steve! But I figured St. Patrick’s Day would be the perfect opportunity to review it! From the pour, I can tell immediately this is a well crafted beer. I have not had much experience with Lavery Brewing, (sadly), as this is only the second beer I’ve had from them (the first being Ultster Breakfast Stout, nearly six years ago, wow, thats a throwback!), but can tell this was created and crafted well. Nice appearance, nice body, and nice head to this. Good hoppy IPA aroma to this as well. Taste holds up incredibly well as well, with a fantastic crisp, hoppy, bitter, piney, IPA flavor. There isn’t a whole lot going on with this, but you don’t need that in IPAs (the old school IPAs). You don’t need five thousand different adjuncts and flavors thrown at you from all kinds of directions, like a single lady in a bar with six hundred men in their late 40s getting pick up lines thrown at her. Nope, give me a nice, clean, crisp, hoppy, bitter West Coast IPA any day. Now adays thats a change of pace! This is also only 5.6% ABV so it won’t be getting you falling out of your stool or chair stumbling drunk either, and at 70 IBU its not on the extreme levels of bitterness either. All around just what you should be expecting from a well crafted IPA.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Average Rating: 3.76 (as of 3.18.21)

Thanks for Reading

As always, thanks for reading everyone. If you enjoyed the beer review, or anything on the blog, make sure to comment, like, share, and follow us. We always appreciate getting the word out, and we also always appreciate hearing back from our readers. Its so great getting to hear from everyone.

We are in the final stages of our Battle of the Breweries (2021), so you can pop over there for the current round (Round Four) to vote: Round Four Voting.

Also, you can check out some of our recent beer reviews below:

Thanks for checking us out here at The Beer Thrillers. We really appreciate everyone reading our beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, hiking adventures, book reviews, and all kinds of other news and notes we post here on the site and blog. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave us a comment here. You can also contact us through our FEEDBACK – CONTACT US page. And as always, be sure to like, follow, subscribe; here and on our social media pages.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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

Its starting to become spring, which means the hops are popping up. This year, I will get around to those hops articles, (fingers crossed), so be on the lookout for that. I know I Said that I would do that last year, but this year, I am 100% planning on it.

Prost!

-B. Kline

]]>
7451
The Trip to Indy – Day 7 Recap: There and Back Again – A Drunk Hobbit’s Tale (WhiteHorse Brewing LLC, Gearhouse Brewing Company, Rubber Soul Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/11/14/the-trip-to-indy-day-7-recap-there-and-back-again-a-drunk-hobbits-tale-white-horse-brewing-llc-gearhouse-brewing-company-rubber-soul-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-trip-to-indy-day-7-recap-there-and-back-again-a-drunk-hobbits-tale-white-horse-brewing-llc-gearhouse-brewing-company-rubber-soul-brewing Sun, 15 Nov 2020 04:30:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=5292
Cucumber Falls at Ohiopyl State Park

Started the day waking up in Morgantown West Virginia to the full cacophony of noises one can only hear at an Econo Lodge at 5AM. After getting situated, getting gas, mountain dew for the drive, basic necessities, I made the hour and a half trek to Ohiopyl Pennsylvania. There I made landfall in the state park at 10:30AM.

I started at the parking lot by the Cucumber Falls (pictured above) and took the long yellow trail. It was about 6 miles out and back to get to Flatrock and then Cascade Falls. (I’ll post pictures of them in the full recap.) This was a more difficult hiking trail than some I’ve done on the trip. The Meadow Run rapids and the Cascade Falls were equally beautiful.

There was a few other things to do in Ohiopyl, but since this was my last day, and by 3PM (the time I finished the hike), I figured it would be best to head home. It was roughly a 2.5-3 hour drive home, so I wanted to get moving. If I took the turnpike (and selected tolls) on my Google phone GPS maps whatever, it was going to be 2 hours and 15 some minutes (plus stops). If I did no tolls, it had me drop into Maryland just below the Mason-Dixon line and then come back up and be 3 hours and 34 minutes. Or something like that (don’t quote me on it exactly, I didn’t write it down).

But, I didn’t take either of these routes. I wanted to at least try a brewery in the area, since I most likely won’t be in this area again. So the closest, most local brewery, was Whitehorse Brewing LLC in Berlin. So off I went. Forty minute or so drive there.

Whitehorse Brewing LLC

I was a bit surprised by this place, because it looked like a typical development / suburban house and garage. (And I’m pretty sure it was, just converted into a brewery.) Inside was the brewer and a bartender and they were extremely nice, generous, and talkative about the area. I got an Apple Butter Cream Ale and enjoyed it outside by the fire before moving on.

