Rutherford Beer - The Beer Thrillers

Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates 8th Anniversary

B. Kline — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:57:50 +0000

Boneshire Brew Works is Set to Celebrate Their 8th Anniversary

This weekend – Friday through Sunday – October 25th (Friday) until October 27th (Sunday) – Boneshire Brew Works is set to celebrate their 8th Anniversary! Located at 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111 in Rutherford (Harrisburg suburb), PA. (They also have a taproom at the SOMA in Harrisburg downtown as well.)

No details have been announced yet on their social media platforms, and for those who receive their newsletter all you received was the above picture – but – you can expect special one off beer releases, a special food menu, and an all around wonderful time at their brewery. So make sure to stop out and visit them and check out the brewery if its your first time or if its your five millionth time. It’ll be a great weekend!

For More Information on Boneshire Brew Works

The following comes via Untappd.

Boneshire Brew Works is a micro brewery from Harrisburg, PA. They have 251 unique beers with over 52,000 ratings, and a global average rating of 3.85 (as of 10.24.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Welcome to Boneshire Brew Works. We are located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Derry Street.”

You can find them at these social media platforms:

For More Articles on Boneshire Brew Works

For past Boneshire Brew Works articles, please check these out:

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:

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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!

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MAPS OF BREWERIES

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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 #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of August 2024.) 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!

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It’s been a long year, wait its only April?

AmyMWolfe — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 02:55:02 +0000

It’s been a long year, wait its only April?

Long Tongue Liar by Boneshire Brew Works

It was time to sit down and have a beer with Grandma SueAnn. I have spent so many recent weekends testing my limits of caffeine to work a part time job and it’s time to unwind. Reaching for a Belgium Tripel just feels right.

As soon as it was bottled we picked up some Long Tongue Liar from Boneshire Brew Works. This tasty Belgian comes in at a 9.6% ABV according to Untapped. It is described on Untapped as “OH, what a wicked tale you weave.’ So immediately Grandma SueAnn and I are excited.

Boneshire Brew Works’ Facebook Announcement

The Facebook announcement states: The Liar has returned! Finally after several years Long Tongue Liar will be available on draft (tomorrow) and in bottles (Thursday). This beautiful Belgian beer is brewed with Belgian Candi Sugar, Honey, and our favorite Belgian yeast and clocks in at 10%. Its not for the faint of heart, drink too many of these and you might turn into a Liar!”

(See Boneshire Brew Works Facebook Announcement.)

This is very tasty. I’ll assume Grandma SueAnn thought the same since the first pour from the bomber bottle was gone in a couple minutes. We both agreed this was a tasty treat; It has a silkiness to it that dances over your tongue. We shared a salmon salad and we picked up on some buttery-ness that we attributed to the fish.

Skip to a few hours later and I’m home making dinner. I’m sneaking some spinach into some homemade beef/turkey enchiladas and I’m thinking of cracking open the second bottle of LTL. It has a slight boozy taste to it but the honey flavor shows up to compete.

In previous years it was aged in California Chardonnay barrel with Pennsylvania cherries and Brettanomyces Lambicus.

(See B. Kline’s beer review previously posted here: Beer Review: Longue Tongue Liar Aged with Cherries and Brettanomyces Lamcibus by Boneshire Brew Works.)

Long Tongue Liar with Salmon Salad

If I took a guess I’d say it was aged in Chardonnay barrels again. That oaky taste is apparent and contrary to most dry chardonnay this one is one I’d like to sip on all night long. I have to say by the second one, I am indeed a Long Tongue Liar.

End Notes

(This is Amy’s first column back after a while. Busy with Scarlet, life, and everything in general, its great to see her jumping back into her Personal Column series again. We have sorely been missing her weekly posts here on the blog, so its so wonderfully great to have her back. You can find her full list of ‘Weekly’ Personal Column series below.)

Ben’s notes – we’ve had a busy few weeks lately. With the Battle of the Breweries tournament – which wrapped up and we got to announced Liquid Noise Brewing Company as the winner – as well as the in – person fun share of Central PA beers and Girl Scout Cookies pairing, to WrestleMania weekend, to the Eclipse, to going to the AC Brewfest, and so much more – in both our personal lives as well as our work lives, as well as here on the blog. We also have a lot of stuff coming up as well. We’ve all been certainly busy here at The Beer Thrillers. Especially Amy. So I am so glad that she was able to find time to write again. And great that she got to spend some time with Grandma SueAnn to enjoy a beer and write about it too. Please make sure you follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with all that we’ve got going on, as we will certainly be having a lot more happening. Cheers!

From our Instagram post:
Long Tongue Liar is a favorite from Boneshire Brew Works. A delicious way to end the day.
(Not a dirty glass, just the bubbles from the carbonation and camera shot with flash on.)
Cheers!

Amy’s Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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!

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.

A Sneak Peek at The Beerded Goat Brewery

B. Kline — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:46:26 +0000

The Beerded Goat Brewery

As we reported a few weeks ago – The Beerded Goat Brewing Company Has Taken Over the Old NewFangled Brewery – and tonight is their grand opening.

They were gracious enough to invite us out (thanks Jason and Brian) to their brewery to do some tastings and to check out the place.

Before we get into the tastings and discussing the wonderful, and amazing beers, let’s first talk about the brewery. Newfangled Brewery closed their doors back in August of 2022, leaving Union Station lacking a brewery, a restaurant, and a big central hub for people to meet and gather.

Since that time, Union Station has only grown. Shawn Grant’s BBQ that he was running out of Newfangled Brew Works right before they closed, moved across the street and became Nomad Pizza. Several other businesses have opened across the street from the old brewery, and the community itself has grown larger.

Located at 8001 Union Station Blvd Harrisburg, PA 17111, in the former home of Newfangled Brew Works as part of the development of “Union Station” off of Union Deposit.

The Beerded Goat Brewery – exterior. Previously the front of the brewery, will now be the back of the brewery. (8001 Union Station Blvd.)

The brewery sits as the center hub for the Union Station development and community. It is a huge spacious building with a large attached restaurant that will be used in the future. Currently the old Koda restaurant will be sitting empty, but it will be used in the future (more on that later in the article).

The Beerded Goat Interior

Mural in the doorway leading into the (old entrance of the) brewery

We were invited out to come hang out with Brian, the head brewer, at 5:30 PM. We arrived a bit early (5:14 PM to be exact) and drove the neighborhood a bit to see how different it was when I was last out (when Newfangled Brew Works closed).

We then entered from used to be the main entrance of the brewery – the entrance facing Union Station Blvd. (Jason later explained to me that this will become the back of the brewery, and will not be a usable entrance for patrons to come in. Where the back entrance, and the large parking lot is will become the new main and only entrance into the brewery.)

Inside The Beerded Goat Brewery

Once you enter the brewery, you get a true scope of just how big the place is – spoiler: its huge. There is a ton of floor space, ton of seating, and a long bar as well. In the back wall there is already some games – SkeeBall and basketball games as well as a golf simulator game. They have also added a fireplace that wasn’t there before, and removed the old hastily put together stage.

Now enough about the interior and the building, lets get to what everyone here really wants to know about…. the beer!

The Beerded Goat Beer

The aftermath of our tasting

Amy and I introduced ourselves to Brian, the head brewer, who then took us over to the bar. He was willing to sit with us and talk about all of the beers, as well as give us a tasting glass of each beer down their entire tap list (as well as a pour of their bottled beer – Sure Thing).

We discussed the brew house, how the equipment is the same from Newfangled Brew Works. That to alter, change, or add and / or remove anything would be just too much effort, money, and would have to change a lot of set up and plans.

Amy and I decided we wouldn’t take a picture of each beer. We also didn’t bring a notebook for quoting and writing down things, wanting to keep the whole preview and discussions more informal and fun and upbeat. No need to get tied up in quoting and getting exactitudes.

Brian, Amy, and I went down the list of their beers on draft, as well as their mead, and a bottle of their Sure Thing. Brian also pulled us a ‘sneak peek’ at a barrel aged stout that will soon be available at the brewery. All the while we chatted, discussed the brewery, how the soft openings went, the barrel system, and more.

The Beerded Goat Beer Taplist (front)

The Beerded Goat Beer Taplist (back)

As you can see above, they have a wonderful wide arrange of styles. Brian discussed with us that he prefers the more traditional German styles, preferring the Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Laws) and maintaining that – to a degree. Obviously in today’s climate of craft beer, thats not a perfect solution, and no longer completely sustainable for any brewery to use that as their full emphasis (thus why you will see a Hazy IPA on the menu).

Starting right down the list, the first we got to taste was Yingstling Light. Brian explained to us this is the basic of basic beers – in so far as this is your “beer that tastes like beer”. This is the Miller Lite, the Coors Light, the Bud, etc, for your dad and grandpa and others who only typically drink macro.

Brian said it was also their best seller on the soft opening nights. Which makes the most sense, as Brian stated – it’s not going to be the highest rated on Untappd, but its going to be the most sold.

Yingstling Lager is a 4.5% ABV Lager – American Light beer. The Untappd description reads: “Beer flavored beer. Enough Said.” And there is no IBU listed for this beer.

