A long type staple of Ommegang Brewery’s production and beer line – Hennepin Farmhouse Ale – is getting updated packaging and new can labels.

The 7.7% Farmhouse Saison is getting a cosmetic upgrade.

Brewery Ommegang is located on a beautiful farm in Cooperstown, NY. A must – visit destination for craft brewery lovers.

See Also

• Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Brewery Ommegang)

Thank You For Reading

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

Cheers.

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

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

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

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

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another brewery is due to open in the greater Central Pennsylvania area (Central PA); this time its Highway Manor and it will be opening up in Camp Hill. This has been a long time work, and they’ve been working hard to get here. Yet again another brewery opening despite / during COVID-19 and the mess that the coronavirus has created this year (2020).

The Highway Manor Brewing Co. will be opening their doors as a taproom this Saturday – September 26th, 2020 – in Camp Hill at 11:00AM. They are located on Gettysburg Road (Camp Hill).

This has been their building that they’ve been brewing out of for years, but is now finally being turned into a taproom and will be opened to the public.

For many, if you are a big sour fan, or lambic, or Belgian, or saison fan, you are fully familiar with the portfolio that Highway Manor has to offer. They’ve been doing many brewfests for years, a highlight of which being their consistent showings and offerings at Lititz Brewfest. I remember one particular year, me and friends were there and had their Sour Stout (yes, you heard that correctly – a SOUR STOUT). Very unique and interesting beer. To see their full portfolio of beers you can check out their website here: Highway Manor’s Portfolio.

For others, you might have become familiar with them due to their statewide shipping that they’ve started during the COVID-19 and quarantine lockdown. They like several others in the state (Levante, Tired Hands, Tattered Flag, The Larimeer, etc.) have adapted, and overcame during the pandemic, creating a delivery system that allowed for them to ship statewide. If you would like to order statewide from them through their “drink from the barrel” – #drinkfromthebarrel – system, you can order here: Highway Manor Statewide Shipping – Ordering – Drink From the Barrel.

Highway Manor is ran by brewery owner and head brewer – Johnnie Compton III. He specializes in saisons, sours, lambics, and Belgians – especially Belgian Farmhouse styles. For those with knowledge of wine, and an appreciation for it, you will definitely enjoy his style and take on beers then as well. The house yeast for Highway Manor has been personally cultivated since the 1840s from Liverpool, Pennsylvania.

Be sure to follow Highway Manor Brewing Co. on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.

As always with us here at The Beer Thrillers we will be definitely checking them out in person hopefully very soon. So be sure to stop by Saturday when they open, starting at 11AM.

Also, please make sure to follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. Our account links are on every page (just click the logos), and be sure to sign up here on our site to subscribe and follow us directly. Be sure to like and comment as well, we always are glad to hear from everyone.

And make sure to check out the ‘BREWERY NEWS‘ section and ‘BREWERY OPENINGs’ section of our blog to stay up to date on brewery news and openings in the Central PA area.

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

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Get out of work Saturday at 8PM. Frustrated, annoyed with how the day ran out at work, I quickly zipped from Grantville to Marysville, arriving at the new Liquid Noise Brewing at 8:20PM. Circling the lot once…. twice…. thrice…. I finally find a parking spot.

Having read the Facebook post, I have wallet and card in hand. I go through the sliding door and present my ID to the guy standing there. He says something. I can’t hear him over the band and I stare blankly at him. He repeats it, louder now – “Sorry, we’re at max capacity.” I kind of blink and say something to the effect of “Oh”. …. “Oh crap.” …. “Wow.” He nods. I turn and leave. Figuring out what I’m gonna do or how long I’m willing to wait, I plug some time in at the Dollar General next to the brewery, pacing through the ran down aisles with stuff laying all about. I come back out five-six minutes later to see a handwritten piece of paper on the door “Sorry, max capacity. No entries.”

Knowing the band ends at 9PM, I figure maybe I could get in after that (their open to 10PM), so I decide to head over to Pizza Boy’s in Hampden/Enola, which according to trusted Google Maps is 10 minutes away. I zip over there, and enjoy two brewskies before heading back to Liquid Noise and getting in.

But this isn’t an article about Liquid Noise. This is a beer review about Hill Farmstead’s Florence. The first of two beers I had at Pizza Boy while waiting. And this is downright a delicious beer fully worthy of a beer review. ….I mean….why else would I be writing this then right?

Firstly, anytime you can find Hill Farmstead on tap in Central PA you gotta jump on it. No questions asked, its such a rare treat, and such a wonderful treat, you need to get as much as you can and as quickly as you can since you have no idea how long it’ll last. And surprisingly this lasted from Wednesday or Thursday to Saturday (and presumably into Sunday, since I didn’t kick it). I remember past times when Al would put Hill Farmstead on tap on a Tuesday, and the kegs would be kicked by Tuesday evening. So I was definitely surprised this was still on tap Saturday evening.

And I was so glad it was!

Much like the name has significant meaning and background to the Hill Farmstead Brewery, the name Florence does for me as well. My great grandmother (paternal side) was Florence Speck. A feisty woman who lived to be 99 years old. Born Florence Edith Yeagley on July 13, 1905, and sadly passing away on January 5th, 2005. She lived a rough life on a farm growing up, with a mean father who often beat her and her siblings for not “doing enough around the farm” despite being under the age of 10. She had my grandmother as well as four other children, her youngest she was pregnant with while my grandmother was pregnant with my aunt. Before I was born, in the 70s, while her husband was driving (she never learned to drive and never had a driver’s license) they were in a horrible car accident, killing two people in the other vehicle. Her legs were broken, and while in the hospital, her husband (my great grandfather) stricken with guilt hung himself. She wasn’t even able to make it to his funeral. Years later, sadly dementia and alzheimer’s struck, and for the last several years every party she thought was her 99th birthday party, and in the cruelest sense of irony, when it was finally her 99th birthday party, she had no idea everyone was there, celebrating for her.

She was the sweetest, kindest, fiestiest great grandma one could ever had. When my father was in college and stilled live with my grandmother (and whom my great grandmother lived with) she would regularly steal his beer. Always knowing where his hidden stash was, and knowing he couldn’t say anything or do anything about it because my grandfather was so against alcohol. She was an incredible knitter and quilter making beautiful quilts for all of her children, grand children, and great grandchildren.

So, just like how Hill Farmstead has significant history, reasoning, and background in naming their beer after their great aunt, I have some significance in drinking a pint in fond memory of my own Florence. And while sitting alone at Pizza Boy, drinking this, I recalled all the great memories of my dear Florence, just like I imagine the brewers / owners of Hill Farmstead do whenever they drink a bottle of this as well.

With any labor of love, especially one in honor of someone, you know there is going to be an extra level of craftsmanship involved. And this is certainly no exception. And I will do my best to provide it with a fantastic beer review that it deserves. And with a fine beer comes a fine review (hopefully, fingers crossed, I’ll let you be the judge of that).

Beer: Florence
Brewery: Hill Farmstead Brewery
Dated: 8.22.19
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Florence (1915-1967) was our grandfather’s sister, and Hill Farmstead Brewery rests upon the land that was once home to her and her 13 siblings. In her honor, this Belgian inspired Wheat ale is crafted from American malted barley, Organic Vermont wheat, European and American hops, our distinctive farmhouse yeast and water from our well. It is unfiltered and naturally carbonated. Soft, cloudy, and fresh, this is the ale that I dream to have shared with Florence.

I got to try this on tap / draft at Pizza Boy – Al’s of Hampden. Normally this comes in the large bomber style bottles. I will have to pick up a bottle of this to try it that way as well (as well as to keep a bottle of it for the office shelf).

Appearance is a light yellow golden sun coloring. Its bright, its yellow, and its lovely looking. It looks like a farmhouse ale, a saison, or berliner weisse. There is a thin head to it with nice carbonation that left beautiful lacing on the glass. The head had good retention and small thin bubbles. The bright yellow sparkled in the lighting on the patio area of Al’s. It’s cloudy, obviously unfiltered, and not transparent at all.

Aroma was full of various notes. Wheaty, hoppy, yeasty, notes of the tartness, you can smell the tart, you can smell the wheat, you can smell the hops, the distinct house yeast strain of Hill Farmstead, you can smell the grain, the well water. All extremely distinctive and noticeable. Some slight spice notes, like coriander, almost witbier esque. There is quite a bit of a Belgian nose to this, with the coriander and other spices note. Belgians have such a distinctive and quantifiable nose to them and this is certainly no exception.

