Star Wars Saga - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Fri, 04 Feb 2022 20:49:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Star Wars Saga - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Beer Review: Wookies and Cream (Tall Tales Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/02/03/beer-review-wookies-and-cream-tall-tales-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-wookies-and-cream-tall-tales-brewing-company Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=8680
Wookies and Cream by Tall Tales Brewing Company

Double Whammy

You guys are getting a double whammy today, starting off the day with the beer review of Prognosticator Pils by Logyard Brewing since its Groundhog Day (2.2.22) and now you are (finally) getting your Star Wars Wednesday beer review: Wookies and Cream by Tall Tale Brewing Company. Thank you for your patience waiting for this one. Ended up becoming a busy day. I was busy from 1-4PM, and then had a little time to start this up, and then had Boneshire Brew Works Trivia to attend – (went with my sister, my brother in law, and my dad) and now wrapping this up, working late into the evening. (By the way – the barleywine that Boneshire Brew Works just put out is absolutely phenomenal and you have to go and check it out.)

We were team named Swillburg (my sister’s go to team name for trivias, because she lived in the borough of Swillburg in Rochester when she went to RIT – Rochester Institute of Technology), and surprisingly we didn’t come in last place. (I have a track record for such things.) We didn’t do amazing, but for a while we were holding our own, tied for 2nd after the first round, and then in 3rd place after the second round…. to slip to somewhere in the 4th-6th positions at the end. (31.5 out of a possible 40 [41 if you count the bonus point] points).

Star Wars

So since this is Star Wars Wednesday, and since its the end of Wednesday (til this goes up live, it’ll probably be at least 11PM even though I started it around 5PM for about half an hour, and worked on it from 945 til its done), we can discuss ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ some. (Nice thing about posting the review late in the day, get to discuss the show a bit.)

Not going to go too deep here into it, since spoilers are still a thing, and some might not have seen it, and I fully intend to do a bigger, more encapsulating piece on it after the finale airs next week, but I will touch on a few non-spoiler things here.

Firstly, this was a good, fun episode, albeit complete fanservice. There is absolutely a lot here for people to love, and to make the fanboy in me squeal with happiness. I do think though, at this point naming conventions for the shows are out the window. Call them anthology shows or just call it “Star Wars” and let the episodes rip, some might be Mando, some might be Fett, some might be Ashoka, some might be Grogu, etc. I’ll leave it at that, because if I go a bit more into it I’m gonna hit spoiler territory and I don’t want to do that.

To see all of the Star Wars Wednesday Beer Reviews to coincide with The Book of Boba Fett episodes, you can see them here:

Tall Tales Brewing Company

Actually first had this beer when out on our recent Maryland trip. Starting off going down Delaware on our way to Burley Oak and from there to get near Cushwa for the brewfest we stopped at the Tall Tales Brewery. Had a taster of this and loved it. I was actually going to do this beer for last week’s Star Wars Wednesday or even double down on it and do two last week, but decided instead to save it for here. If you want to read more about our trips, you can catch the recaps from that trip here (the full articles are on their way):

Coincidentally, soon after coming back from our trip (just a few days ago), Breski’s Beverage and Ted’s Bar and Grill both got cans of Wookies and Cream to have on hand at the distributor (Breski) and restaurant (Ted’s), so if you want to try this, you can get to both locations here in the Central PA area and try it. (Definitely recommend that you do so.)

Beer Review

Wookies and Cream by Tall Tales Brewing Company

Tall Tales Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Parsonsburg, Maryland. It has 110 unique beers and just over 70 thousand ratings. It has a global average rating of exactly 3.5 as of 2.2.22. (All according to Untappd.) It has no description listed on Untappd. When we were there, it was a somewhat busy restaurant, with a nice layout and good looking food menu and a wonderful brick oven pizza menu.

Beer: Wookies and Cream
Brewery: Tall Tales Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Oatmeal
ABV: 6.11%
IBU: 38
Untappd Description: I did it all for the Wookie…Come on The Wookie…Come on…So you can take that cookie. And…Well you are gonna wanna drink it. Using the Force, we traveled through the Galaxy, combining one of your favorite desserts into a stout. Laugh it up Fuzzball.

Well this certainly has all the smells and aromas of cookies and cream (not Wookies and cream) as soon as you sniff the taster or crack open a can. (And thank god for that, could you imagine a Wookie smelling beer?) This has all the smell of cookies, cream, with a roasted stout background with a soft subtle background of light malt.

Appearance is just what you are and wanting – a Darth Vader cape and helmet black. A dark impenetrable darkness black. Like the soul of a man who tells you his favorite Star Wars character is Jar Jar Binks. There is a great head to this, nice and off cream, slightly tan to brown head with varied bubbles, and it left wonderful lacing on the glass.