Next up was Easy Mold. A very drinkable, light, delicious Kolsch. Easy Mode is a 5.25% ABV (no IBU listed) Kolsch; the Untappd description reads: “Brewed with Weyermann floor malted Pilsner, and a touch of Vienna and wheat malt. Hopped exclusively with Hallertau Mittlefreuh and fermented cool with a classic Kolsch yeast. Soft and gentle with subtle white grape esters”

This was a very tasty, delicious beer. We discussed Brian’s previous brewing experience – working for River Bend Brewery, Liquid Noise Brewing, and Mount Gretna Brewing. He also still loves to home brew and does so quite often. Shows just how much passionate he is about brewing, that he is basically doing it in his free time as a hobby.

The cocktail menu at The Beerded Goat

Brian told us he doesn’t like Hefeweizens. Stemming from his time at River Bend where they made that continuously. So instead, he has an American Wheat – that is definitely not a Hefeweizen. It’s called “Don’t Got Time for Bananas”. This is a 5.25% ABV (no IBU listed) American Pale Wheat beer. The Untappd description is: “Brewed with Pilsner and wheat malts. Hopped in the kettle with Centennial hops and fermented with a clean American ale yeast. Soft and pillowy mouthfeel with a strong citrus backbone. This is NOT a Hefeweizen.”

The Standard was up next, and Brian joined us for this one. This is one of his favorites he said. Its a Czech Pilsner, and it was very crisp, very delicious. Its a Pilsner – Czech / Bohemian that clocks in at 5.3% (no IBU listed) with an Untappd description of: “Brewed with 100% Weyermann floor malted Pilsner and hopped with 100% Check saaz. Spunded for natural carbonation. Crisp, clean, and crystal clear. Mild grainy notes of soft honey balanced by an assertive and refreshing bitterness. This is the Standard.” It was a slightly hopped up version of a Pilsner, but when I say “slightly” I mean – “slightly”. With it being spunded, it had a wonderful carbonation, and was downright delicious.

Next up was the Hazy IPA. A style Brian says he doesn’t really enjoy making, but understands you should always have one on tap anymore. He said a perfect world for him would be all German style beers with only one IPA on tap – once per year. They currently have two on tap at The Beerded Goat, but both are worlds apart different.

Wizard Circle is a Hazy New England IPA that comes in at 6% and is extremely fruity and pillowy. Wonderful light body to it with a wealth of flavor and fruit notes. The Untappd description is: “Brewed with Pilsner, oat and wheat malts with a touch of honey malt. Kettle hopped, dry hopped, and double dry hopped with Simcoe and El Dorado. Fermented on passionfruit. Soft, juicy, and tropical.”

The McMule is a dry cider and is an “Irish take on a Moscow Mule” as Brian would describe it. Amy’s favorite non – beer drink is a Moscow Mule so this was completely up her alley. The McMule is a very dry, crisp, ginger and lime cider. Its a Cider – Herbed / Spiced / Hopped according to Untappd and is 6.5%, the Untappd description reads: “Cider infused with fresh ginger and lime.”

We saved the barley wine for later (W. W. A. M. B.) and next went to the Double IPA – a west coast styled IPA called Bitter Trends.

Bitter Trends is a 8.1% ABV Double IPA (west coast style); Untappd description reads: “Brewed with Pilsner malt and corn sugar for an ultra dry and simple beer to showcase the hops. Hopped in the kettle, dry hopped and double dry hopped with Columbus, Mosaic, and Strata. Notes of dank tropical blueberries and mangoes with a solid bitterness to pull it all together.” This had super strong notes of mango and light notes of blueberry. It absolutely blew us away, and for not liking the style, Brian joined us in drinking it, and Amy and I agreed this was Top 3 for the night.

After this, we got to try Brian’s first try at a Dortmund Lager. And he certainly nailed it on his first try. The Dortmund Lager – Expat Lager – was wonderful. Clocking in at 6.3% it is a bit higher for lagers, and one of the higher beers that The Beerded Goat offers, but not out of the realm of “crushable”. The Untappd description reads: “Golden colored lager brewed with Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts. Hopped with Hallertau Mittlefreuh. A solid balance between maltiness and bitterness.”

We got to discuss with Brian styles and what he was looking at for the brewery. This is a good point to mention that he wanted to mainly focus on lower ABV beers. Other than the mead (9%) and the barley wine (12%), the rest of the beers were around the 5-6% range. The highest being 6.3% and 6.5%, and the others being mostly 5, 5.25, and 5.3%. He wants an atmosphere where people can sit, hang out for a while, and drink several, rather than have one that they’ll sip on the whole time.

Next up we got to try the mead. And this was another phenomenal drink. Its lactose, its sugary, its sweet, its strawberry – which isn’t usually particularly a flavor I enjoy but here it worked so well. It reminded me of a candy I had as a kid that I couldn’t name or think of, and Amy and Brian were no help on that end either, but I feel like its on the tip of my tongue. Brian wants to do regular releases of the mead but in different flavors, peach, chocolate, peanut butter, marshmellow, etc.

This particular one was lactose, strawberries, and Madagascar Vanilla. Its called Milkshake Mead and clocks in at 9%. The Untappd description reads: “Mead brewed with lactose, strawberries and Madagascar vanilla beans. Sweet and decadent.”

Next up was a Nitro Porter. So as you can see, they are really hitting all the different styles here. Mead, cider, nitro, dark, light, heavy, low end, etc. Which is wonderful. Amy and I often discuss how great it is to see breweries with full varied lists, rather than “IPA, IPA, Hazy IPA, Hazy IPA, Milkshake IPA, Sour, Sour, Fruited Sour, Seltzer, Pastry Stout”.

The Nitro Porter is called Heroes and Villains. It is an American Porter, and does clock in a bit higher at 7.2% on the scale, but the Nitro makes it so smooth you won’t even notice it. (Speaking of that though – the Bitter Trends is also deceptively smooth for an 8%, so be careful with that bad boy as well.) Heroes and Villains Untappd description reads: “Brewed with a base of Pilsner malt and a blend of English crystal and chocolate malts. Dark brown with ruby red highlights and creamy tan head. Notes of roasted coffee and bittersweet chocolate. Served on nitro.”

Finally it was time for the barleywine. One of my favorite styles. Titled “W. W. A. M. B.” What does that stand for? Why it stands for “What Would Angry Mark Brew”. And knowing Mark… this certainly fits the bill. It is a delicious barley wine, and while I might be slightly biased about styles and likes, this certainly fits the bill for what makes a good barleywine a good barleywine. Coming in at 12% its going to be a sipper rather than a crushable, but thats the point of it, and you’ll appreciate it. It’ll make for a great night cap to sit by the fire while reading your Canterbury Tales or Nietzsche. The Untappd description reads: “Brewed with Maris Otter malt and house made golden syrup. Hopped with East Kent Goldings and rested for many months in a Laird Apple Brandy Barrel.”

We discussed the brew system they have in place. They are going to keep it primarily all in house, with a few kegs going out to select and hand picked bars and locations. The system is set up for 40 barrel but he will be only brewing 20 barrel at a time, for ease, and to keep the kegs in house moving more smoothly. (40 barrels is a lot to move in house, and would limit the amount of styles and variations they could have on tap then. Would also hinder things from a business perspective as well.)

Brian then busted out the stout that will soon be coming on for everyone This was called Pit Master Stout. An English style stout barrel aged in Hidden Stills bourbon barrel. The Untappd description reads: “A collaboration with our friends at Smoked Bar and Grill in Hershey, English style stout aged in a Hidden Still bourbon barrel. A bit hit of bourbon on the nose with toasty notes of molasses and vanilla carry thing through the finish.”

A bottle of Sure Thing at The Beerded Goat Brewery

There was a couple a bit down from us at the bar doing some tasting with another crew member of The Beerded Goat Brewery. So we all split a bottle of the Sure Thing at the bar. Sure Thing is sold in 750ml bottles and will be available for both in house consumption and to go.

The Sure Thing is a collaboration with Cassel Vineyards. It is a wonderful 5.5% Farmhouse Ale, bitter, complex, sour, a whole host of flavors. Its wonderful. And makes for a great dinner beer in lieu of a wine. The Untappd description reads: “Mixed culture Farmhouse Ale Aged I red wine barrels with raspberries and apricots.”

Brian

(Check out our YouTube video here: Brian at The Beerded Goat.)

I want to take this opportunity to express Amy and my gratitude to Brian for taking the time to talk with us, hang out with us, and drink some amazing beers. Dude went above and beyond chatting with us about all kinds of things from small things to big things, from the brewing process, to the building, to his personal likes and dislikes and everything.

He is certainly a “back of the house” kinda guy, and you can tell he’s much more comfortable in the brewhouse than out front dealing with folks, but he did a marvelous job, and was very cool and a wonderful guy to hang out with. We spent about an hour and a half drinking the beers which is a wonderful amount of time. We can’t say enough thank you’s to him for that.

The Kitchen

After leaving the bar area, and saying goodbye and thanking Brian, we went to say our goodbyes to Jason, the gracious host who invited us out for the evening. Amy ran into an old friend and chatted with him while I got to talk to Jason for a while and pick his brain about the building, the business, and the location.

