There is nothing better than coming home from a seven day road trip to finding a beer mail package on your front step. I want to give a big shout out to Steve Orbanek for the beer mail! Very very very very very grateful and thankful for this.

Being a typical kid of the 80s and 90s I grew up on The Simpsons. Simpsons, Seinfeld, Conan O’Brien, The Angry Beavers, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Animaniacs, were the primary sources of my comedy as a young boy growing up. This has evolved and grown into many more options – from comics like Peanuts, B.C., Fox Trot, to late night talkshow hosts – Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Johnny Carson, to more shows like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, BoJack Horseman, Futurama, South Park, Rick and Morty, to stand up comedians like George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, to dark humor writers like Kurt Vonnegut; I could spend all day prattling on with a list of my comedic ancestors and inspirations and roots, but there is probably no bigger defining factor to my humor than The Simpsons. Early season Simpsons. Seasons 1-9 Simpsons. The Conan O’Brien episodes, the Treehouse of Horror episodes, the absurdism, the Sideshow Bob episodes, etc.

When quoting things it will come from one of three sources: 1) Simpsons / Futurama, 2) Seinfeld / Curb Your Enthusiasm, 3) Literature. And in that order. And I know which will be recognized…. and its not when I quote from group three.

Hanging out with friends, drinking at the bars, breweries, or home (especially now – at home) with buddies, the endless quoting of early Simpsons, the “that reminds me of X episode” comparisons, etc. “Remember that time X” or “this could have been something The Simpsons did” or when watching a show or movie “they are clearly ripping that from The Simpsons”, etc.

The Simpsons are a form of cultural identity, especially for people of my age. The mid-late 30s to early 40s. We grew up on a steady diet of Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Captain Planet, Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, The Angry Beavers, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, etc. Our lives were viewed through the prisms of animated comedy and action. Our adolescence we spent learning why yellowed people with spiky hair and only four fingers on each hand were so much funnier than the people around us, their lives wackier, their antics ratcheted up a notch above the normalcy of our boring mundane lives.

As is a common theme on the blog here, if I have access to a pop culture beer to review – you best bet I’ll be reviewing it on here. There’s a long list of them (and I’ll put it at the end), from Star Wars, to Simpsons, to Seinfeld, to Turtles, to even a beer from Space Balls. If I have a chance to drink it, I’ll review it.

Previously I did – I Voted for Kodos, and this is the companion beer to that. I highly recommend giving that a read when you are done here as the two beers are companion beers and are meant to go together.

So, lets discuss KANG. As per the Simpsons Wikia:

“Kang Johnson is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Kodos) of the series. He is a Rigellian from Rigel 7. He and his sister Kodos are continuously try to take over Earth and are usually seen attacking Springfield. He usually appears in Treehouse of Horrors but either him or Kodos have been seen in other episodes such as “The Springfield Files” and “Gump Roast” Kang and Kodos have a lot of space weaponry at hand and have their own spaceship. They speak the Rigellian language, which, by coincidence, is identical to English. Although they look identical, Kang has a deeper voice than Kodos. He is the featured character on the on the Season 14 DVD/Blu-ray box set as well as the iTunes cover.”

The Citizen Kang segment from Treehouse of Horror VII is one of the best segments from Simpsons / Treehouse of Horror altogether. Lots of great quotes, lines, gags, and an outright funny segment. And despite being about Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, it still holds up well, especially the jokes about third parties and Ross Perot and people not wanting to vote third party.

It all seems almost prescient of our last two elections, alien vs. alien and still nobody voted third party. Sorry Gary Johnson (2016) and sorry Jo Jorgenson (2020). …or Kanye West (2020)…. seems people rather vote for aliens.

There is one thing though, that I am looking for in a President, and that is his stance on twirling….

Regardless of your political stance, there is one thing we can get together on and agree on – and thats that these beers from Second Sin Brewing Company have been top notch. (Unfortunately) I never had anything from Second Sin Brewing Company before the two beers – I Voted for Kodos and I Voted for Kang. They both absolutely blew me out of the water, and I can see why they are a Top 10 PA Brewery for 2020 according to Untappd. I have quickly added their brewery as a ‘must visit’ on my list of breweries to check out for 2021.

Second Sin Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Bristol Pennsylvania, located at 1500 Grundy Lane, the former site of Broken Goblet Brewing. (Broken Goblet has since moved on to a new location – they are also a very heavy pop culture referencing brewery, with a Gritty beer, several beers about the Eagles, and of course the popular This is the Way – Mandalorian beer). According to Untappd, Second Sin Brewing Company has 138 unique beers, and over 7.5K ratings with a global average rating of 4.07 (as of 12.5.20). (There is no description on their Untappd page.)