This is an incredibly tasty stout, more pastry stout in taste than oatmeal stout, its so rich and creamy. From first sip you get hit with a Bowcaster Bolt force of chocolate oreo and cream. You get cookies, cream, oreo, chocolate, all right up front. Then you get that nice smoothness of a stout, the rich dark cascading flavors of malt. This is a fun beer to drink, because all the flavors mash and mesh so well together it gives you such a strong complex beer. There is so much to enjoy with this beer. It is pretty rich and creamy, not sure you could fully down a four pack in one sitting, but at least its not a sugar flavored sour bomb like some four packs I’ve recently picked up. The creaminess and richness of this just act as flavors, rather than fully encompassing the beer like those do. I like the way the beer works together, the textures and the tastes, all working together into one nice lovely beer. This was a great swirling of stout and pastry flavors that just work very well together. There’s no off flavors, there’s no aftertaste, nothing cloying, nothing acidic, everything is sweet but grounded, with a wonderful full and heavy mouthfeel that doesn’t come across as watery or thin. Full and complex, this is just simply a very enjoyable beer that might persuade you to join the Dark Side.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd rating: 3.79 (as of 2.2.22)

The Book of Boba Fett …. or Star Wars Cinematic Universe

So…. now that I’m doing this so late in the day, I can go into a bit of the details on this episode I think. I’m really not going to go too spoiler heavy, but just in case, be forewarned right here – if you have not seen the episode, you might want to skip over this bit of the article.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Ok, good, you left, watched the show, and came back? We can proceed now? Ok, lets do it.

But, in the second back to back episode of The Book of Boba Fett, we are treated to nearly an entire diversion from the main show. This week did have some pertinent stuff happening to the greater overall storyline, but there was a lot more happening off planet and about periphery characters than to Boba Fett himself. Which, speaking of him – he is in this episode at least (an improvement over the previous week), but it amounts to about thirty seconds of screen time, and with no speaking lines… …so there is that.

Interestingly, I did enjoy the episode as an episode of STAR WARS…. but not so much when you think about it in the scope of the show ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. (At least the majority of this episode anyway, and the entirety of the previous week’s episode.) I think tonally the show is a bit of a mess and confusing, and I think they took the idea of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and its interconnectedness and ramped it up to 1000%.

The Book of Boba Fett takes the idea of making a SWCU (Star Wars Cinematic Universe) which has always been pretty much in place; this idea of a large collectively canon that keeps everything in line, and a cohesive and coherent chronology; but here it starts interconnecting and interweaving portions of other stories and plots directly into this one. Where with the MCU (Marvel movies) you get characters popping up, and you get after credit / post credit scenes, but nothing so much as a full 50 minutes intercut into the story of another character.

I’ve heard the analogies of “some books give a chapter or two of different perspectives to random characters” and they say that doesn’t detract from the main character of the book. But I don’t feel like thats a true good comparison here. Firstly, if thats the case, its not in a seven chapter book, and its not going to be two chapters back to back right nearing the climax of the novel. And thats why I find the tonal structure of this show so weird. First few episodes leaned so heavily on post-Sarlacc pre-present day Boba Fett activities, and then switched to just having a full on interlude by other characters.

But… it was still a really good episode. And thus kinda my conflict on the episode. I did enjoy it, though I did think it was nearly 100 percent fanservice, I did enjoy it…. but, it just shows how tonally off this season is. And also shows how uninteresting of a character Boba Fett is. The best episodes of the season and they didn’t even include Fett in them (or just had him standing there). Fennec Shand does most of the talking and heavy lifting in the present day segments of the show, and Fett regularly comes off as incompetent, ignorant, or just not smart. So it really makes you wonder why they went this route with a seemingly autobiographical show of a character. But hey… at least next week we’ll most likely get to see Boba Fett riding a Rancor…. so there is that….

Pop Culture Themed Beers

As always with these articles, I like to link to all the various pop culture and nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done, and you can find them here below:

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

Well this was a busy day, doing two reviews in one, and hitting Boneshire Brew Works for trivia. Hope everyone had a good and fun Groundhog Day.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you!

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

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]]> 8680 Book Reviews: The Jedi Path and The Book of The Sith (Daniel Wallace) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/05/04/book-reviews-the-jedi-path-and-the-book-of-the-sith-daniel-wallace/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-reviews-the-jedi-path-and-the-book-of-the-sith-daniel-wallace Wed, 05 May 2021 01:25:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7655
Star Wars: The Jedi Path and The Book of the Sith Deluxe Edition by Daniel Wallace

May the Fourth Be With You! (or Star Wars Day) continues here on The Beer Thrillers with our second post of the day, and our second Star Wars themed post. Earlier in the day we uploaded our beer review of “The Mangalorian” by Brewery Fire. You can check that out here: Beer Review: The Mangalorian (Brewery Fire). You can also see last year’s May the Fourth Be With You (2020) article here: May The Fourth Be With You!