For a bit we talked about the old Taco Truck that was there when it was Newfangled Brew Works. He showed me the kitchen and how it looks and hows it going to operate as a ‘pop up kitchen’ for the restaurant. We chatted about the soft openings and how they went and how it helped get the kinks outs.

He discussed having Nomad Pizza on hand for the brewery as well. And how in the future he wants to utilize the Koda restaurant space for a steak and seafood restaurant to run with the brewery.

Jason certainly has big plans and its great to see them. He has a vision and wants to carry them out and really bring them home.

The big thing that Jason keeps circling back to is “community”. He wants this brewery to be the center of the Union Station community, and not just the Union Station community, but the whole area even. The Union Station development sits as a great straddle point for Nyes Road, Locust Lane, and several other big roads. Its also a big development with lots of houses.

Jason discussed the food menu as well a bit, and it looks wonderful and I really think the guests will love it. He said his head chef is amazing and has created some wonderful foods that he greatly enjoys.

The Patio

The Outdoor Patio area at The Beerded Goat

There is an outdoor patio at The Beerded Goat. Jason wanted me to emphasize one thing though – while it is accessible from outside; no one will know your there until you make yourself known. So don’t expect service until you come inside and let people know. Also, be respectful with your pets. While The Beerded Goat will be a dog friendly brewery, you still need to be respectful with them, and mindful of how they interact with others.

Grand Opening

Tonight is the Grand Opening of The Beerded Goat. They will be fully opening their doors at 5 PM for the masses. Please come out and visit them. Remember to park in the big parking lot in the back and come in through that entrance.

Their Grand Opening is at 5 PM tonight – July 13th, 2023. They are located at 8001 Union Station Blvd Harrisburg, PA 17111.

Lets Wrap This Up

Whew… this article took me far longer than I thought it would! And that goes to show how great of a time we had at The Beerded Goat. I can’t wait for their opening tonight! If you have the chance, you definitely need to be checking them out.

We didn’t get to sample food, and we won’t be able to make it out tonight, but I know Amy and I will be out soon and we cannot wait. But from the beers we had, this place will be an absolute must stop for anyone in the area.

I started this article last night – didn’t get too far, but figured I’d have it finished by 10 AM, and here it is noon, and I am wrapping it up. Whew. It was a blast to get to talk to Jason and Brian and learn about The Beerded Goat. We had a wonderful time, and I can’t say thank you enough to both of them for inviting us out, taking the time to chat with us, and for hanging out. It was a pleasure.

For More Information on The Beerded Goat

First, check out our previous article here:

The Beerded Goat Brewing Company Taking over the old NewFangled Brewery

Secondly, check them out at Untappd here:

The Beerded Goat – Untappd

They currently don’t have much information on themselves out there in the social media world, and Untappd is pretty scarce on them so far. (Heck, I haven’t even checked in the beers from last night, going to be doing that soon after this article is up.)

But you can also find them and follow them on Facebook here:

The Beerded Goat – Facebook

Tours and Visits

To see and read some of our other articles about special tours and visits to breweries we’ve gotten as part of the blog, you can check them out here:

A Sneak Peek of Rubber Soul Brewing Company
Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink
Brewery Tour: Couch Brewing
A Sneak Peek of The Beerded Goat Brewery

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.

-B. Kline

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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!

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.

The Beerded Goat Brewery

Boneshire Brew Work’s 6th Anniversary Celebration

B. Kline — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 22:45:00 +0000

Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates Their 6th Anniversary This Friday – October 28th, 2022

Happy Anniversary!

Lets all give a hip hip hooray for another year of Boneshire Brew Works! Its their sixth anniversary, and they are going as strong if not stronger than ever. Its so great to see them growing and getting bigger and Friday is shaping up to be another great event for them.

Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty Good

Its no surprise to say we’re big fans of Boneshire Brew Works here at The Beer Thrillers. Both myself (B. Kline) and Josh (J. Doncevic) are mug club members several years going now. Amy also loves coming over to have beers (while… before she went and got herself pregnant), and Leela (the faithful four legged companion to The Beer Thrillers) loves sitting outside and watching the cars on Derry Street.

We all love going to Boneshire Brew Works’ main brewery on Derry Street in Rutherford Pennsylvania (outskirts of Harrisburg). Its a great local meet up place, a great brewery, and a very chill atmosphere, a bar where ‘everyone knows your name’. And thats one of the biggest selling points of Boneshire Brew Works, why they are such a great member of the community, and why its so wonderful to see them growing and getting to celebrate their sixth anniversary.

Featured article: Boneshire Brew Works Is Celebrating Their 5th Anniversary.

So let’s talk about Friday.

Friday Party

What better place to catch the World Series Game 1 at? Hopefully get to see Aaron Nola throw a perfect game against the Houston Astros maybe? Wouldn’t that be a great capper to this party!

But first, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about what Boneshire Brew Works has going on that night:

First off, you can find the event here: Boneshire Brew Works – 6th Anniversary (Facebook Events).

As their description reads:

Join us to celebrate our 6th anniversary! -Friday the 28th we will have Nate Myers
-Saturday the 29th we will have Lil Brother Band
Special Releases include:
-French Toast Dark of the Forest
-Cinnamon Bun Dark of the Forest
-Carrot Cake Dark of the Forest
-Toasted Marshmallow Dark of the Forest
-Apple Pie Sour
-Angels on the Sideline
Boneshire Brew Works – 6th Anniversary (Facebook Events)

They have three event pages for this weekend:

As their event page above announced, they are releasing several beers for this weekend: French Toast Dark of the Forest, Cinnamon Bun Dark of the Forest, Carrot Cake Dark of the Forest, Toasted Marshmallow Dark of the Forest, Apple Pie Sour, and a fan favorite return of Angels on the Sideline.

At last year’s release, they did a series of Shire beers that incorporated some of the above flavors (Cinnamon Bun, French Toast, etc.). You can read the review here:

Beer Reviews: French Toast Shire, Cinnamon Bun Shire, Hazelnut Shire, and Coconut Shire (Boneshire Brew Works)

Looks Like It’ll Be a Fun Event

It truly looks like it’ll be a fun event and I can’t wait. Plus, getting to see the Phillies in a World Series game for the first time since 2009 isn’t a bad thing either! Hopefully we’ll get to see you all out there. I know we’ll be there – (probably not with Leela, but maybe, who knows).

Boneshire Brew Works

For more information on Boneshire Brew Works, you can follow them at their following social media pages:

Boneshire Brew Works Articles

For all of our articles on / about Boneshire Brew Works, check out the following:

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Been really busy and hectic here at The Beer Thrillers! Doing lots of writing. The Phillies getting into the World Series. Work being what it is. And well… getting down to a month away for Scarlet Emma to greet the world. So lots of stuff going on.

Just want to say thanks for reading and we appreciate all the comments, likes, shares, etc.

Hopefully we’ll see you out at Boneshire Brew Works on Friday!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Beer Review: Grace (Boneshire Brew Works)

B. Kline — Sun, 08 May 2022 12:37:00 +0000

Grace by Boneshire Brew Works

Happy Mothers Day

Lets first start this off with doing a big shout out to all the mothers out there. We wouldn’t be here without them. (Quite literally.) So we here at The Beer Thrillers acknowledge and congratulate all the mothers – we know its not easy. (Ask my mom, she would gladly tell you horror stories of raising…. not me of course, my sister. I was an angel. Perfect child. Clearly the favorite. My sister on the other hand…. *shivers*.)

The flowers at Grammy’s grave

Every year around this time my grandmother’s peony bush blooms out front. So I cut off some of the flowers, and cut off some similar flowers (this year I cut a few branches of the dogwood and some azalea flowers) and took them out to grammy’s grave. Peonies bloom around early – middle of May and don’t last super long, but have wonderful beautiful flowers and a great aroma. You can read more on them here at Wikipedia: Peony. (Quick fun fact: The peony is named after Paeon [also spelled Paean], a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. In Greek mythology, when Asclepius became jealous of his pupil, Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower.)

Yesterday we celebrated Mothers Day at my parents house and I brought my girls over. As per tradition whenever we all get together, we typically play some form of board game or card game. The girls love Organ Attack so we played that with my mom.

Playing Organ Attack with the girls and their MawMaw

Organ Attack was created by the writer of The Awkward Yeti, Nick Seluk. I reviewed one of his comic books here: Book Review: The Heart and Brain (The Awkard Yeti) (by Nick Seluk). The card game is fun, and gets my daughters all in a fiery mood fighting each other to remove and eliminate their organs. It is a fun game, that does help the girls learn a little bit about anatomy (like what diseases target what organs, what the organs do, etc.). There is some awkward moments though, like giving my mom cancer – something that she has survived three different forms. But in true champion and warrior form, we turn it all into jokes and my mom laughs, especially when she got to play the Medicine card on it and remove it. She even joked that it was easier than chemotherapy again.