Beer: I Voted for Kang
Brewery: Second Sin Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: I Voted For Kang and I Voted For Kodos, conceptually, are like two peas in a pod. They both started with the same base of 2 row malt, Malted Oats, and light Crystal. Both are supported with Galaxy and Idaho 7 hops to round out their flavor profiles.

However, don’t let anyone tell you that these candidates are the same…oh, no. Kang is primarily hopped with the tropical and fruity Citra, while Kodos is loaded with dank and melony Mosaic.

Appearance looks very similar to that of I Voted for Kodos – a bright orange, hazy, dank, cloudy, opaque New England IPA. Like darker orange juice. This is a beautiful looking beer. Rich foamy head and left lovely lacing on the glass. Great carbonation from the can.

Aroma is a tropical hop blast. Large notes of tropical hop nose on this that you can smell as soon as you crack open the can and start to pour. This has the staple New England IPA hop combo of Mosaic and Citra to give it that punch of tropical, melon, juicy / dank hop aroma. The Galaxy and Idaho 7 hops accentuate this nicely and provides a very hop forward nose.

Taste is where there’s the bigger difference in comparison to I Voted for Kodos. While its similar in taste, there’s a notable difference (for me) – there’s no ‘kick’. I found there was a bit of a kick to the Kodos beer. Almost like a spice kick, but with a hop twist. This is much more smooth, much more juicer, much more dank, and easier drinking, and downright crushable. This is nothing to say against the I Voted for Kodos. That was a terrific beer and I loved it and drank it down just as easily, but I feel that I Voted for Kang is probably smoother, juicier, and therefore more crushable. The mouth feel on this is wonderful too, its heavy but not cloying, its not too heavy, but just right, the silky smoothness of it works well too and makes it an enjoyable drink. There is no hop bite or hop bitterness, and its a typical and well crafted New England IPA in that aspect that its pure flavor and taste. The combo of Mosaic and Citra (see insert of Hallmark meme that has been going around and around and around on beer groups on Facebook lately) works well here. Sometimes you just can’t beat a trusted and well done hop combo, and this proves it. This is tropical, with a bit of zest, some melon, a bit of peach, a good dose of mango, and the wee faintest hint of melon rind, pine, and passionfruit. There is no off flavors, nothing acidic, nothing cloying, no bad or awkward aftertaste, nothing lingering or off putting – this is just a very well crafted, well made New England IPA that goes down easy and smooth and is extremely tasty and drinkable. Both of these beers (I Voted for Kang and I Voted for Kodos) has sold me on Second Sin Brewing Company, and hopefully anyone else who has tried these it has sold them on the brewery as well, because these were phenomenal beers and they certainly deserve the praise they’ve been getting.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.22 (as of 12.5.20)

Out of the two, if hard pressed – I would pick I Voted for Kang over I Voted for Kodos. But thats an extremely close call, and both are extremely delicious beers.

Happy Repeal Day everyone. Make sure you go out and support a local craft brewery and drink some beer!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Ok, lets break down some of the nerdy pop culture beers I’ve reviewed:

Star Wars:

• Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Revenge of the Fifth / Cinco de Mayo
• May the Fourth Be With You
• Beer Review: This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet Brewing)
• Beer Review: Java the Stout (Jackie O’s Brewery)

Space Balls:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

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

The Simpsons:

• Beer Review: I Voted for Kodos (Second Sin Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: I Voted for Kang (Second Sin Brewing Company)

Back to the Future:

• Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

• Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

• Beer Review: Broken Skull – Stone Cold Steve Austin’s IPA (El Segundo Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Macho Man (Couch Brewery)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

• Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Other:

• Beer Review: Super Villain (Urban Village Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Pixels (Seminar Brewing)
• Beer Review: Villeinage (Elder Pine Brewing and Blending)

Seinfeld:

• Beer Review: Jon Voight’s Car (RAR Brewing)

What a better time to review this than after the release of The Mandalorian season two trailer. ….What…. you haven’t seen it yet? How can you be reading this if you haven’t seen the trailer for the second season of Mandalorian yet? Go here now… quickly! And then come back and check out this review. I mean, seriously, read my review… but also seriously… check that trailer out and tell me you aren’t hyped and pumped for season two. The Mandalorian Season Two Trailer.

This is my second Mandalorian themed beer review. Certainly not going to be my last I’m sure given the popularity of the show, and how craft breweries love using pop cultural references for can labels and beer names. You can read my review for This is The Way by Broken Goblet here. As many readers of the blog will have taken note by now, I am a big Star Wars fan, so any Star Wars themed beers I can find, I try my best to get my hands on them. Sometimes this is good… the beers are good …. sometimes this is bad… and the beers were bad and they used the name / label / reference as a means to sell their otherwise less than stellar beer. But thats a risk you have to take when trying beers by beer name / label rather than brewing company recognition or reviews or whatever. Its a risk I know going in and usually willing to take.