Not too surprising here on The Beer Thrillers, some of our more popular blog articles are Star Wars themed articles. Some of our most viewed articles are Beer Review: Java the Stout (Jackie O’s Brewery), Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing), and Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet Brewing Company).

I found this deluxe edition relatively cheap at 2nd and Charles in Harrisburg – at the Harrisburg East Mall. For only 15$ in store, with the original price being something like 50$. Score.

Wookiepedia

When discussing anything Star Wars, one of the first steps is to visiting the Wookiepedia. It is the Star Wars equivalent of the Wikipedia, and honestly, might be more in depth and more accurate than the actual Wikipedia. (Scary as that may be.) The Wookiepedia is the definitive source for anything (and everything) in Star Wars lore, its ran by the most devoted fans and aficionados, and covers both the new Disney Canon as well as the old Expanded Universe or Legends or EU.

So, using the Wookiepedia, let’s look at a quick synopsis of the deluxe set:

Star Wars: The Jedi Path and Book of Sith Deluxe Box Set is a hardcover boxed set from Chronicle Books that collects The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force and Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, both written by Daniel Wallace. Exclusive to this set are two specially commissioned artwork prints by Gustavo Mendonca and Derek Thompson. The set was published on August 12, 2014.

Publisher’s Summary: This box set brings the light and dark sides of the Force together for the first time. The Jedi Path is the ancient training manual that has educated and enlightened generations of Jedi, including Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Luke Skywalker. They have handwritten their comments into this text, the only remaining copy in existence. Book of Sith is a compilation of six legendary dark texts gathered and bound together by Darth Sidious, and featuring comments from Darth Vader, Mace Windu, Darth Maul, and others. This deluxe edition contains an exclusive portfolio with two prints, each depicting a prominent figure from either side of the Force. With these two titles, students of the Force can study and more fully understand the complex powers of good and evil.

The Jedi Path and Book of the Sith Deluxe Set – Wookiepedia

Legends vs. Disney EU

Legends or the old EU vs. Disney EU or Disney Universe or the NU (New Universe), is a hot topic for many (read: most or all) Star Wars fans. In 2012 Disney bought Star Wars, altering the Star Wars universe completely from that moment on. They soon after announced that the old EU (the books popularized by Timothy Zahn, Matthew Woodring Stover, Michael A. Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Karen Traviss, and many many many many others) would be reduced or changed or eliminated to what they called “legends” status. Moving forward, the new canon would start with just the six movies (the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy) as well as the second Clone Wars show and movie that started it (not the little five minute Cartoon Network clippings, but the full show). Since then, they added that the books, the sequel trilogy, and other shows (Rebels, The Mandalorian), etc, etc, etc, would all be part of a new canon and be on par with each other. (Ie. A movie can’t contradict a book, etc.)

So I find this book a bit interesting. Its written using the old Expanded Universe and written in a non-fictional way, but set in the universe of the old Expanded Universe, but its release date is 2014; which puts it two years after the Disney buy-out.

The Jedi Path

This deluxe set has two books in one, the first book is The Jedi Path and the second book is the Book of Sith Secrets. I’ll start with The Jedi Path. The Jedi Path is primarily an instructional handbook for a new padawan working his way up through the ranks of the Jedi. It’s got margins with notes by people such as Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Ahsoka, and even Luke late (post New Jedi Order).

The book goes into all the different facets of Jedi culture. How padawans are selected, how there is different sects and groups, how those who fail their Jedi tests are placed in the AgriCorps and other such groups. It goes into the different force abilities and powers. How Lightsabers are created. Holocrons and other Jedi related instruments and devices. It goes into the different fighting stances and their names. Jedi ships and vehicles. Pretty much all the minutia of the Jedi culture.

It does break down the Jedi philosophy…. …but only slightly, and only surface deep. Which is a bit disappointing. As this is something I’d like to have seen explored much more. Now, granted, these two books are aimed for Middle School or near – abouts aged children, I can understand some of that. So the philosophy is rudimentary and cursory but it at least provides a springboard for interested children. You do get the idea of how Hindu and Buddhist cultures influence Lucas’s idea of the Jedi, and how this has changed, morphed, and warped with the many numerous authors and other people who have worked the Star Wars brand.