First sip is an exquisite joy. You get saison. You get Belgian. You get witbier. You get wheat blonde. You get so much and more, all straight out of the gate, first sip, explosion, 0 to 60 in .00001 seconds. You immediately get a rich, full beer in the first sip. You pick up the Belgian in-house yeast strain, the organic wheat native to their farm, all with the underlying tart funkyness that comes with the saison. Slight tartness. Whole lotta farmhouse. You pick up some of the Belgian spices, coriander, orange rind, you get some deep wheat, barley, and a great water backbone to it. Nothing thin or light about this. Its full bodied, unfiltered, and its powerful. For only 5.2% you get a ton of taste. Remember folks – ABV does not equate taste. Low ABV can be still full of high octane taste, and with some (lesser) breweries high ABV doesn’t mean full taste or body either. (Sadly.) But thats not the case here, this is low ABV and high taste. A perfect combination to let you enjoy a TON of these bad boys while hanging around a farm, just taking in the view, and talking about old times with older family members. This would be the perfect backporch sipper with family listening to old family stories, of a great grandma or a great aunt, their tales of growing up on a farm, getting up at 6AM to milk the cows, feed the chickens, get the eggs, etc.

This beer is why you hear so much about Hill Farmstead Brewery. Why its a top destination and even more so a top brewery. Why they are so proclaimed and why people are so enamored with them. You can tell the level of care and love that goes into their beers just by sipping this beer, by reading its description, by seeing the presentation of the bottle.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.22 (as of 1.30.20)

Today is my last day off (Thursdays are my Sundays, Wednesdays are my Saturdays), so I will probably do the next of the Tree House beers before going to D. Scott’s to do the next podcast tonight. So far in the Tree House Series, I have done Sap, Autumn, and Haze. This evening I’ll (hopefully, fingers crossed) do Julius, and perhaps tomorrow will do my final one – Doppelganger.

I also welcome you to check out some other recent articles we’ve done – like our massive Brewery Review / Visit to Mellow Mink and the subsequent beer review of Scarlet Sunrise: Blackberry and Blueberry.

Also, in sad news, I did a recent article about Crystal Ball Brewing’s (from York, PA) closing. Sadly it seems we’re due for more of these happenings in the upcoming year. I hate to seee breweries close, people lose money, dreams, and jobs, but sadly it seems we’re heading for this in a fair bit of time.

I was just at Boneshire Brew Works last night playing Rad 80’s Trivia with my sister and brother-in-law to celebrate his birthday (so shout out to Amado, happy birthday). They had a new stout on, and I might be doing a review of that soon. Or Pink Hippo, another new beer of theirs. Or maybe both. But either way, you can check out some beer reviews of theirs I have done: The Hog, Dillston, Harrishire, Tried and True (Mango), and Iscariot.

I might also do a small write-up about the Hummelstown Winter Fling that me and Lily (my 10 year old daughter) went to, where I got to try some beers, and the Liquid Noise goings-on Saturday night. But I might save that, since talking with Brad Moyer, we might be doing a bigger, more in-depth article, so I might just wait for that.

Either way, lots of stuff going on here at The Beer Thrillers, so please be sure to like, subscribe, follow us, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Matt contacted us through the blog about visiting him at Mellow Mink and spending some time seeing the behind the scenes, the blending program, and just generally hanging out. Myself (Ben) and Josh immediately jumped at this idea. And to show just how hard it can be at times for just three humans to be able to meet, we started discussing when to visit mid-November and only got to actually meet January 2nd. A host of reasons attest to that; the least of all being a brewer, business operator, pharmacist, and all around busy man for Matt, for myself having only having two weekday days off rather than a weekend (whereas Josh has the weekend off), and myself having three daughters as well as another side-hustle (the podcasts). But we got to make it work, and it was a beautiful, and wonderful kick off to the new year and the new decade. Hopefully we’ll get to do more fun visits like this at other breweries. 

Here’s how this article is going to break down for everyone reading. I (B. Kline) am going to start off, giving my side of the events of the evening, and talk through what led up to us finally getting to meet, how the evening went, and then I’m going to pass the baton off to J. Doncevic who will give his side of everything.We’ll meet back up at the end giving reviews of the beers we had – specifically the absolutely fantastic bottle we all got to share; we’ll then go back and forth with a few closing comments, and I’ll wrap it up with post-brewery visit nonsense, general blog news and future events and things like that, last second plugs, etc, and that’ll be that. Hopefully this will do the visit, the tour, Matt, and the brewery – Mellow Mink – justice. I think this format will be the best and make the most sense for the readers, and give a more overall perspective of our time there and the visit and things we got to discuss with Matt. I know personally I can’t say enough wonderful things about Matt, about the beers, about the place, about everything, and just how appreciative we were that Matt reached out to us and invited us basically into his home away from home.

Ben:

As head of the blog I’m the one ‘saddled’ with having to do the behind the scenes upkeep of the blog, checking comments, media things, feedback through our contact page, generally all of the administrative and boring details. And to be honest, at a blog of our size, that’s really not much work, and I don’t mind one bit of it. Especially when I come across a notice like the one I received from Matt Miller. I immediately contacted Josh, my (main) co-writer here at the blog (one of a few now with the addition of Default Brewing joining in) and he was completely ecstatic right out of the gate just like I was. So I contacted Matt back and we stayed in touch via e-mail and messenger until we could finally hammer down a date – January 2nd.

My day was a bit hectic. Morning consisted of getting girls to school (driving my oldest two to two different schools, then walking my youngest), running errands, enjoying a nice lunch, and ultimately being late to my buddy D. Scott’s place. We were doing our podcast for The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian. The night before I was at his place to do the LOST Podcast (Seasons 1 and 2) with Esteban. So for the Star Wars podcast I got to Drew’s just shy of 3PM when I was supposed to be there at 2:30/2:45PM. We ended up finishing the podcast at about 5:35PM and I all but ran and flew driving to get from Grantville to Mechanicsburg to meet Matt and Josh. I was supposed to be there at 6PM, and my GPS said I’d arrive there at 5:58, but I ended up walking in the doors at 6:02PM. I hate being late and try not to make it a common occurrence. Josh is already there sipping on Super Fruit 6. He informs me Matt is taking a business call.

I order my first – the Janet Weisse – and hang out talking with Josh about the evening and what to expect and how we might do the blog article. As per usual with me, nothing set in stone and nothing definitive, I tend to do much of everything on a ‘let’s just wing it’ kind of approach and let the chips fall and land where they do. In no time at all Matt comes out, introduces himself to Josh and I begin thanking him for letting us come out.

We stood by the bar drinking our first beer, the three of us chatting about how its taken so long for us to get to meet up finally, how we were supposed to the last week of December, why I was a bit running behind (because of the podcast, traffic, etc.), and just general life things. We then transitioned into the brewery, how long its been opened, small details about Mellow Mink in general. 

Immediately Josh and I can tell just the wealth of knowledge Matt has. Certainly no one could ever doubt that this man knows beer. In one night’s sleep he probably forgets more about beer and brewing and sours and blending then I’ll ever learn / know in my entire life. You can tell up front and right away that this is a passion for him. That he’s knowledgeable, smart, and loves the business, the making of beer, the blending of sours, the people, the atmosphere, the craftsmanship behind brewing a damn good beer. 

We ordered our second beers, Josh got the Cloud Cove IPA, since his Peaches and Cream IPA was out, I got the Super 6, and Matt got the Mechanicsbock. Absolutely loved the Super 6, and Josh enjoyed his Cloud Cove. We then began to talk actual shop. Discussing the beers he likes, breweries he likes, some of his inspirations, aspirations, and all around influences and influencers. He discussed going to Monk’s Cafe and trying out Cantillion on Zwanze Day and falling in love with lambics and the Belgian brewing style. Talked about how he discovered the sours and lambics and the various blendings and how its so similar to creating a good wine. We started discussing the different brewing styles and methods of lambics and the Belgian and German and European ways of brewing. It was like storytime with a historian and a scholar. The information that came out of him was too much to even comprehend most times, phenols, blending styles, aeration, different barrels, temperatures, mashing temperatures, kettle styles, stainless steel, different yeast strains, different sour methods, different cultures, bact, lacto, etc. etc, etc, etc.

Even with a notebook, heck, even with a recorder, I wouldn’t be able to write everything down and get it correct. Like I said, he knows far more than I’ll ever even possibly learn. We then ordered our next – myself getting the Mechanicsbock, Josh ordering the Janet Weisse, and we then followed Matt into the back to take a look at the full facility.