You can check out a few my other Star Wars (and one Space Balls) related beer reviews:

• May The Fourth Be With You
• This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For
• Moon of Vega

I was able to acquire this as a crowler in a trade. (Thats the only way RAR released this beer, was in crowler form, unlike their other Out of Order series of beers which they’ve done in 4pks – to the best of my knowledge). The second hand market on this beer was getting a bit ridiculous (had a guy offer to sell it to me for 48$ plus I pay the shipping for him to send it from VA to PA), so I was happy to find a decent trader on it.

Time to break down this crazy looking beer.

Beer: Out of Order: Blue Milk
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Made in collaboration with Brad at Cold Stream Studios and Main Street Gallery, “Blue Milk” is made with milk from a Bantha, but also tastes like a blue raspberry float.

At least it’s from a Bantha and not that creature Luke drank from in The Last Jedi…

Apparently its called a Thala… and Luke finds it delicious….

Personally, I’d stick with the blue milk he had in A New Hope….

OR…. better yet…. I’d just try this beer here from RAR Brewing…. (Ahh…. such a good segue huh?)

Let’s start with the appearance… this is a beautiful light creamy looking blue. Like a hazy cloudy sunny day blue. Or if you had fruit loops or some other fruity sugary cereal and ate all the cereal, this is what your milk would look like afterwards. It has a creamy, almost like melted ice cream look and texture to it.

Aroma is interesting, it has a vanilla heavy smell, but you get a raspberry and berry heavy nose too. Kind of has the smell of melted soft serve ice cream that used the raspberry flavoring.

The texture, consistency, and overall look follows suit. It has the texture, a light grittyness, but still overall smooth of a drink still, of melted ice cream. Everything about this just has the appearance of melted ice cream, which I think is the overall attempt of it. Its like many of the sour fruited slushee like beers, but a bit smoother, more silkier, but still has some of that gritty texture to it. This has the taste of those yogurt drops, I remember my daughters loved them when they were babies, their small, almost Hershey kiss shaped drops of yogurt, smooth, fruited, and easy to digest for babies. This is similar in flavor to a raspberry one of those. If you had a berry, fruity bowl of raspberry (primarily raspberry) fruited flavored cereal, this is the milk from after you ate the cereal. This isn’t quite as powerful raspberry, its subdued, possibly the result of being “blue raspberry” versus whatever regular raspberries are called I guess. Not quite sure what the differences are between the two (if there is such a thing). This reminds me of sitting down to watch Saturday morning cartoons and draining the bowl of milk afterwards (though for me it was that bad lactaid free milk). Memberries and nostalgia galore here with this beer! I do like this beer overall. I think some might be put off by the color, the texture, even possibly the scent, and appearance, but overall I like it, and I enjoyed it. I think 48$+ is ridiculous for it, and the second hand market on this is driven by the label and logo (which I have noticed now, that some crowlers are coming without the label due to them running out). I think its worth the attempt to find and try if you are able to, especially if you are able to cheaply, but I wouldn’t go crazy searching for it at some of those second market prices.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.37 (as of 9.16.20).

I have had a few other Out of Order (OOO or OoO or OO) variants from RAR Brewing. I like the series and I do like RAR Brewing overall. I previously here for the blog reviewed Jon Voight’s Car, make sure to check that out.

As always please like, subscribe, follow, and share. Love hearing from you guys the readers in the comments section as well. So be sure to let me know what your thoughts are on the beer, the label, the brewery, Star Wars in general, or anything else on your mind’s.

Thanks for reading and cheers!

-B. Kline

By now I’m sure you are all sick of your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even by text or phone or SnapChat or WhatsApp or Zoom or Flim-Flam-Floom or Blue Milk or Bantha Fodder or whatever telling you “May the Fourth Be With You” or some such ‘garbage’ or nonsense right? Maybe you don’t know the difference between a Dianoga and a Ronto? Or remember that the green Nautalan Jedi Master that attacked Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith was Kit Fisto (c’mon…. with a name like that how couldn’t you remember him?), or that the Prune Face guy from Return of the Jedi when they attack the Bunker on the Endor moon was Orriamarko…… Maybe sportsball is more your thing. Either way, pro-Star Wars or anti-Star Wars, or Luke-Warm (ah, see what I did there?) to Star Wars, there is still good beers to be had about Star Wars or similar nerdy things.