This is an ok read, nothing that seems exceptional, and nothing that is ‘required reading’, and any massive Star Wars nerd will already know or nearly know all of the information provided.

Book of the Sith

I found the Book of the Sith to be a lot more interesting. Probably speaks to my darker aspects of my soul and spirit and mentality huh? I dunno, then again, I was always into Chaos for Warhammer 40K…. so who knows. Big shrug. I just find the Sith much more interesting when you get to pick them apart (unless their boring plain mustache twirling villains), and less hypocritical than the Jedi. Which, the hypocritical portion should make the Jedi more interesting, but they never delve into it, and the Jedi are never given too much introspection to make them that interesting; whereas the Sith seem to live in introspection.

Just like The Jedi Path; Book of the Sith dives into all the minutia of the Sith history. Which is a bit more complicated and interesting. Its fractured and broken, with sects and groups, and dynamic changes (like when Darth Bane rises and changes the lineage to the Rule of Two).

So there is a lot more going on with this book than the Jedi book. The margins has inscriptions from Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, and Asajj Ventress. Sidious is the most used and the most interesting for the margins notes.

Where as the Jedi is more of a metaphysical statement of the Force, the Sith are more of a magical element to them. They employ talismans, spells, they make use of things – like blood, items, etc, where as the Jedi sometimes just use their minds or small hand gestures. For these reasons also, I always found the Sith to be more rich, and interesting, an fascinating, especially in the grander scheme and mythos of Star Wars. Backstory on Plagueis, Sidious, Tenebrious, Bane are all far more interesting to me than the backstory of Yoda or Mace Windu. Likewise, greyer characters like Asajj, Dooku, Qui-Gon, Quinlan Vos are also far more interesting than the Jedi Councer members (Plo Koon, Depa Bilapa, Yaddle, Yareal Poof, etc.).

Conclusion and Ratings

Both books are interesting, but fall in a weird market area. Right now, their not canon anymore due to being Legends based. They are also designed for those who either 1) don’t know much about Jedi or Sith and thus want to learn more, or 2) the completists who want to know EVERYTHING… but already know 98% of this book. It is interesting, and there is stuff to learn and glean from, and its written very well. I enjoyed it for what it is, and you can’t have much more expectations than that when it comes to Star Wars anyway.

Ratings:

The Jedi Path:
My GoodReads Rating: ***
My LibraryThing Rating: ***
Global GoodReads Rating: 4.35 (as of 5.4.21)

The Book of the Sith:
My GoodReads Rating: ***
My LibraryThing Rating: ***.5
Global GoodReads Rating: 4.10 (as of 5.4.21)

Thank you all for reading. Hopefully you had a wonderful May the 4th Be With You or Star Wars Day. Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, so rest your livers up and enjoy. Be safe and go out and get that vaccination so we can get closer and closer to normalcy!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

]]> 7655 Beer Review: Mangolorian (Brewery Fire) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/05/04/beer-review-mangolorian-brewery-fire/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-mangolorian-brewery-fire Tue, 04 May 2021 13:24:05 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7638
The Mangolorian by Brewery Fire

May the Fourth Be With You! Been waiting to post this beer review up here on the blog. Been keeping it on the backburner just for this day. (This review has been written and revised and edited and updated time over time, and I’ve just been waiting for the perfect time to upload it – and what more perfect time than May the Fourth?)

As anyone familiar with this blog will know, I am a huge Star Wars nerd and if there’s a Star Wars themed beer, then its gonna get reviewed as soon as I’m able to try it and review it.

Back in early January me and my friend Ming hiked in Maryland and visited Flood Zone Brewery and Brewery Fire (January 2nd). Turned out Brewery Fire is known for their pop culture beers (they had Simpsons referenced ones, like Eat My Shorts Dude, and Star Wars themed ones, etc.). I had grabbed this as a four pack and took it with me to go.

January 2nd, 2021

Going back to when we visited the brewery and everything, lets start with the day. You can read more about it here: “Catoctin Mountain Hike, Flood Zone Brewery and Marketplace, and Brewery Fire”. This was a day hike me and Ming did in Maryland on the Catoctin Mountain, which then led to us stopping at the Flood Zone Marketplace and Brewery for food and drinks, and then at Brewery Fire on the way home.

The hike was pretty and nice, but muddy (had rained two days prior). Flood Zone Brewery was very nice, and even had live music, which is always nice, especially back in January, where in Pennsylvania you wouldn’t have been even able to go into a brewery to sit and drink or eat (due to the second shut down of COVID-19), so that was a nice added treat. We then stopped at Brewery Fire on the way back home to Mount Joy – to drop Ming off before I headed home.