Instead of driving for 2-2.5 hours straight home, I decided to break it up and hit another Pennsylvania brewery I hadn’t been to yet….

Gearhouse Brewing

Gearhouse Brewing in Chambersburg. I’ve heard nothing but good things, and know the brewers and many people who frequent it, unfortunately, getting down to Chambersburg hasn’t been in the cards until now. So I stopped there, had a flight, a delicious hamburger, and then it was ontowards home.

Sort of.

Earlier in the day my friend Drew texted me saying if I was home by 5 he’d be at Rubber Soul; well that didn’t work out, but my mom had wanted to go to Rubber Soul to try their Italian Wedding Soup (as did I; being a huge huge huge fan of Italian Wedding Soups), so I drove to my parents place, and we walked over to Rubber Soul for dinner.

Rubber Soul flight

And while I was gone, they had released four new beers I hadn’t had yet, so I got a flight of the beers I’ve missed (enjoyed all of them by the way, especially the blueberry pomegranate IPA and the sticky stout). Showed mom the pictures of my trip, the museums, the waterfalls, etc. Discussed how her grandmum (pure 100% Italian) made wedding soup, and my mom even went so far as to say this was her favorite Italian Wedding Soup she’s had not made by her family. Which for her would be extremely high praise.

Finally got home, and got to be reunited with my dog who I hadn’t seen since Sunday morning when I left. My ex-wife took good care of her, but she was still so super eager to greet me and take another walk that she basically pulled me the entire way.

Leela at home

The above picture doesn’t do justice to how excited she was to see me, and I have to say the feeling was very mutual. I sure missed my pup.

After taking her for a long walk, came home to see that I had a beer mail package from a buddy out in Bristol PA.

Beer Mail

We did a trade 2 cans for 2, and he threw in the extra – 12 oz can of Dulachan by Lavery – for me to review for the blog, free of charge. Thanks Steve! So be on the lookout for all three of these being reviewed soon.

Well, it is 11:30, and I am exhausted and its been a long seven day trip and I can finally rest and sleep in my own bed, so that is exactly what I am going to do.

Goodnight everyone and cheers, and thanks for following along on the trip!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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:

]]>
5292
Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/14/beer-review-dropout-rubber-soul/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-dropout-rubber-soul Thu, 15 Oct 2020 03:00:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4729
Dropout (2020) by Rubber Soul Brewing Company at Rubber Soul’s new brewery in Hummelstown, PA

Technically this should be “Dropout 2020” by Rubber Soul rather than just Dropout. Its the same, but not the same, as the original Dropout that the original Rubber Soul made (back from when they were in Salisbury Maryland with a different head brewer). For ease and brevity of the blog I have it listed as just DROPOUT, and don’t think I really need to include the 2020. I will be interested to see if going forward if Rubber Soul makes new entries on Untappd for “Dropout (2021)” and “Dropout (2022)” etc. They also did this with Garage Racer calling it Garage Racer (2020).

So, brief backstory on this, Rubber Soul was a brewery out of Salisbury Maryland with ties to the midstate area of Central Pennsylvania. So a lot of their beers were kegged and sent up to local bars in the area. They went bankrupt roughly two years ago, and a LLC bought them, and then subsequently bought the old borough building in Hummelstown and spent the majority of 2020 (and some of 2019) turning it into their new brewery. The LLC bought all of their old equipment and recipes, but did not retain the same brewer, instead getting a new brewer, and moving from Salisbury MD to Hummelstown PA.

You can read my two articles on their opening:

This was their first ‘add-on’ from their original tap list, which not quite a week in, they already had kicked a keg (or two or however many they had to replace one of their beers) which is pretty impressive.

Last night after getting done at work at 7PM, driving home, I decided to head over to Rubber Soul for dinner and then a block up to Tony’s house to watch the Bills – Titans game. How often do you get to watch Tuesday night football? Especially with your buddy whose a Bills fan. So I decided why not!

Firstly, let me say, I had the stromboli with it, and that was one of the most delicious ‘boli’s I’ve ever had. I don’t normally order stromboli, but I picked the short rib poutine but unfortunately they were out of it (sold out during the day) so I decided on the stromboli. My dad had it the night we were there when I met him and my mom there for dinner, and he said it was delicious, so I figured why not.