I will be honest here, and Matt will back me up on this, the facility is a glorified home brew set up. But its a DAMN GOOD glorified home brew set up. Matt even called it a “enlarged home brewing environment” while we were there. But please, this takes nothing away from the meticulousness, the procedure, the quality, or the skill that Matt uses. If anything it shows you how much better of a brewer Matt is to produce the quality he produces on such a small size and scale. 

One of the first things that caught Josh’s eye was the grates in the floor. All breweries have them, their for flushing and letting out the water, and spills, etc, just like the backhouse of most restaurants, and even warehouses. But this was the first that either of us have seen where the grates had the logo of the brewery in them acting as some of the holes. The Mellow Mink logo distinctive in the grates was a super cool touch.

He walked us around showing his kettles, the mash tun, his various fermenters and equipment, showed us the cooler with the kegs that run up into the brewery and to the bar, every last nook and cranny of the backstage facility. It was glorious to get to walk around and listen to an expert explain what this piece was for, why he had it set up this way, what the water was like in Mechanicsburg, what he added/detracted from the water, why his setup was this way, where he did his souring, all of this so educating and elucidating, was just a marvel to see it all. I don’t believe our pictures can do it all justice, but hopefully it gives you at least an idea. 

While chatting behind scenes, Matt told us how he’s actually a Doctor and works at a pharmacy by day, highlighting his science knowledge and showing why he’s so knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the molecular side of things in brewing. He told us about his prior writing before opening Mellow Mink – his blog – called The Sour Blog or Sour Blog where he was known as Dr. Lambic. Now it’s all clicking into place. We then chatted about his blog, our blog, and the intricacies of writing and blogs. 

We then came back out to the barrels and he pulled the pin from a barrel to give us a pour from one, replaced the pin, and then did the same with another. We then took a seat at the bar again, and sampled the untouched and un-added-to beers from the barrels. A white and a red. Both like fine wines, tasting absolutely phenomenal. Dry. Tasty. So fantastic. Dr. Lambic, err, Dr. Matt, err, Matt – never call him Doctor – then got one of their latest bottle offerings, the Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry. Now, I know this is early in the year, but this is a clear cut front runner for best beer of the year. Absolutely fantastic.

I’ll go into the beers we had and do beer reviews later in this article. So make sure you check that out. Might also do an individual posting for a beer review on just the Scarlet Sunrise. 

But to wrap up my portion of the night, after we sampled the Scarlet Sunrise, talked very in depth about barrels, aging, blending, sours, etc, we then began to wrap things up. Cole got a group selfie of the four of us (he is the artistic and creative one as far as that sort of thing goes after all), and we chatted a little bit more, and gave our farewells.

After leaving, me and Josh stood outside chatting for a bit and then made our ways home. So I’ll hand this article off to Josh and let him talk about his evening at Mellow Mink:

JOSH:

Imagine my surprise when Ben messages me over Facebook that there was a brewery that had invited the two of us to come in and chat. The first thought that crossed my mind was “which one?” and immediately afterwards, the second thought was “you’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?” Ben cleared out the doubt when he told me it was Mellow Mink. Located just off the Carlisle Pike, in the Hampden Centre shopping plaza, right next to Pho 7 Spice, you’ll find an unassuming storefront. Step inside and you’re welcomed by friendly staff and a pleasant, upscale atmosphere that just feels right. If you’re looking for sours or farmhouse ales, you’ve stepped into the right place.

When Ben mentioned the sheer amount of time it took to set what would eventually become a January 2nd meeting, he wasn’t kidding. The offer for us to spend some time with Matt, drink his beer, chat, and view the inner workings of his passion took just under two months. Two months! Yes, various factors are to be taken into consideration, and on one occasion Ben & I were both available, but Matt had just received new brewery equipment that was coming in right around the time frame we’d have been there. Plus, like any brewer, Matt said he’d have new beer on tap that we would most likely be interested in. You don’t have to tell me twice. In retrospect, the day we were actually able to make our schedules work was probably the best as it was the start of a new year. Best time to hang out with a brewer and pick his brain, see what makes his brewery tick and try new things? YES! Before this sounds like some emphatic lovefest and a little too much fanboy fawning, allow me to place a little personal disclaimer: things like this usually do not happen to me. At least not on a regular basis. At any rate, I arrived a little early and checked my messages. Ben said he was running late, so I headed in and decided to, at the very least, let Matt know his 6 o’clock had arrived and was enjoying Super Fruit 6. Just a few minutes later Mr. Miller swings the backdoor open and greets me with a warm smile and hearty handshake. You can always tell when someone is about to talk about their passion. Their eyes are bright, their face is glowing, their smile is inhumanly wide and expressive. There’s this easy happiness that exudes from Matt as we share  a brief moment conversing about what now occupies our glasses before my colleague crashes the party. Just kidding! It was fully my intent to kill some time while Ben was en route to Mellow Mink. To be fair to Ben, he wasn’t that late, and once things got started, time was never the issue.

So where do you start when you’ve got the night and (mostly) the run of his establishment? The beginning of course! Not wanting to waste time, we asked Matt a slew of questions ranging from his favorite style to where he got the idea of opening a brewery in the first place. Then the second beer hit, well, it was ordered and while entertaining their respective contents, the information Ben and I were being given was something that we quickly realized we might have wanted a recorder of some sort. Let’s touch on the highlights though. 

Would you believe that Mellow Mink is not Matt’s only job? Hard to believe since the liquid luxury that pours from the taps is quite good. No, Matt has another job that pays the bills outside of being a brewer. He’s a pharmacist. Aha! At this point Ben and I realized the parallel that had been drawn between his profession and his passion project. Mr. Miller had moved us from the bar area to where he makes the magic happen. Sure there’s a lot of shiny metal tanks, fermenters, and even a HUGE refrigerator. None of this caught my immediate attention. No, what really got me excited was the fact that the drain grates incorporated the Mink from the logo. Matt was quick to add the company that made the grates offered to add the Mink for free so he jumped at the chance. I mean, wouldn’t you? Like a kid in a candy store, Ben and I are shown around and given a glimpse into what it means to be Matt Miller and what a typical month’s worth of brewing amounts to. In showing us what Mellow Mink really is, Matt also let’s us see that he’s not afraid to be resourceful and inventive. He shows us a bottle filling station with six separate spouts. Apparently when it was purchased it didn’t allow the proper amount of air to escape, so Matt set to work making it function the way he needed it. Way to go! Ben and I are having a great time, but now we’ve got an issue; our glasses are empty. Fortunately this is an easy problem to fix. However, we don’t want to fill our glasses just yet as Matt has something special for us. He gleefully shows us the barrels on sliding racks that occupy the back right corner and explains that the beer contained within is aged separately for at least 6 months and then blended together. Okay, brewers and distillers do this, but Matt uses beer aged in white wine and red wine barrels and marries them into one seamless, sultry mixture. He could have stopped there by telling us this process, but Matt believes in showing us this process. We are first given a sour that was aging in the red wine barrel. Although not finished aging, it comes across as mellow, smooth, and deep. We are then handed a sample of the sour from the white wine barrel. It is a stark contrast, in nose and experience. Where the red was mellow, the white is peaky, vibrant, upfront, and contains a lot more acidic bite. As the finale, Matt brings out a bottle of Scarlet Sunrise. This then is the end result of Matt’s incredible attention to detail as he deftly blends white and red into a sour with a luscious bouquet and more drinkability than anything this side of wine has a right to. This. This is what Matt does. Scarlet Sunrise represents what happens when someone has a passion for the craft and with every sip, that fact becomes more and more apparent. For me, Scarlet Sunrise puts the “Mellow” in “Mellow Mink” as it never feels the need to be the center of attention, nor does it completely fade into the background. Between the three of us we polish off the bottle, pay our tabs, grab a selfie with Matt and his partner Cole (the artistic side of the brewery), say our goodbyes then exit into the cold January evening. It was an incredible evening that Ben and I will not soon forget and one we might just need to have again. 

BEN:

Just to wrap things back up here, this was certainly a blast. I know I can speak for myself and Josh and say that we had an absolutely fantastic time at Mellow Mink. For anyone familiar with their beers, you’ll understand how great this was, and anyone unfamiliar with their beers will definitely want to check them out.