Brewery Fire Mural

We drank (well, I drank) outside, since Ming didn’t really feel like going inside and be around people more than he had to (can’t say I blame him on this really, COVID or no COVID). The coolest feature about the Brewery Fire venue was the large pop culture mural on their wall. Which you can see in this group of pictures I took here:

Brewery Fire Mural

How many pop culture references do you get? How many characters do you recognize? Hopefully it’s a lot. And its a pretty interesting and diverse grouping too, and I like the interchange of most of them. The artwork is also well done.

Sad to say, Ming only got a few of the references. Do you think you can do better than him? Hopefully, if not, I doubt you’d be reading this blog anyway with the sheer pop culture references and nerd-isms that I throw on here.

Brewery Fire

As I’ve done with past recent beer reviews, I’m devoting a section of each review to the brewery itself behind the creation. Brewery Fire is a pretty small venue and brewery located on the backend of a bowling alley. Me and Ming had to do a drive through the parking lot to find it, even with the sign at the road, the actual location and entrance is a bit tricky and hard to find.

According to Untappd, Brewery Fire is a nano brewery with 126 unique beers, and 6,480 ratings (as of 5.4.21). It has a global average rating of 3.89. The Untappd description reads: “Small batch craft brewery and tasting room.” They are located in Taneytown, Maryland. You can check out their Untappd page here: Brewery Fire (on Untappd).

While I was there, I had a flight of their beers, and grabbed the Mangolorian as a four pack to take with me. My flight consisted of: Black Ka’kaRYE, The Chrystal Calls, The Hero of Canton Drinks the Best Rum in the House!, and Eat My Shorts, Dude. My ratings for them: Black Ka’karye – 3.75, The Chrystal Calls – 4, The Hero of Canton – 3.75, and Eat My Shorts – 4.

Beer Review

As you can see this was a beer I got in January, but drank that night, as well as several other nights. The review portion of this post was written in March after the latest time I had the beer. (Don’t worry, the IPA held up, plus, I had the notes from the first times I had drank it, in case it didn’t.)

(This portion of the blog post has not been touched since it was written, the above sections were, and then the ending of the post was, but the actual review is as it was since March, with only the average rating changed to reflect the date and updated for any change in the overall score.)

The Mangolorian by Brewery Fire

Interesting note here – the beer on Untappd was originally The Mangolorian, as well as it saying so on the can, but if you look up the beer now, it is only just “Mangolorian” on Untappd. Not sure why the name change, but this is just an interesting fact that I’ve noticed from when I first drank it – January 2nd, til now – March 16th. So sometime in this period there was a name change at least insofar as Untappd goes.

Beer: Mangolorian
Brewery: Brewery Fire
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6%
IBU: 40
Untappd Description: This beer is dry hopped with Vic Secret hops which is perfectly accented by a copious amount of Mango. This is the way.

Obviously, this better be Mango flavored and scented, otherwise… well… that would just be a fail right? And that is most certainly NOT THE WAY. Thankfully, this is very mango forward, so problem solved, and it fits all criteria, and thus, adheres to the way.

So lets start off with the appearance. It looks clean and crisp, it has a lighter color west coast IPA look to it, a bit bubbly and almost a champagne look to it with its effervescence. It is clear and see through with a nice amber hue. It has a decent small foamy head to it that retains for a fair bit of time, and it leaves some lacing on the glass.

Moving on to aroma, you certainly get its namesake – it smells just like a Mandalorian would…. I mean… it smells very heavy mango. Not very heavy Mandalorian. Which is probably a good thing, because I can only imagine what a warrior trapped in Mandalorian armor would smell like after an intense day of bounty hunting…. *shudders*…. poor Baby Yoda (Gogru!). If you are a mango fan, then this is a treat, if not, you probably should just pass on this beer altogether. It has a very strong and upfront nose of mango, that then gets a bit hoppy, but the mango still is the strongest nose to this bad boy.