Enough about food (who cares about food anyway right?), lets get to the beer:

Dropout 2020 by Rubber Soul Brewing Company

Beer: Dropout (2020)
Brewery: Rubber Soul Brewing Co
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: 70
Untappd Description: Double IPA. This hop forward double IPA has a big presence of grapefruit and flowery spice. A clean finish with a little bite. Hopped with citra mosaic and cascade.

The original Rubber Soul Dropout has the following statistics:
ABV: 8%
IBU: 100
Untappd Description: We’ve taken a classic Big IPA and modified it to epic, or rather, citric proportions. Thoroughly loaded with Citra hops and German specialty malts like Vienna and CaraFoam, the roasty middle of this otherwise pungent power pale will have you screaming “Dropout!” wherever you are.

I wish I could say I could give an honest comparison between the two, but its been four years (four years ago in June) since I last had the original Dropout. My Untappd notes for it say: “Bitter but very flavorful”.

That’s not the same case for the newest version of this. So, lets get into it, and break it down.

Appearance is a nice darker hued NE-IPA looking drink. A cross between a West Coast IPA and a New England IPA in appearance. Its somewhat hazy, not fully opaque, but far from translucent. It looks like an IPA, but just a bit darker / cloudier than a normal IPA, and there’s nothing wrong or bad about this. It has a very nice look and is a well done appearance for a new IPA and new brewery. It had a wonderful foamy head to it with nice bubbles.

Nose is a strong juicy hoppy IPA. The citra hops really sparkle here and take front and center stage. This has a wonderful IPA aroma to it, strong, scented, powerful, slight malt notes, but strong hop presence in the nose. Fun beer to smell before taking that first delicious sip.

First sip…. very good. Second sip…. very good…. third sip…. oh look, who are we kidding. The beer is good, from first to last sip, and its super quaffable making you wanna get a second drink before you know it. There is a bit of a large variety of hop notes to this new version of Dropout, and ‘bitterness’ is not one of them. This is very juicy, dank, and it is most importantly delicious. There is a citrus flavor to the hops, there’s a lot of grapefruit flavor as well. I got a little spice on this, but not much, very subtle, and almost as if you need to look for it. The hops leave this with a really nice floral, grapefruit, juicy, dank, citrusy, with a hint of earthy undertones, and then there’s the light subtle hint of the spice, and some malt backbone to this, that all really blends together into a very drinkable, delicious brew. I’m usually not a huge fan of grapefruit tastes but this doesn’t border on that ‘ugh grapefruit’ and more of a ‘oh, this is nice’ grapefruit, no bitterness, no pungent-ness, no over powering grapefruit or too bright grapefruit, this is blending, mellow, but tasteful. Sitting in the brewery, reading, and eating, this went down incredibly smooth and easy. The 70 IBU leaves a bit of a bite but not really noticeable, as the juiciness of the beer really smooths that out and overpowers the hop bite. So for those fans of New England IPAs, this will be more on their side than the traditional West Coast IPA side. As a Double IPA (DIPA) it is a bit higher ABV – 8.2%, but its not too noticeable, and even after two (with food) its not too strong to knock you on your ass, which is always a definite plus. A crowler of this would be just the right amount for a good night watching a football game…. even if it is on a Tuesday due to COVID.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.01 (as of 10.14.20)

After the two beers and ‘boli at the brewery, walked the block up to Tony’s and watched the Bills – Titans game. He certainly didn’t enjoy the game (as a Bills fan), and afterwards we got to watch the exciting final of the Braves – Dodgers game (Braves nearly blew that one!). I had a crowler of the Garage Racer (2020) while watching the game, and that’s another very fine and enjoyable beer from Rubber Soul.

I am certainly going to be enjoying having them in town, a mile walk to the brewery and back, is perfect. It’ll let me feel like I’m being productive and healthful with the walk, plus enjoy some great beer and food. Win. Win. Win.

Look for a new review from Josh tomorrow – and shocker everyone – it’s not Adroit Theory. Its great having him back reviewing again, you can check out his latest review here: Beer Review: The Octagonal Stairway (Adroit Theory and Pig Destroyer Collaboration).

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

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

-B. Kline

Dropout (2020) by Rubber Soul Brewing Co.
]]>
4729
Brewery Opening: Howling Henry’s (Hummelstown) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/10/brewery-opening-howling-henrys-hummelstown/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=brewery-opening-howling-henrys-hummelstown Sat, 10 Oct 2020 13:25:20 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4638
Howling Henry’s Brewery logo – the latest brewery to open; opening on October 9th, 2020.