So as any reader here to the blog will know, I am a huge Star Wars nerd. Starting back to when I was in 6th grade. Over at a sleep over a friend had Star Wars cards (Decipher’s SW:CCG – Star Wars Customizable Card Game) and he taught me to play. This led me to fall in love with Star Wars by watching the movies, and got me going to a local card shop called Omnidon’s in Hummelstown. This is where I ended up meeting friends D. Scott and R. Dibeler and a whole host of other people too numerous to even begin to list.

As I grew older, I watched the Original Trilogy (OT), the Special Edition Original Trilogy (SE-OT), the Prequel Trilogy (PT) and reading a list of books longer than I have time to type out here. (Authors like Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Matthew Woodring Stover, James Luceno, etc, etc, etc.). I even named my youngest daughter Mara (those who know – will know).

Flash forward to Disney buying the franchise, and at the time my oldest daughter was 7. I was ecstatic to get to watch new Star Wars movies with her in theater. In preparation we watched episodes 4 (A New Hope), 5 (Empire Strikes Back), and 6 (Return of the Jedi). We saw Episode 7 – The Force Awakens in IMAX at the Whitaker Center. She was hooked. She loved Rey, she loved BB-8 (she was already hooked by Star Wars, already loved R2-D2 and Chewbacca and Yoda). Over the years we saw Rogue One and The Last Jedi in theaters as well, and even Solo before it went to Netflix. (Last day possible in theater to see that one). Sadly, her love for the saga waned a bit after The Last Jedi (she’s not alone there), so we didn’t see Episode 9 – Rise of Skywalker in theater. But, that is part of our “May the Fourth” today – getting to watch it on Disney+ (uploaded to the streaming service today).

Fun trivia fact: my oldest daughter was featured on TV at a Phillies game (Star Wars night). She wore her Rey costume to the game and they had her dance with the Phillie Phanatic and some of the 501st Legion (cosplayers) who were there dressed as Rey, Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren, Vader, Leia, Chewbacca, and Luke.

…So…. whats all this got to do with beer right? Well, yesterday, me and my oldest two daughters made the trek down to Gettysburg to Fourscore Beer Co. For the weekend they were doing a Star Wars themed menu, including the release of ‘Wookie Monster’, a 9% oreo cookie stout; as well as food items – Sarlaac Fries (french fries, beercheese, and cole slaw on top), as well as Mynock Gravy and Biscuits (chipped cream rib-eye gravy and butter biscuits), as well as a cherry tomato and mozzarella salad. We stopped; and I got a food item of each (Lily got the Sarlaac fries and loved them, Olivia-Grace got the salad and ate it as we did the Auto-Tour, and I got the Mynock Gravy and Biscuits – fantastic). Unfortunately, the Wookie Monster was sold out. (As you can imagine, that was going to be a big feature of today’s blog post). [Sigh]. I did get a crowler of the Mango Marshmellow Jahmba. Can’t wait to crack that open and devour it. I’ve yet to have had a bad beer from them.

Here on the blog however, I have done several beer reviews of geeky, nerdy, Star Wars, and other similar movie franchises. Pop cultural references always plays a big role in a lot of breweries beer names and even branding.

My most recent Star Wars themed beer (and beer review) was the above mentioned ‘This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For‘.

This was an absolutely amazing 15% Imperial Double Stout by Fourscore Beer Co. Easily a contender for Top 10 (New) Beers I’ve had for this year (granted; this year will probably see me drink less NEW beers than previous years just due to everything going on). The Untappd Description reads: “Brewed with a British Maris Otter base, loads of malted oats and a variety of roasted and crystal malts with a touch of lactose. Heaps of peanut flour were used in the whirlpool and the wort was racked onto a ton of marshmallow fluff prior to fermentation. More marshmallow is added at the end of fermentation along with peanut butter powder. Huge aromas and flavors of fresh peanut butter and marshmallows straight from the bag. A rich malty base of caramel and chocolate tones carry the flavors to the finish. Brewed with Founders Club member Eric Acumen.” If you like peanut butter beers; this will definitely be right up your alley. There is still bottles for sale at Fourscore Beer Co (as of 5.4.20). To read my full review of it, click here: “Beer Review: This is Nut The Fluff You’re Looking For“.

Another fun beer I did a review of was “This is The Way” by Broken Goblet. Another Star Wars themed beer, though this time based off the hit Disney+ show ‘The Mandalorian’ rather than from the movies.

Jokingly calling it a ME-IPA (Mos Eisley IPA) rather than NE-IPA (New England IPA) Broken Goblet made one delicious IPA, be a ME-IPA or NE-IPA or whatever you want to call it. This is a juicy, tasty, easy drinking IPA. No bitter bite, slight creamyness to it, nice flowing beer. You can read my review of it here: “Beer Review: This is the Way“.