All in all, mothers day was a lot of fun (well technically Mothers Day Eve, but it was our mothers day). Can’t beat a day spent with family, playing games, delivering flowers, little things like this in life is what’s nice. Like Kurt Vonnegut would say quoting his uncle (Bernard Vonnegut): “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

Boneshire Brew Works

(Pigtoberfest by Boneshire Brew Works)

Anyone familiar with the blog knows that Boneshire Brew Works is my local go to brewery. Its about four minutes from home and all but within walking distance. (Rubber Soul is another, also within walking distance.) Needless to say we have covered many beer reviews by them: Sunburst, Pigtoberfest, Dillston, Harrishire, Fall Hippo, Blue Hippo, AuZealand 2.0, Tried and True (Mango), Caucus Race 6.0, The Hog, Long Tongue Liar, Pandemic Pils , Iscariot, Road Less Traveled, Good Walk Spoiled, S’Mores, LazaRIS, and reviewed the flight of Shire variants; we’ve also covered them in various news articles: Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates 5th Anniversary, Pigtoberfest 2021, Boneshire Brew Works Expands With Second Location, Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates 3 Years, Brewery Hopping – 12.27.19, and Breweries around Harrisburg Area (2019).

Soooo….. yea….. I would say we’ve covered quite a few of their brews here on the blog.

And all for good reason – they make some really wonderful beers. Grace (this beer) included. So when I heard they were releasing a special barrel aged beer – and that it was named Grace – I couldn’t slap my money down fast enough for this beaut. It was first released for sale for us mug club members, and then went on sale to the public after that. It was 20$ for the bottle.

From Untappd – Boneshire Brew Works is a microbrewery from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They have 189 unique beers. They have 41,401 ratings with a global average rating of 3.84 (as of 5.8.22). Their Untappd description reads: “Welcome to Boneshire Brew Works. We are located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Derry Street. Soon you will be able to have our beer and sodas throughout Central Pennsylvania, as they are already flowing in our tasting room. Follow us for updates on beer releases, events, and brewery happenings through your favorite social media site.”

Beer Review

Grace by Boneshire Brew Works

Beer: Grace
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Wild Ale – American
ABV: 7.5% / 6%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Description: We brewed this beer several years ago and put it to sleep in American Chardonnay barrels with 2 strains of Brettanomyces. This beer is very complex with orange marmalade, subtle coriander spice, dry oakiness, heavy Brett funk and slight sourness.

This is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful beer. Lovely in appearance, aroma, taste, everything, it just nails it. As per always with my beer reviews, I do it in the order of – appearance, aroma, taste. (Or at least I try to remember to do it that way. No guarantees.) [But have no fears, for this review I am.]

Starting off with the appearance – like I said, its beautiful. Its got a light reddish golden like hue. It has a very striking resemblance to some wines of the lighter scale. its fluorescent in a way, and completely clear. No sediment, no floaties, no deposits. Nice carbonation, slight small head that retains for a fair bit.

Aroma is an interesting mix of wine, Belgian, saison, and a mixture of other notes. Notes of the coriander spice, the grape, the oak, and lots of the chardonnay, gives off the heavy wine like impressions, but the coriander spice and the Brett aroma also gives off strong Belgian and Wilde Ale / Saison impressions as well; making this a wonderfully complex beer.

This is a deliciously tart, mildly puckering, wine like beer, designed for a classier age (not like those blasters they use in uncivilized times). It is a gorgeous looking beer, looks very wine like, and has just a wonderful appearance straight from the bottle to the glass, and undoing wax sealed bottles is always fun. (Really, there’s gotta be an easy way to unseal waxed and sealed bottles, but I haven’t found it yet.) The carbonation on this was nice, and the overall appearance is a medley of wine and Belgian styles, so I dig that. The bottle says its 6% ABV, but the Untappd listing for it says its 7.5%. This has a very complex overall taste to it. Its got a lot of wine attributes and tastes; you get a heavy dosage of oak, grape, Brett, funk, tart, with a dryness, and then you get some subtle notes of coriander spice, orange and orange marmalade, The tartness and dryness to the beer really holds it up well and keeps the medley of different flavors in a very nice sipping beer; this is a perfect dinner beer to share with someone over a nice course meal. This isn’t mean to be a sessionable or poundable beer that you have with your buddies while watching the Phillies blow another game or something similar, this is meant to be a lovely dinner beer, with candlelight, nice music, steak, mashed potatoes, garlic green beans, etc. Thats what makes it so enjoyable too, knowing the work and craftsmanship that went into this beer, making it such a delicious, well rounded beer, adds to the overall enjoyment of the beer itself; knowing that it was worked on hard, that it was barrel aged, that time was spent on this beer, all adds to its overall quality and flavor. Its the small enjoyable things like this – knowing that someone cares about their work and craft – that makes the moments and beer like this so much better. All in all, the flavors work so well, the aroma is lovely, the appearance of the beer is wonderful, and everything about this beer is just great.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 5.8.22)

Grandma’s and Mothers

Its so nice to get to celebrate Mothers Day and thank my mom for all she has done for me, for my girls, for my sister, and as a teacher all she has done for everyone else. My Grandma (Grammy) Grace was just as much a mother figure helping raise me as I grew up, and so was my Great Grandma – Florence Speck. All three of these women are / and were – such tough as nails ladies, who never gave up. My great grandma passed away at 99, after a long fight of dementia and alzheimers, my mom has survived several fights against cancer.

Its a nice nod to my Grammy that I got to do a beer review with a beer with her name. I think she would have been tickled pink by that. I got to do one for my Great Grandma as well – Florence by Hill Farmstead. I know she would have laughed about that, she loved stealing my dad’s beers when he still lived at home with them and going to college.

So let me just say one last time – Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there who are doing such a wonderful job.

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. I know this was a bit of a longer winded review, but nice thing is you can always just scroll by my extra crap and get right to the beer review if you’d like. I tend to meander, my apologies for that. I do enjoy everyone indulging me though on all that, especially a beer like this.

I hope you enjoyed the review, and if you have any comments, questions, or anything else, let me know in the comments or contact us through the contact page or e-mail us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. We love to hear from you all!

Thanks for reading, Happy Mothers Day, and cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Boneshire Brew Works is Expanding into Harrisburg with a Second Tap Room

BKline — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:48:07 +0000

Boneshire Brew Works

Boneshire Brew Works is moving into Harrisburg. While always been a part of the Harrisburg beer scene, their physical tap room and brewery has been kind of on the periphery and outskirts of Harrisburg proper. The brewery itself is located on Derry Street next to the 717 Armory and Blue Smoke BBQ food truck, as part of a small outlet mall that includes Marino’s Pizza, Signal 5 Crossfit, and Everest Spice. The address being: Boneshire Brew Works, 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111.

But now, they are moving into the city proper. The city that they’ve helped and worked on so much through events like Harrisburg Beer Week and sip @ soma and 3rd in the Burg, and other great events like brewfests and Beers and Bacon. The city that has loved and embraced Boneshire Brew Works so much, is now fully accepting them into the capital itself.

As reported yesterday – Monday July 13th 2020 – on The Burg’s website, as well as on our Facebook page, and then later on PennLive and with an interview Alan Miller did with Breweries in PA – Boneshire Brew Works will be setting up a taproom on 3rd Street in Harrisburg.

Boneshire Brew Works beer line up. English Curse, Green Machine, Devil’s Burden, Tried and True, and Dark of the Forest.

As quoted from The Burg’s press release on the brewery’s expansion: “On Monday, Harristown Enterprises announced that Boneshire would open a tasting room in the SoMa neighborhood on S. 3^rd Street in space that had been the location of Sip@SoMa.

‘We are a small brewery that focuses on providing an opportunity for community gathering, and we think Boneshire and SoMa are a perfect fit,’ said Alan Miller, majority owner of Boneshire, which is based in Swatara Township.

In early 2019, Harristown opened the snug, 25-seat Sip@SoMa in a first-floor storefront as an interim measure until it could attract a brewery to the location. Since then, breweries from around PA have used the 12-tap system to serve their beer on a visiting, rotating basis, often in conjunction with 3^rd in the Burg, though the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt to that undertaking.”

SoMa at night, Harrisburg Life

Harrisburg is a vibrant and large city with a diverse culture and many tourist opportunities and attractions. The capital of Pennsylvania, it sees many people coming from all over to visit annually. Located along the Susquehanna and near towns of Hershey and Hummelstown, it provides a lot of entertainment options for visitors. From museums to the waterfront, from bars to restaurants all over the city, there is much to see, eat, drink, and do in Harrisburg. Harrisburg currently has a few other craft breweries – ZeroDay Brewing and The Millworks are the two largest, but there is also a small craft brewery in the vegan restaurant – The Vegetable Hunter.

The sip @ soma location has been a prime target for craft beer and has been a vital part of the craft beer scene in the Harrisburg area. Sara Bozich, a regular planner, and part of the creation of Harrisburg Beer Week regularly (well, regularly pre-COVID-19) hosted ‘block parties’ there, offering a variety of craft breweries and craft beer – but one staple that typically was well represented at the block parties was Alan Miller’s Boneshire Brew Works.

sip @ soma storefront, photo courtesy of The Burg website.