To little or no fanfare, the latest brewery, and another to Hummelstown, opened on October 9th, 2020 (yesterday). They had posted on their Facebook page their permit and that they would be opening soon, but, to my surprise, I had seen no notice of their actual opening date.

Howling Henry’s Permit

Their last Facebook post was on September 28th, and with the above picture, it stated:

“A temporary permit was given to me to open my taproom this morning. Shooting for October 9th for the grand opening of Howling Henry’s Taproom. Check my website for more information.”

I had seen this notice and post and re-shared it on our Facebook page, but for some reason, the little notice of “shooting for October 9th” I overlooked. I unfortunately, despite having my day off was out of town with friends (we went to Wellsboro, PA for the PA Grand Canyon), so I was out of town and unable to attend the opening.

They are the second Hummelstown brewery to open this week. Rubber Soul Brewing Company opened on Monday, October 5th, 2020, along South Hanover Street (across from the Rita’s) in the former borough building.

Howling Henry’s Merchandise Stand

Howling Henry’s has been around for a while in the Hummelstown area. They have been at the Mount Hope Renaissance Faire brewfest for several years (with their unique stand and jockey box of the doghouse). They have also been selling their bottles to the local shops and bars (JoJo’s Pizza Shop Restaurant on Main Street often carried their bottles in their cooler), and they distributed some kegs to local bars (Warwick Hotel would occasionally have them on tap). They’ve also been selling their bottles in the recent year or so at various farmer’s markets (the Hershey’s Chocolate Street Market primarily).

COVID-19 (the coronavirus) has certainly played an interesting issue in their opening this year, and has delayed much in the way of the taproom opening. Several other breweries opened amid the pandemic – Hemauer, Rubber Soul, Highway Manor, Cox’s Rally Point, etc. This is certainly an interesting time and a hard time for businesses to open, thrive, and grow their brands. There has been a lot of uncertainty, but it’s great to see Greg get to realize his dreams and open Howling Henry.

Greg – the owner and brewer for Howling Henry’s (per their Twitter)

Howling Henry’s taproom is located at 35 East 2nd St in Hummelstown. This is located near the exit of Hummelstown (the underpass) heading towards South Hanover (where South Hanover street becomes Grandview leading out towards Route 39 and East Hanover / Hershey). It is across the street from M&S Auto (a used car shop and garage). It is about three blocks down from the square of Hummelstown (Main Street / South Hanover crossing).

A walking map of Hummelstown, showing Howling Henry’s and Rubber Soul

This will become the second brewery / taproom in Hummelstown now (coincidentally both opening this week as well, going from 0 to 2 in five days flat!). The above map shows a walking path from Howling Henry’s to Rubber Soul. Making the town a nice tourist stop for craft beer enthusiasts now.

The Hummelstown Area enlarged (Howling Henry’s and Rubber Soul route by car shown)

Howling Henry’s joins a growing community of breweries within five-fifteen minute driving distance from the Hummelstown area. Including:

  • Troeg’s Independent Brewing (Hershey)
  • Iron Hill Brewing (Hershey)
  • Tattered Flag Distillery Lounge (Hershey)
  • Tattered Flag (Middletown)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
  • Howling Henry’s (Hummelstown)
  • The Englewood (Hummelstown / Hershey)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (Rutherford)
  • Official BBQ – Pizza Boy (Rutherford)
  • Newfangled Brew Works (Rutherford)
  • The Millworks (Harrisburg)
  • ZeroDay Brewing (Harrisburg)
  • Appalachian Brewing Company (Harrisburg)
  • The Vegetable Hunter (Harrisburg)
  • Lancaster Brewing Company – Harrisburg Location (Harrisburg)

You can use the Brew Baron’s App to find more in the larger (Central PA) area. So as you can see from the above list, and the app, within just this small subset local area of Central PA there is many brewery choices. All good and well done establishments with wonderful beer offerings. You can see an older (and mostly outdated article I wrote about the breweries in the Hummelstown area here: Breweries On the Outskirts of Harrisburg 9.6.19).

Currently, on Untappd, Howling Henry’s is listed as a Nano Brewery, and recently updated their description page with the following: “Opening our taproom on October 9th at 6 PM. Howling Henry’s Brewery is crafting beer without rules, which causes our beers to be an nontraditional representations of their contemporaneity styles. Are you ready for a different take on traditional beer styles, then you should give Howling Henry’s a try? Our beers are not filtered, so we can offer as much flavor as possible. Tap room coming to Hummelstown soon; check my website out for details.” They have 11 Unique Beers listed, with a global average rating of 3.21 out of 3,825 ratings.