And where would I be if I didn’t mention Equilibrium’s “Moon of Vega”. If we’re talking Star Wars, we have to talk Space Balls! If you only ever see two space or sci-fi parody movies (and so far, you only really need to see these two) it best be Space Balls and Galaxy Quest. Anything else is inferior.

Moon of Vega is a collaboration NE-IPA by Equilibrium Brewery and J. Wakefield Brewing; and they absolutely nailed this out of the galaxy. This was a super tasty, delicious NE-IPA that was creamy, hoppy, juicy, dank, and all the things you look for in a NE IPA. A 4pk of this just wasn’t enough. As you can see, I had this during one of our podcasts for “So A Mexican and A Scott Walk Into a Bar…” a podcast ran by some of The Extended Beer Thrillers family – D. Scott and Esteban. To read my beer review of Moon of Vega click here: “Beer Review: Moon of Vega“.

Below is a list of the Star Wars related podcasts we did for So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar… (I’m featured on all of these). (Warning, language is Rated R and might not be safe for work.)

• Esoteric Antics: The Mandalorian
• Esoteric Antics: Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian Wrap-Up
• Rise of Skywalker: Commentary Track

Don’t worry, there will be plenty more Star Wars podcasts in the future, I guarantee that!

Star Wars announced some big movie and TV show news today too. Taika Waititi is to direct his own feature film for Star Wars. This is super big news. Click the following news article link from Star Wars (dot com) to read more: Taika Waititi to Direct, Co-Write new Star Wars Film.

While not a Star Wars beer, I did enjoy reading a Star Wars book and drinking a wonderful beer in the nice sunny afternoon earlier. The beer was Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works (look for a review of that soon) and the book is Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis.

Sorry I didn’t have a new Star Wars beer to review for this, I hope you all still enjoyed the article. Let me know in the comments what your favorite Star Wars themed beers are (or even ones you’ve seen, heard of, or drank). I’m off to watch Rise of Skywalker on Disney+ with my daughter. Cheers, and May the Fourth Be With You. Always.

-B. Kline

I had gotten a few of these from a mule through a Facebook group; and I will fully admit that it was based on beer name and label art. We’ve all done it. Walking through rows of beers for a mix-a-six at a distributor like Breski’s or even at Weiss while your significant other is getting groceries and you wander through the beer aisle and see an interesting beer name or some pretty or cool looking can art.

But the fantastic thing about this beer is; my decision to get it based on beer logo and name was backed up by (and reinforced by) the fact that its brewed by Equilibrium Brewery and J. Wakefield Brewing. Two fantastic, amazing breweries. Two top notch breweries. Breweries that are often discussed as elite, or great, or top tier, or fantastic, or wonderful, or amazing; in the same vein as Trillium, Tree House, Hill Farmstead, Dewey, Other half, Monkish, Great Notion, 450 North… etc…. etc…. etc…. etc. Yea, I could go on and on with a list of amazing breweries. But no matter how big my list, no matter how many I list, both Equilibrium Brewery and J. Wakefield Brewing deserve to be on that list.

Lone Starr: But Yogurt, what is this place? What is it that you do here?
Yogurt: Merchandising.
Barf: Merchandising? What’s that?
Yogurt: Merchandising! Come, I’ll show you. [to the Dinks] Open up this door. [Yogurt walks over to a wall filled with Spaceballs merchandise.]
Yogurt: Heh-heh. Come! We put the picture’s name on everything! [everyone is staring in amazement]
Yogurt: Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs: the T-shirt, Spaceballs: the Coloring Book, [holds up a Transformers comic book] Spaceballs: the Lunchbox, Spaceballs: the Breakfast Cereal! Spaceballs: the Flame Thrower! [fires a blast from flame thrower]
Dinks: Ooohh!
Yogurt: The kids love this one. And last, but not least, Spaceballs: the Doll; Me. [Yogurt pulls the doll’s string]
Yogurt Doll: May the Schwartz be with you!
Yogurt: [kisses the doll] Adorable.

Space Balls (1987, Mel Brooks)

It is extremely hard to find someone who doesn’t like Mel Brooks, and it is even harder to find someone who doesn’t like Space Balls. I’m convinced these people don’t exist. Because I have yet to meet them. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence that they exist, but I’ve yet to see, hear, or talk to them. And even then, I’d question if their just pulling a prank on me or not.

Lone Starr: I wonder, will we ever see each other again?
Yogurt: Who knows? God willing, we’ll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.

Since I could sit here all day quoting Space Balls and posting gifs of it… and sniffing this fantastic beer…. lets stop doing those things… and actually review it! Otherwise I’ll just get drunk and will end up finding myself re-watching Space Balls over and over and over and forget all about this blog.

