Selinsgrove - The Beer Thrillers

Selin’s Grove Brewing Closing Until Further Notice

B. Kline — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 14:44:32 +0000

Selin’s Grove Brewing announcement

Selin’s Grove Brewing Announces Closure

The hits keep coming this week. In a week that had Grand Illusion Cider announce their closure, Mad Princes Brewing, the brewery of 2 Dogz and a Guy, Tied House (former partner of Pour Man’s Brewing), Odd Breed, and sadly far too many more across the country (and even more then abroad as well) in the past month or so – we can now sadly add another to this growing list – Selin’s Grove Brewing.

Like I said, the hits keep coming.

Just in the past month it feels like all we’ve been doing on here is discussing breweries closing, restaurants closing, events cancelling, brewing related websites closing, etc. Sigh.

Just now on their Facebook account, Selin’s Grove Brewing announced:

To all of our Selin’s Grove Brewing patrons:

We just received word that some of the owners of the pub would like for us to close until further notice. We apologize to our loyal customers and hope things will be up and running again soon!

Selin’s Grove Brewing – Facebook Post

Closure

No word on how permanent this is. Speculation will run rampant, but there is no word on how long, what it means, or what it entails. The Selin’s Grove Pub and Brewery and Restaurant was put up for sale in 2020. (Selin’s Grove Pub for Sale.)

Selin’s Grove Brewery is located at 121 N Market St, Selinsgrove, PA 17870.

We will keep you posted and updated when we hear anything.

More Information on Selin’s Grove Brewing

The following comes via Untappd.

Selin’s Grove Brewing is listed as a brewpub from Selinsgrove, PA. They have 168 unique beers, and over 21,000 ratings for a global average rating of 3.82 (as of 7.16.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Selin’s Grove Brewing has been brewing in a variety of styles for over 24 years.We, Steve and Heather, started brewing professionally in 1993 at New Belgium Brewing during a period of immense growth. In early 1996 we settled on the current location for our small brewery and pub. We enjoy creating great beers & getting to know customers. Known locally as simply ‘the pub’. The pub offers a selection of Pa. made; hard ciders, distilled spirits, wines, & guest beer, plus our own draft root beer and draft cold brewed coffee. The menu consists of thoughtfully prepared, appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, an entre special and desserts. Dining in the garden is available weather permitting, in the winter find a cozy spot near a fireplace or a seat at our friendly bar. Located in a stately stone governor’s mansion, circa 1816, which is on the national register of historic places.”

You can find them at these social media platforms:

Brewery News

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

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Cheers.

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Macklin Brewing Company In Development

B. Kline — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 14:28:07 +0000

Macklin Brewing Company’s current cover photo on Facebook

Macklin Brewing Company

There’s a new brewery in development and its coming to Seaford Delaware, and if you couldn’t guess by the title of this article…. its Macklin Brewing Company. Spearheaded by Michael Salter, former co – owner and brewer from The Isle of Que Brewing in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. (You might remember them as our first winner back in 2021 of our annual ‘The Battle of the Breweries’.)

You can find some articles we’ve included about The Isle of Que Brewing here:

Michael Salter recently reached out to me to let me know that he is in the process of starting their new brewery up and looking to get some followship on the social medias. He’s been a great guy and a terrific follower of the blog so I jumped to help him out. Funnily enough also, he recently came into the casino and I ended up dealing to him while running relief for blackjack. (I unfortunately beat the poor man up on the game while dealing. But hey, at least he did look good sporting his Pineknotter Brewery cap.)

Selinsgrove to Seaford

Selinsgrove PA to Seaford DE

Interested in the travel from Selinsgrove (Pennsylvania) to Seaford (Delaware) and wondering how long it would take? Well, right at this moment, Google Maps says it would take just about four hours. So it would be a little hike, but luckily there is also a lot of great breweries in Delaware, so going to Delaware will be well worth your trip. Plus there is a great tax break when shopping there, and oh yea, there’s these things called beaches in Delaware, so thats not bad either.

From the Harrisburg / Hummelstown / Hershey area (where we here at The Beer Thrillers) are located – it would be around a 3 hour and 5 minute drive. So Mr. Salter will certainly get a visit from us in the future when they open up.