I would best describe this as a ‘dry IPA’. Its the “old school” (god, do I feel old having to describe ‘regular’ IPAs as “old school”) West Coast style IPA. The mango is interesting in the flavor for this, compared to the nose of it. On the nose, I thought the mango was very strong and powerful, but in the flavor its a bit of a different story. And its almost a ‘by the can’ type thing. The one can I had, the mango flavor was pretty strong, but the other three, it was much more subtle and in the background. A friend who had visited the brewery before (unbeknownst to me, he had it at a different time, and I had never even heard of this brewery or knew he went there until we discussed it), he had it on draft and had two pints of it, he said it was subtle to slightly more upfront in draft. The first pint he said it was very much in the background instead of the forefront, and in the second it was a bit more forefront, but this could also be because it was his second draft of the same beer. It is a pretty light and crushable IPA, and not a hazard to drink the whole four pack yourself in one sitting. It only clocks in at 6% so it’s not too strong, and at 40 IBU’s, its not a palate wrecker. I wouldn’t label it a “Session IPA” but its certainly on the lighter side of things (for example – Troegs’ flagship IPA – Perpetual IPA – is a 7.5% and 85 IBU). This is sort of a dry IPA but still flavorful with a nice hoppy flavor and mango taste (be it forward or background). The Vic Secret hops are a nice combination with the dryness and the mango flavor. It has some champagne characteristics (possibly champagne yeast?) that ties in with the dryness. Nothing is off flavored, and nothing is too strong or overpowering or cancels out anything else, there’s no cloying, or poor taste, and the mouthfeel feels right on, not too heavy, not too slick or light. No bad aftertaste and nothing off putting.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 5.4.21) (Originally: 3.96 as of 3.17.21).

Star Wars

How is everyone else planning on spending May the Fourth? Last year I posted an article (a listicle) of some of our various Star Wars themed beers and activities – which you can see here: “May the Fourth Be With You (2020)“.

Since then I’ve done quite a few more Star Wars themed beer reviews, and to see them, you can look at this list here:

I’m sure there will be plenty more in the future. If you know of any Star Wars themed beers that should be on my horizon and on my wish list, please make sure to leave me a comment, and if you can help me track them down, all the better! I guarantee I’ll review them here on the blog.

So how is everyone spending their Star Wars day? I’m currently working my way through Alexander Freed’s book 1 of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy “Alphabet Squadron” (aptly named huh?). I’ve been slow reading it, but it’s been pretty good.

Also today – Bad Batch airs on Disney+, so I’ll be checking that out after work, as well as hopefully posting up a Star Wars themed book review. So be on the lookout for that this evening. (Fingers crossed.)

To see the Bad Batch trailer, check that out here: Bad Batch Official Disney+ YouTube Trailer.

Hope everyone has a tremendous Star Wars day! May the Fourth Be With You! And cheers everyone, there is light at the end of this tunnel of COVID, and its looking like we’re getting through it. People are getting vaccinated, places are opening up, the dawn is breaking. Like Star Wars always espousing about hope, so we are hopeful here too at The Beer Thrillers. Enjoy a delicious Star Wars beer today, speak like Yoda all day, and Be Kind to everyone and have a great day!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thanks for reading everyone!

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The various pop culture / nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done here on The Beer Thrillers:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Other:

More Info:

]]> 7638 Beer Review: I Voted for Kang (Second Sin Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/12/05/beer-review-i-voted-for-kang-second-sin-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-i-voted-for-kang-second-sin-brewing-company Sun, 06 Dec 2020 03:10:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=6199
I Voted for Kang by Second Sin Brewing Company

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.”

Kang and Kodos from CITIZEN KANG

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.

Homer revealing Kang and Kodos

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.

Homer Revealing Bill Clinton and Bob Dole to be Kang and Kodos

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

Twirling Towards Freedom

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.)

I Voted for Kang

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:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Other:

Seinfeld:

]]> 6199 Beer Review: Intemperance (Tree House Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/02/19/beer-review-intemperance-tree-house-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-intemperance-tree-house-brewing-company Wed, 19 Feb 2020 16:31:37 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=2279
Intemperance by Tree House Brewing Co.

This was supposed to be a five part series. Consisting of Sap, Haze, Doppelganger, Autumn, and Julius. But then like Disney buying Star Wars…. along came another, like a new movie to add to the series, I present you number six – the final, epic, saga ending beer review – of Intemperance.

Thats probably a bit hyperbolic, but you get the idea. This wasn’t intended, but we’re going to go with it. I don’t mind doing Tree House beer reviews, thats for sure. I could do them all the time, I’ll gladly accept any Tree House beer donations in lieu of reviews. No problem, no questions asked. (Who can turn down delicious wonderful near perfect beers anyway right?)

This is going to be different than the previous installments though. Whereas the others were IPAs (Double / regular) or a pale ale; this is the first dark brew I’ll be reviewing from Tree House. Intemperance is a Double Milk Stout. A fitting conclusion to the series. Epic? Maybe not. Ending to a massive saga on the scale of Episode IX? Probably not. A fantastic beer? Definitely! A good beer review? Hopefully so!

Just want to give a final shout out to D. Arndt for these fantastic beers. Tree House certainly never disappoints. Thanks Dan!

Intemperance by Tree House Brewing Co.