Beer: Moon of Vega
Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery
Collaborator: J. Wakefield Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.7%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: J wakefield collaboration lactose & vanilla deliciousness

Lets start off discussing how this beer has aged a bit. My first time drinking it (top picture of this blog post) was just a mere two days after it was canned and released. Had it at my friend D. Scott’s house as we (D. Scott, Esty, and myself) did the podcast for El Camino and Breaking Bad. (I linked it in a previous blog post, but I will do so again here.) My second time having it, was today. (Still have one can left too.) I will say taste has changed a bit, appearance slightly, but mostly just taste has changed. Aroma has stayed consistent.

So with that said, the appearance originally was a more glowing orange, where as the more recent is a yellowing orange with a bit more cloudyness to it. There was definite haze both times, but I think there was a bit more cloudyness, a bit more dank, a bit more haze, the second time I drank this. Granted, there is a month and roughly a week, separating the two dates of drinking, and this being an IPA, its going to show some obvious change. Though, this doesn’t seem to have changed that much, with little depreciation from the first time to this second time. Both times it had a fine ‘helmet’ … I mean head… and retention was great, with good lacing.

Aroma is interesting for this. Its kind of a vanilla hop bomb of aromatic notes. Very heavy vanilla and very heavy citrus and fruit hop notes. A lot of mango, peach, and some citrusy hop notes to blend with the vanilla. Like the vanilla goes up one nostril and the hops go up the other and twist and combine in your brain somewhere. Probably back behind the cerebellum or something. (I dunno, one of you more learned people could explain this better to me.) Both the appearance and the aroma screams ‘milkshake IPA’ despite its not being labeled as such.

Ok, lets drink this…. chug it perhaps?

Naw…. lets sip this and enjoy it! Because this is extremely tasty, extremely fun, and extremely drinkable 8.7% beer that will get us walloped quickly if we’re not careful with it. It’ll have us going….

….from drinking…. to light speed….. to ridiculous speed….. to ludicrous speed….. all the way to PLAID!

Ok, ok, before I make a….

….hole of myself…. I need to stop spamming you all with GIFs and continue with the actual review.

Taste…. that’s where we are. Ok, simply put, this is a delicious beer. When I first drank it back on October 18th, it was very green. The hops over powered the vanilla and lactose and it went from being more of a Milkshake IPA to more of a very heavy hoppy New England IPA. It wasn’t bad then, and its not bad now either. But now, it comes off more as a Milkshake IPA with the vanilla and lactose being more abundant, more upfront, more powerful, and the hops becoming more muted, more subtle, and less pungent (not in a negative way then or now). THEN – it tasted more bitter, more hop forward, with a very heavy dose of mango, peach, and some pineapple, with the vanilla and lactose smoothing it out as you drank. NOW – it drinks a lot more vanilla and lactose heavy, smoothie like, milkshake like, with no pineapple flavor, but a strong mango flavor to coincide with the vanilla and lactose, with some peach peaking out around the edges of it all. All around this is a fantastic Double IPA. The 8.7% will hit you, but it starts out subtle and picks up speed and then packs its punch in at the end after you drank the last sip, making sure every last drop falls out of the glass (or can) into your open mouth; even hungrily eating up the sediment. (Yes, I know you do that!)

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.25 (as of 11.26.19)

Just like with my last review – Paradise Lost – I’m drinking (most likely) my next beer review on here: Heist Brewery’s Citraquench’l. While writing the ‘Gotta Get up to Get Down‘ review, I drank the Paradise Lost. And when I was drinking ‘Gotta Get up to Get Down‘ I was reviewing Newfangled Pils (by Newfangled Brew Works).

So, as I was saying before, when I first had this beer, as evidenced by the first picture of the blog (with Esty in the background), me, Esty, and D. Scott were doing our podcast for “WTF Was I Watching: El Camino and Breaking Bad”. It was a two part series (because we ended up talking for 4 hours just about, and even after editing it comes out to be about 3 hours in total). In the next two weeks we’ll be meeting up together again to review ‘The Irishman’ by Martin Scorsese – a movie I am super hyped to see. Even more hyped than Star Wars; so you know thats saying something.

You can find the two parts of the Breaking Bad and El Camino (and some Better Call Saul) podcasts here:

* WTF Did I Just Watch: El Camino, Breaking Bad – Part One
* WTF Did I Just Watch: El Camino, Breaking Bad – Part Two

The full listing for podcasts for ‘So a Mexican and a Scot Walk into a Bar…’ staring the ‘WTF Did I Just Watch” podcasts can be found here on BuzzSprout:

* So a Mexican and a Scot Walk into a Bar

The podcast is a collaborative effort of D. Scott, D. Arndt, Esty, and myself. With future guest appearances by many people. Probably too many people to even list here, and too big of a random cast list to even have a clue of who all will appear to even put here. There is some language that might be ‘R rated’ and some themes that would also fit into that mold, so just be awares.