According to Harristown Enterprises: “Boneshire expects to open its SoMa tasting room in spring 2021. It also will continue operating from its main location on Derry Street outside of Hummelstown.

‘Having a dynamic, local craft brewer like Boneshire take over the space is exactly what we’re looking for in the neighborhood,’ said Brad Jones, Harristown’s president and CEO.”

Alan Miller is very enthusiastic for the growth. As well as he should be. Expansion is the key to much of the craft beer scene. Growing, maintaining quality, growing, maintaining quality, is the key to success. You can look at other local breweries like Troegs Independent Craft Brewing or Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery, and see how their growth has led to more growth. Troegs Brewing originally started in Harrisburg on Paxtang Street and has since moved to Hershey, just outside of HersheyPark on HersheyPark Road, growing to become one of the largest producers of beer in Pennsylvania (behind Yuengling Brewing and Yards Brewing). Likewise, Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery has grown to several additional locations – Gettysburg, as well as the old Hershey Biergarten and soon to Lancaster. Growth can be difficult for some breweries, and there is usually a small bit of a ‘adjustment period’. Breweries like Rotunda Brewing Company expanded in recent history from a small little bottle shop and near home-brewery size equipment, to a 7 Barrel System, as well as opening a second brew pub in Hershey. There was a small window of time for them that was an ‘adjustment period’, but after that small blip and bump, they’ve maintained that quality they were known for before hand, and now providing it on a bigger scale, and to more people – which is ultimately the goal of all craft breweries and craft brewers. Alan being no exception to that.

Alan is an extremely smart brewer and knows what he is doing. I, personally, think he will have no difficulty with the adjustment and addition of the new taproom, due to open in Spring 2021. The new tap room won’t be adding any additional brewing size capacity to Boneshire Brew Works, but will be providing a second location to have their beers on tap. This will likely mean a quicker turn-over for their production though, so Alan will probably have to spend more time brewing to meet the demands of two locations as well as wherever else their kegs are shipped, and if they further their market by moving cans into beer distributors.

From The Burg’s press release, Alan had to say: “We love the feel and vibe of the SoMa area in Harrisburg, and we have been involved in the SoMa block party since day one and are excited to have a permanent place in the neighborhood.”

This is certainly an interesting time for brewers, not just in Pennsylvania, but the world over, as the coronavirus – COVID-19 is still working its way through the human population. A difficult time for brewers with a lot of uncertainties. Hemauer Brewing recently opened their doors during the pandemic, and Wolf Brewing Co, has had their opening pushed back a bit due to the pandemic as well. Likewise, Rubber Soul Brewing in Hummelstown which was due to open back in late May / early June, still has yet to open, and is looking to open tentatively late July / early August.

The tap room is typically described as ‘intimate’. Its small, and cozy, relaxed, ‘intimate’, but will feature a vibrant tap list. The seating is only 25, which is rather small, but will work well for Boneshire Brew Works. The current tap system has 12 taps, and will thus be able to cover the full spread of Boneshire Brew Works’ beer menu, as well as possibly other ‘guest taps’ if they so choose to do. (As per their licensing, Boneshire Brew Works can have guest taps for craft beer from any Pennsylvania brewery.)

The map and distance from Boneshire Brew Works brewery to their new taproom location in Harrisburg.

The current location for Boneshire Brew Works (their brewery) is 7462 Derry Street Harrisburg PA. The tap room’s location will be 13 South 3rd Street Harrisburg PA.

Boneshire Brew Works

For additional information, you can check out these sources:

For more articles from The Beer Thrillers on Boneshire Brew Works, check out:

Brewery Openings and Expansions:

Definitely excited for the opening of this tap room. It will be great for the residents of Harrisburg, it also shows off the hard work Alan Miller and his co-owners / partners have been putting into Boneshire Brew Works, it will also be great for the craft beer scene in Harrisburg to feature another great craft brewery, and will be great for craft beer enthusiasts in Harrisburg; as well as be great for Boneshire Brew Works. Hopefully soon, in Spring 2021 I will be sitting and having a drink (or two, or three) with some of you at the new Boneshire Brew Works taproom!

Until then – cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Boneshire Brew Works

Beer Review: Blue Hippo (Boneshire Brew Works)

BKline — Sat, 09 May 2020 17:00:39 +0000

Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works

A beautiful day calls for a beautiful beer does it not? Before the cold spell, before the rain and ugliness, before the threat of murder hornets, a nice, beautiful day spent doing yard work, grilling, relaxing, and doing the like – requires a delicious, zesty, tasty, cold brewski. And what better one to do it with than Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works.

I had discussed doing the Pink Hippo on the blog before, back at the time of my review for ‘This is the Way‘ by Broken Goblet. Pink Hippo was a delicious beer, and its cousin (or sister, or brother, or step-sibling) is just as delicious. (Actually, I think it’s probably the better of the two so far in this series by Alan.)

Boneshire Brew Works is my closest ‘watering hole brewery’, and that is certainly no disrespect to Boneshire Brew Works or the hard work of brewer Alan Miller. (Non-quarantine) The cozy atmosphere of the brewery leads it to be the small town drinking pub for a lot of people. Myself, D. Scott, A. Parys, J. Doncevic, and many others included. Karl Larson (ihackbeer) also was a part-timer brewer for them. Its a great place to hang out, chat, listen to some wonderful live music, and drink some of the finest and most delicious beers in the Central PA area.

Of course right now with the quarantine, nobody is really hanging out in there, but I still love stopping in there for some 4packs (to go) and talking with Jason and Alexis (obviously safely from six feet or more away). (Bonus note people – right now, more than ever, even when stopping in at breweries just to grab a 4pk to go, leave a tip for your bartenders. Their still there, working, at a reduced rate right now due to closures of the indoor seating, and their still doing lots of work behind the scenes. We need to stick together and help each other out. …steps down from soapbox….)

As usual, I jibber jabber and ramble before getting to the beer review, so lets cut the crap and get right to it with this bright and delicious zesty beer.

Blue Hippo and reading go hand in hand on a beautiful sunny day.

Beer: Blue Hippo
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This is beer 2 in our Hippo series, where we brew with loads of fruit. Blue Hippo is brewed with insane amounts of Blueberry and Tahitian Lime. Strong lime aroma and flavor rounded out with ripe blueberry.

Blue Hippo and grilling some burgers.

As you can see from the various pictures, this is just a beautiful beer. It has a reddish (slight pinkish hint) to purple hue. Little bits of floaters / pulp one can see when poured from an unrolled can. It is certainly carbonated, it is a fruit beer afterall, and doing some possible refermenting, so definitely keep this cold, drink it fresh, and drink it quick!

Aroma is fun with this one. Its got definite tartness from blueberries and you get a good whiff of that out the gate, and its called the lime as well. It smells carbonated, with the bubbles tickling your nose as you take in the nose of this (and yes, I understand that doesn’t sound ‘technical’ or ‘correct’, but you can tell, and smell, and taste carbonation, thats my stance anyway). It smells like a ‘spritzer’. This is just a fun beer from the appearance and the aroma, before you even get to the taste of it. Sometimes you just ‘know’ when a beer is going to be good, when they just look fun, and you can’t wait to drain that glass.

This is certainly a case of this. This is such a great relaxing day beer. And at 5% it is completely crushable. Both a great sipping beer, and one you’ll finish in no time flat, its fantastic for all day. A Senators game, a college baseball game, your daughter’s softball game (shhhh, no one is telling), or mowing the yard, or suntanning, or sitting out to read (one of my favorites), this is just perfect for it. This tastes very similar to a spritzer, just like its smell. A fruited spritzer, unlike the white wine ones. The zest level on this thing is off the charts, but with a great tartness and slight funk from the blueberries. This is the right kind of blueberry taste; not too tart, not too funk, just right. Perfect middle ground on the blueberry flavor, and with the Tahitian lime zest and flavor, it gives it a fantastic kick to it. Mouthfeel is fine, no off flavors, just nice tartness, no cloying, no sweetness. Its not a true sour, it just has a bit of a tartness and the zest kick. At 5% you can drain the first, drink the second, and start on your third and not even feel a thing, perfect for the summer. (When its not snow squalling in May that is!) This is just a wonderful, well made, well crafted, and delicious beer. Probably better than Pink Hippo, which itself was very good. I highly recommend grabbing this while its still available at the brewery, and if you live close, they’ll even deliver it!

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 4.2 (as of 5.9.20).

You can order online through Boneshire Brew Works’ website at: Boneshire Through Square.Site. Or check out their official webpage: Boneshire Brew Works.

Still rolling through May pretty strong. Make sure to wish your mom a happy mother’s day tomorrow. Make sure you avoid all this cold and the snow squalls. And keep washing your hands, practicing social distancing, etc. I want to be able to have at least SOME fun this summer, and go to events like the Ffej of July and brewfests at Lititz or Lancaster or the make-up dates for the RenFaire or AC Brewfests.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works

Official BBQ & Burgers: Pizza Boy Secondary Location

BKline — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 15:49:41 +0000

Official BBQ and Burgers, back behind Rutherford Heights, on Lyters Lane

For many locals, they’ve known about Official BBQ and Burgers for a while now. Unfortunately I only found out when Pizza Boy announced they would be using the little unassuming BBQ shack as their secondary location.