Follow Macklin Brewing Company

So please be sure to follow Macklin Brewing Company on the social media platforms available. You can find them on Facebook, here: Macklin Brewing Company (Official Facebook page). They currently do not have an Instagram, Twitter, or Untappd page, but will in the near future I’m sure. Same with official website yet, thats also in the works. You can contact them through e – mail here: macklinbrewing@gmail.com

For more information, their Facebook page lists this as their description:

The Macklin Brewing Company is a brewery in development. Soon to be located in Seaford, Delaware. A place for great hand crafted beer, food, live music and a place for the community to get together with friends and to welcome visitors to this great city.

So Be Sure To Give Them a Like and a Follow

Be sure to give them a like and follow on Facebook. They deserve it, and it’ll keep you updated and in the know for when they get more going. They are currently at 744 followers. Lets see if they can crack 800 by the end of June and 1000 by the end of July. One more time, their Facebook page is: Macklin Brewing Company (Official Facebook page). So go on, click the link, go over there, click follow, and then come back here and check out the blog. They’ll appreciate it and so will we! Win win!

Thanks For Reading

Thank you for reading everyone. June is wrapping up and we’ll soon be in July. We are looking to be doing a new ‘battle’ in July. Similar to our Battle of the Breweries we do in March (and spills over into April), we will be doing a “Battle of the Beers”, where its breweries specific flagship beers, and it’ll be a tournament similar to the March Madness style one we already do (The Battle of the Breweries). More information on this will be coming to the blog and our social medias shortly.

We are also working on a lot of stuff behind the scenes here. Hopefully a new page layout soon, as well as full in – depth Author pages for each of our writers and with bios and stuff and more. We also have a long list of articles in draft stage that will be posting shortly. So there is always plenty to be see and read here on The Beer Thrillers!

And on that note, my friends Ming and Don are just about here, and we’re going to be heading out to Jim Thorpe where I’m sure we’ll be hitting a few breweries (I can always con and guilt them into a few). I’ll be sure to report back on them! Last night Amy and I were at Three Beards Brewing / Spyglass Ridge Winery for the George Thorogood and Destroyers (and Foghat) concert. So we are always on the move here, so be sure to check in with us and stay up to date on our social medias!

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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

Hops (Macklin Brewing Company)

The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – The Finals – Triple Threat Match

BKline — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:45:00 +0000

The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

Its Time to Find Out The Winner

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

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

Will it be The Isle of Que Brewing Company?

Or will it be Rubber Soul Brewing Company?

Or Troegs Independent Craft Brewing Company?

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

The Results, Working Our Way Back Through the Tournament

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

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

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

Round One Results

Voting statistics:

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

Upsets:

HEELs Conference:

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

FACEs Conference:

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

Results of Round One

HEELs Conference: Triple H Division:

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

HEELs Conference: Ric Flair Division:

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

FACEs Conference: Stone Cold Steve Austin Division:

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

FACEs Conference: The Rock Division:

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

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

Round Two Statistics

Statistics:

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

Upsets:

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

Round Two Results

HEELs Conference:

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

FACEs Conference:

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

Round Three Statistics

Statistics:

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

Upsets:

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

Results of Round Three

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

Round Four Statistics and Results

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

Results:

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

There was a total of 811 votes for round four.

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

The Triple Threat Main Event

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

Let the battle commence!

Triple Threat Main Event Voting

[perfect_survey id=”7464″]

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

Sharing is Caring

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

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

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

The Trip to Rickett’s Glen

BKline — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 20:38:39 +0000

Rickett’s Glen in Benton, Pennsylvania

Sunday me and my friend Ming traveled to Rickett’s Glen to hike the waterfall trails there. Planned, as I mentioned in the previous article here on the blog – A Road Trip to Ricketts Glen. We had planned this out a few weeks before, but left things kind of open ended. It was basically just a simple plan: Sunday – drive to Rickett’s Glen, walk waterfalls, drive home. With of course, a brewery on the way up, and one on the way home, possibly more if time allowed.