Matt is a genius brilliant brewer who certainly knows his trade. Getting to pick his mind on everything from sours, to brewing, to Untappd, to creativity things like naming and making recipes, to running a business, to being married and having another job and running a business, and just talking about his craft, his enthusiasm for what he does, his down-to-earth nature, and his pleasantness and niceness as a human being all shone through.

We visited on January 2nd, and we’re now posting this 20 days later on January 22nd. We’ve been a bit quiet on the blog homefront mainly because we’ve been working on this. Our last beer blog post was the duo 2019 recap blog posts: End of the Year – 2019 and The Best of 2019. I’ve also been busy doing podcasts.

We would like to take this time to thank Matt Miller extensively for allowing us into his brewery (basically his home) and showing us around and drinking with us and chatting with us. It was a blast!

For those reading, I have decided to move the beer reviews of what we had that night to a new article. I think this article is long enough and the beer reviews wouldn’t be necessary at this point. I will say we had some fantastic brews and none of them were below a 4 star review on Untappd. I will be doing the Scarlet Sunrise as its own review, and the others as a multi-beer review. I think thats the fairest way to do all of them. I believe Josh might also be doing a beer review article on the Scarlet Sunrise.

We are also considering doing a Q&A / interview series here on the blog. I know Matt has told us he’d welcome the idea of it and would gladly do one with us. If you are a brewer or brewery worker reading this and would like to do one, you can reach out to us here on the blog either through the comments or the contact page, and we would gladly do one!

Also, if you are a brewery (owner or brewmaster) and would like to invite us out to your brewery, we are super more than willing! We love hanging out at breweries, drinking, chatting, and will gladly do a review / write-up of your brewery. So once again, contact us, and we’ll work something out. We have covered a few brewery opening articles which you can find here: MidWest Coast Brewery Opening and Rotunda Brew Pub Opening.

I will also take this time to point out our various social media accounts for those of you unfamiliar with us, we have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (though sadly we don’t use Instagram as much, but looking to in the future), and Pinterest.

We have a ton of different articles here on the site for you to check out, from brewery reviews, like our review of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery, to beer reviews like Fuzzy Nudge, The Hog, Dillston, Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, etc.

I am also finishing up my series on the Tree House beers soon after this gets published. I’ve done Sap, Autumn, and Haze, and soon will do the review for Julius and Doppelganger.

You can also check out the podcasts I do with friends over at our Podcast page – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…. (The podcast is popculture themed, we discuss movies, shows, and drink beers and discuss the beers we are drinking while discussing the other esoteric stuff.) (The podcasts typically run from 1 Hour and 20 Minutes to 1 Hour and 45 Minutes.)

For a few months now we’ve been listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs; we’ve recently moved up from #11 on the charts to #9. And thats thanks to all of you checking us out, reading our entries, and clicking Follow and Like and Subscribe. We appreciate it so much! (We originally debuted at #137, then after a week we moved to #11 where we stalled for about a month or so, but now we’ve finally moved up again, to #9. Interestingly #2 and #3 is the same blog, so I guess in a way…. technically…. we’re #8…. but I don’t know. Just happy to be in the Top 10. There is some great blogs on this list.)

This was our first joint blog post (me and Josh), and I think it turned out pretty well. If you want to read more of our individual articles, you can find them here:
* B. Kline
* J. Doncevic

Click on the name and it’ll take you to a list of that author’s articles.

I will now close out with some pictures we took of the brewery:

(This was my first time using the gallery feature on the blog, so hopefully it comes out ok).

Thank you all for taking the time to read this blog post, article, whatever you want to call it. Brewery review… beer review… brewery tour….. However you want to label it, it was a blast, and we want to thank Matt and Cole for having us and for you guys for reading this! Please be sure to follow us, subscribe to our Facebook and Twitter pages, and check out our past and future articles here on The Beer Thrillers!

Cheers from Josh and Ben!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Want to take a trip with us? A journey along Harrisburg? C’mon, it’ll be fun. You get to hang out with me, and my buddy, and we basically do nothing but chat about Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Coen Brothers movies, how we were so disappointed by the sequel trilogy, about the blog, about the podcasts, we run into other friends, chat with bar patrons, and generally have a good time.

So why not join us? We hit several stops in the Harrisburg area. Not as many as originally wanted, and not all of the places we wanted, but we jumped around, had some fun, and called it a day and were happy. So no complaints there! Can never be upset with a day out with friends, beer, and no stress. Plus…. we got to pet a baby corgi… so there’s that too!

I have written a bit, here on this blog, and for Breweries in PA, as well as the Let Us Drink Beer blog about the breweries around Hershey and Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania. Mostly recap articles on the locations, taps, places, atmosphere, beers, etc. The bigger – main article can be found here: “Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg“. The blog post that is primarily a link to the Breweries in PA article with a few bits of new information can be found here: “Touring Through the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg“. The actual Breweries in PA article is here: “Breweries Around Harrisburg (BiPA)“. And of course, the last article of the series, the larger one yet – that also delves into the breweries of Hershey PA can be found here on the blog Let Us Drink Beer: “Breweries Around Hershey and Harrisburg PA.” I do guest work and contribute to the Let Us Drink Beer blog, so make sure you check them out and my other articles there, like my review of the Pretoria Fields Collective Walker Station Stout. (I also did a review of it here for my blog: Walker Station Stout. For more information on Let Us Drink Beer’s Blog and to just check them out, their blog home page can be found here: “Let Us Drink Beer“.)

Lets start off with the pre-adventure details. First off, the events of this day occurred on December 27th, 2019. A Friday – and my day off (my days off are Thursdays and Fridays for now, before they change soon after the new year). Having worked the week, including Christmas, and spending the night of Christmas with family, and then spending Thursday with more family, Friday was a day for me and friends. I still got some crucial stuff done pre-noon, I finished reading a chapter book with my youngest daughter, I got the Autumn beer review blog up, did some minor editing on the Sap Beer Review and The Hog beer review (website formatting changes) and I walked my dog. So, noontime, dog home, I shower up, and head out to Boneshire Brew Works to meet up with Drew for the first leg of our trip.

(A final in-line, late note, just before publishing this, instead of listing the beers with the brewery we had them at, I decided to put them at the end, categorized by brewery / location and gave bare-bones information from Untappd on them. I’ll leave my rating with them as well, but not go into a full break-down beer review of them. So if you wish just to see what Drew and I drank, you can jump to the end of the article.)

As anyone who knows me and has read this blog, Boneshire Brew Works is typically home base of operations. Its about three-five minutes from my house, right by Rutter’s, right off of Nye’s Road and on Derry Street. Close enough for my friend Drew to meet us there, and its also not too far out from where Dan lives (near Breski’s Beverage). A lot of other friends are close by too, from the Hummelstown, Middletown, and Harrisburg areas. Even from Hershey – its not a stretch of a drive. So its always a great place to meet up; plus the beer is superb, the atmosphere is nice, the bartenders and beertenders all know us, and its just a great place to hang out.

I got there about five minutes before Drew, and ordered the newest beer on the menu – The 2019 Holiday Reserve. A tradition now, at Boneshire, its always a glorious beer to end the year on. One of a handful of great NE-IPA style beers in the area, its usually one of the best, and always fantastic straight from the tap. And this year’s was no exception. After Drew gets there he orders the same, and we spend a good twenty minutes nursing our first beer of the day at lunch-time while discussing the intricacies of Star Wars; including The Mandalorian’s season finale (which had just dropped that morning), as well as how bad Rise of Skywalker was and the sequel trilogy as a whole, how bad the prequel trilogy was, how there’s now more bad to good movies in the Star Wars canon, how some of the books fit into the movies, etc.

We also talked about the next jump on the tour – The Vegetable Hunter, about them teaming up with the Harris Family, and other things beer related in the area. We discussed maybe checking out the BBQ place that is home to Pizza Boy’s secondary location; but decided to skip it, and decided to skip Newfangled Brew Works since with Drew, thats basically home number two. I’ve been to The Vegetable Hunter one time, but quite a long time ago, soon after they added the mini-micro-nano-brewery part to it. So I settle up the tab with James behind the bar, talk a bit about heading on some brewery jumping, and then we’re off to the city proper.

Now, it should be noted, number one, I am horrible at getting to any place. I’ll get there. No doubt about it, but it won’t be right, will consist of wrong turns, driving on one way roads, and being a bit late…. but I’ll get us there. And case in point was getting here. Next thing we know, we’re crossing the bridge and the river and turning around on Erford Road and heading back, finally finding a parking spot in front of the restaurant turned brewery.