Their hours on their Facebook page for the taproom are listed as:

  • MONDAY: CLOSED
  • TUESDAY: CLOSED
  • WEDNESDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
  • THURSDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
  • FRIDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
  • SATURDAY: 11:00AM – 6:00PM
  • SUNDAY: CLOSED

They use the old Theo’s Attanasoff pizza warehouse to brew their beers in a corner of the building. The old Theo’s warehouse is located at the corner of Duke and 2nd Street in Hummelstown, and is now primarily used by Pnuma Outdoors. (You can see a map of the Howling Henry’s brewing location and taproom below). The brewing location is off limits to tourists though.

Howling Henry’s to Pnuma Outdoors

Howling Henry’s has several social media outlets which you can keep abreast of their activities. Including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also check out their website.

On their website you can read their backstory, which is:

My brewing story began after a department store wine kit was hauled off by the trashmen. Yes, a wine kit started my passion with brewing beer, and in time my business. I trashed the kit  because I  lacked knowledge in the process of wine-making, and more frighteningly, in how to clean and sanitize the equipment. The instructions emphasized sanitization, but the concern that I may get someone sick caused me to drop kick the kit into the waste can.

I then read a magazine article about home brewing. Who doesn’t like beer, right? This article made it clear that cleanliness is a very important part of the process, but as I read, I realized that  I was overthinking it. I began to understand that all of debris needs to be removed from the brewing equipment, and then a sanitizer is added to the equipment to kill most of the bacteria, so that your pitched yeast has no competition when it infects your bitter wort. Simple! I am a simple guy, and I figured that I can do that.

I bought my first brewing kit: 5 gallon brew kettle, a 5 gallon carboy, and a 7 gallon food grade bucket. The recipe was a brown ale. It was good for a month or two, and then it started losing flavor. I came to realize that bottling introduces oxygen to the finished beer. Oxygen in finished beer after time will degrade that beer’s flavor.

After a year of making my own recipes my wife and I were seated at a local watering hole for lunch (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving). She said, “Why don’t you start a brewery?” To be honest it was in the back of my head, but I figured that thought would never become a conversion with my wife. So, I agreed with her, as a good husband would do. Although, at the time, neither of us really understood what we were getting ourselves into.

I started reading from a website devoted to the entire brewing process. With this knowledge, I began brewing beers around ingredients I knew a little brewery could access without to much hassle. Through this site I also learned of a movie made in the mid 90’s called ‘Frankenbrew’. This video showed me that one guy with some determination, out of the box thinking, and hard work could start a brewery without investors, a bank loan, or a truck load of cash. I then followed the movie’s suggestions on what to buy from the used dairy equipment market. This offset the price of starting a new brewery significantly, since I had already priced out a real brewery’s equipment prior to seeing the movie. I knew I could never come up with a million or so dollars myself, and I wanted this brewery to be mine. Yes, you read that correctly! I am the only owner, investor, employee, brewer, boss, maintenance guy, and janitor. I did it all with help from some wonderful family members and great friends when they had time to help. It is a wonderful feeling to know I only have me to answer to.

Years later, I had the stainless steel equipment needed. I found a space three blocks from my home. By this time, I realized that I needed a real brew kettle. Having well over 200 gallons of boiling wort would be very dangerous in anything less than a proven kettle, so I ordered and purchased a 10 bbl Bennett Forgeworks brew kettle. I then started getting the paperwork inked with both the Federal and State government agencies. Approvals took a lifetime, okay about 6 months (a lifetime for a guy with barely any budget).

Please check out the pictures of my equipment here (if you’re interested in seeing what my frankinbrew system looks like).

Howling Henry’s Backstory.

So when in the Hummelstown area, be sure to check out the newest brewery – Howling Henry’s. Make sure you are in town during their hours (5PM-10PM on Wednesday through Friday and Saturday 11AM-6PM). The taproom is limited currently due to COVID restrictions, but its still a place to check out. Be sure to do so!

Howling Henry’s Brewery – of Hummelstown, PA – logo

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

Cheers everyone! Hopefully I’ll see you at Howling Henry’s. Its just a few blocks away and within walking distance, so I’ll be sure to be there a time or two. Cheers!

-B. Kline

]]>
4638
Rubber Soul Grand Opening https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/09/30/rubber-soul-grand-opening/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rubber-soul-grand-opening Wed, 30 Sep 2020 19:44:42 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4533
Rubber Soul Brewing Company – in Hummelstown Pennsylvania will be having their grand opening shortly.