And now I feel like I’ve been missing out for quite a while.

You can check out their website, which lists menu, their about information, their services, their catering, as well as the new Pizza Boy beer menu here: Official BBQ and Burgers.

The new Pizza Boy bar at Official BBQ and Burgers (photo provided by their Facebook page)

The new Pizza Boy bar at Official BBQ and Burgers is to the right as you enter with it being the counter for ordering your food as well (and opposite of pick-ups if you ordered your food by phone or to-go). They have twenty taps all set-up for Pizza Boy beer only. There is also a fridge by the entrance for non-alcoholic kid drinks as well as four and six packs of Pizza Boy beers.

Pre-opening day setting up the bar at Official BBQ and Burgers (photo provided by their Facebook page)

The bar counter itself is large and with enough seating that it should provide enough space for just drinkers, there is also a row bar against the wall by the main bar where people can eat and drink as well. Plus their is a moderate sized dining room for families and people to get together and eat and drink.

Official BBQ and Burgers dining room (photo courtesy of their Facebook page)

On a busy night the dining room area will be cramped, but not too severely. When my family arrived roughly 6:30-6:45PM Friday night, the place was well packed, but not too the point of cramping (though we did snag the next-to-last table).

Opening night seemed to have a few hiccups and hitches. By the time we got there, Mac and Cheese and Brisket were sold out. And while in line, they took a phone call that got the remaining pulled pork until they could make more (which ended up taking roughly 25-30 minutes, even though they told us it’d be 15 minutes). But things happen and this can be expected for a “new” opening.

I say “new” because its not their first day, and its not an opening. The Pizza Boy bar located inside Official BBQ and Burgers was new and just going live, but the BBQ shack itself has been around for quite a while. Talking to a few locals/regulars, it seems like they’ve been doing ‘ok’ but never consistently busy or crazy packed; and hopefully the new bar with Pizza Boy’s marquee name will change that for them (it seemed to while we were there, though the place was empty when we left at 8:30PM). (They closed at 9PM).

While waiting for our food, I ordered my (first) drink; which was “Not My Style, But May Rate Anyway”. A delicious NEIPA from Pizza Boy.

Not My Style, But May Rate Anyway by Pizza Boy Brewing Co.

Since I’m doing a ‘brewery’ / ‘secondary location’ / ‘restaurant’ review rather than a beer review, I’ll just give a glossing over details of the beer.

Beer: Not My Style, May Rate Anyway
Brewery: Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: IPA w/ almond flour, coconut & lemon

This is a very bright yellow beer, with a very distinct hazy juicy IPA taste and feel with a powerful lemon kick to it. Not sure exactly what all the almond flour adds to it, because I don’t exactly taste almond, possibly because of how over-powering the lemon is (definitely in a good way, especially for me because I love lemon). Slight noticeable coconut but it is pretty subtle. A nice sippable beer with no ‘hop bitterness’ and really embodies the New England style IPAs that are more of the craze nowadays.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 11.30.19)

Visions of Yesterday by Pizza Boy Brewing Co.

The salad came first, and everyone dug into that. The salad was massive, 5$, and as the menu said “NOT SMALL”. It definitely lived up to that. So while everyone chowed into that, I ordered my second beer which I started sipping just before our full meal came.

Beer: Visions of Yesterday
Brewery: Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

This was a fine, well tasting, clear translucent pale ale. No frills, nothing super crazy going on. No adjuncts, no dry hopping, no late additions, nothing silly. Just a down to earth pale ale that was tasty and went perfectly with pulled pork, angus beef burger, and the green beans.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.60 (as of 11.30.19)

Pulled pork, green beans, french fries, wings

For a family of four, we got pulled pork, dozen wings, french fries, the salad, an angus beef burger, and the green beans. My daughters enjoyed trying out the numerous different BBQ sauces that were there, and they enjoyed their cream soda and root beer to drink theirs down, while I enjoyed my beers to wash my food down. The french fries were massive for a side. The wings were good with a smoked spiceyness to them even before putting on the sauces. The pulled pork was delicious. The green beans were absolutely amazing.

Beans, fries, wings, and burger

The food was absolutely phenomenal. I will say as a warning, for a family of four be prepared to drop a decent amount of cash. All told our meal was around the 100$ mark with the beers, the sodas, the food, and the tip. Obviously prices vary on what you order and how much, and the sodas do certainly add up as well as the beers. Most BBQ places are expensive or on the more costly side of things to begin with. And we knew this going in. This is no gripe, just a ‘heads up’ for those with larger families or those living on a budget.

The food is downright amazing though and well worth the costs. The time to receive the food took a while, but we are assuming hiccups with the increased volume of customers. The staff was amazing and downright friendly and talked with the girls and us and were very nice to us the entire time. The building was clean, the bathrooms clean, polished, the locals and regulars all friendly.

The four of us left full (belly aching full), happy, feeling good (especially me with the two beers in me) and with a ton of leftovers (which I am currently picking apart right now). We will definitely be back in the near future and most likely a lot of times after that. Official BBQ and Burgers is only about ten minutes from Hummelstown, two-three minutes from most of Rutherford, five-ten minutes from the outskirts of Harrisburg and fifteen minutes from Harrisburg itself, and fifteen minutes from Hershey and ten minutes from Linglestown. Its kind of ‘out in the middle of nowhere’ but its also an easy accessible drive from everywhere in the near area. Great secondary location for Pizza Boy, and one far closer for those in Hummelstown, Hershey, Linglestown, so this will make a great stop for many. And being so close to other breweries like Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, Troegs Independent Brewing, Tattered Flag, and Iron Hill (Hershey) it can make for a nice easy stop for a nearby brewery tour. (Its about two minutes from both Newfangled Brew Works and Boneshire Brew Works).

Hopefully you all will stop in and check the place out. I highly recommend checking it out, and not just for the beer. Great food, great beer, great time. BBQ, Beer, Happy. (To go along with Pizza Boy’s other motto of “Pizza. Beer. Happy.”).

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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

BKline — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 04:47:02 +0000

My flight of 5 beers from Tattered Flag (as well as their collaborations with Newfangld Brew Works and Cox Brewing Company) on Veterans Day

Monday was Veteran’s Day and it was a bit of a busy day for me. At least at work it was; as usual most Monday holidays tend to be a bit busier at work. So after work I jumped right on I-81 and drove the 26 minutes to get to Tattered Flag. And to be honest, I couldn’t think of a better place to be Monday night than at Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. A veteran owned brewery with veteran employees on Veterans Day sounded like a perfect idea to me.

As anyone who has been familiar with this blog knows, I did the 556 Stout review already, (two days ago in fact), but I will gloss over it at the end of this flight review. Needless to say it’s my favorite of this flight.

Also, anyone who has been checking in with us daily has seen that I am doing a blog post per day the entire month of November. This is day 14 and this is my 14th blog post of the month. It is also blog post #100 (if counting small posts discussing our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, and counting our two listicle posts – Old Articles and Most Popular Articles). And its amazing to see that today we also hit 100 likes on our FaceBook page with a total of 102 followers counting RSS. We also pushed up to 80 on Twitter. So today is a bit of a milestone in that sense. So I would like to take the time right now to thank everyone who has read any of the posts, commented, liked, followed, subscribed, up-voted, thumbs-upped, retweeted, or anything else. We greatly appreciate it. It means a lot to me and J. Doncevic. Thank you!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, lets move on to this wonderful beer flight!

Tattered Dreamz – a sour collaboration between Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co.

First up on my flight is Tattered Dreamz. This sour behemoth is a collaboration between Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co.; created for the Brewsgiving Brew Fest. This is a special collaboration brewfest where each beer you have there is a beer created by breweries in a joint collaboration effect. Tattered Flag worked with Wolf Brewing Co. at the brewfest. Other breweries that did brews together included Pilger Ruh with Snitz Creek, as well as Liquid Noise and Cold Spring, Hidden Stories, Lindgren Brewing, Cave Brewing, Rotunda Brewing, and many others. Always sounds like a killer and fun event and one I’ve been wanting to check out for a while but unfortunately due to work I haven’t yet. The winners compete for tag championship belts. Last year Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co. won and this year they came in second place.

This beer is worthy of second place minimum. Its a terrific high end, high ABV, sour that will just blow you away.

Beer: Tattered Dreamz
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaborator: Wolf Brewing Co.
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A Collaboration with Wolf Brewing Co. This fruit imperial sour was brewed with Apricots, Peaches, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Vanilla.

First off, its a rarity to see or find sours that cross the 8% threshold. Especially ones that are done this well. The few 8%+ ones I’ve had ended up tasting too boozy or just being a bit too all over this place. Not the case for this beautiful gem.

Appearance is a soft orange. Similar in look and coloring and appearance to that of hazy NEIPAs; it has the unfiltered opaque look with a sugary-ness left over on the glass as you drink it similar to a lot of other fruited sours and smoothie sours. The lacing on the glass s legit and well, and at initial pouring there is a thin ring of head to it. A small look of sediment but nothing too bothersome.