I don’t know much about The Vegetable Hunter unfortunately. I do know its a super tiny micro / nano – brewery, and I know that Tim Myers is the head brewer. He is also the head brewer for River Bend Hop Farm – you can check out a review of their Dry Irish Stout I did. I was there at their brewery a year ago (on the 28th, it came up in my ‘memories’). Fantastic brewery and facility and the beers were great. Tim definitely produces some great beers.

I’m not vegan or vegetarian, and neither is Drew. So we didn’t order anything to eat. (Not saying you HAVE to be vegan or vegetarian to eat there, but its more likely to appeal to those who are.) Not sure if they do flights of beer there or not, I think they might, but the two kids behind the food counter who were finishing up an order for the family that was in the place eating (six or seven people with a small child) and doing a lot of cleaning (dishes / glasses) didn’t mention it. We each ordered a pint. I ordered the Brother of Thor! and Drew ordered Today’s Tom Sawyer. Their on-screen board listed only four beers. But their Untappd app lists six. I have also heard (after the fact) that they have an upstairs. Not sure if that was open when we got there or not, but they probably have more taps up there.

Brother of Thor! was tasty and delicious. Drew also said the Today’s Tom Sawyer was also good. Both are IPAs and were neither super hoppy or super bitter, but also not NE-IPAs. We would both recommend them to anyone traveling in the area. Can’t say anything about the food (sorry), but we both enjoyed our beers, the relaxed, hipster, like atmosphere, and overall thought it was a pleasant time there. We didn’t stay long, (not long enough to use our full hour of parking meter time – 3$, right in front of the restaurant), but we enjoyed our beer, and chatting, and stayed for probably twenty – thirty minutes.

After leaving, we decided the next stop would be The Millworks, since its close by. Did a few turns here and there and parked next to the Market. And went inside to the Millworks, which even at 2:30-3PM was pretty full with the bar nearly packed (luckily found two seats together) with lots of people eating.

Sidled ourselves up to the bar and plopped down. Ordered myself a flight, Drew ordered a pint, and got himself the brisket pizza. Drew typically always does pints rather than flights, and I typically will do flights whenever possible – to try as much as I can. Especially if its a venue I’m not likely to get to all that often.

My flight consisted of Winter Saison, Cherrywood Rauchbier, Kiwi Berry Gose, Triple IPA. Drew ordered the Market Day Session IPA.

Once we ordered and he ordered his food, the pizza arrived pretty quickly. I enjoyed the Saison, the Rauchbier was a nice, smokey, malty tasty drink, the Gose was a little bland, and not quite as interesting as I’d hope, but the Triple IPA made up for it and was very tasty, juicy, and hoppy. Drew enjoyed his Market Day IPA (I had it once before and found it enjoyable myself).

Drew said the brisket pizza was delicious. While here, we discussed various ongoing TV shows that we are still watching and looking forward to of upcoming seasons, like Fargo, HBO’s Righteous Gems, and of course still The Mandalorian. We broke down Coen Brothers movies, like A Serious Man, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and talked about how interesting it was for that show to be made (the Fargo show). We also talked about upcoming podcasts including me and Esteban doing one about LOST, a show which Drew had never watched.

While closing out and debating how far to stray from Harrisburg and getting texts from Dan Arndt that he’s getting off work and wants to jump in on the festivities, the bartender pointed out that it was 4:15PM and that The Sturgis Speakeasy was doing their happy hour from 4-6. So since Dan usually likes to meet up at ZeroDay when in the city, we figured we’d stay local, hit up Sturgis, then meet him over there. So off we were to a “pit stop” on the brewery tour.

A hop skip away from The Millworks we found ourselves good parking beside The Sturgis Speakeasy and headed in. They had a nice tap list including several noticeably good beers, quite a few New Trail Brewing Co. beers on tap, and a pretty good bottle and can listing. Drew asked for one of the bottles on the list and was told they just sold out, and so he then settled on the New Trail Porter – Sunset. I ordered the NE IPA Goggles from New Trail which everyone has been raving about in various Facebook beer groups I’m in.

You can’t go wrong with New Trail, they seemingly haven’t made a bad or even mediocre beer yet (at least that I’ve had). I’ve had several from them before – Broken Heels, Double Broken Heels, Corvus, and I believe a sour of theirs that name eludes me at the moment. Goggles was another fantastic New England style IPA, this time a Double Imperial New England IPA. At 8.8% ABV it does give you a good punch and with the large pour at Sturgis it was really good. For my second beer I got the Porter, which was a very nice chocolate porter. Not too overpowering, not too heavy chocolate, pretty much just the right amount. A nice mixture of flavors and complexities to keep it tasty.

On the background TVs was an English Premier League soccer (or “football”) game. A roar went up at one point from the denizens of the bar as the one team scored, and me and Drew talked about my years playing and coaching soccer. Also discussed Christian Pulisic a bit and how I grew up knowing the family due to his father – Mark Pulisic – and his days playing for the Harrisburg Heat. Christian is a great kid, and Mark was a great player, coach, and all around guy. His wife (and Christian’s mom) Kelly is also a wonderful person. So its so great to see the family achieve so much success. Hopefully it also translates to the US Men’s Team finally getting better and possibly winning a World Cup some day (obviously not the next one…. ….since we didn’t even qualify….. ugh……). Side note here: if you ever want to discuss soccer – make sure you see Owen, bartender for Boneshire Brew Works, the men has forgotten more about soccer (due to concussions) than most people will ever know. Plus he’s a great dude, especially after a few.

Nearing our end at the speakeasy a nearby bar patron started chatting us up about local Harrisburg politics, and all kinds of manner of other things. Now, me and Drew will often get chatty about politics, philosophy, religion, etc – but only with ourselves, and more quiet, …and usually when we’re a lot more drunk. We tend to not jump into these kind of conversations with people we don’t know, because well… you never know how the conversations are going to go, and typically we like to follow the bar rule of “No Religion. No Politics. No Gender.” discussions. But we allowed him to talk to us about it, and we stayed neutral and listened. (Always remain neutrality when listening, always the best case scenario.)

We paid up, said goodbye to the friendly bartender lady who was very nice, and chatted to us a bit about The Mandalorian (noticing a theme with our day yet?), as well as Netflix and other TV in general, thanked her for the good beer, and we were on our way to ZeroDay.

We park back behind Midtown Cinema and head into ZeroDay. Finding a spot at the bar we jump up, Drew orders the Financial Panther, and I get myself a flight. I also try their hard seltzer, one of the first craft brewery hard seltzers I’ve had. And I just have to say…. the style does nothing for me. No White Claws for me, no Truly Hard Seltzers, just… nope. White Claws mean no Laws is BS and I stand by it. I’ve never been a fan of carbonated water or seltzer to begin with, so making it slightly alcoholic doesn’t do enough for me. The first time I tried a hard seltzer was at Ffej of July this year from Karl Larson’s group. This was my first time trying it from a craft brewery.

My flight consisted of: Accidental Fluffer, Grievance, Smooth Metal, Mister Bubz, North St. Stout, and ZeroDay Dunkel. With an additional taster of plain Automatic Refresher (the hard seltzer).

We hung out inside for about fifteen minutes before our friend Youngblood and his girlfriend arrived. After about another five or so minutes Dan arrived, but had to stay outside because he had his corgi with him – Domino Thunderthighs. And yes, thats its actual name, and yes, the dog is totally a babe magnet and the most adorable thing since Baby Yoda – The Child. So we went outside and hung out at the picnic table, and watched the slow human avalanche of people finding out theres a nine month old corgi outside as they all came out to pet him and either go back in or head to their cars. Even the bartenders took turns coming outside to pet the dog.

Outside was a nice brisk evening, and we stayed out there til 9PM. Youngblood does stand up comedy work for various places, so we chatted some about that, his upcoming shows, some bits, we talked with Dan about his work (lung respiratory nurse), talked about our jobs (Drew as bartender, me at the casino, etc.), we talked about dogs (my border collie Leela and my new pitbull / black lab mix – Tink), Dan’s two dogs the corgi Domino Thunderthighs and his other dog Indiana Bones. Dan talked about his latest trip with his fiance Kat at Tree House Brewing Company where he brought back the beers I’ve done reviews of – Sap and Autumn. Talked about the places we stopped at today – Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, and The Millworks. Talked about local breweries in general, places like Iron Hill, Troegs, Moo-Duck, Cox Brewing, The Vineyard and Brewery at Middletown, and Spring Gate.