Amidst the chaos and craziness that was the Presidential Debate, Rubber Soul Brewing made their own waves, announcing last night around 8-9PM their grand opening date. In the town of Hummelstown as well as the Central PA area their announcement might have caused more chaos than was on stage at the Presidential Debate, and at least no one had to shout “OH SHUT UP MAN” or look like they were falling asleep either.

While out walking my dog despite the rain – and even walking past the Rubber Soul Brewery itself – on Facebook, Instagram, and their own website, Rubber Soul posted the official date for their grand opening.

Are you ready for it?

DRUM ROLL

Rubber Soul’s Announcement Photo

The grand opening for Rubber Soul is set for 10.05.20. As per their Facebook post:

“10.5.20 [cheers emoji]”

Simple. Effective. And to the point. They did reply to some comments and elaborate, and posted their website to point out more information. As per their website, their hours will be as such:

  • Monday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
  • Tuesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
  • Wednesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
  • Thursday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
  • Friday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
  • Saturday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
  • Sunday: 11:00AM – 9:00PM

They also posted their rules for entering the brewery and drinking and being there (due to COVID-19):

To keep our customers and sOul tribe safe and healthy, please read our general information below. We greatly appreciate your patience during this #COVIDTIME. 

  • Masks are required unless you are seated at your table. 
  • All orders are to be placed from your table by a Refueler (Rubber Soul Server).
  • All onsite beer & alcohol orders require a food purchase.
  • Please respect a 2 hour time limit during peak times.
  • Seating is first come, first serve. 
  • Do not move tables or seating as they are measured out for social distancing. 
  • We are not filling growlers, only 32 oz. crowler cans at this time. 
  • One hour before close we will go to pizzas only. 
  • Children are welcome but must stay seated or in the accompaniment of an adult. 
  • Please no pets. We love them but they make social distancing hard.
  • Our water station is not available at this time. 
  • *If you have experienced symptoms related to COVID-19 or have had exposure to COVID-19 in the past 14 days, please refrain from visiting.

You can check out their website for the latest on their food menu, their beers that will be on tap on their opening day, as well as some pictures. You can also read my article I did back in February detailing the brewery and its transition from former borough building / police station to brewery. A SNEAK PEAK AT THE NEW RUBBER SOUL BREWERY COMING TO HUMMELSTOWN, PA.

Rubber Soul Brewery back in February, 2020

A few days ago, on the blog’s Facebook page I posted some pictures from a dog walk by the brewery, as well as their Untappd menu (screenshot). They have their brewery as a ‘verified venue’ on Untappd so you can keep track of their beer offerings, as well as use their website, which lists the following beers for their opening day:

  • Soul Patch – Pilsner – Czech
  • Fresh Dew – Pale Ale – American
  • Humdinger – IPA – American
  • Soul Searching #1 – IPA – American
  • Garage Racer 2020 – IPA – American
  • Awake My Soul – Porter – Coffee
Screenshot of Rubber Soul’s Untappd Menu

If you have driven or walked by the Rubber Soul brewery the past week or so, you would see groups gathered inside, with the lights and televisions on. They were doing invite parties for different groups, preparing for their big opening, which will take place on Monday, October 5th, 2020.

From walking by it (quite often, as I love walking my dog through Hummelstown, and they are in between my parents and my house, as well as my friend Tony’s is only a few houses down from it through the back alley leading to Railroad Street), they did a tremendous and beautiful job on the building. I absolutely can’t wait to check it out inside, let alone drink the delicious beers.

Donovan Krebs, the brewer for the new Rubber Soul, has worked for some fine breweries in the past, including Levante Brewing, Neshaminy Brewing Co, and others.

His beers will be wonderful for the area and will be well sought after I am sure.

Be sure to check out the article to see the brewery inside and out and to read up on some of the things the brewery will offer: A Sneak Peak at Rubber Soul.

Be sure to check them out sometime Monday, October 5th, 2020. I will be there, thats for sure. I can’t wait to try out their delicious beers and wonderful food! Can’t wait to see you all there!

Rubber Soul – front

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

And check out our beer review of the Tattered Soul collaboration beer between Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul Brewing:

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

Rubber Soul – Parking Lot
Rubber Soul Brewery Hummelstown, PA

Thanks for reading! Can’t wait to enjoy a beer together at Rubber Soul!

-B. Kline

]]>
4533