Beer: Intemperance
Brewery: Tree House Brewing Co.
Style – Stout – Imperial / Double Milk
ABV: 9.9%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Intemperance is an imperial milk stout brewed with cinnamon, vanilla cream, Christmas cookies, and a hint of chestnut. Throwing the kitchen sink of authentic holiday-themed ingredients at this beer results in a truly unique, exciting, nostalgic-tasting beverage that doesn’t take itself too seriously. As it warms you can truly pick out the flavor notes of its individual constituents. Put on some pajamas, start a fire, and let this beer take you into the night.

This is a perfect fireplace beer. Christmas Eve, all the kids presents wrapped and under the tree and finally getting to fall asleep to A Christmas Story playing on loop in the background.

Appearance is the darkest of dark black. Like the souls and hearts of….. ahh, gee, thats too dark for something so tasty, frivolous, and fun. I’ll fall back on my motor oil comparisons and Razor Ramone hair comparisons and jet fuel and other similar ones. This is too much fun drinking to go too too dark on the descriptors. There is a lovely light brown creamy head to this that just floats on the dark waters. Lacing runs down the glass as you drain this gorgeous beer.

Aroma is so much, such complexity, just so much to take in through the nose. Aroma for this is pure Christmas. Baking cookies, yule log, milk, eggnog, dark bready notes, ginger, hazelnut. Like someone made a Bath and Bodyworks candle out of Santa Clause’s cabin. Notes of cinnamon, vanilla, hazelnut, ginger, molasses, chestnut, all swirl around with a roasted malt and grain bill with some nice earthy bread notes.

This is an amazingly smooth beer for a 9.9% stout. Its not annoyingly sweet or cloying. But it is dangerously smooth. The vanilla just gives it that added boost. You immediately taste like a child waking up Christmas morning after only getting one hour of sleep because you spent all night at your bedroom door waiting for Santa. This is dark and heavy, with a wonderful, full body and mouthfeel. But surprisingly you can sort of taste the high ABV but not fully feel the high ABV, and even then, its all levels of subtlety that get hidden amongst the complexities of the flavors. You get all of the flavors of Christmas cookie baking; vanilla, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, chestnut, hazelnut, and they all blend together with nothing overpowering anything else. Like a fine choreographed dance, everyone working together – every flavor working together – to build to a far bigger whole and better beer as a whole for it. There is no off putting flavors or aromas, no bad lingering aftertaste, just a great, well rounded, well created, well crafted, beautifully made and delicious beer. This could easily be a ‘final beer’ (before I go) type beer, and all would be content.

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.24 (as of 2.19.20)

Blog news:

This was meant to go up last night after work as a double-blog day, but that didn’t really come about. Yesterday was pretty busy, and after stopping at the library, and dinner with the kids, and everything after work, the night kind of slipped away. (The Flyers did crush last night, so there was that too.)

But yesterday was a big networking day for the blog. With breweries reaching out for us to do scheduled tours and interviews. Podcasts reaching out to us for interviews and discussions. All around a very busy day.

We also hit number 400 on Facebook. Our four hundredth like on Facebook was Rory Dibeler. We are now up to 410 and looking forward to number 500. We are also up to 128 followers on Twitter. So if you aren’t a follower on either platform, please do so. You can also follow us on Instagram, where we are looking to further our presence in the upcoming months.

As always, be sure to like and follow us. Check out some of our older articles and beer reviews and news stories. You can read up about openings and closings, brewery reviews, beer reviews, brewery events, and even some book reviews. We appreciate all the views, likes, comments, suggestions, and feedback.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

]]> 2279 Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2019/12/22/beer-review-the-hog-boneshire-brew-works/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-the-hog-boneshire-brew-works Sun, 22 Dec 2019 15:47:43 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=1764
The Hog by Boneshire Brew Works, in collaboration with their muggers of the year (2018 – 2019) Mike Luckovich and Dan Ploch.

This will be as much a review about The Hog by Boneshire Brew Works as it will be a review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker……….. I kid…. I kid…. I promise I won’t get into Star Wars too much here (well, maybe until the end of the post). We’ll see how it goes, play it by ear (or the Force ?).

But to set up why I’m even mentioning Star Wars, lets just say that Thursday (Dec. 19, 2019) was unofficially Star Wars day for me. Thursday being my day off (my Saturday; for now) was perfect. The Mandalorian released episode 7 “The Reckoning” on Wednesday, so I watched that first thing in the morning, then spent most of the day reading “Resistance Reborn” (my book review of it here: GoodReads – Resistance Reborn) and getting hyped for “The Rise of Skywalker”. We were set up with tickets for the first showing at 6PM at the Regal Cinema, so after picking Tony up, stopping at Rutter’s for gas, we had to pre-game before the movie, and what better place than Boneshire to pre-game for Star Wars?