We got into our normal shenanigans and revelry and had a good time hanging out together. Killing an afternoon / evening. At about 915 or so, we discussed evening plans, I had to take Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works for him to get his car and I was gonna head home, Dan, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend were going back to their apartment after Dan dropped off his dog. As usual partings go, we cleaned up and took our glasses back in, gave our goodbyes to each other, walked to our cars and left. Knowing we’ll all be doing this again in a few days most likely, just chilling, relaxing, hanging out, having a good time, and drinking beers at places like ZeroDay or Boneshire or Troegs or at bars like Chick’s, Sturgis Speakeasy, The Manor, Gin Mill, The Boro, Warwick Hotel, etc. There is few things on this planet that are better than hanging out with friends, having fun, laughing, not being stressed by life or cares and just taking care of each other through communal friendship and just being with each other as we drink and bond. Its easily one of the best things about craft breweries is the communal nature of the small local craft breweries. The atmospheres and the venues and the way it brings people together to talk, hang out, have fun, and drink good delicious beers. Not even macro beers at big time bars can deliver the same kind of intimate friendship and kinship that craft breweries can give you, just based on the structure of how different the two are.

After we departed, took Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works and let him get his car. It was 9:45PM and Boneshire was soon closing for the night. Made our safe returns and trips, and had ourselves a fantastic trip basically over Harrisburg and the suburb of it a bit. We got to drink at Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturgis Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Had great beer, Drew had some great food, lots of great conversations, lot of fun, and much laughter. Was a fantastic day, and a nice leadup to the end of 2019 and the end of a decade and to the start of a new year, new decade, and certainly many more adventures.

As a final note before listing the beers, I started writing this up Sunday December 29th 2019 early in the morning before work, had to go to work, wanted to finish it after work, but had a retirement party for a co-worker at Thoroughbred’s, and after that it was late and I was unable to finish it. So I am now finishing this up (started at 5:30AM when I woke up, and now finishing it at 7AM). And since its December 30th now, I can safely say to Drew happy birthday, as the old man is now 35. So in his honor, make sure you listen to some of his podcasts and mentally give him a shout out and happy birthday.

And now onto the lists!

Boneshire Brew Works:

Beers:

• 2019 Holiday Reserve
• The Hog

Beer: 2019 Holiday Reserve
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: What we have here is a small Christmas miracle! This year’s batch of Holiday Reserve is a NEIPA brewed with 12 varieties of hops and copious amounts of Flaked Oats, Wheat, and Barley and clocks in at 8.5% abv. This batch is brewed with Apollo, Cashmere, Columbus, Simcoe, Warrior, Motueka, Amarillo, Azacca, Lemondrop, Citra, El Dorado, and Mosaic. This NEIPA is sure to please everyone for the holidays.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: The Hog
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Triple
ABV: 9.8%
IBU: 51
Untappd Write-Up: Our collaboration with Muggers of the year 2018-2019. Mike Luckovich and Dan Ploch dreamed up this big hoppy fruit forward IPA. Brewed with Simcoe, Amarillo, Zythos, and Citra hops.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.16 (as of 12.30.19)

The Vegetable Hunter

• Brother of Thor!
• Today’s Tom Sawyer

Beer: Brother of Thor!
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 27
Untappd Write-Up: Hoppy IPA with the Viking/Norwegian yeast strain Loki.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Today’s Tom Sawyer
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: West Coast IPA – Slappin’ da bass hops! Nugget, Equinox, Citra, Amarillo, and Columbus hops.
Drew’s Comments: Good, hoppy, tasty.
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

The Millworks

• Market Day Session IPA
• Winter Saison
• Cherrywood Rauchbier
• Kiwi Berry Gose
• Triple IPA

Beer: Market Day Session IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Session / India Session Ale
ABV: 5%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Light body, hop forward ale. Orange-golden in color. Floral and citrus in the aroma and flavor. Restrained bitterness that is noticeable but not overwhelming. Easy drinking, lower alcohol session ale.

Malts: Pale, Vienna, Cara Pils

Hops: Nugget, Cascade, Chinook, Crystal
Drew’s Comments: Tasty, crisp.
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.66 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Winter Saison
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 7.9%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Medium body, dark spiced farmhouse ale. Deep mahogany in color, lightly spiced with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, and french oak chips. Fermented with spicy belgian saison yeast.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Cherrywood Rauchbier
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Rauchbier
ABV: 5%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Classic Rauchbier brewed with local PA Cherry Wood smoked malt. Mild smokiness balanced with sweet bready malt
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Kiwi Berry Gose
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: PA Preferred beer brewed with Deer Creek Malt and 350 lbs of Kiwi Berries from Threefold Farm
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Triple IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Tripel
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 80
Untappd Write-Up: Full bodied IPA brewed with Amarillo, El Dorado, and Idaho 7 hops
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 12.30.19)

The Sturges Speakeasy

• Goggles
• Sunset

Beer: Goggles
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Goggles is a Hazy Double IPA focussing on some of our favorite hops. Brewed with a mixture of wheats and oats. Heavy handedly hopped with Galaxy and Citra. Goggles is excessively fruity and dank.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.21 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Sunset
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: Porter – Other
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Sunset is a Chocolate Porter brewed with layers of dark and chocolate malts, rested on Cacao Nibs from Ghana. Expect a rich porter layered with deep chocolate flavor reflecting both dark and milk chocolates. Brewed for the early winter sunsets and long dark nights.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

ZeroDay Brewing

• Automatic Refresher
• Financial Panther
• Accidental Fluffer
• Grievance
• Smooth Metal
• Mister Bubz
• North St. Stout
• ZeroDay Dunkel

Beer: Automatic Refresher
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Hard Seltzer
ABV: 5%
IBU: 0
Untappd Write-Up: Hard Seltzer brewed for you! We brewed a blank Hard Seltzer and provide the flavors for you to add how you please!
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Financial Panther
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 47
Untappd Write-Up: Inspired by the hard work it takes to not only make the beer, but the prowess required to run the business, we are excited to release Financial Panther, our newest IPA double dry hopped with copious amounts of Motueka from New Zealand. With notes of crushed lime and bright citrus, it’s sure to start your weekend right.
Drew’s Comments: Had this before, second favorite from ZeroDay behind Mango Hab
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Accidental Fluffer
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Malt Liquor
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A Zeroday holiday classic, Accidental Fluffer is one of our most creative libations. Peppermint flavor and aromas shine in this malt beverage from the addition of pounds of candy canes in the fermenter. This fresh, minty characteristic is complemented by a sweetness derived from a light grain bill, milk sugar, and copious amounts of Marshmallow Fluff.
My Untappd Rating: 3.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.36 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Grievance
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Smooth Metal
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Red Ale – Other
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 50
Untappd Write-Up: Smooth Metal showcases a balance between a smooth caramel malt backbone and an assertive floral hop bitterness. The American grown Nugget and Cascade hops provide a classic hop character for this full-bodied ale. Smooth Metal is soft spoken at first, but definitely has a lot to say.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.65 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Mister Bubz
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Dunkelweizen
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 16
Untappd Write-Up: Our dunkelweizen is brewed to the traditional German style. This dark wheat ale (“dunkel” means “dark” and “weizen” means “wheat” in German) is a wheat-based beer with dark malt components. While the malt supports a smooth backbone, the yeast is what shines in this beer. Banana and clove aromas and flavors really standout in this dark brown easy-drinking wheat beer.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.46 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: North St. Stout
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Write-Up: A vanilla-latte inspired Stout brewed in collaboration with the Elementary Coffee Co.
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: ZeroDay Dunkel
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Lager – Munich – Dunkel
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Light in body, dark in color, this Munich Dunkel brings forth notes of roasted malts and chocolate.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

Hopefully you enjoyed this travelogue of our jumpings and hoppins around of Harrisburg. Was a fun day for us, and we do this somewhat often (less now as we get older though). Hopefully there will be more articles like this in the future of more different / diverse places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, etc. I’m looking forward to 2020 and hoping it has a lot more great breweries in store!

For some other articles and beer reviews and brewery reviews, you can check out these past written articles:

• ZeroDay Beer Review
• The Millworks Beer Review
• November Recap
• Cushwa Brewery Review
• Battlefield Brew Works Brewery Review
• Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
• The Trip Day 1
• The Trip Day 2
• The Trip Day 3
• Going On The Road
• Midwest Coast Brewery Opening
• Rotunda Brew Pub Opening
  

As always, there is tons of things to see, read, and do here on the blog. You can also head over and listen to the podcasts me and my friends – Drew, Esteban, Dan, Andrew, and Andy all have done and created. We talk about beer, movies, pop culture, TV, you name it. You can see the podcast listings here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…

Please help us out with word of mouth, share, like, comment, re-tweet, re-blog, whatever works for you. We love to hear from you guys, so please leave a comment. There is still time to get in what you think was the best beer or breweries of 2019, as I’m hoping to have that article fully done and up before the end of 2019. Fingers crossed!