Aroma is kind of similar to milkshake IPAs and fruited sours. You get notes of vanilla, notes of apricot and peach. A lot of apricot aroma as you inhale deeply on it. Small traces of the cinnamon and nutmeg but almost imperceptible and subtle. Not a whole lot of nose on those flavors. The vanilla is noticeable and gives it a nice creamy smell to it that like I said gives kind of a nose of milkshake IPAs.

Taste is just phenomenal and will blow you away. This is extremely delicious. Easily drinkable and with how delicious it is, and at the high ABV that it is, this is just scary. My initial quick Untappd write up on it reads: “ Extremely delicious sour. Vanilla and apricot heavy with notes of peach. Not a whole lot of nutmeg and cinnamon but a slight spice finish. ” And this pretty much holds up; just needs some explaining. It is extremely delicious (and it is a sour, duh). You do get mostly vanilla and apricot from drinking this especially at the start. The vanilla and lactose makes it smooth, and gives it a creamy taste. Apricot takes the forefront of the flavors with some peach coming in. The cinnamon and nutmeg is very minute however. Which is probably a good thing because I’m not sure how those flavors in abundance would have affected the taste of this, and this is so damn good as it is right now, I’d think it might make it worse. The mouthfeel for this is smooth and thick, very heavy, very textual, lovely. Nice pulp left on the glass after drinking.

This is still currently on tap at Tattered Flag; not sure how much they made in addition to what they made for the Brewsgiving event, so it might not last long. I believe they did a minimal canning run for this as well. So make sure to stop in and grab a draft (or cans if they did canning / have any left). You won’t regret it!

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.17 (as of 11.14.19)

Another sour from Wolf Brewing Co we reviewed: Wolf Prints.

What a great way to kick off this flight. And moving on….

Twin Mount .50 by Newfangled Brew Works with Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Company, and 717 Armory

In honor of Veterans Day, three local breweries, as well as a local armory all joined forces. All three breweries are veteran owned, as well as the armory. Those breweries are: Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, and Cox Brewing Company. The armory is 717 Armory. All four joined up to brew three different beers, giving each brewery their own one as main credit, and the other two breweries being listed as collaborators on each one. Those three beers are: Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled lead), Seven.Point.Six.Two (or 7.62) (Tattered Flag lead), and 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company lead). The beers will be on tap at each of their locations, and all of them are on tap at Tattered Flag. On Veterans Day they also did a special sampling session at the 717 Armory (located on Derry Street in Rutherford, right next to Boneshire Brew Works and the BBQ food truck), where they also gave veterans a free hour on the range.

Tattered Flag’s beer is an IPA (the 7.62 IPA), the Cox Brewing Company is a stout (the 556 Stout), and Newfangled Brew Works’ beer is a Belgian (the Twin Mount .50).

Beer: Twin Mount .50
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Collaborators: Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Company, 717 Armory
Style: Belgian Tripel
ABV: 9%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Belgian Tripel brewed as an all Veteran Collaboration with Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Co and 717 Armory.

Belgians, Tripels, Quads, Dark Belgians, Dubbels, any and all Belgians are one of my favorite styles (when done right obviously). It always just has wonderful taste, wonderful notes, wonderful characteristics, and isn’t done that often, that it makes it such a fantastic style. And this is certainly no exception.

Appearance is similar to that of the Tattered Dreamz but translucent rather than opaque. Not hazy, filtered rather than unfiltered, no sediment or pulp or sugar on the glass. Thin ring of head that looks good and shows a nice carbonation. Good lacing on the glass as you drain it down. The coloring looks slightly more IPA-ish than a normal Belgian, but I think thats due to its sweetness. Which is unusual for a Belgian, but not unheard of, and not in a bad way.

Aroma is all about that yeast. That typical Belgian yeast brings out a forefront yeasty smell on the aroma that is typical for Belgians and is just classic. If you like the style you can note it a mile away, even without knowing what style or what kind of beer you are smelling or tasting. There is also a sweet smell to this that ties in I think with the coloring, and certainly ties in with the taste.

Taste is your usual Belgian. Very high note of the yeast strain that is common to Belgian. You get a lot of coriander and the usual Belgian spices. But this has an overarching theme of sweetness to it. An underlying taste to it that is just sweet and makes this a very smooth Belgian. I’ve had a few like this in the past and its a nice change of pace to that of regular Belgians. It adds a nice complexity to an already dense and complex beer style and just creates a bit of a different mouth feel and flavor than one you normally expect or are prepared to expect in the beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 11.14.19)

Another Newfangled Brew Works beer we reviewed: Pumpkin Stout or Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour.

Moving on to a regular IPA from Tattered Flag, and solely their own creation, no collaborators for this one.

Government Overspending 2019 by Tattered Flag

I know from talking to the guys at Tattered Flag that this is a different version than last year’s. They tweaked and changed the recipe of it enough to feel confident calling it “Government Overspending 2019” rather than just continuing with “Government Overspending”. Interestingly though, I couldn’t find the original check-in for this on Untappd (No Government Overspending listed anyway on the app) and I don’t believe I had it; or if I did, I don’t recall it, and unable to look it up. So I’m not sure if they ret-conned it and retroactively changed the name of the old version, or if it got deleted, or if it never really existed like I thought it did. Not sure. But I do know from talking to the actual brewers and owners, that this is a second version of this beer. Regardless of whatever the prior version was called.

Beer: Government Overspending 2019
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Triple New England
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Its time to overspend again. This year we used a ton of Galaxy in this years version of Government Overspending. Then we used more Galaxy Citra and Mosiac to Triple Dry hop this beer.

So right there, from the Untappd write-up you can tell its the second year of it. Just no idea what happened to the original version of this in the app.

(So… I’m not crazy… …maybe…. sorta…. …possibly…)

Anyway….. back to the beer…. appearance wise… its a golden orange, hazy, unfiltered, as per the NEIPA style. This is probably slightly more on the yellow spectrum then most NEIPAs, especially TIPA (Triple IPAs) ones. Again, as per with the rest of the beers of the flight, the carbonation was good, giving it a nice foam head, small ring of diverse bubbles, and followed by good lacing on the glass.

Aroma is straight hop. Juicy hop. Fruity citrusy hops. Galaxy is really a wonderful hop and has quickly become one of my favorites. Even before reading the write up on this, from aroma alone I could pinpoint Mosaic and Galaxy. They are such distinct, wonderful hops and provide such great aroma and taste. The triple dry hopping really brings the hop aroma to the front.

Taste is pure hop juicyness. No bitterness. This is soft, pillowy, very dank, delicious hop brew. All kinds of wonderful hop notes and citrus and juicy hop flavors play over your mouth as you drink this down. The high ABV is barely noticeable.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 11.14.19)

We’ve done several IPAs from Tattered Flag in the past: You Hoppin On Me? , Banana Milkshake IPA, Inexplicably Juicy, and Multiple Beer Review – Levante and Tattered Flag.

Seven.Point.Six.Two or 7.62 IPA by Tattered Flag with collaborators Newfangled Brew Works, Cox Brewing Company, and 717 Armory

Tattered Flag’s turn to take the lead on one of the collaborations from Vet Collab day. And of course they’d make an IPA. …or maybe a sour… or… or…. But yea, Tattered Flag has become known for their IPAs (and sours) in recent years, and for good reason: they are pumping out some amazing IPAs (and sours).

Beer: Seven.Point.Six.Two (7.62) IPA
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaborators: Newfangled Brew Works, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), 717 Armory
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.62%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Seven.Point.Six.Two a 7.62% NEIPA made with veterans blend hops The 2019 Veterans Blend is comprised of five different Pacific Northwest-grown varieties including Simcoe®, Loral® and Ahtanum®. It will perform well in any hop forward beer, providing a well-balanced mix of tropical, citrus and herbal aromas. Proceeds go to wounded warriors family support fund. Collaboration with Cox and Newfangled brewery.

It is always heart warming, and awesome, and amazing to see when beers and breweries give some of their proceeds and money earned to charities. Especially ones in such need like Wounded Warriors. Just a great showing by Pat (owner of Tattered Flag) and the others from Newfangled, Cox Brewing, and 717 Armory, to do this. I cannot fully endorse this more.

This has more of that typical NEIPA look than even the Triple NEIPA (Government Overspending 2019) had. This has the hazy, opaque, unfiltered, glowy orange juice like look to it. And once again, nice carbonation, and nice lacing. Good theme going for the day on both of those fronts.

Aroma is very floral hoppy. A nice selection of different style of hops brings out a very well rounded aroma to this. Sometimes a wide variety of hop can provide for too much of a jumbled aroma, with competing smells of floral or herbal or citrus or pine, (same thing can happen with taste, too many bitter vs. citrus hop blends that don’t pan out well), but here this all works well, its a nice varied combination to make a layered floral hoppy bouquet. It just works.

Taste is similar to aroma, as is often the case. Its a floral hoppy cornucopia of hop flavors and tastes. I like this a bit more than Government Overspending (2019) primarily due to it having a bit of a bitterness to it, kind of uncommon for NEIPAs, but there is just a bit of a bitterness bite to this that provides it with a kick and a punch to it that is lacking from Government Overspending. I like that, and despite it, there is also a smoothness to this, probably some lactose or other smoothing agent in the beer (possibly vanilla as I get slight notes of it, which could also be lactose, or could also be a sign that this is beer #4 in a flight of 5).