So, as I’ve done in the past with road trips and brewery visits, I’ll give a recap of our day here. This post was meant to go up Monday, but didn’t quite work out that way. Though, Monday did see the beer review of Boneshire Brew Works‘ Pandemic Pils go live on LetUsDrinkBeer’s blog (a site I contribute and write for occasionally) as well as on our blog here. (To see the review on their blog – click here: LetUsDrinkBeer Pandemic Pils, and to see it here on my blog – Beer Review: Pandemic Pils by Boneshire Brew Works.) I definitely knew it wasn’t going up Sunday night when we got home, just no chance of that happening.

Thus this was started on Tuesday, but unfortunately I had to pause and finish today (Wednesday) due to chores around the house, mowing, walking the dog, (yadda yadda yadda, boring crap, boring crap, boring crap), but mostly because I had to head over to D. Scott’s to do a podcast (as well as our first YouTube video) with D. Scott, Esty, and Skott. This was our time travel podcast where we discussed time travel in movies, books, and TV shows. Namely Back to the Future, Terminator, Looper, and a host of others (shout outs to Rick and Morty, Futurama, Austin Powers, and Avengers: End Game). That will be going up soon – both for the podcast and the YouTube video. I will make sure to edit this and include the links to those when they are uploaded. You can check out the Podcast channel itself here: So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar…. (Be forewarned – language is a bit in the R category, and most of the episodes are titled “WTF Did I Just Watch”, so you can figure out and parse out what the W… T… F… stand for.) This was our first podcast / YouTube video and our first podcast with Skott on as well, so we’ll see how it goes. I enjoyed Abomz World (Ever Grain and Abomination Brewing collaboration), Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co), and Buddy Shots (Cycle Brewing) while on the video. Finishing up the night with County Line IPA by Neshaminy Brewing. (But enough about that and those beers, lets get to the road trip.)

So, like I said before I interrupted myself, me and Ming planned to take this road trip from Hummelstown (he picked me up) to Rickett’s Glen which is in Benton, Pennsylvania. (See map below). It’s a roughly 2 hour and some minutes drive (depending on speed, traffic, etc.). According to Google Maps its a 2HR-8Min drive.

The Google Maps travel route from Hummelstown Pennsylvania to Ricketts Glen Pennsylvania.

As I noted in my previous article here – A Road Trip to Ricketts Glen – we planned on hitting a brewery on the way up, and then one (or more) for dinner on the way home. Some of the breweries I had google mapped and looked up (in the vicinity of Ricketts Glen or at least along RT15 and RT11 – which are the main roads we would be on) were:

Selinsgrove Brewing
Isle of Que Brewing Co.
Jackass Brewery
Eclipse Craft Brewing
Turkey Hill Brewing
Old Forge Brewing Co.

Ming gets to my house around 11AM. We load up the backpacks, I add a four-pack in for the actual hike (New Trail’s Hammock, Troegs’ Scratch 415 and 417, Pizza Boy’s The Pen is Mightier). We head out. Stopping at the Sheetz by those strip clubs once you get near Little Buffalo and then we are fully out on the road.

Looking at the breweries on my phone, we decide to stop at Isle of Que Brewing Co. first.

Isle of Que Brewing

Its just a little over noon when we get there. We are the first to enter for the day, and as soon as walk in, the bartender / owner / brewer Mike immediately recognizes me from the blog here. Which was a bit surreal as it was definitely a first to be recognized for the blog, and especially remotely (not a local [to my area of living] bar or brewery). Was definitely a very cool moment. Ordered a flight, while Ming had a water (since he was driver and basic DD for the day).

Mike was a super cool and chill dude. We talked about podcasts, YouTube, breweries, the COVID-19, quarantine and lockdown, how its affected his business, how the local area of Selinsgrove is / was during the pandemic, etc.

My flight consisted of: Peanut Butter Ale, Coal Wrecker Region Raspberry Ale, Black IPA, and Sexual Chocolate Stout. Mike gave Ming a sample of the Queban Joe (a coffee porter) which I stole a sip of.

Black IPA
Coal Wrecker Region Raspberry Ale
Peanut Butter Ale
Sexual Chocolate Stout

My ratings for the beers on Untappd (and their global average ratings):

Peanut Butter Pale Ale – ****.25 / 3.91 (as of 6.16.20)
Coal Region Wrecker Raspberry Ale – **** / 3.93 (as of 6.16.20)
Black IPA – ***.75 / 3.58 (as of 6.16.20)
Sexual Chocolate Stout – **** / 3.47 (as of 6.16.20)

I would have ordered another flight or perhaps a pint, but Ming wanted to get to the trail, so I paid and we headed out. Selinsgrove Brewing was closed, so we were on the road to Ricketts Glen. Which we arrived at around 2-2:15PM.

For those who’ve never been to Ricketts Glen, it is absolutely gorgeous. We had a beautiful day, sunny, bright skied, no clouds, gorgeous day. Not too hot, just a beautiful early June day (June 14th, 2020). Just an absolutely beautiful gorgeous day. We had a fantastic hike with no problems. It was possibly the most ‘populous’ hike I’ve ever been on (most of the places I’ve hiked, I don’t see anyone on the trails, or if I do its a one time passing), here, its like caravans, and occasional slow-downs at different waterfalls. This is a map of our hike:

Our hike of Ricketts Glen recorded using MapMyRun (a walking / running / hiking / biking GPS recording app)

I will say there is parts of the hike that are ‘difficult’ for those who might have walking issues or leg problems. Overall, most of the hike is easy to moderate, but there is a few places at some of the various waterfall areas where the steps are tough and can also be a bit slick. Plus, if you actually get close to some waterfalls, its also tough and hard, and I wouldn’t fully recommend doing that.

Here is a gallery (of a LOT of pictures) of our hike:

My hike with Ming at Ricketts Glen, Benton Pennsylvania

The hike lasted about four hours roughly, and was a good, fun, nice, beautiful hike and trip. As you can see from the pictures, I did enjoy the four pack I brought with me; which consisted of:

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing: Scratch 415 – Witbier
* My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.77 (as of 6.16.20)
Troegs Independent Craft Brewing: Scratch 417 – Orange-Lemon Peel IPA
* My Rating: **** / Global Rating: 3.89 (as of 6.16.20)
New Trail Brewing: Hammock
* My Rating: ****.25 / Global Rating: 4.37 (as of 6.16.20)
Pizza Boy Brewing: The Pen is Mightier
* My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.89 (as of 6.16.20)

After our hike, we hit the bathroom one final time, loaded back up, and checked out the breweries map to see what is available and where we would have dinner.

There were several that we looked up – Eclipse Craft Brewing, Pine Knotter Brewing, Old Forge Brewing, and Turkey Hill Brewing. According to the Google Maps and their Facebook (I made sure to check both), Turkey Hill was going to be open til 7PM, and Old Forge was to be open until 9PM. Turkey Hill was closer to Ricketts Glen / Benton than Old Forge, so we decided we’d go to Turkey Hill Brewing, and then from there go to Old Forge Brewing since they were opened later.

Turkey Hill Brewing Co.

We arrived at Turkey Hill Brewing Co. at roughly 6:20-6:30PM, and find out their actually open until 9PM. As we got back there, our reception returned to our phone, and we started getting inundated with texts. Our co-workers were getting called back into work (with Friday, June 19th, Dauphin County Pennsylvania goes green, our work was reopening). So everyone was seeing who got called, how they got called, what information they had, etc. Everyone had different ideas, theories, and stories of their call-backs.

While Ming went and talked to Don about his department that got called back, and their evening plans, I ordered a flight. We sat outside under a beautiful tree, and had a small little table in front of us, it all felt like sitting and eating at a family picnic at someone’s house for say Memorial Day or Fourth of July or Labor Day. Very informal, very interesting, and there were couples all around on various other benches eating in a similar fashion. Due to the current circumstances they do a generic flight of six, so that’s what I got. Once Ming came back from his call, we ordered small things of food (Don was making him dinner, so we weren’t going to get a big meal – just appetizers). I got fries and Ming got Asian Tuna.

Blond Ale
Red Ale
Belgian Triple
Stout
IPA

The fries were very good, and Ming said he loved the tuna (no way was I having any as I’m allergic to seafood). The beers were also very good.

The beers (not in the particular order I had them in above):

Donny’s Irish Dry Stout
* My rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.73 (as of 6.16.20)
Inflategate NE IPA
* My Rating: **** / Global Rating: 3.74 (as of 6.16.20)
St. Abban’s Irish Red Ale
* My Rating: ***.75 / Global Rating: 3.56 (as of 6.16.20)
Oliver’s Twisted Belgian Pale Ale
* My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.3 (as of 6.16.20)
Urban Abbey Apricot Pale Ale
* My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.69 (as of 6.16.20)
Barn Dance Blonde Ale
* My Rating: ***.50 / Global Rating: 3.44 (as of 6.16.20)

The atmosphere there was very beautiful, laid back, and wonderful. The staff was also really nice, wore their masks, handled the food and drinks and everything very nice. Wonderful all around. The beers were good as well. Overall the venue was beautiful, and I’d love to come visit it – outside of a pandemic – and get to really experience the place, as it looked wonderful.

Turkey Hill Brewing

After the dinner and flight, we looked up Old Forge Brewing, checked to make sure it was due to close at 9PM and headed off. We arrived there at a roughly 7:30-7:45PM, possibly going on 8PM. And it was closed up and locked. So either they closed early or their Facebook (as well as Google Maps) was using old – pre-COVID-19 – hours of operation. So sadly, we missed out on that. We climbed back into the car and headed for home with Ming dropping me off around 9:45PM or so; maybe 10PM. (I was probably not the best judge of time by this point.)

All in all, it was an absolute blast, and a wonderful road trip. I highly recommend both breweries – Isle of Que Brewing Co and Turkey Hill Brewing. Going to have to try this trip again on a weekday where we can hit a few more of the breweries, and do the hike, with hopefully less people, and later hours of operation for the breweries, so we can do more of them.

The venue for Turkey Hill was beautiful. The building for Isle of Que was nice and small and quaint, reminded me of the Warwick Hotel in Hummelstown. I enjoyed both places, both staffs, and both drinks. (Probably give the nod to Isle of Que’s beers over Turkey Hill; but there was nothing wrong with Turkey Hill’s beers, they were average / adequate and were very good. I’ve heard from several people online since that they have phenomenal full food, so maybe next time I’ll stop there and have a full meal.)

Of the beers I brought with, I enjoyed all four as well, though I had three of the four before (the Witbier was the only one I hadn’t had before). I did a review for Troeg’s Scratch 417 before. The Hammock is a great NE-IPA; the Scratch 417 was a delicious IPA, the scratch 415 was a very tasty Witbier, and The Pen is Mightier is an interesting and tasty Sour IPA.

I also highly recommend Ricketts Glen. If you love hiking, love the outdoors, love beautiful scenery, love waterfalls, it was all amazing, and just gorgeous. You definitely won’t be disappointed by the beauty of it all, it does get crowded on weekends, but I don’t think once you get out on the actual trail it is that bad. Right now it was a bit awkward with some close proximity to people given the nature of the pandemic and concerns over it, but overall, I don’t think it was too busy, and never felt threatened by their closeness, nor worried. Doing the full hike path that we took though (as shown above) will take you roughly three to four hours, especially if you stop and take in each waterfall, viewing them, and taking pictures. (Also, of course, depending on your speed, gait, etc.). Ming and I are in our thirties, so use that as a barometer I suppose.

I know this wasn’t a typical road trip, and we really only hit two breweries, but felt like making it into a fun little write-up and blog post. Perhaps next time I take the trip I’ll be able to hit more breweries and make it into a bigger brewery related blog post. Also apologize for the massive photo dump in the middle of this post, at least you could skip them (and the horrible pictures of myself, I apologize for anyone who I scared with my appearance).

But, as always, thank you very much for reading. I appreciate any comments, questions, feedback, etc. If you have any recommendations for trails, hike paths, or breweries, I’d love to hear them! Let me know in the comments! Also, be sure to hit the follow, subscribe, and like buttons. Share with friends, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and thank you all so very much for reading! I love writing for you guys, so its always great to hear from you!

Cheers and happy trails!

-B. Kline

August (2019) Road Trip Series:

Rickett’s Glen (2020) Road Trip Series:

Other Brewery Hopping Articles:

My Article for Breweries in PA:

Touring Breweries Around Harrisburg

My Podcast About Breweries in Central PA:

Beers with Strangers – A Beer Thriller in Hershey

Some other brewery tour and road trip articles:

A waterfall at Ricketts Glen, Benton Pennsylvania