Thank you for reading this long, rambling, blog post. I know its a bit different than some of our past articles. I’m looking to try and expand what all this blog has to offer, so there’ll be tons of different times of articles to read in the future. Not just beer reviews, but brewery reviews, beer related book reviews, home brewing articles, hop growing articles, beer event reviews, news, brewery opening news, travelogues, and so much more!

I have a packed schedule coming up. Looking like at the end of the day on New Years Day I’ll be doing a LOST podcast, Seasons 1 and 2, and then on January 2nd, me and Josh are traveling to Mellow Mink to do a write-up and have some fun with the head brewer Matt Miller. So be on the look out for that. That should be lots of fun!

I also just want to give a shout out – we just hit 100 Followers on Twitter. Thank you all so much for subscribing and following us on Twitter! If you aren’t following us already, you can click here: The Beer Thrillers on Twitter and follow us. That way you won’t miss any great announcements, pictures, and updates! You can also follow us on Facebook at: The Beer Thrillers on Facebook. Thank you everyone!

As always, thank you everyone for reading, and cheers, and Happy New Year!

-B. Kline

Following the ‘For the Love of Beer‘ book panel discussion at Mid-Town Scholar, and dropping off my books at my car, I walked the block and a half over to The Millworks brewery. It was getting late but if I was in the area I couldn’t pass up on stopping in at a local brewery, and its been quite a while since I’ve been to the Millworks. I think the last time was sometime last year with D. Scott after we hit up ZeroDay Brewing.

Toting my For the Love of Beer book just got at the panel discussion I took a seat at the bar and ordered myself a flight. With a good and diverse tap list, that rotates regularly, nearly all the beers on the tap were ones I haven’t had yet, but these four particularly caught my eye. And as a bonus for this blog post, I’ll be doing a review of the Single Hop #11 that I had at the Mid-Town Scholar book panel discussion. Though that one will be pretty brief as I was more sipping while they were discussing and not really putting a whole thought process into the beer itself (like its aroma, appearance, etc.).

Starting off with a dark stout after a good two hour session in a bookstore sounds like the perfect idea to me.

Beer: People’s Imperial Stout
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Stout – American Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.8%
IBU: 60
Untappd Write-Up: Dark, smoky flavor with a little hoppy kick. Strong and a good sipping beer.

Appearance is a very dark hue, perhaps not quite Razor Ramon hair dark, but pretty bleak and black. Even for a sample glass it had a nice foamy, creamy head with good lacing, good bubbles.

Smell is malty, some roast notes, some caramel notes, but a lot of malt characteristics on the nose. With a good inhale you can pick up some smokeyness to it, and a subtle note of the hops.

The flavor on this is very nice, its a dark heavy, roasty, malty, lightly smokey stout, its heavy, feels heavy, but there’s also a bittering at the end from the hops that has a bit of last-second punch to it. This makes it for a nice fall bonfire type beer that you can sit around a fire with friends and slowly sip at while staying warm under the blanket(s). This deserves a full pint rather than just a sample but sadly I didn’t have the time to revisit the beer after my flight.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 10.5.19)

One of a few beers on the taplist that is PA Preferred, meaning the majority of the ingredients come from Pennsylvania farms or dairies or gardens or what have you. (Can be anything from vegetables, to trees, to dairy, to meat, to honey, to anything edible and produced within Pennsylvania.)

The Millworks is very big on “from farm to table” which is very important to helping sustain local communities, local farms, local jobs, as well as helping the environment (less road travel time, less fumes and emissions, less waste, less carbon footprint, etc.). The ingredients tend to be better as well this way, fresher, localized, non processed, and the feel-good factor of helping local community rather than bigwigs from who knows where.

Beer: PA Pine Farmhouse Ale
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 5.1%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

I really enjoyed this, its a bit of a unique take on the saison and farmhouse ale styles, and it was very delicious. Wish there was an ingredient list or something on Untappd to read up on the process behind it or what all ingredients were Pennsylvania farmed and from where.

Appearance is light in color, typical for saisons and farmhouse ales. Fizzy with a slight bubbled head to it. Light golden, clear, and see-through.

Aroma is straight up pine, as if I was standing under a pine tree in winter. Nose walloping pine smell. Some notes of spices, but not really sure what, the pine smell is so overbearing that the spice notes are very minute and hard to pinpoint, I think some coriander, perhaps a bit of orange peel, but nothing too remarkably distinguishable.

Taste is delicious. Very heavy pine, but with a nice tart / funkness that comes with the typical farm house ale / saison. Not a sour but just a light refreshing tartness that complements the pine more than anything else. With taste I could pick up orange peel though minutely, but it was more apparent in taste than in smell.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.74 (as of 10.5.19)

New England #6 IPA from the Millworks, one must assume there is a New England #5, a New England #4, a New England #3, etc. To be honest, I don’t know, but Untappd will provide the answer…. and huzzah there is, six different variants, named from New England #1 all the way to New England #6 (though one was a Double New England IPA). They all looked to be relatively the same ABV, though some do have a write-up provided, this one had no description. This is the latest iteration of this process.

Beer: New England #6 IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

Appearance seems to be a bit mixed on this. I had the gentleman to my left drinking this as well in a pint glass. His had a very turbid almost whitish hue to it, very unfiltered. Mine, in the sample glass has a orange juice colorization, but also very unfiltered. Certainly nothing see through or clear about this, its completely hazy (haze for days) and a little bit of floaters and sediment due to the unfiltered process.

Aroma is a typical New England IPA juicy hop bomb. All kinds of hop notes assaulting you and combining into a juicy melody rather than a bitter one. More citrus forward and nothing earthy about these hop notes.

Taste is spot on for New England IPAs. Very juicy, very dank, very flavorful and very hop flavorful. You get notes of zest, citrus, and the juicier varieties of hops rather than pine, or spruce, or grass, or earthy notes, and nothing bitter. No ending hop kick or anything from this as well.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88 (as of 10.5.19)

Decided to end my night and my flight on a refreshing, tart, delicious blueberry gose. As I’ve said in some previous reviews, like the one for Edmund’s Oast Blueberry Sour – blueberry beers can be hit or miss with me. Luckily this one was a hit.

Beer: Blueberry Gose
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 3
Untappd Write-Up: Tart ale brewed with Blueberries and sea salt.

This is just a pretty beer, like other sours, goses, and berry fruited beers, it has a purplish / violet appearance to it. Under the right lights or with the right lights shining through it it has a sparkly cranberry juice like appearance.

Aroma is very blueberry. Pretty much nothing else distinguishable about the smell or aroma, just pretty much a tart smelling blueberry-ness to it.

Taste is very delicious. Its tart, its refreshing, its enjoyable. Soft and not cloying to the tongue and the blueberry flavor is the right kind of tartness with no funkyness or off flavors or bad sour flavors and notes that some blueberry beers get. Gose is a good style to work with blueberries in as they complement each other nicely. The sea salt in this probably adds to the tartness but its not enough to be noticeable or pick up (easily or by me anyway) on tasting.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.72 (as of 10.5.19)

BONUS TRACK: Turn over to side B of this cassette for a bonus track!

Ok, since I had it at the Mid-Town Scholar for the book panel discussion, and then went to Millworks afterwards for a flight, I might as well review it in here, can’t hurt right? So its a five-beer review instead of four. No one’s making you read…. you can easily stop right now if you want…. Or…. you can read on!

This was so new I had to make the Untappd listing for it myself when I checked it in during the book panel discussion (actually did the add-in and check-in just before they started, so I wasn’t multi-tasking, sorry to disappoint).

They’ve been doing a single hop series of IPAs at The Millworks using a variety of different hops in just single-style. The previous one was Huel Mellon (#10), they’ve also done Eukanot, Azacca, Mosaic, Calypso, Amarillo, etc.

Beer: Single Hop #11 – Citra Hops
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6%
IBU: (None Listed)
Untappd Write-Up: Single Hop Series. Citra hops.

I’ll give a brief and quick rundown and breakdown of this. Its a New England style IPA and its very tasty. Appearance is hazy and typical for NEIPAs. Its juicy looking, its dank looking, its unfiltered, and its hazy.