This compares nicely to the recent New Trails Broken Heels I had.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.23 (as of 11.14.19)

556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC), with Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, and 717 Armory

Ok, so I reviewed this one separately, and in more depth just a few days ago. You can read that review here: 556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC).

But, I will give the bare-bones information on it here:

Beer: 556 Stout
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
Collaborators: Newfangled Brew Works and Tattered Flag
Style: Stout – American
ABV: 5.56%
IBU: No
Untappd Write-Up: Vet Collab Stout with Newfangled and Tattered Flag

Fast forward through a lot of the review, to just my thoughts on the taste (if you want to read more, check out the other article, its far more in-depth):

” Taste is what really drives this. It is immediately amazing. Wonderful flavor profile, wonderful mouth feel, wonderful taste, wonderful notes and characteristics, and …. wonderful any other cliche catch-all terms that you want to use. Its sweet, its malty, its caramel, its dark, its heavy, its low key and not boozy, and only a 5.56% ABV (get it… … …you know… since the name is 556… they made sure to work the OG and sugars to make it 5.56% ABV). This all combines perfectly and into one wonderful stout. A perfect cold weather stout, a perfect warm weather stout, a perfect all year round stout. But more importantly, a perfect Veteran’s Day stout. “

Some other stouts we’ve reviewed are: S’Mores LazaRIS, Walkers Station Stout, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, Salted Caramel Moo Hoo, and Irish Table.

My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 4.1 (as of 11.14.19; on the previous article, there wasn’t enough ratings yet to give it a global rating).

(I will point out that the 556 Stout was my absolute favorite of the flight. And if I had to rank my flight of 5, it would go like this:

1. 556 Stout
2. Tattered Dreamz
3. Seven.Point.Six.Two (7.62) IPA
4. Twin Mount .50
5. Government Overspending

Thats not to say any of the lower ordered ones were bad, just how this flight went. And considering my ratings for them, you can see that it was an amazing flight!)

Well, I’m shooting a buzzer beater with this one. Finishing this up right now its 11:40. So just barely getting this to print (or to screen) before the deadline and maintaining my blog post per day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit smoother and I get my post up sooner. I am also going to be doing more work / editing on this in the morning. So if you read it now, and then re-read it around 9AM, there will be some edits, links added in, and other things. I’ll note them here at the ending in an “UPDATE: EDIT” section.

Thanks for reading everyone. Thanks for getting us to 100 blog posts. And thanks for getting us to 80 Twitter Followers and 102 FaceBook followers. We appreciate each and every one of you!

UPDATE / EDIT: Ok, so starting at 6AM when I woke up… well… ok… 630AM after I watched The Mandalorian’s newest episode…. I went through and linked up things to their correct places. This should look better. No content changes, just cosmetic changes. Last night I was pretty tired and feeling kinda lazy to do a lot of the HTML / inside / behind the scenes work of the blog, and just posted up the writing side of it. Now it looks more accurate. Sorry for those who read the original version and didn’t see the links. (Not a huge change made.)

Also, just to reiterate we are on the Top 100 Best Beer Blogs currently sitting at #11. We debuted at #137 and second week went to #11 and have sat there ever since. Would be great to gain some momentum and move up! Be sure to check out the site, and click back to us, not sure if it helps, but it certainly can’t hurt anyway.

We’re making a lot of big strides here at The Beer Thrillers. We just hit 100+ posts, 100+ followers on Facebook, and 80+ Twitter followers. Coming in with the new year we are looking to move over to a full blog status, adding a home brewer to our writing staff, and possibly one or two more writers to our staff. Lots and lots of content for lots and lots of people to read, so make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and do all the fun stuff so you can see all our hard work! We appreciate you checking us out, and thanks for making all of this hard work so much fun!

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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

BKline — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 03:00:46 +0000

S’Mores LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works (Photo taken at the 3rd Anniversary Party)

Undoubtedly the biggest, baddest, best beer and possibly the most popular one that Boneshire Brew Works is known for is LazaRIS. It’s their flagship stout, and their biggest, boldest, darkest beer (Dark of the Forest coming in a close second.) (Also, be on the lookout soon for a review of LazaRIS – the original – by J. Doncevic soon.) So, over the past three years there’s been a few varieties and variants done by the brewmaster Alan Miller of Boneshire Brew Works; some of which include Coconut, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice, Tiramisu, and a few others – and now finally a s’mores version. And I think Alan might have outdone himself on this one.

For the 3rd Anniversary Party, Alan – and Boneshire Brew Works – released a few variants of the mainstay staple LazaRIS. Including a firkin of the Tiramisu, a coconut one, the Pumpkin spice, and s’mores. The Tiramisu, coconut, and Pumpkin Spice ones were done before, but the s’mores was a brand new one. So thus I decided to start there with my reviews on it. And I’ll let J. Doncevic do a full write-up on the original LazaRIS to give this some more meaning. Once he gets his review up, I’ll link to it, so you can read up on it and get a better understanding of this beer.

Out of all of the variants released (and re-released) at the 3rd Anniversary party, this by far blew me away, and was my uncontested favorite of the bunch – unsettling and toppling the previous – Tiramisu one. Though, the original LazaRIS is equal to all of these for its own unique reasons, I feel like this s’mores variant is leap years above all of the other variants, and is just my absolute favorite.

S’Mores LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works (photo taken at the Halloween Bash Party about a week after the 3rd Anniversary Party) (Daughter’s game of Chutes and Ladders going on in the background)

Beer: S’Mores LazaRIS
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Our Russian Imperial Stout, LazaRIS, with the addition of s’mores flavorings.
Original LazaRIS Write-Up: LazaRIS rises from the dead with with its rich and complex flavors of a Russian Imperial Stout.

The original LazaRIS stout is certainly rich and complex; and this version is no different.

Aroma is very heavy malt, caramel chocolate like notes, sweet vanilla notes, with a bready biscotti or graham cracker like smell lingering on the underneath of it all. The malt and grain notes are strong, roast, caramel chocolate, and give it a good backbone to the adjunct additions of marshmallow, graham, and vanilla.

Appearance is your typical stout look; like I’m constantly saying in this blog. Its Razor Ramon hair dark black. Its heavy looking, its thick looking, its full bodied, like a good woman (or man). There is a thin head to this, not a big foamy head, but a small circling ring with white going to brown foam, there is a lot of bubbles to the head that are varying shape and size.

Now lets move onto the real gem of this beauty; its taste. Hmmm mmmm hmmm mmmm. The taste is so fantastic. There is booze, there is depth, there is heavyness, thickness, there is wonderful malt, wonderful grain, wonderful notes of all of the adjuncts, there is just so much flavor and complexity, so much richness and decadence to this brew that its much to list and describe. Starting with first notes; you get a caramel and roast malt taste on initial impression with some booze heavyness to it but not overpowering or disturbing, this then seeps into the malts going more chocolate and roasty and toasty; but then the adjuncts quickly take over – you get marshmallow and vanilla notes. Quickly you get the full dark cooking chocolate for the s’more, and then a nice underlying bready, biscuit, graham cracker flavor that gives it a nice soft ending, a nice backbone to it all that ties in perfectly with the roast malt, the caramel chocolate malt, and the heavy grain bill. Making this just one fantastic, wonderful, rich, tasty, complex beer.

That makes this one fantastic and perfect beer on a super ugly Pennsylvania fall-into-winter day like today. ESPECIALLY when that day happens to also be National Stout Day.

Still on tap at Boneshire Brewery on Derry Street in Rutherford, so be sure to stop in! It certainly won’t last much longer!

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 11.7.19, National Stout Day)

So, funny thing about this article, this was meant to be done SOOOOO MUCH EARLIER in the day…. but so much in the day came up and happened. (Joys of your days off being consumed by kiddos and doctor appointments, and drama rehearsals, and bingo, and all kinds of things.)

But I originally grabbed a can of Edmund Oast’s and Westerbrook’s “There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than Cam Pants” – thinking it’d make for a perfect stout on National Stout Day, and a great beer to review for it…. well, lo and behold my surprise when I realize after pouring it and taking my first sip (appearance was the first give-away) that it was actually in fact a barleywine. *Face-Palm*. Well, what else was I to do but make sure I had a fantastic stout later in the day to make sure I do a stout review on Stout day?

Needless to say, this was a great stout for the day. Such a super ugly, dreary, miserable mess of a day, but a super wonderful, fantastic, rich, beer from one of my favorites breweries, definitely made it all better! I can’t recommend this beer, and this brewery enough or more. So make sure you stop out and check them out on Derry Street in Rutherford PA (located in between Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania; right by the 717 Armory).

And yes, I know, yesterday I hinted at getting two blogs today done; and I wanted to. But it just didn’t happen. Normally, this review would have been done early in the day, and then a second review done up later today (like NOW time) if I had the chance. But unfortunately, life does intervene. But no worries, still got it done, and still on target for 30 for 30; now sitting comfortably at 7 for 7.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline