Saucony Creek Brewing Co - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Mon, 08 Jan 2024 19:46:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Saucony Creek Brewing Co - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Ffej of July 18… And I Like It (2021) – Friday, Night One https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/07/09/ffej-of-july-18-and-i-like-it-2021-friday-night-one/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ffej-of-july-18-and-i-like-it-2021-friday-night-one Sat, 10 Jul 2021 03:45:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7785  

If your in the know, your in the know. One of the greatest parties – by invite only – is running two days this year. Ffej of July is back after a year break due to COVID-19 and is back better than ever. First night is in the bag and I personally had a blast, and I know everyone that went with me did too.

For the first time, Ffej of July is a two day event this year. With the first event happening on a Friday and then the main event all day Saturday. I just got home from night one, and here’s a quick recap of the day.

Due to having be the DD this year, I picked up Drew and Rome at his place, and we then made it to Annville for the party. We brought our contributions and put them in the sunroom and made our introductions to Brandi and Ffej. Running into Deuane and his wife, and several others.

It wasn’t looking good for a bit. From about 4:30PM to about 5:40PM it was a straight up massive thunderstorm in Hummelstown, and pretty much everywhere else in the vicinity (including Annville). But luckily the rains and the clouds dispersed, and we were able to have one kick ass party.

As we pulled into the parking lot area around 7:10PM, two guys were hanging out asking about the party. First rule of Fight Club…. err… I mean Ffej of July… well… wait, thats not really true either. Ok, here’s the thing, you can talk about Ffej of July, but you can’t just show up with “rando’s” from the Sheetz parking lot. You can bring guests, but its cool to do so with announcing them, and they must all be introduced to Ffej and Brandi. And obviously they must be cool people you can vouch for, because if anything happens, its on you.

After picking out our spot by the tree like we did last – two years ago – Ffej of July, Drew and Rome hit the beer cave and grabbed some suds, and we got down to listening to the bands. I milled around talking to people and we later made our way down to the Wheel of Zonks and other fun activities and then hung out at our spot. Rome had an eggplant sandwich and we all had Giant Center popcorn. Jason Miller and his wife Sherri showed up near the end, as well as Kelsey (from Drew’s stream) and her fiance Ben. So we had a jamming little section and loved the night’s music with UZO ending it – melting off our faces as they always do. (Thank god faces grow back!)

 

For those coming tomorrow, see ya out there, and happy Ffej of July everyone!

Ffej of July 18
Ffej of July 2021

 

-B. Kline

 

 

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Beer Review: Up The Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/10/beer-review-up-the-creek-extreme-ale-thomas-creek-brewery/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-up-the-creek-extreme-ale-thomas-creek-brewery Sun, 11 Oct 2020 02:32:26 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4690
Thomas Creek’s Up The Creek Extreme Ale

I always enjoy getting to review (and obviously drink) beers from out of state, ones that I most likely wouldn’t come in contact with. Don’t get me wrong, I love drinking and reviewing local beers and getting them some publicity, and I also love traveling and visiting breweries (just yesterday I was in Wellsboro Pennsylvania, visited the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, and visited the restaurant and brewery – The Wellsboro House), but its also nice getting beers to review, from family, co-workers, and friends. (Hint…. hint…. for any friends, family, etc reading this…. )

A co-worker, Jam, was coming back from South Carolina, and he stopped at a bottle / can shop and grabbed a few beers for me and other co-workers. From Jam, I received a bottle of ‘Up The Creek Extreme Ale’, a can of Sidestepper (Charles Town Fermentary), a can of Pixels (Seminar Brewing), and a can of of a Red Ale / IPA by a collaboration with a radio station (the name eludes me and I left it in my friend’s fridge; but it had a tiger on it, thus why Jam got it for me due to me liking the Bengals). So this is the first of the South Carolina series of brews I’ll be reviewing. (I’ll be doing Sidestepper soon, because I just recently drank that; haven’t gotten to drink the others yet, will probably do the Pixels beer while streaming with D. Scott over at Knights of Nostalgia).

Quickly, before I go too much further, I want to throw a quick shout out to Josh; who is jumping back into the reviewing game (don’t call it a comeback son, he never left). He will have his first review since his Beer Review of Adroit Theory’s COLONIZATION back on November 11th, 2019. Stay tuned, I’m sure you won’t want to miss his newest beer review!

Also, in industry news, Howling Henry’s in Hummelstown just opened this week, as well as Rubber Soul, and Spigot Brewing in Ford City has announced they will be closing.

Now…. onto the review!

Up The Creek Extreme Ale (IPA) by Thomas Creek Brewery

Beer: Up The Creek Extreme Ale
Brewery: Thomas Creek Brewery
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 12.5%
IBU: 143
Untappd Description: Up The Creek is a hoppy behemoth of a beer with its 12.5% ABV well hidden under heavy layers of malt. The hops come through powerfully in the mouth, with rich roasted malt, sweet caramel, and a burst of vinous fruit. The finish is malty sweet and fruity, while the hops dissipate. Use caution or you’ll be Up The Creek!

Ok…. so firstly, let me just say, this is the highest IBU we’ve reviewed here on the blog. Probably by a pretty far margin. The highest IBU I’ve ever had, according to the Untappd records of beers I drank is – Gyroscopes and Infrared by Broken Goblet. It was 174 IBU. After that it was the Mean Manalishi Double IPA by Hoppin’ Frog Brewery, clocking in 168 IBU, and in third place is Mango Bomb by Pizza Boy – clocking in at 162 IBU. Up The Creek Extreme Ale is number 7 on my list (according to Untappd), and if you count home brews (at a home brew event I had one that would be number 5 on my list; called Idiot Parade by McCarthy Brewing.)

IBU is a term for IPAs that means: “International Bitterness Units are a chemical/instrumental measurement of the number of bittering compounds, specifically isomerized and oxidized alpha acids, polyphenols, and a few other select bittering chemicals, that make your beer taste bitter. (Last Call for IBUs: Fact, Fiction and What They Mean in Your Beer – May 3, 2017). Overall, its a term that’s not being used as much in the industry anymore, and many brewers aren’t even bothering with testing it or listing it when listing their beers on platforms like Untappd or Beer Advocate. But its still a valuable tool and measurement when it is listed, and I still like to keep track of it, and include it when doing the beer reviews here. Its just not the be – all – end – all it used to be in terms of understanding IPAs (especially since New England IPAs seem to be more mainstream now, actually, being made more than regular old school West Coast style IPAs).

This is an old fashioned high octane ‘pushing the envelope’ West Coast style IPA. Appearance and look for this is on the malty end of IPAs (West Coast IPAs). It has a brown / amber hue, slightly transparent, but mostly opaque. Malt colored and malt looking like a malt bomb through and through. Caramel colored. It has a very rich, frothy, foamy head to it, thick, creamy looking with lots of bubbles.

Aroma is caramel, sweet roasted malt, and then pungent face-punching, nose walloping, hop explosion (can’t even call it aroma, its about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the gonads). You get the idea that this is going to be bitter just by the hop nose to it, and the malt sweetness does nothing to cover it past that initial whiff of the malt.

This doesn’t quite live up to the description provided by Untappd. The Untappd description gives you the impression there’s a bit of hype to this, that there’s more complexity to this than there really is. It starts off with the barest of traces of sweet, or caramel, malt. And then takes a very heavy swan dive off the cliff into a sea of hops. A sea of bitterness, of super hop flavor, super hop bitterness, super hop everything. Overpoweringly so. Too much so. A blend and cornucopia of hops, that doesn’t let you really even distinguish and unique hop flavors or notes. Its just straight hop bitterness in such an overwhelming display of raw power and hop (bitterness) that it doesn’t leave you tasting much of anything else. The malt taste is so minuscule and minimal you don’t taste any of it as soon as you get your first taste of the hops. Unlike the description, the hops don’t really ‘dissipate’, they stay there, punching you like a… like a… like a hop drinking punching bag…. yea… like that! There is definitely no dissipation here. I also don’t really get any ‘fruity’ ending to this. Maybe subtle stone fruit notes… but I think its so awash from the hop bitterness that its too hard to tell, and its too hard to differentiate between hop notes and fruit (stone or otherwise) notes. I think its all just a blend, and whatever notes are supposed to be in there, are so overpowered by the hop bitterness, that its too impossible to tell or to be able to pull them out and take note of them or actually savor them. Now… all of this is to say its not a bad beer; its just not… a great beer. And particularly not my style as much anymore. I do like West Coast style IPAs, and the New England IPA craze hasn’t diminished that; its just… this is too much. Too bitter, too hoppy, not enough actual flavor to it, and too hard to differentiate and tell the various hop notes apart from each other. I’m sure theres lots of ‘ultra’ or ‘uber’ hop heads or hop nerds or beer nerds out there who will love this, and all the better for it and for them, this just isn’t particularly my favorite or something I would outright pursue again.

My Untappd Rating: ***.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.60 (as of 10.10.20)

Be sure to check out some of our recent beer reviews:

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Peace, cheers, and prost!

-B. Kline

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Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/02/beer-review-unicorns-stomping-lanternflies-saucony-creek-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-unicorns-stomping-lanternflies-saucony-creek-brewing-company Fri, 02 Oct 2020 16:30:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4561
Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies by Saucony Creek Brewing Company

Ok…. first off…. let me begin by getting something off my chest: in no uncertain terms F^#& Lanternflies! Straight up. From whatever demonic level of Dante’s hell they came from, they can head right back there. F&*!& them. Hard.

Deep breath.

Sigh.

Deep breath.

Sigh.

1…. 2….. 3….. 4….. Serenity Now.

Ok. Better, lets move on!

This review is one of irony / juxtaposition / bad coincidence / happenstance / or some other kind of term that I’m lacking the knowledge of or remembering that could aptly fit. Not really in a pleasant or good way either unfortunately. This is part of the ‘recognization’ issue of psychology (to some degree). Where, once you buy a Yellow Truck (lets say)… you suddenly start to notice every other Yellow Truck on the road, where before you never noticed them, and you now start to think they are everywhere.

But, given that these little buggers are an infestation, it goes a bit above that. Or a bit beyond that. They are definitely now everywhere in the area. Unfortunately. And detrimentally so too. So its no surprise that I’ve now begun to “see them all over the place”, sadly. I will be doing an article soon on spotted lanternflies, and ways to spot them, get rid of them, kill them, and report them. So be sure to look out for that soon.

Wednesday I had gotten the EO (early out) from work, stopped at the Hershey Public Library to pick up some books (said books in picture above) and around 2:30 sat down to enjoy a nice cold adult beverage while reading. Deciding to crack my last remaining ‘Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies’ that I had picked up from our Reading Trip back on my birthday.

Used my new Brew Barons glass I had gotten from the Brew Barons app (review forthcoming), and sat and read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between The World and Me” and Fight Club 3 by Chuck Palahniuk.

Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies by Saucony Creek Brewing Company

Here, I will do the review, after the beer review, stay tuned for why I say its (sadly) ironic / coincidental / unfortunate juxtaposition / or some other term that is currently alluding me but is on the tip of my tongue (I believe its a French term similar to deja vu). (I think you probably have an idea of what I’m getting at though).

Beer: Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies
Brewery: Saucony Creek Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: The return of Unicorns Stomping Lanterflies – crushable NEIPA with a blend of hops giving a sunny citrus shine and subtle soft sweetness brings a perfect pint of bug slaying delight.

Color is a nice yellow to golden hazy hue. It has everything that looks just like an IPA (New England variant) should have. Beautiful golden, hazy look it; a nice foamy rich creamy white head to it; dispersed bubbles, varying sizes, everything a well crafted beer should have. It looks like a beer you want to drink…. so why… not … drink it?

Lets get to the aroma before we dive in… act like we’re actually beer connoisseurs and not just drunkards or something. This smells juicy, it smells citrusy, smells slightly mango, but lots of juicy citrus hop notes. This smells like a beer you want to drink… so… why not…. drink it?

Ok… lets drink it. DAMN. This is crushable. This is juice and delicious and easy to quench a thirst. A four pack of this goes down super quick (I can give testament to that). Its perfect sipping, or quick drinking, or just a fun beer to enjoy. Great sitting out, reading and enjoying a beautiful day, or… for slaying stupid dumb lanternflies. It is a juicy New England IPA, through and through, very heavy citrus notes, heavy mango notes, heavy hop juice, but no hop bite (typical for a New England IPA). Some notes of pine, but very mellow, a little bit of grassyness (or should I just say grass? or does that make people think of weed?), some Earthy tones, and notes, but mostly, this is just a well rounded hoppy juicy drinkable / crushable brew. Its a 7.5%, which isn’t extreme, but higher than some IPAs people might be used to, though in the Harrisburg – Hershey Central PA area, it’s the same as Perpetual IPA (though with Perpetual IPA’s hop bite, I think its easier to take notice of the ABV than in a juicy New England IPA like this). They didn’t have this on tap when we were there at the Franklin Station brewery, but we did pick these up in cans, and out of can its wonderful. I imagine its just as delicious on tap.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 10.2.20)

Ok… now… moving past the review, to why I was saying its coincidental (in a bad way), the very next day, Thursday morning, 10.1.20 I came outside, and saw a dead lanternfly in a my rain barrel’s top (it has a closed container and then a top to collect some water in a puddle type thing for if you wish to keep a plant there), my rain barrel is right next to my grape vines, and when I looked at them… they were crawling with the little buggers everywhere. I leapt into action! I took pictures, I charted them and reported them to the Department of Agriculture, and I killed all of them that I saw. Shoes, lighters, everything. Burned them, swatted them, smashed them, stamped them. I was the Unicorn of Death reigning hellfire and brimstone upon these evil buggers.

I ended up cutting my grape vine back (something you should do every year, but this year I did it a bit more severely than I normally do), due to them. Luckily, in my front yard, where I keep my two hop arbors, I saw no lanternflies on my hops or the arbors, or just in the yard area. This is only about 20-30 feet from the grape vine where I found the lanternflies.

Here’s some pictures of my grape vine, and my smashing of said lanternflies:

For lunch before hiking I stopped at Troegs Craft Brewery in Hershey. While there enjoying a flight (Impending Descent, Master of Pumpkins, Hop Harvest, and Hop Cyclone), myself and the one server / waiter killed about four or five of them. Shawn Funk, a member of the Central PA Whalerz who works for Troegs said that the construction by the train tracks (located behind the brewery) has roused them up and brought them towards the brewery.

I spent Thursday hiking Swatara State Park, heading to Bordner’s Cabin on Bear Hole Trail, and seeing the trickling waterfall. While there, they had paperwork in quite a few places about lanternflies. On the trail, I only found two of them at one spot, and promptly stepped on both (they also were both dead already it appears). A few days before this, at the Casino in Grantville I saw a few in the parking lot as well. So they are definitely in the Dauphin County area. I have heard lots of reports that Lebanon County is completely swarmed with them. So be on the lookout!

Literature about Spotted Lanternflies at Swatara State Park

Report any find you find (dead or alive) to the Department of Agriculture. Kill and smash and kill and smash all you see…. oh, and did I say, kill and smash? Do it. Kill. And. Smash. All. All. ALL. Of. Them.

Lanternfly I smashed at work.

I will most likely be putting up an article about Spotted Lanternflies in the near future, so be on the lookout for that, and certainly be on the lookout for them! Evil, destructive buggers!

In the meantime, go have a cold delicious beer, and cheers!

-B. Kline

Unicorns Stomping Lanternflies

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Visiting Reading Pennsylvania https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/08/26/visiting-reading-pennsylvania/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=visiting-reading-pennsylvania Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:45:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4189
The Pagoda is owned by the City of Reading. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. (Photo and captioning automatically uploaded courtesy of KlineServices.com)

In celebration of my birthday tomorrow, my buddy and I are hitting the road and heading out to Reading Pennsylvania (PA) to try out several breweries. So I took a look at the local breweries, some websites, maps, etc, and decided on what all we’re going to be doing tomorrow. The above image comes from Google Images and is courtesy of KlinesServices.com (so the tag says), and interestingly when I uploaded it here on the blog, it immediately through that caption on it. (I added the tagline in parenthesis.)

Reading Pennsylvania skyline. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

There is lots of things to see and do in Reading, PA. We won’t be seeing or doing most of those things. We will be seeing, and doing, breweries. We don’t have an extremely long time in the area, but we do have some time, and we will be putting it to full effect.

There is certainly a lot of great breweries in the Reading PA area. Some are:

Two Sly Fox locations:

Leaving Reading and heading towards home, there is also the famous Stoudt’s Brewing Company, that we could stop at in Adamstown.

The following maps are courtesy of Breweries in PA and their Breweries of PA map.

The greater Reading area
A more centralized look at Reading PA

Based on opening times, it looks like order of events might be this:

Slyfox Taphouse – (Opens at 11:30). Then hit The Barley Mow (opens at 12). Then hit Oakbrook Brewing (opens at 4). Then hit Chatty Monks (opens at 12) and see David Morrow who is a good friend, he is currently the head brewer for Chatty Monks. Follow this up with Broken Chair (opens at 5). Then as we leave the city hit Schaylor Brewing (opens at 4). And possibly on the drive home stop in at Adamstown and visit Stoudt’s Brewing Company (opens at 12).

Oakbrook Brewing

We might even put in a stop at The Pagoda as seen above. Why not, looks pretty.

Chatty Monks

I donate blood at 11AM. So we will be making the trip soon after that. And will most likely be staying out until about 8-9PM before making the return trip. Coming to and from Harrisburg, its about exactly an hour drive (depending on time I check it, Google Maps tells me 54 minutes, 56 minutes, 1 hour and 1 minute, etc., so must fluctuate due to traffic).

So let us know, is there anything we’re missing? Anything we should hit? Any places to avoid? Anything we should know about before making our trip out? Let us know in the comments!

See you guys afterwards for the wrap-up of the tour!

Oh, and final note, I had my first day of hop harvest, and you can see the results below:

As always everyone, cheers, stay safe, and enjoy a nice refreshing craft beer!

-B. Kline

For more info:
7 Reasons to Visit Reading PA

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Beer Review: All Together (Ever Grain and Other Half Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/05/14/beer-review-all-together-ever-grain-and-other-half-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-all-together-ever-grain-and-other-half-brewing Thu, 14 May 2020 13:57:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=3309
All Together by Ever Grain Brewing Co. (Partnering in ‘collaboration’ with Other Half Brewing Co. and many other breweries for this project.)

Many of you have probably heard of the ‘All Together’ project, started by Other Half Brewing Co. As soon as I heard about it, I had to immediately find the first brewery in my area to do it and get one; that first one in my immediate area turned out to be Ever Grain Brewing Co. Unfortunately I missed out on the 4pk of it, but I did get in time for a crowler (or two) of it, and I was informed that the crowler sales would go towards the project, just as the 4pk sales did.

I will be posting links to several other sites and sources about this here in this beer review / article, and I highly recommend you checking them out, and I also highly recommend checking out whatever ways you can have of donating.

Here is a direct bit from the Other Half Brewing Co.’s website on their official beer release version of theirs:

A world wide collaboration hosted by Other Half, Stout Collective and Craftpeak to support the enormous amount of hospitality workers laid off during this difficult time. We are donating 100% of our proceeds to the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation. We brewed this recipe with 2-row, oats and carapils and then hopped it with a beautiful blend of our hand selected Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Cascade. We intentionally kept the recipe simple so that every brewer that wants to do it can do it. Keep an eye out for versions from over 500 breweries worldwide all working to help others in need. Visit alltogether.beer for all the details and a list of breweries involved. Collect them all 🙂 Brewed in Rochester. 

Other Half Brewing Co.

Many breweries jumped on board, and you can find some lists of who all is doing it on a few other sites, such as Craftbeerdrinking and Hopculture.

Craftbeer.com’s article (All Together Collaboration – Beer to Help Hospitality Workers) lists: Non Sequitur Beer Project, Side Project, Southern Grist, Mikerphone Brewing, Fifth Hammer Brewing, Modist Brewing, Outer Range Brewing Co., Industrial Arts Brewing Co., and obviously Other Half Brewing Co.

The All Together Beer website, a site designed for this and set up for this project, has a wealth of information on the project. I highly recommend checking this out. You can find the recipe, you can find ways to donate, and if you are a brewery, you can also find a way to jump aboard and become part of the project, as well as print out labels, and get ways to promote the beer for yourself as well. At the bottom of their page, they have a map and a running tally / statistic. There is 824 breweries that have participated, in 50 states (of the United States of America), and in 53 countries. That is amazing and just phenomenal! 824 breweries is insane! And every state, and 53 countries helping out, is just downright awesome. I don’t care how you slice it, breweries helping people, will always be awesome, and I will always gladly do what I can to help support that.

There is a map, that you can zoom in and see what breweries are doing the project. So being a Central PA native, I had to zoom in on PA and see who all is jumping aboard, and here is a list of many that are:

(in no particular order)

  • Saucony Creek Brewing Company
  • Robin Hood Brewing
  • Shy Bear Brewing
  • Hidden Stories Brewing Co. LLC
  • Rotunda Brewing Company
  • Ever Grain Brewing Co.
  • Fourscore Beer Co
    * Collaboration with: Prototype Brewery and Meadery and Wolf Brewing Co.
  • Shabby Deck Craft Brewery
  • Suburban Brewing Company
  • Voodoo Brewing Company
  • Hitchhiker Brewing Company
  • Grist House Craft Brewery
  • Roundabout Brewery
  • East End Brewing Co.
  • Dancing Gnome
  • 11th Hour Brewing
  • Whitehorse Brewing
  • Four Points Brewing
  • Sly Fox Brewing Co.
  • Lost Tavern Brewing
  • Birthright Brewing Co.
  • Angry Erik Brewing
  • Naked Brewing Co.
  • Free Will Brewing
  • Imprint Beer Co.
  • Well Crafted Beer Company
  • Ten7 Brewing Company
  • Brothers Kershner Brewing Company
  • Bald Birds Brewing
  • Rebel Hill Brewing Company
  • Stickman Brews
  • Brewery ARS
  • Odd Logic Brewing
  • Second Sin Brewing

And that’s just the list of Pennsylvania breweries! And just the ones mentioned so far. Who knows if more will do it (hopefully). And thats also just one state out of fifty, and one part of a country out of fifty-three countries. So there is obviously a lot more breweries doing this! Some big names too like Equilibrium Brewing in New York are on board as well. So there is definitely a lot of momentum and weight behind this movement and project, which is absolutely fabulous! Keep up all the great work breweries!

Another link with information can be found at Hopculture: Hopculture – Other Half’s All Together Beer Project for Hospitality Workers.

Now we got all of that behind us, the whys, the hows, and the whats of this amazing and great beer. Lets get into the beer itself!

All Together by Ever Grain Brewing Co.

Beer: All Together
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Collaboration: Other Half Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: We are proud to be apart of this open-ended beer collaboration masterminded by Other Half Brewing Co. 100% of our proceeds are going to Hospitality Assistance Response of Pennsylvania.

Some of the various breweries listed what they changed of the recipe or adjusted, if they swapped hops or malts or added adjuncts. Ever Grain’s Untappd listing doesn’t state any changes. So I’m assuming its near identical to the recipe given by Other Half Brewing. You can find their recipe on their All Together website, and you can click here directly for the recipe. I also saved a copy of the recipe, and I’ll post it here as well:

Other Half All Together recipe.

So this is what I’m assuming Ever Grain did, just on their system, with possible minor tweaks along the way.

Firstly – appearance is beautiful orange. It has that lovely New England IPA look to it. Golden orange juicy appearance to it, like pouring into a tall pint glass your morning OJ (not… the killer… or running back… but the drink); but this time with alcohol added! (Double win!). It has a little foam head to it that is light and fluffy with dispersed bubbles.

Aroma is pound for pound sound for sound pure hoppy juicy, citrus, fruity, and delicious smelling. Just cracking this open and pouring it already has my mouth watering and ready to drink it. I got notes of citrus, grapefruit, passionfruit, orange and tangerine, with a bit of zest or lime to it at the end. There isn’t any west coast IPA notes to be found in this, no evergreen tree, no earthy notes, no forestry like notes, all pure New England typical hop aromas and notes. The dry hopping really brings them out to the forefront.

Taste is phenomenal, and sadly makes this beer go waaaaaaaay too quickly. Me and my friend D. Scott drank two crowlers of this, way, too, quickly, while doing one of our Knights of Nostalgia sessions. I think we finished our crowlers in about fifteen minutes each. Which, thankfully this is only 6.5% so we weren’t rocked from basically pounding 32oz., but this was also just too delicious to even set down. It is very juicy, very dank, very delicious. Its both fruity and citrusy, with notes of grapefruit, passionfruit, orange and tangerine. Theres a bit of a lime / lemon twist at the end, but very subtle, barely noticeable, but there is definitely a citrus vibe to this that goes with the fruity juicy nature of the beer itself. And like I said, at 6.5% its not too heavy or overwhelming, even in a 32oz crowler; or if you get a 4pk of this, (4 x 16 = 64oz) you could probably handle a 4pk in an evening and be fine for work the next day. (Work…. work…. I vaguely recall work….). The mouthfeel is also very nice, its not too thick, not cloying, or heavy, or watery thin either, its just the right level of consistency and feel on the tongue. This is definitely an easy sippable beer or a quick quaffer. Which, obviously, I was pretty quick with mine, but your mileage may vary. Knowing also, that 100% of the proceeds is going to the Hospitality Assistance Response of Pennsylvania, also makes this just so much tastier and drinkable.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.26 (as of 5.14.20).

Cheers everyone. Hopefully you are all making it through this quarantine and lockdown relatively safe, sound, and mentally safe and sound. If you are looking to donate for hospitality workers, there is links here in this article, and the All Together Beer link has thee most information on that. As well as information if you are a brewer, home brewer, or commercial brewer looking to make the beer as well. So please check that out here: All Together – Beer – We’re All In This Together.

As always everyone, thanks for checking out the blog, click the like, the follow, the subscribe, and share, and do all those other cool things to help us out. We greatly appreciate it, and love all of our readers. Stay safe and healthy, and make sure to drink up lots of All Together to help our favorite bartenders! They are going to need it. Even when we re-open, things will be tough for them for a while, and probably dealing with idiots not wanting to follow CDC guidelines and the such will be all the more difficult for them. So please, help them out. Cheers!

-B. Kline

All Together by Ever Grain Brewing Company

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