Saturday night after work got over (7PM) I got the pleasure to get to Highway Manor Brewing in Camp Hill. I left work at 7 and got there at about 7:25-7:30. There was still a decent crowd at the time when I got there (inside tables were full and the tables with the swing seats were full). I ordered the Mr. Blackberry and a Turkey Sandwich to start.

Beer: Mr. Blackberry
Brewery: Highway Manor Brewing Co.
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: None

First time having this, I’ve had several other Highway Manor beers at various brewfests (Lititz Brewfest, Lancaster Brewfest, possibly Little Big Beer Fest or the Mount Hope RenFaire Brewfest), and this was just as good as all of those. This was super tart, delicious, fruity, with a great berry flavor.

On Untappd I gave it a ****.25
The global Untappd rating (as of 9.27.20) is: 3.73

Soon my food was arriving, and I had already drained my Blackberry sour, so I needed a new beer to help eat the food. (By the way, the entire food menu looked amazing, the turkey sandwich was phenomenal. Top of the line, high quality food, and very cheap, and with huge portions.)

Once my sandwich arrived I needed another beer, and decided to try some of their guest taps that they had running (they had five drafts; all guest taps). I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about Human Robot but haven’t had a chance yet to try anything from them, so I decided to try out their IPA – Dreams of Orgonon.

Beer: Dreams of Orgonon
Brewery: Human Robot
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Deliciously dreamy juice bomb brewed with sweet golden promise malt and hopped intensely with Citra, Mosaic, and Idaho 7. Its like the sun coming out…

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 4.15 (as of 9.28.20)

This was extremely tasty, juicy, dank, and delicious. Everything you want from a New England IPA, this had in spades, plus some. All around amazing beer and went fantastically with my sandwich. By this point I had moved to the center table and sat across from the one swing. I was informed by Johnny (Johnny Compton III – owner/brewer at Highway Manor Brewing) that a friend of his bought everyone a round. I was then joined by a couple – Lucas and Kaitlin who sat next to me.

They were both wearing ‘cat’ pants (pants with dozens of cat faces all over them), and quickly from talking to them I realized Lucas was Johnny’s friend. I thanked him for the beer, and for the rest of the night there, talked with them while we all drank, as well as talked with a few others who were there and one or two that came and went.

Beer: Compton Pilsner
Brewery: Raney Cellars Brewing Company
Collaboration with: Highway Manor Brewing Co.
Style: Pilsner – Czech
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: A traditional Pilsner with Mr Johnny Compton from Highway Manor Brewing. Saaz Hops from start to finish on this Pils.

As I’ve said in the blog here before when doing reviews, pilsners are a style that can be very hit or miss for me. This was a complete hit for me. Blew me away how wonderful the flavor was, how crisp it was, no lingering aftertastes (which I sometimes get from pilsners and why they are often a miss for me). This is just a fantastically brewed beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88 (as of 9.28.20)

Throughout the night I had been texting with the group text of guys from my work, a group of us that regularly meet to play the Game of Thrones board game (and other games) and just group text each other about all kinds of things, from beer to philosophy, to politics, to work, to movies, shows, nerd culture, etc. My one friend and co-worker in the group text decided he would spend the night throwing out some new “blog names” for me instead of using The Beer Thrillers. At this point, I’d like to take a divergence from the brewery review and highlight the best that D. Pezzuti had to offer:

• Benjamin Buzzin
• Get Ben’t
• Bend Over Bens Benders
• The Curious Cases of Benjamin Buzzin

We then discussed doing a segment of beer reviews of Nitro stouts and rate them in the style of WCW Nitro Years. With five star Nitro stouts being WCW Nitro ’97 and one star Nitro stouts being WCW Nitro ’01. We also discussed calling the faithful to the blog “Hopamaniacs”.

Anyway…. back to the program…

Time for another beer, this time I went for another guest draft – this time from Naked Brewing; Thank Frank.

Beer: Thank Frank
Brewery: Naked Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: West Coast IPA hopped with Citra & Amarillo.
Refreshing and perfect for those warm September days. Notes of dank citrus & delicious sticky resin.

A traditional hoppy IPA, this was a change of pace from the crisp pilsner, the juicy New England IPA, and the super tart and delicious sour Mr. Blackberry. This was a good, hoppy, bitter, earthy IPA, old west coast style old-school vibe to it.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.75 (as of 9.28.20)

It was starting to get late, I had thought about meeting two friends (D. Arndt and Youngblood) at Ever Grain before Ever Grain closed (at 11 – just like Highway Manor) since they were doing their Anniversary weekend, but Youngblood’s comedy (stand up comedy) bit went on longer and they wouldn’t be leaving their show til just before 11 anyway. So I stayed til closing getting to talk to Lucas and Kaitlin and others.

At this point, we also got introduced to Johnnie’s dog – a great dane and black lab mix – named Luna. Absolutely beautiful and wonderful dog. Fun and playful and nice drinking companion (no, I didn’t give the dog any beer).

So for my final beer of the night, I tried another brewery I never had before but have heard nothing but great things about – Brewery ARS.

Unfortunately for this, I do not have a pic, as just as I was ordering, my phone died and I did not have a charger on me. (9 hour day at work, plus driving using my GPS, plus texting, plus Untappd, and other apps, for notes, etc., really drained the battery).

Beer: Embrace the Day
Brewery: Brewery ARS
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Hazy Double IPA :: mosaic, simcoe, falconer’s flight, el dorado

Another juicy, bright, delicious New England style IPA; this time a DIPA. A great beer to end the night on. This was super easy to drink, juicy, and went down fast (also perhaps because it was the end of the night and my fifth drink, but who knows).

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.09 (as of 9.28.20)

Before leaving, I said my goodbyes to everyone, and got to talk to Johnnie Compton a bit more. He is a great dude, knows his saisons, knows his yeast, knows his beer, and very down to Earth. Thanked me for coming out, and sent me on my way with a few (free) bottles of Mr. Peach and Mr. Plum. Which I will be diving into on the next stream with D. Scott for The Knights of Nostalgia.

I will discuss the aesthetics of the brewery now. The building is small, but well laid out (even with the current COVID restrictions), it has two rooms for dining tables, and then an open patio like area. Kind of reminds you of a house in the suburbs with the patio garage area.

The swings are really neat. I am wondering if they may become a problem with an ‘intoxicated’ person, but at a brewery, I highly doubt this will come up, but you never know. The tables and seating area though is gorgeous, both indoor and outdoor. Indoors, it has a rave like vibe with the glowing lights and the glow in the dark paint. (Make sure to check out the bathroom to really see what I mean.)

Lucas summed it up when we were discussing the brewery and the area, that its a “Philly bar in Camp Hill, turned saison bottle brewery.” And thats probably the most apt way to describe it. Johnnie and I were discussing how it was like opening during COVID and everything, and he was saying how nuts he was for opening a brewery primarily based on bottles rather than draft, and to do it during a global pandemic on top of everything.

The food menu on Saturday night looked fantastic. Lamb, turkey, vegetarian or vegan sandwich, and many other options, all for 8$ or less. Not sure if that menu is permanent or if it will be changed or updated or switched, but Johnnie did say he’s hoping to have food trucks in their parking lot area and grass field area across from the brewery on weekends.

The following pictures I took Saturday night while I was there:

The following pictures are courtesy of Highway Manor’s Facebook page:

This will certainly be a stop I will make regularly when on the West Shore, and will be perfect when hitting the area to do a brewery lap. Other great local breweries include Ever Grain, Mellow Mink, Hemaur Brewing, and Pizza Boy (as well as Liquid Noise which is a bit further, but still in the general area). So lots of great options all in the area.

I personally highly recommend checking the brewery out, and trying their wonderful tremendous beers. Especially if you like farmhouse ales, saisons, tart beers, sours, lambics, or all things similar. They also will have a rotating guest draft list that looks great for the area (Johnnie said he would like to keep it relatively full of Philly area beers), so that looks great – getting to try Philly beers and Philly breweries without the 2 hour drive to Philly. The brewery has a super cool vibe. There was a food menu for kids though it might not be 100% the most kid friendly; its certainly not anti-kid, but the venue vibe seems to be aimed away from parents. It is also dog friendly.

Be sure to check out some of our other brewery opening articles:

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• 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)

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!

Thanks for reading everyone and hopefully someday I’ll see you at Highway Manor and have a beer together. Until then, virtually, cheers!

-B. Kline

(Post Script: This was meant to go up Sunday night, but everything kinda got pushed back and thus why its gone up this morning, Monday, September 28th. My parents celebrated their 40th Anniversary on Sunday the 27th, and originally – pre-COVID – we were all going to go to the Bengals vs. Eagles game at the Lincoln Center in Philly; since they are big Eagles fans and I’m a Bengals fan, but unfortunately that didn’t get to work out. Instead, we got to watch the overtime – because the game in regulation time was not aired locally – and we got to see possibly the most apathetic overtime ever played. Six punts by the two teams combined in the 10 minute overtime. Neither team trying on their last plays to score. And on top of all this, the Phillies still had a chance to make the playoffs, and all they had to do was win, against a team that was locked in at their seed, and that they had just lost to twice, ….and of course they couldn’t do it. So despite it being an 8-team playoff for each conference, the Phillies *STILL* couldn’t manage to get in. So disappointing. But needless to say despite all this, the article is now up, just a bit later. Enjoy!)

Back with a beer review – and its been a while for one of those. The most recent was This is Nut the Fluff Your Looking For by Fourscore Beer Co on March 24th and before that it was the Irish Car Bomb by Rotunda Brewing on March 16th. This beer review is a bit different… because this beer was released over two years ago. This is a science project beer review, similar to the Black and Blue Tastee beer review I did. I figure since I have the entire month of April off, I’ll do like November, and release a new blog post (at least one new blog post) each day. It’ll help me fight to keep my sanity anyway. Also, as a heads up, its come to my attention as I’ve started writing this, that the Y-U-H-N-M buttons on my laptop’s keyboard aren’t working the best (I have to press at certain angles or all but hit them). Thats what I get for letting my ten year old do her first from-home school project on my computer during this quarantine. So hopefully, I’ll catch all the errors, but sorry if any pop up.

So while everyone else was busy in the house, I cleaned out the beer fridge a bit, and in the process, found this gem buried waaaaaaaay deeeeeeeeep in the back of it, behind some September Spring House IPAs and a wet hop IPA can from Pizza Boy done with Sunny Brae hops farm (which sadly, is no more). I might due science experiment beer reviews of those beers as well, we’ll see.

I’m not a drain pour type guy, even when a beer is old, or what have you, I typically finish it (even if that entails doing a chug and just getting rid of it that way). So I had to crack this bad boy open and give it a try.

Also, as those who have been following the blog know, I’m a big Seinfeld fan – as my Haze Charmer review can attest. This particular reference stems from the episode – The Mom and Pop Store (Season 6 – Episode 8). In it, George Costanza buys what he thinks is Jon Voight (the actor)’s car. It turns out its not the real actor’s car, but a periodontist.

Ok, so lets just get to the review, enough about the sillyness that is Seinfeld and how I’ve managed to find a two year old can in the back of my beer fridge!

Beer: Jon Voights Car
Brewer: RAR Brewinng
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

My original check-in on Untappd, from January 2018:
Super tart. A little sweet but not cloying. Downright delicious. The plum isn’t as noticeable as the boysenberry or currants. Thanks Matt!

(I had gotten a four-pack from a friend in a trade, thus the shout-out.)

But, lets break it down, now.

Appearance is a vibrant, pretty, royal purple. Foamy still with a great amount of carbonation still. Its sparkly, its pretty, it looks just like a sour. Despite its age, nothing looks off, even leaves a nice purplish foamy head and leaves good lacing too.

Aroma its not as potent as it probably would have been. Its still pretty heavy on plums, some notes of blackberries, currants, boysenberries, and possibly other berries. It smells like most sours do, fruity, tart, some pungent-ness.

Taste is still there, but this is probably where it dips the most. The plums taste a lot more acidic, a lot more funky than tart or even sour, theres an underlying heavyness to this, that I doubt was there the first time (especially for only a 4% sour). You do get some notes of boysenberry, currant, etc, but not really strong or anywhere near as powerful as I imagine it used to be. This has settled some, so the sweetness is pretty much out of it, but its still not cloying and the mouthfeel still feels right.

My original Untappd rating (two years ago): ****.75
My rating for it *NOW*: ****
Global Rating: 4.07 (as of 4.1.20)

Sorry this took so long to post. It is incredibly frustrating having to all but smash my fist through my keyboard to get the U-N-Y-M-H buttons to work, never realized just how often I use those letters!

And I know I should have done some kind of April Fools post…. but I just can’t bring myself to doing it. This past twenty days, and the next thirty days, feels like a joke enough. So please everyone, take care of yourselves, distance, washing, love your loved ones, help your communities. Cheers!

-B. Kline

This is what a post-blood donation meal looks like. A nice beer, a big quesadilla from Sheetz, and not pictured but there, a big bucket of Sheetz fries as well. Typically I would do a huge stout to build back up, but I decided to keep working into the beer mail I got, and I chose this – Daebak (Berry) Kettle Sour by The Booth Brewing Company (out of US).

The Booth Brewing Company originally started in Seoul South Korea before moving to the United States. (Eureka California to be exact.) As per their Untappd page: “At The Booth Brewing Company, we brew more than just beer; we create a lifestyle. We craft our beer with all natural ingredients, both traditional and innovative brewing ingredients. We embrace big and bold but specialize in balanced and tasty. If you are ready to challenge your taste buds and “follow your fun”, come join us for any one of our special brews!” They have 41 unique beers listed for a global average rating of 3.82 (as of 2.25.20). They are listed as a micro-brewery. The Korean page for The Booth Brewing on Untappd – The Booth Brewing Korea – has 49 unique beers and has a global average rating of 3.35 (as of 2.25.20).

The Daebak Kettle Sour came from Eureka California in a beer mail trade I did. Its the third from the package to be reviewed here on The Beer Thrillers (I previously did Sunshine and Opportunity and Chocolate Confidential). The rest will follow in the days / weeks to come, have no fear.

Beer: Daebak Kettle Sour
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 3.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)
Can Write-Up: Daebak (Sour Ale) 1 Pint. Follow your fun…ky? Thanks to the suggestion from our social media supporters, Boothman is changing up the bass line and bringing the funk to your taste buds in this brand new kettle sour! Featuring delicate notes of blueberry and vanilla…. A splash of tart, a taste of fruit! The Booth Brewing Co. started in Seoul, South Korea. Our three founders set out to create a place where young like-minded people could gather to drink quality craft beer and change the world.

The can art is pretty cool for this, inspired by Pac-Man it certainly looks interesting. Here’s two promotional pictures from The Booth’s website:

And who doesn’t love Pac-Man? He’s a staple and a video game stalwart. I just find the can label cool, simplistic, but obvious and recognizable. I do love the can art and labels that craft breweries come up with and its such an essential part of marketing and branding; not just for the particular beer but for the brewery and company as a whole.

Ok, with no further adieu, lets get to the beer.

Appearance is light honeyed golden yellow. It has the bright glow of a tart sour, and it has the bubbly nature of one as well. Its translucent and got great clarity with a fantastic head to it. This looks exactly in line with tart sours like berliner weisse’s and farmhouse saisons. None heavy fruited sours (and kettle sours) can also look this way.

Aroma has a crisp tart smell to it, berry notes with a hint of funkyness. You can smell raspberry and blueberry, but “funked up”. It has a very crisp clean smell to it, nothing extreme, nothing super strong, nothing assaulting your nostrils, and certainly nothing off or bad. The aroma for this is actually kind of tame.

Taste is tart, crisp, bubbly, with hint of berry. The berries in this – raspberry and blueberry – are pretty mellow, but they are there, and they are funky. This is a kettle sour, This does bring the funk and does bring the tartness. Its crisp and clearness is nice and pleasant. The ABV is ridiculously low on this (3.5%) so you don’t even feel it, even after donating a liter of blood. This is a good refreshing beer, a four pack of this would go down easily, or it’d make a great starter beer for a night of fun. Its just a simple, pleasant beer that delivers exactly what you’re hoping and looking for with it – clean, crisp, well made, tart, funk, berry flavored kettle sour.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.65 (as of 2.25.20)

This was supposed to be finished before work, but didn’t quite make it in time, so I finished it just before getting to D. Scott’s for the podcasts. As you can see, after work yesterday (Monday, Feb. 24th, 2020), I dropped Chris (a co-worker) off at his mechanic to get his car back, then went to the Hershey Library to donate blood. I try to donate regularly, as close to my eight week mark as I can. One donation can save up to three lives. For more information on donating blood in the Central PA area – check out: Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank. Please, check it out, and if you are able to, donate.

Ok, coming down from my soap box, lets talk about the next few days for me and the blog here at The Beer Thrillers. Tonight (literally as soon as this publishes), I am doing two podcasts with the guys at So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…. the first is the next episode of our LOST Podcasts – covering Seasons 3 and 4, this podcast will be with myself, Esteban, and Trevor. The second podcast tonight, is a commentary track of Evil Dead. (I will update this with the links as Drew gets them done and online.)

Tomorrow then around noon I’m walking down to Rubber Soul to tour and check out their new facility here in Hummelstown. That will be fun to get to check out their place and building, I’ll be sure to post pictures on our Facebook and Twitter, so be sure to follow along there and check it out. I will then be doing a write-up that evening as a blog article with the pictures as well.

Then on Thursday I am doing a call in with Beers with Strangers. It will be about a 40-45 minute podcast with the two of us talking via phone. Look for my episode to go live around middle of March (I’ll post here when it does). This looks to be fun and interesting.

If you’re new to the blog and want to check out some of our older articles, you can here: Loki – Wild IPA, Pete’s Secret Stache, I Cannot Tell a Lie, Back to Reality, Intemperance, Sunshine and Opportunity, Chocolate Confidential, Furious IPA, Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink, Miami Vice JREAM, Enigma, Colonization, Koko Bunni, and Default Brewing.

We are still ranked #9 on The Top 100 Beer Blogs list, as of February 24th.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and like and subscribe here to keep updated.

We appreciate all feedback and comments, so be sure to let us know your thoughts. And as always, thank you for reading. Cheers!

-B. Kline

Some days the blog posts were easy. Other days not so much. Some days I had the blog post done at 7:30 or 8AM… other days I’m struggling to get the blog post done, and wrapping it up at 11:58PM.

I never truly felt like I had burnt myself out…. until I came to doing this recap blog post. Thats why its now December 7th and its getting posted; when this was meant to be posted on December 1st. And I still don’t think I’m ‘burnt out’. I think its a case of ‘start-up issues’. The hardest part about any blog post is starting the blog post. Like writing anything, the hardest part is the beginning, is putting ink to paper, or to type those first few words. So, as the time stretched from December 1st… to December 2nd…. to December 3rd…. I hesitated and procrastinated more and more, and this post went further and further by the wayside. So for that, and for the fact that the blog as a whole hasn’t had a single post in December, and no new blog post in a week, I apologize. For those of you who were looking forward to this recap posting of my “November NaNoWriMo Challenge”, I apologize. And yes, I know I’m not REALLY doing a NaNoWriMo, and I know I’m not using the term correctly.

But this is the recap post, and it is finally going live. I apologize for its tardiness, but hopefully you will enjoy it all the same.

I met all three of my self-set hard challenges for November, and fell short of a soft-challenge for myself. My hard challenges were: 1) One new blog post per day, 2) One new unique beer per day, and 3) One 1-mile or more walk per day. These challenges I completed. (Figured the 1-mile or more walk would counter-balance the fact I was drinking every day.) The soft challenge I failed was hitting my 10K steps per day. And I only failed that one day…. ironically the second day of the month. I only got 8.8K steps that day, mainly due to a friend gathering and party and having gone to it right after work.

But you all don’t really care about the challenges, and just want to see the recap right?! So here’s whats going with that. I’m going to make a list here of the dates (November 1st, November 2nd, November 3rd, etc.) as headings, and then underneath it, list the different blog posts we posted that day (mine, J. Doncevic’s reviews, AJ’s Default Brewing post, and the guest writing blog post by Let Us Drink Beer). I will also list what new unique beer I had each of those days (or in the cases of some days, ‘unique beers’). So lets to it!

NOVEMBER 1st:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Pumpkin Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Pumpkin Spice Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Catchin’ Feels (Tattered Flag)

NOVEMBER 2nd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Rose Cider (Wyndridge Farm)
• Blood Orange Cranberry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Strawberry (Delp Brother’s Home Brewing) (Friend’s Homebrew at the party)

NOVEMBER 3rd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Walker Station Stout (Pretoria Fields Collective)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Watermelon (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 4th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Sogni D’oro, Wastin’ Daylight, Market Research, Peach Novelty, Oktobock, Lucky Cat Lien (ZeroDay Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)
• Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)
• King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 5th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Black Cherry (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 6th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Apple (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 7th:

Blog Posts:

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

Unique Beers:

• There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 8th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory (J. Doncevic)
• Beer Review: There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 9th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)

Unique Beers:

• Schwarzbier (The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery)

NOVEMBER 10th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 11th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Colonization (Ghost 779) – Adroit Theory

Unique Beers:

• Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag)
• Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Government Overspending (2019) (Tattered Flag)
• Seven. Point. Six. Two. (Tattered Flag)
• 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company – CBC)

NOVEMBER 12th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )

Unique Beers:

• Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 13th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Alcatraz Sour Apple (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 14th:

Blog Posts:

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

Unique Beers:

• Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

NOVEMBER 15th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 16th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Birra di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 17th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Syndicate City Sour Peach (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 18th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Birra Di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 19th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beer:

• Great American Apple Pie (Stout Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 20th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Mechanicsberry, Bargain Black IPA, Embers Remain, Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Mechanicsberry (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Bargain Black IPA (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Embers Remain (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 21st:

Blog Posts:

• Default Brewing

Unique Beers:

• Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Nitro Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 22nd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)
• NVP (Nitro Series) (Breckenridge Brewery)

NOVEMBER 23rd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 24th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Cheers from Default Brewing!

Unique Beers:

• Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 25th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Crowd Control (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 26th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery(

NOVEMBER 27th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 396 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Mad Elf 2019 Vintage (technically not a ‘new’ beer, but my first of this year’s vintage) (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Coco-Nator (non-scratch version) (Troegs Independent Brewing)

NOVEMBER 28th: (Thanksgiving)

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 29th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Not My Style, Might Rate Anyway (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)
• Visions of Yesterday (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 30th:

Blog Posts:

• Official BBQ & Burgers: Pizza Boy Secondary Location
• Five Must See Breweries When Visiting Atlanta (Let Us Drink Beer)

Unique Beers:

• Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Gose (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Whew, what an exhausting month November was. I think part of the reason it took me so long to get the energy to do this recap post, was knowing the amount of formatting involved and the photos…. and now that the challenge is over, a malaise kind of settled over me. Like my job was completed. I started this post this morning before work, and had to finish it now after an extra hour or so of work on it this evening. I still want to put in some statistics of the month, for the blog, and for myself, and will most likely come in and do the edit for that later tonight or tomorrow. I will also add the tags and categories. But for now, I just want to get this live and up on the internet. Its 7PM and this is long overdo.

I would like to thank my contributors and co-authors on this blog for making this month (and all the time in general) go so well, and for providing so much help, fun and entertaining blog posts to read, and for helping so much with the blog! Thank you J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (Default Brewing), and Let us Drink Beer Blog. My blog post for Let us Drink Beer’s blog will go live tomorrow and I will provide a link here for that in the statistics edit I will do. In the meantime you can read their post about their upcoming additions to their blog here: Let us Drink Beer: Exciting Additions Coming Soon!

Cheers and I hope you all enjoyed all of our blog posts in November. Heres to the rest of 2019, and then on to the future, 2020, and the next decade!

-B. Kline

EDIT:

Some statistics from the month here at The Beer Thrillers:

Blog posts:

• 34

Unique authors:

• 4
• B. Kline, J. Doncevic, AJ – Default Brewing, and Let Us Drink Beer

Visitors and Views:

• 2,767 Unique Visitors
• 6,293 Total Views

Twitter Followers:

• 95
• (Goal was 100, just missed it)

FaceBook Followers:

• 130

Most Vewied Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Breweries reviewed/beers of their’s reviewed:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Cox Brewing Company
• Adroit Theory
• Troegs Independent Brewing
• Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
• Levante Brewing
• WISEACRE Brewing
• Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
• Southern Prohibition Brewing
• Heist Brewery
• Toppling Goliath Brewing
• Dewey Beer Co.
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Appalachian Brewing Company
• Crosstown Brewing
• Fonta Flora Brewing
• Westbrook Brewng Co.
• Equilibrium Brewery
• Pretoria Fields Collective
• Wild Leap Brew Co.
• New Trail Brewing

Styles:

• IPA
• Double IPA
• Black IPA
• Brown Porter
• Stout
• Pilsner
• Lager
• New England IPA
• Belgian Dubbel
• Sour – Fruited
• Sour – Other
• Fruited Beer
• Gose
• Sour
• Belgian Strong Dark Ale
• Pale Ale

Some personal stats for me:

Unique Beers:

• 50

Total Beers:

• 68

Breweries Visited:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Appalachian Brewing Company

New Restaurants/Bars:

• The Gin Mill
• Official BBQ and Burgers

Again, thank you all for reading. This post has now been updated with tags and categories. Please leave a like, a comment, and please follow us!

Thank you everyone!

Cheers!!

-B. Kline

Dipping back into the old beer reviews that didn’t get posted category (like last night’s Athena review) I bring you a yummy beer I had at Ted’s Bar and Grill a few weeks back with Ming after a very late work meeting.

The joy of having a 9-11PM meeting at your work on your day off can only be offset by one thing – beer. Simple as that. That’s thee only thing… ok, not the only thing, but its a very good thing. So after the meeting got over, I convinced Ming to stop at a local bar and restaurant, one thats been featured recently on here (with the Salted Caramel Moo-Hoo review), Ted’s Bar and Grill, located on route 22 (or old Allentown Road) in the no mans land of Skyview in between Grantville and Harrisburg PA.

While he ordered some food, and we discussed work, life, and watched a little of the thursday night Patriots – Giants football game, I grabbed a pint of this to sip and enjoy, and this was pretty tasty.

Beer: Sour Me Peach Sherbert
Brewery: DuClaw Brewing Company
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 10
Untappd Write-Up: Light tart notes, big peach flavor upfront, and a soft finish from the addition of lactose.

Aroma is perfectly peach, but not like peach the fruit. Like the ‘created peach’ rather than the ultimate realistic peach. This has the aroma of a peach milkshake or a peach smoothie or peach ice cream. Probably because of the lactose or the over-sweetness of the peach smell.

Appearance is a thick unfiltered orange. Not crazily hazy like some NEIPAs, but it is unfiltered, its orange, and its not fully transparent. There’s floaters and sediment and a lot of action going on in this glass.

Taste is similar to some milkshake IPAs but with a tart finish rather than just pure lactose hop juice. There is definitely an overwhelming peach flavor upfront, but like the aroma, its kind of a non-peach peach. Like a created peach, the factory peach rather than the fruit peach. This isn’t to say its unpleasant, just pointing out the differences between the two. The lactose does make this very smooth, it also softens the tartness a bit, which I think I might have enjoyed a bit more tartness and maybe a tad bit less soft / lactose / smoothness / milkshake like quality.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 10.23.19)

We got a lot of reviews and things coming at you these next few days. From both me and J. Doncevic. He’s got some write-ups on events going on, and some beer reviews, and I got quite a few reviews, beer events, recaps, as as well as a pre-write-up on the upcoming 3rd Anniversary for Boneshire Brew Works. So please click the like, follow, and subscribe buttons, and bookmark us and keep coming back. Lots of great content on the way!

-B. Kline

As always, make sure to click like on the articles you enjoyed the most, that way we know what’s liked. Leave comments telling us what you like (or dislike) and what we can do to improve the blog. Always looking to make this better and better and to help you, the readers, more and more. Thank you!

#1. Dillston by Boneshire Brew Works

#2. Harrishire by Boneshire BrewWorks

#3. Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart by Rotunda Brewing Company

#4. Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour by Newfangled Brew Works

#5. Caucus Race 6.0 (Zappa Hops) by Boneshire Brew Works

#6. Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart by Rotunda Brewing Company

#7. Good Walk Spoiled by Boneshire Brew Works

#8. Reve Coffee Stout by Parish Brewing Company

#9. The Road Less Traveled by Boneshire Brew Works

#10. Ghost in the Machine by Parish Brewing Company (J. Doncevic’s Review)

Thank you for taking a look back over this second listicle. These are fun to create and hopefully give new viewers and readers a chance to look back on some of our older posts. Like I always say, we always enjoy hearing from you guys, any comments, questions, or suggestions are more than welcome. You can reply in the individual blog posts, or you can use the contact form and message us directly. Use the like the button to let us know what blog posts are your favorite, and share on social media to let others know about certain beers. We appreciate it all. We are here for you – the readers – guys, thanks so much!

-The Beer Thrillers Staff

(Editorial Note: This article was originally written and submitted to Breweries in PA. They will be publishing it in roughly one weeks time on their page and FaceBook page. It was written by lead writer here at The Beer Thrillers – B. Kline, and is being posted here as well. This was a guest-article written by B. Kline for Breweries in PA. Since there is some pertinent and timely information included in the article [namely Tattered Flag & Levante’s Tap Takeovers and Can Releases for 9.7.19] this article is being posted here and now. When it is posted on the Breweries in PA website and FaceBook page, links will be provided to the article’s locations there. Likewise, since this was created for their site and blog, as well as written in Microsoft Online Word DOC the formatting may be off in some places. When the mistakes are noticed, we will try and correct them. -The Beer Thrillers staff.)

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg 
By: B. Kline 

In the area surrounding Hummelstown (17036), there is several breweries. In all directions, roughly within 5 miles, there is some fantastic breweries in Hershey, Middletown, and the outskirts of Harrisburg like Rutherford and Union Station. I’m going to take a look at a few of these and suggest a nice weekend trip to these locations that won’t take a lot of your time up, and what all events and plans they currently have going on. In this article, we will be taking a look at Troegs Brewery, Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, and Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery.  

There is a lot of great choices of breweries in Pennsylvania, and even in just Harrisburg itself, there is several fantastic choices. Coming from the small town of Hummelstown itself (where I’m located – B. Kline – writer for the blog The Beer Thrillers). In Harrisburg central there is ZeroDay Brewing, The Millworks, and The Vegetable Hunter. Along the outskirts of Harrisburg in Rutherford you will find Boneshire Brew Works and in a small development off of Union Deposit in Union Station you’ll find Newfangled Brew Works. In Hershey you’ll find Troegs Independent Craft Brewing and Iron Hill Brewery. In Middletown you will find Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. And soon, in the future in Hummelstown you’ll be able to enjoy some beverages at the old police station by Rubber Soul Brewing.  

I’ve decided to write this in the best route method for driving and convenience. I debated exactly how I wanted to write-up the breweries of Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag, and Troegs, and decided this might be the best and most logical way. The times I’ve done this ‘brewery trail’ this is always the way I’ve done it, and it also stops the ‘why was X first and Y last’ arguments. So lets take a look at these four breweries, what they got to offer on tap, what they got going on, and why their worth a stop in and check out. 

Newfangled Brew Works 

Located At: 8001 Union Station Blvd, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/NewfangledBrewWorks 
 

Newfangled Brew Works is located inside Union Station, a recent development built off of Union Deposit Road (a long road that connects Harrisburg to several of the smaller towns in the area like South Hanover Township, Union Deposit, Hoernerstown, and even to Hershey). It is right as you enter into the development in a large building conjoined with its restaurant pairing – Koda. Koda is a high scale restaurant located to the right of the main entrance into Newfangled. Newfangled also has its own built-in Taco Truck tucked away in the back lefthand corner. 

Lets discuss the food first, the taco truck has fabulous tacos, quesadillas, and other taco and Mexican related foods. Artisanal tacos is the best way to describe these, as this is definitely no Taco Bell menu (and a whole heck of a lot better tasting too). Their food menu can be found here: Food, their hours of operation are: Sunday  11AM-9PM, Monday-Friday 4PM-9PM, and Saturday 12PM-10PM.  

Pictured here is the quesadilla taco from the taco truck, with the added beef meat it came to be 7.42$ (pre-tip). Beer picture is the Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour. The taco was extremely delicious and the kettle sour washed it down perfectly. This is the side-porch and patio area to the left of the building (when facing the entrance).  

The brewery itself currently has 16 beers on tap for consumption. Some of their own, and a few others. Of their own currently on tap they have: 

• Passionfruit Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 

• Ariana Flockhart – Blonde Ale – 4.9% 
• Blood Orange Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 
• Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Brut IPA – IPA – Brut – 7.7% 

• Double IPA – IPA – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Irish Red Ale – Red Ale – Irish – 6% 
• Saison – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 6.8% 
• Newfangled American Wheat – Wheat Beer – 5.2% 
• Lager – Lager – 5.2% 

• IPA – IPA – American – 5.8% 
• Stout – Stout – American – 6.5% 

The non-Newfangled Beers on tap are: 

• Yuengling Lager – Lager – 4.5% (Yuengling Brewery) 
• Standard – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 

I have currently had all but their lager, double IPA, Brut IPA, and the blood orange blonde ale. I have enjoyed everything I’ve had so far. Found nothing to be horrible or terrible and no off flavors or infected beers.  

They offer their beers right now in pints or traditional pours, dependent on the style, as well as half pours and flights. Pricing is your normal fair for a craft brewery (5$-7/8$ depending on style and costs to make the beer).  

Currently, Newfangled Brew Works has produced 22 unique beers, and has a global average rating of 3.73. 

Upcoming events for Newfangled are:  

• Live Music – Fridays and Saturdays 7PM – 10PM 
• Trivia – Wednesdays 630PM – 830PM   

Boneshire Brew Works 
Located At: 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/BoneshireBrewWorks 

Coming down the road from Newfangled and getting onto Nyes Road it will lead you to Derry Street. From there you take a right hand turn and find yourself after a few blocks at Boneshire Brew Works. Boneshire was started by Alan Miller, Carson Brooks, and Alex Govelovich.  

Boneshire’s brewery is a small little ‘pub’ style brewery. As soon as you enter you feel already a member of a club where everybody knows your name. If you’ve been there once, your second time there, you are a ‘regular’ and quickly become on a first name basis with all of the staff.  

Currently food is limited to a few behind the bar items like pickle flights and bologna, but it is a BYOB environment with a pizzeria just two doors down (to the left of the building is a Crossfit and after that is the pizza shop, how lucky are those crossfit hard-workers being “stuck” between a pizza shop and a brewery?).  

Boneshire currently offers a taplist of their own, as well as a taplist of several breweries from Pennsylvania. Their current taplist is: 

Their own: 

• Dillston – Red Ale – Irish – 5.5% (made with Greystone Public House) 
• Caucus-Race (6.0 Zappa Hops) – IPA – American – 7.5% 

• Harrishire – Smoked – 7.3% (made in collaboration with Harris Family Brewery) 
• AuZealand 2.0 – IPA – American – 6.3% 
• Dark of the Forest (barrel aged) – Stout – Coffee – 10% 
• Derry St. Wheat – Hefeweizen – 5% 
• Good Walk Spoiled – Sour – 4.5%       

Guest tap lists: 

• Jelsa – Mead – Melomel – 12% (Larsen Meadworks) 
• Magic… Under Where? – Pale Ale – 5.5% (Pizza Boy Brewing) 
• Kriek Nouveau – Sour – 6.9% (Free Will Brewing Co.) 
• Brawler – English Mild – 4.2% (Yards Brewing Co.) 

• Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.7% (Stoudts Brewing) 
• Summer Scrumpy – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 
• Fruit Wagon – Sour – 6.3% (Saucony Brewing Company) 
• Java Cask – Stout – Imperial Double – 14.3% (Victory Brewing) 
• Pikeland Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.9% (Slyfox Brewing) 

Boneshire Brewery has a steady string of events going on.  Mondays are D&D nights, Tuesdays alternate between Open Mic Nights and Bar Bingo nights, Wednesdays are trivia nights, Thursdays are live music nights. Their Facebook page has a full list of events with the band names already signed on for each Thursday through October. They also occasionally have live music on Saturday nights. 

Boneshire also does cans to go, in 4-packs of most of their in-house made beers. A few exceptions based on styles and things, but nearly all of their brewery beers are set to go. And typically at much better prices than a pint at the bar. They also do growler fills. 

They currently have 126 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating of 3.82 on Untappd. 

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery 

Located At: 1 S Union St Middletown, PA 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/TatteredFlagBrewery 

Leaving Boneshire we can get right up onto 322 from Derry Street. There we can then turn right and get off at the Hummelstown / Middletown exit and go along Middletown Road (which becomes Vine Street), not much further we’ll turn right onto Main Street and then turn left to get onto Union and we are at our next destination. Middletown’s first (and so far only) brewery and distillery – Tattered Flag. 

Veteran owned and having just hit their third anniversary they have really been pumping out some outstanding beers in recent history. With new brewing crew of Dave Marrow, Justin Hoak, and Cliff Plank, they have been putting out exceptional IPAs (NE IPAS specifically) and sours. They were just voted Harrisburg best Brewery and Distillery.  

They have been doing some excellent collaborations with numerous breweries in the last few months as well. Beers with Wolf Brewing Co. , Levante Brewing, Abomination Brewing, and up and comer Pilger Ruh Brewing.  

They have a downstairs bar that is also their coffee shop as well as the distillery area. It was called the Nuclear Bean but on Untappd they refer to the bar as the Distillery Bar now. They also have their main restaurant and bar upstairs, though you can order food at either location.  

At the downstairs Nuclear Bean / coffee shop / distillery bar, you can order drinks. Their taplist there currently is:  

• NP Project – Kombucha (Renewal Kombucha) 
• Nuclear Bean Nitro Cold Brew – Coffee 

• Blue Raider Kolsch – Kolsch – 5.2% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen – Hefeweizen – 5.4% 
• Fatum Series Ale – Strawberry – Sour – 6% 
• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) – IPA – Milkshake – 6.6% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (2019) – IPA – Milkshake – 7.8%  

• Silent Professional Foxtrot – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 7.8% 
• New Zealand Hop Test – IPA – Imperial Double – 8% 
• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk – IPA – Milkshake – 8% 
• TMI IPA – IPA – American – 6.5% 

They also have cans to go, which you can pick up upstairs or downstairs, there list of cans to go currently are: 

• Tattered Abomination – IPA – New England – 7.8% (made with Abomination Brewing) 
• Prepare to be Flabbergasted – Sour – 7% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 
• O’Dusseldorf Rules – Altbier – 5% 

• Honey I Added More Hops – IPA – New England – 7% 
• Double Knife Fight in Space – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight 2.0 – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) – Sour – 7.8% 

• TMI IPA 

Their taplist upstairs currently is: 

• Silent Professional Foxtrot 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 

• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• DDH Double IPA – IPA – Imperial / Double – New England – 8.4% 
• Swattier Divide (2018) – IPA – New England – 8.2% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit 
• TMI IPA 

• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk 
• Should’ve Got a Warrant – Sour – 7.6% 
• Stars and Stripes 20.19 – IPA – New England – 7.8% 
• Sparklerz (Meyer Lemon) – Hard Seltzer – 5% 
• Five Sided Puzzle Palace – Stout – Imperial / Double – 12% (Levante Brewing colab) 

• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) 
• Double Knife Fight in Space 
• Groundhops Day – IPA – New England – 6% 
• Honey I Added More Hops 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (sour) 

• Prepare to be Flabbergasted 
• Tattered Abomination 

Make sure to check out my blog (The Beer Thrillers) for reviews on Prepare to be Flabbergasted, Tattered Abomination, and Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) all due to being posted within the next several days.  

I’m not much of a foody, but I do love going to Tattered Flag or helping with their canning run, just to get to eat there. It is top notch gourmet style food. All bases covered, from hot dogs and hamburgers, to salads, to tacos and quesadillas, to steaks, and seafood. Everything is covered and everything is absolutely phenomenal.  

This weekend, Tattered Flag and Levante Brewing are doing their big release. Saturday, September 7^th, starting at 11AM, they will be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Wasted Away Again, a key-lime pie sour. They will also be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Five Sided Puzzle Palace. As well as having several of Levante’s beers on tap in the brewery. Ontop of this, from 1PM to 4PM the Hershey Biergarten in downtown Hershey will be selling their cans and having the beers on tap as well. Tattered Flag and Levante will also be featured at sip of Soma.

Of course I have to mention that you should check out the distillery if you have any inclination in liquors. Dan, the distiller for Tattered Flag is amazing and provides exceptional spirits. (He also does ghost tours in Gettysburg.) 

Tattered Flag Brewery has 351 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.77. 

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing 
Located At: 200 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey, PA 17033 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/troegsbrewingcompany 

And last but not least of our little tour is Troegs Brewery. Which at this point, really needs no introduction. They are always some of the top rated beers in the state, and is generally considered “the top” of the craft industry in the state (behind Yuengling). The brewery itself is always jam packed, weekday, weeknight, afternoon, or evening. Some of which is due to its fantastic location next door to HersheyPark, and some of that due to the excellent beers in production, as well as a top of the line brewery tour.  

 They have certainly been expanding too. Adding the foeders and making a larger cellar room. They’ve added a beer garden outfront. And lots and lots more parking. Which somehow still doesn’t feel like its enough! 

They have also branched out and done a lot more of their Splinter Series beers, done more and more regular scratches, and even begun to can some of the scratch beers, and upped the number of rotational/seasonal beers. Releasing some big hits like Lollihop, Golden Thing, and various Scratches in beer can that have all gotten great reviews. 

They have also added an upstairs loft with its own food menu and its own bar (though the taplist is the same as it is in the side-room by the foeders and at the main bar, just slightly more limited). The pizza upstairs is the best new feature total though, hop on that immediately! 

Their current taplist at the main bar is: 

• Perpetual IPA – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Troegennator Double Bock – Bock – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Sunshine Pils – Pilsner – 4.5% 
• HopBack Amber Ale – Red Ale – Amber Ale – 6% 

• DreamWeaver – Wheat Beer – 4.8% 
• JavaHead – Stout – Coffee – 7.5% 
• Hop Knife – IPA – American – 6.2% 
• Nimble Giant – IPA – Imperial / Double – 9% 
• Naked Elf – English Ale – 6.9% 

• Golden Thing – DDH – IPA – Double – 8.2% 
• Boysenberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Raspberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Fest Lager – Lager – Marzen – 6.1% 
• Dear Peter – Farmhouse Saison – 7.6% 

• Hazy IPA (Scratch 387) – IPA – New England – 5.2%  (same as Trail Day Pale Ale)
• Tangerine Passionfruit Guava Tart (Scratch 386) – Sour – 4.6% 
• Krausened Dunkel Lager (Scratch 385) – Dunkel – 5.4% 
• Tangerine Blackberry Guava Tart Ale (Scratch 384) – Sour – 5% 

In Bottles Only: 

• LaGrave Triple Golden Ale – Belgian – 8% 
• Jovial Dubbel Ale – Belgian – 7% 
• Mad Elf Grand Cru (2018) – Belgian Strong Dark – 11% 
• Wild Elf – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 11% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Impending Descent – Russian Stout – 12% 

• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator – Double Bock – 9.8% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Flying Mouflan – Belgian – 11.5% 
• Dear Peter  
• Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 6.5% 
• Blackberry Tizzy – Sour – 7.8% 

• Mortal Cherry – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 6.6% 
• Apricot Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 7.4% 

Troeg also has cider from Big Hill Ciderworks as well as numerous non-alcoholic sodas in bottle (for children and non-drinking drivers).  

Troegs currently has no events listed for this weekend in their brewery. It has seemed they do less and less events in house at the brewery, and more and more out at various places. Most likely due to how full the brewery already is getting plus it expands the brand more to do these events at a wider range of places. 

They do however have a big event coming up on October 4^th weekend – their annual Hop Harvest Fest. Which since putting in the beer garden they’ve been putting to good use with this. Look for more information to come out soon on bands performing and beers they will be releasing. 

If you’ve never been to Troegs Brewery before, make sure you take the walking tour. It’s a quick 5-10 minute self guided tour but you get to see some neat things along the way (like the krausen for DreamWeaver as well as their bottling and canning lines). 

Troegs currently has 385 uniquely produced beers (according to Untappd, which is a bit dated on this, since a lot of their scratches were released before Untappd was created, and they are currently up to Scratch 387) with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.79. 

Thank you for checking out this brief brewery hopping tour around the outskirts of Harrisburg and centralized around Hummelstown. I hope you all found it informative and helpful and will give these four great breweries a look over. They all definitely deserve your time and attention as they are all pumping out some wonderful beers and have great stuff going on at their breweries all the time.  

And lastly, make sure you hop on over to my beer blog – The Beer Thrillers, where me and beer buddy J. Doncevic have been writing some wonderful beer reviews, brewery reviews, trip recaps, beer event reviews, and all kinds of other beer related things in the Central PA area since May. Make sure to stop and check us out and let us know in the comments that you came from here, we’d greatly appreciate seeing you there!  

• B. Kline
• The Beer Thrillers
• https://thebeerthrillers.com/
• http://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/

What can you say to a free taco? Plus an excellent (kettle sour) beer? And a good book to read while drinking? And an absolutely gorgeous evening at a wonderful brewery?