Aroma – I took a quick whiff of it as I got to my seat, and its definitely a citra beer (duh obvious, totes!). Meaning its very citrusy, zesty, fruit style hop. No earthy or bitter smells to this.

Taste was very good, pleasant, nice enjoyable tasting NEIPA. I enjoyed it while sipping on it listening to the panel discussion. Nothing off about it, no off flavors, nothing bad, no aftertaste, etc.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: Well, there’s been a total of 7 check-ins to this, and one is mine, so there’s no global rating yet for this. (As of 10.5.19)

If you are downtown Harrisburg, make sure you stop in and check out The Millworks. Its a beautiful brewery with fantastic beer offerings, and a great food menu that any foodie (or any person who eats) will enjoy. Well worth the visit. Make sure to check out the numerous art galleries and see all the beautiful artwork of local artists as well!

-B. Kline

So an impromptu night out with a friend for a few drinks means…. an impromptu chance to do a beer review (or two). And as you can tell, being an impromptu review session, the pics aren’t quite up to snuff (being out with friends will make it a bit harder to get the best quality pictures, especially because I do more yapping as I drink and forget to grab that nice beautiful shot as soon as I get my beer). But I’ve been wanting to get back to Newfangled Brew Works (was there for their opening and one other time), so I’ve been wanting to show them some love here on the blog and do a review or two of their beers, and the Hurry Up and Wait was a big huge ‘deal’ so that deserves a review.

This is a two-part beer review, so not a full “multiple beer reviews” style post, but two separate beers that I got a chance to have on draft while out with friends and throwing up a review. The Hurry Up and Wait probably deserves its own post, primarily due to the massiveness behind the making of it. But, since that was done by PA Breweries and they have their own blog and Facebook group and page, its probably best that they’ve already done it anyway (and the beer has been out for quite some time now, so a rudimentary posting by me on it should suffice I believe). Just know, if you want a much more in-depth review on the creation of that beer (which was a ridiculous 20+ brewery collaboration with proceeds going to Veterans, which is a fantastic idea) you can track down the creation story and reviews on it by going to the PA Breweries Facebook page or group.

Likewise this won’t be an actual brewery review either, as it was my third (or fourth?) visit to Newfangled and I really didn’t think this was the time to do a write-up for that. But I will throw up some pictures of the place and talk about it a bit.

NewFangled Brew Works has been open for a bit now and been pumping out a good selection of clean, crisp, clear beers. They’ve actually been busy enough that they aren’t even getting a chance to touch their pilot small batch system that they’ve gotten and it sits collecting dust, as they try to keep up and meet demands on their regular production beers.

They like to keep their beer names low-key and simple (IPA, Saison, Double IPA, Brut IPA, Stout, (Nitro) Stout, Wheat Ale #1, Red Ale, etc.) so it should never be too hard to remember for those walking over from the development its built in, or those ordering over to the restaurant Koda. So far (according to Untappd) they’ve produced 15 different named beers, which I’ve had the pleasure of having had 9 of them so far. (Two of which were last night). So let’s get into the first one.

Beer: Saison
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 25
Untappd Write-Up: Just in time for summer we have a very effervescent saison using Spalter Select and Strisselspalt hops. It pairs well with sunshine on the patio.

Well, we didn’t get a chance to pair this with sunshine due to a massive storm just having rolled through the mid-state (got to drive through a lovely blast of downpour along I-81 to get from the Casino to the brewery), but it did pair nicely with friendship, chatting, and hanging out. Which is the primary purpose of any beer.

I got to meet a friend from/through work Rich Bowra and his son and daughter in law and grandson for a drink (well, two drinks) after work. Luckily for him, looking out the back window of the brewery you can see his house, so he’s in fine walking (or stumbling) distance to get home.

The saison is a nice easy sipping drink. There isn’t really a ton to go on with it though. You get the juniper and it has a nice floral sipping flavor, but there isn’t a ton of flavor.

The clarity is there and its a crystal clear light watery yellow look to it. The aroma is a light airy floral with hint of juniper. There is no head (as there’s not supposed to be one) and it does have the right carbonation to it.

The biggest knock against it is that its possibly too light. There’s not a whole lot of body and there’s not a whole lot of substance and action going on for it. There is a nice underlying dryness to it similar to champagne in a way that brings out the juniper nicely and makes it crisp and a good sipping drink for companionship and chatter.

Overall it is a perfectly serviceable beer that won’t blow anybody’s hair back but will be just enough to sit and sip and chat with.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.6 (as of 7.16.19)

Been wanting to get a chance to review this or at least make a mention of it or two, just due to the sheer amount of breweries involved. This was a gigantic, massive endeavor started by the PA Brewery Facebook group/page and done with 20 some breweries all for Veterans. The proceeds of which went to Veterans and this was created here at NewFangled.

The Beer Busters Podcast has an article on it here that summarizes some of the content nicely: https://beerbusterspodcast.com/breweries-in-pa-announce-details-of-hurry-up-and-wait-state-wide-collab-brew-to-support-veterans/ . So definitely give that a check-out if you want some more background information on the beer, as well as look up the PA Breweries Facebook page and group for more information.

So here’s a list of all the breweries involved in the project:
Production Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Breweries involved: Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co.

So as you can see…. just a few breweries were involved in the creation of this. A very diverse and large assortment of breweries from all over the state, all with Veteran workers. Some of the local to Central PA breweries on that list are: NewFangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company, and Collusion Tap Works. Also some big names on that list that many will recognize such as Weyerbacher Brewing and Imprint Beer Co.

A lot of hard work and a lot of planning went into the making of this beer and its great to see how it benefits the community and the Veterans.

Beer: Hurry Up and Wait
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
In Collaboration with Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co., Newfangled Brew Works
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8%
IBU: 45
Untappd Write-Up: Made with Deer Creek malt and Yakima Veterans Blend hops. Proceeds from pint sales will be donated to PA Veterans Foundation.

This is a great traditional West Coast bitter IPA. It looks, smells, and tastes like the old school IPAs I grew up on before the haze craze took hold. And this stacks up against those and will stack up to any of the IPAs you grew up on as well.

The beer is a beautiful straw colored darker IPA. Has a wonderful foamy head that hangs for a bit as you drink and the golden straw hue is just dark enough to not let you fully completely see through it.

The aroma is exactly what you are wanting from an IPA. A great hoppy nose filling your nostrils with that wonderful hop smell like you’re in the backend of a brewery. (Which is honestly one of the Top 3 smells of the world.)

The drink is smooth and crisp and bitter like a good IPA should be. Has the hoppy bite and a wonderful flavor. A good dry bitter IPA with a good aftertaste that makes you wanting a second, third, and fourth, is a hallmark of a good beer done well and made well. These are the beers made for summer and made for a good long day of day-drinking and chatting and having a good time.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 7.16.19)

Now a few words on the NewFangled Brew Works brewery and location.

Its built into a dual building just inside of Union Station development off of Union Deposit road (off of Nye’s Road). It shares its space with a fancy dining restaurant named Koda. As I said for Rich and many of the other brewery regulars, its walking distance to their houses here in the development community (which is perfect, no driving). The restaurant attached (Koda) is fine dining and a bit pricey, but from everything I’ve been told incredible food (I’ve yet to eat there).

They got off to a bit of a rocky start when they first opened due to some of the issues of the government shutdown at the time, and getting their own beers setup (they opened with many taps flowing, but all from local breweries like Ever Grain, St. Bonifice, Tattered Flag, and Boneshire; rather than their own). But they have since conquered that and are now actually having trouble keeping up with the demands of the regulars.

They are growing quickly and producing a good number of stable beers. Nothing has been too out there and crazy or ‘hair blown’ but they are producing legitimate, well done, well styled beers, and that is a good consistent presence.

The bar is long and spacious and with plenty of seats. There is also numerous tables along the windows leading up to the small band stage. They host regular (small, local) bands, as well as do regular trivia nights and many more. They also have two ping pong tables setup, cornhole, and a few other brewery games (like giant Jenga and small games for children).

In the backend corner by the back entrance there is a “taco truck” (though its built into the wall) that has the brewery food. Obviously this is mostly taco and related foods.

All in all, if you find yourself out along Nye’s Road or Union Deposit Road or wanting to check out a new brewery, definitely give NewFangled Brew Works a check. If nothing worse you’ll get some decent food, and a nice atmosphere. The beers are nice, flowing, and everyone is very easy going. You won’t be disappointed.

-B. Kline