(NOTE: We do discuss beers when I am on, otherwise its just the movie and some fun and humor bits otherwise. On the Breaking Bad / El Camino episode, we discussed the Moon of Vega beer as well as Boneshire Brew Works’ Tried and True.)

I know this was certainly a much different beer review, with a lot of gifs and what not, but I thought with the Space Balls themed beer, I’d make it a lot more light hearted, and fun, and introduce some great quotes and gifs from Space Balls. If you would like to read up more on Space Balls you can read here:
* Space Balls
* Space Balls Quotes

If you would like to read some of our more serious beer reviews here on The Beer Thrillers, I highly recommend the following:

• King Sue (B. Kline)
• Intergalactic Warrior (B. Kline)
• Tickle parts – Passionfruit (B. Kline)
• Birra de Levante (B. Kline)
• Darwin’s Salted Forehead (B. Kline)
• Eukuanaut (J. Doncevic)
• Enigma (J. Doncevic)
• Ghost in the Machine (J. Doncevic)
• Irish Table (B. Kline)
• Cheers From Default Brewing! (AJ Brechbiel / Default Brewing)
  

We are currently running a POLL on Twitter, to try and find out you – the readers – thoughts and opinions and what you would like to see more of going forward. A direct link can be found here: https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/status/1199305924000780293.

Stay tuned, as that poll ends at 8AM. I am most likely going to be re-posting the POLL but making it last longer than 24HR, probably have it last til Saturday, so plenty of people will get to see it and vote in it. I’m just learning how to do various functions on Twitter, so look for more in the future.

As always, make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and comment. It really means a lot to us. We have a lot of exciting stuff coming out. Like our brewery and behind the scenes visit of Mellow Mink coming up, some guest writers from different parts of the country promoting their local scenes, namely Let Us Drink Beer ; their most recent beer blog is a beer review of Akademia Skal Norwegian Wheat Ale. So I am definitely looking forward to their guest writing for us, and I will be doing a blog or two for them as well. So certainly be on the look out for all of that. We are also looking to do some guest writing for a Japanese beer blog and them helping us as well. So, like I said, lots of fun, cool, and interesting things coming out soon. So make sure you are here to check it all out!

And as President Skroob would say:

-B. Kline

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield; (And what is else not to be overcome?) That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me, to bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee and deify his power, Who from the terror of his arm so late Doubted his empire[.] (I, 106–114)

– Satan
John Milton’s Paradise Lost

While writing the review for the ‘Gotta Get Up to Get Down’ WISEACRE Brewing Company‘s beer last night, I drank this up, quickly, easily, and very happily. Getting home from work, and writing up the review, and reading over AJ Brechbiel’s first entry with Default Brewing: Cheers from Default Brewing! I had my first can. Walked my dog Leela across town, and came back to watch the Survivor Series and the latest Rick and Morty episode, I had my second can of this. Wish I had an entire four pack, or six pack, or eight pack, or twelve hundred pack of this delicious, super tasty, super juicy, fantastic brewski.

The beer mail that contained Southern Prohibition’s Paradise Lost, as well as the several others that I’ve reviewed: Crosstown Brewing’s “Boat Drinks: Pina Colada“, WISEACRE’s “Adjective Animal” and “Gotta Get Up to Get Down“. (I didn’t show the duplicates in the picture.) And for reference point, that’s Leela providing protection for the beers in the background. (She is a border collie pure breed, rescued, and she is named after Turonga Leela from Futurama.)

So now, as I sit watching another Flyers game and also switching back and forth with the Monday Night Football game of Rams vs. Ravens (go Rams I guess…..) and even jumping to RAW occasionally, I’m sipping on another Southern Prohibition beer – CROWD CONTROL – a double IPA. The green can in the above picture.

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”

John Milton, Paradise Lost

For this review, I’m reviewing the Double Dry Hopped version of Paradise Lost. They have released cans of both the Doubled Dry Hopped and the regular version of Paradise Lost. The both have similar, but different can artwork.

Beer: Double Dry Hopped Paradise Lost
Brewery: Southern Prohibition Brewing
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 8.1%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Like the title says, Paradise Lost that’s double double dry-hopped.

The Non-Double Dry Hopped Untappd Write-Up: Deep golden and opaque, Paradise Lost is our hoppiest beer to date. Massive tropical fruit and pine aromas escape the top of the glass thanks to the dose of Lupulin powder and a heavy handed double dry-hop. Clinging to the flaked oats like a life preserver, hop oils remain in suspension creating full flavors of peach, mango and pineapple. This is a beer celebrating our fondness of hops and how we utilize them, and like all IPAs it is meant to be drank fresh.

Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, To do augh good never will be our task; But ever to do ill our sole delight: As being contrary to his high will Whom we resist[.] (I, 157–162)

– Satan
-John Milton, Paradise Lost

Firstly, I could go all day quoting Paradise Lost, as its an incredibly easy book and piece of work to quote; plus its just a fantastic piece. So much so that many Christians believe much of whats written in it as Christian faith through and through. Similar to Dante’s Divine Comedy (aka Dante’s Inferno) where the imagery is so succinct, so profound, and so deep, that many Christians believe much of what Dante and Milton wrote are on the same level as The Bible itself.

But I’ll digress from Paradise Lost; the book and piece of fiction, and instead describe and review Paradise Lost – the beer, the fantastic, juicy, dank, tasty beer.

Appearance is very much keeping with the tradition of New England styled IPAs. Bright orangy glowing deep yellow to golden orange juice looking beer. Its hazy, its juicy, its dank looking. Its completely non-see-through-able. There is no sediment, and its probably filtered, but just the process makes it look so deep and dank and heavy. This is just one of those beers that looking at it you know its going to taste good.

Then you get to the aroma, and you are definitely sure its going to be good. It is just a straight up juicy punch of hops in your face. This is a very fruity, very juicy hopped up beer. All kinds of notes of peach, mango, pineapple, full on upfront assail and assault you. Then just to keep you on your toes, you get hit by some pine and zest with just a wee bit of earthy hop notes.

And finally, we get to drinking this beaut. And a beaut it is! Firstly its looked delicious, secondly its smelled delicious, and finally – well hot falling angel – it is delicious! There is a whole lotta flavor happening in this beautiful beer. A full glass of this bright orange juice will gift you with a whole lot of wonderful juicy, fruity, flavors. Peach, mango, pineapple attacking your tastebuds like a bunch of angels revolting. (See all of the allusions, and these great literary call-backs I’m doing? There’s some industry, zopes and tropes, and other crap I’m doing here, its like I’m trying to do something great and literary here…. something epic….. something so massive… that it would be like discussing Heaven, Hell, and the beginning of everything leading the end times…… Nawwwwwwww…… I’m just doing a silly beer review; disregard all of that.) Carrying on… this is a very delicious New England stylized IPA. Its very juicy, its very hoppy. You get lots of juice and dankness right up front, with the fruity hops taking the forefront, with the peach and mango in spades with some pineapple. This tails off into a little bit of bitter and interesting pine and earthy hop notes. Making for just a full well rounded, delicious IPA. The 8.1% ABV slowly creeps up on you and by the end of the 16 ounces it lets you know its there. (Just try drinking two of these with no food and having taken a dog for a walk; that 32 ounces of 8.1% ABV will really let themselves be known!)

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: (Regular Version) – 4.1 – (Double Dry Hopped Version) – 4.29 (as of 11.25.19)

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”
– Satan

― John Milton, Paradise Lost

The count down to the end of the month continues. Still going strong with the blog. And still going strong with my new beer a day. 25 days down, and 25+ new beers, and 25 blog posts done. 5 more to go. With one being Thanksgiving, and depending on any cool “Black Friday Stout” events I’m able to make it to on Friday, a possible special Friday event.

I’d like to try and get out to a new brewery before the month’s end. But with work, and the holiday, I’m not sure I’ll be able to. We’ll see though, and fingers crossed, hopefully I will.

For more great quotes from Paradise Lost you can check out the following sites:
* Good Reads – Paradise Lost Quotes
* SparkNotes – Satan’s Best Quotes from Paradise Lost
* Top 10 Favorite Quotes from Paradise Lost

Hopefully you all enjoyed this more literary bent beer review. I enjoyed writing it. I love getting to combine two of my great passions, reading and and books and beers. So finding a beer that is so literary bent on its own (well, on its namesake anyway) made for an easy choice to review. Now to find a beer named ‘Of Mice and Men’ or ‘Flowers for Algernon’ or perhaps a Star Wars themed ones…. or…. a Space Balls one….. like…. say the “Moon of Vega“. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hint, hint on a future beer review there….

Also, always on the lookout for beer or nerdy themed beers. So if you know of any, let us know in the comments. I’d love to see some different beers I haven’t had or heard of yet and to do beer reviews of them.

Hopefully you all liked the review, let us know in the comments, let us know on FaceBook or Twitter. Let us know by clicking the subscribe so you can read more reviews. Or let us know by clicking the like or rating this post. We, all of us here at The Beer Thrillers, appreciate all the feedback we can get. It’ll help us grow and get bigger and better, so please let us know!

Cheers and enjoy everyone!

-B. Kline