Nothing but a GOOD TIME.

I don’t often get to stop into Newfangled Brew Works, despite how close it is, unless hitting the place up with a friend (typically Drew or Richard), but I had seen a ‘promotion’ / ‘coupon’ on their Facebook page, the day before my birthday in fact (while I was waiting to donate blood), where it said all you had to do was send them a Facebook message with your birthdate and they would give you a free taco up to 10$ worth. Well, the coupon was expiring on 9.3.19 and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste (I had yet to eat at their built-in Taco Truck, so figured might as well give it a try since it was free), so following work, I made a detour and stopped by.

Certainly glad I did.

Lets break down what all I got here. In the picture, the taco on display is a quesadilla taco, with bonus (2$, but free due to the coupon) beef meat. Total was 7.42$.

The book is ‘Best. Movie. Year. Ever.’ by Brian Raftery. (Taken out of the Hershey Public Library.)

And the beer is….

Beer: Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 10
Untappd Write-Up: A kettle sour with guava and lemon added. The guava gives a cotton candy flavor to mix with the bright lemon flavor.

So as you can see, I had all the makings for a fantastic 30-40 minutes of relaxation. Good food, good beer, good book, good weather, nice outdoors. And I definitely did enjoy it too. Especially after a long day at work, it was very nice indeed.

Firstly, diving into the taco, it was delicious. Very good quesadilla taco, with just a bit of spiceyness but nothing too hot or powerful to kill the senses. Not quite super filling though, but still very excellent. (The 3 for 11$ is probably a fantastic deal, though I don’t believe you can get the quesadilla tacos in that special.)

Moving on to the beer, it is a wonderful light, refreshing sour. The guava is definitely a backburner on this, comparatively to some other guava beers I’ve recently had (namely the Tattered Flag and Abomination Brewing collaboration – Tattered Abomination, which was extremely guava forward; or the Wolf Prints beer by Wolf Brewing Co.). I felt the lemonade came out in this much more pronounced and provided it with a great zest and made it a lot more refreshing and crushable than the previous mentioned.

Aroma is light beer smell, nothing extremely sticking out, the lemon is there, the beer notes of grain and malt is there, with something underneath – most likely the guava. But nothing super stand out.

Appearance is light, light straw getting a little darker, but mostly clear and see through. Had some nice carbonation and some good head to it, especially being on draft.

The taste is simple, nothing show off, nothing drop dead amazing, but not a bad thing at all in this beer. It is just a great beer to sit back, read, and relax, and drink. Could easily have stayed and drank another 3 or 4 before realizing it too. Coming in at 5.6% its very light and doesn’t knock you off your feet. The lemonade is upfront and the most significant taste, there is a slight tartness to it, but nothing ultimately ‘sour’ about it. Almost more kolsch like than sour.

I don’t feel like the guava gives off a ‘cotton candy’ mixture with the lemonade like the Untappd write-up, but mileage may vary on that I suppose., as some previous beers I’ve had with guava – Tattered Abomination and Wolf Prints – were very guava forward and they certainly packed a punch. The Fatum Series Guava that Tattered did a while back I felt was subdued, much like the guava is in this, and thats probably better (as far as my tastebuds are concerned at any rate).

The book is about the year 1999 in Hollywood, and the how all of the movies have made an impact since. And that it could possibly be the best collection of movies in one year. Some classics from 1999 include: Blair Witch Project, Following, Go, Run Lola Run, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, The Matrix, Cruel Intentions, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, 10 Things I Hate About You, Varsity Blues, Office Space, Eyes Wide Shut, American Beauty, The Virgin Suicides, Election, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. (It certainly was a great year for cinema, that can’t be disputed!).

Getting back to beer, definitely take a time to stop in at NewFangled Brew Works. Great spot, pretty good/great beer, delicious food, and just a nice vibe and location. Ultimately not too far from some other Harrisburg related spots like Boneshire Brew Works or Spring Gate Winery & Brewery, or ZeroDay and The Millworks, or even that far from places like Tattered Flag, Troegs Brewery, or Pizza Boy.

And to wrap this bad boy up, my Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Write-Up: 4 (as of 9.5.19)

Keep drinking, keep exploring breweries and craft beer, you Pokemon Go Craft Beer Hipster Millennial Bearded Avocado Loving Beautiful People you!

-B. Kline

I can’t wrte enough to keep up with my drinking, or I’m drinking too much to write, or I’m not writing enough, or my writing is too much to keep up with my drinking…. or something like that. But, here’s to trying to get to my backlog of writing I need to do…. while out drinking and making myself do more writing!

Because I have to review this beer. And I have to review the other I had last night (one of my favorites from Boneshire) and I have to write up the events I went to, and I have to do my hop harvest at home, which means I have to do a write-up on that….

So… enough meandering and procrastinating and time to get into the writing so I can drink more and write more!

Beer: Good Walk Spoiled
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up:
This brew is a collaboration with our Mugger of the year winner Clay Griffith. Clay wanted us to push the envelope and brew an Arnie Palmer (iced tea and lemonade combo) so we did.

Kudos to both Boneshire and Mug Club of the year Clay Griffith because this is a very well done and very refreshing and tasty brew.

Especially given the fact that I hate tea, iced tea, warmed tea, normal tea, not so normal tea, black tea, green tea, blue tea, red tea, pink hibiscus with himalayan salt tea — all tea. (Meanwhile thats the only thing my mom drinks.)

This doesn’t drink as an alcoholic iced tea however. And I can’t speak for it tasting like an Arnie Palmer (because I don’t drink those/never have). What I can say is, this tastes very tart, very lemon forward. Powerfully so.

Luckily, I love lemons, and love lemon flavor.

And that is exactly what you get with this, in huge amounts. You do get some iced tea notes, but they are very subtle (or just overpowered by the lemon). It is an extremely refreshing beer, and it is tart. Its a great golf beer (which I suppose is the point of it all now isn’t it?). (Thus the name of the beer right?)

Clocking in at 4.5% you could easily bring a 4pk of these bad boys to the golf course and be perfectly fine for the first 9 (and of course you’d need a second 4pk for the back 9). It probably won’t even mess up your total either. (I know, you’ll still hit +12 over par anyway, so don’t feel bad when you maybe go +13 instead.)

Since Tattered Flag’s canning didn’t happen today (carbonation issues, so it was a no-go), I will most likely have another review later today followed up (hopefully) by the Moo-Funk event review. And who knows, maybe Saturday/Sunday despite working, I might get caught up on the events and hop harvest blog posts, and start in on my laundry list of beer reviews Monday……

Stranger things have happened!

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.25 (as of 7.26.19)

Until next time everyone, enjoy!
– B. Kline