Mug club members of the year – Mike Luckovich (left) and Daniel Ploch (right) with their brew – The Hog.

So what is The Hog? As I’m sure you’re far more interested in reading about the beer (the actual point of the beer review) than my thoughts on Star Wars (…or are you?) or what led to me getting to the brewery; lets get into this delicious beer and how it was made.

Checking to make sure everything is A-O-K

First off, given Boneshire Brew Works and their logo, its about time we had a beer called The Hog. Its perfectly apropos and was a very fitting beer for the brewery and for all involved.

This was a collaboration beer between Boneshire Brew Works (Alan Miller) and the two muggers of the year from their mug club – Daniel Ploch and Mike Luckovich. If you’ve ever visited the brewery, you’ve seen them. Their regulars, and that might be an understatement. As most breweries do – Boneshire Brew Works does a mug club; and there is always perks of being a mug club member (bigger pours, cheaper drafts, special events, special contests, cheaper merchandise, etc.) and at Boneshire the two muggers (mug club members) of the year got to join Alan Miller for a collaboration brew. This was said product of that collaboration.

Mike Luckovich working away at his collaboration – The Hog

In a bit of a first for Boneshire, this is a Triple IPA. Boneshire Brew Works is definitely known for some wonderful IPAs; you can see find reviews on many of them here on the blog.

Boneshire Brew Works IPAs on The Beer Thrillers:

And this is just barely scratching the surface of their amazing IPAs. Not even listed here is Green Machine (and double dry hopped Green Machine) which is probably their most recognizable IPA and possibly their best one.

Dan Ploch stirring the wort of The Hog

But The Hog is their first Triple IPA. They’ve done numerous variants; New England IPAs, Double New England IPAs, West Coast IPAs, Double West Coast IPAs, and Black or RYE IPAs. But this is a big boy here, and its a strong one with a hell of a kick to it.

Mike Luckovich preparing for The Hog

Dan Ploch and Mike Luckovich put a lot of hard work, and care, into making this beer with Alan. And obviously; it goes without saying, Alan put a tremendous amount of hard work and care into the beer, just like he does with all of his creations at Boneshire Brew Works. You can tell he passionately cares about the beer, the brewing process, and his brewery. And certainly all of his hard work has been paying off. He has a staple of favorites and a packed house most nights of regulars with them bringing in many new guests, and many new guests learning about Boneshire Brew Works and checking the place out. (Which, let me put a little footnote in here – if you haven’t checked the place out. Please do so. Cannot recommend the brewery and the beer more. You won’t be disappointed.)

The Hog by Boneshire Brew Works

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

Pretty apt description here; this is a big hoppy fruit forward IPA. Its a big smash-up of fruit and citrus style hops in a powerful triple IPA with a big ABV that gets you going on this bad boy.

Appearance is a beautiful New England IPA. Its golden hued, its a little hazy, its translucent, and its bright and bold. It has a good shine and an ephemeral quality to it. This may sound like a bit of a contradiction, but its both opaque and slightly transparent. Not completely see-through, not completely clear, but as you drink, it becomes noticeably clearer and more translucent and you can see the bar behind it. It starts off super hazy from the pour out of the tap and it settles down some. It has a tremendous head with various bubbles and a nice white foam, that crests down as you drink. Leaving good lacing on the glass. No extreme sediment, no hop bits, no pulp, nothing standing out in a bad way here.

Aroma is a straight up right undercut of hop explosions nailing you. Maybe not an undercut… maybe a good crossface right through the nose. This has all of the hop notes you want in a big fruit hop beer.

Lets break down the hops used:

  • Simcoe

Simcoe is often compared to Cascade, sometimes called “Cascade on steroids”. It is described as being both fruity and earthy. It can carry notes of berry, apricot, passion fruit, and citrus, but also has pronounced aromas of pine and woodsy earth. Flavor and aroma is quite complex and unique. Simcoe is a dual-purpose hop. It is most often used in bittering additions and creates a clean, smooth bitterness along the same lines as what you would expect from magnum hops. But, unlike Magnum it holds more potential when it comes to flavor and aroma. It can impart some spicy, fruity, and earthy notes through aroma and dry hopping additions

  • Amarillo

Distinct flowery, spicy, tropical; citrus-like with qualities of orange and lemon, like Cascade but much stronger. Considered a Cascade type hop. Dual-purpose aroma and flavoring hop with low enough Co-Humulone levels to allow good bittering properties also. Often it is used in dry-hopping to augment the lemon/orange citrus character in the beer. This citrus quality makes this a particularly good variety for the wheat styles. The myrcene oils that produce the grapefruit/orange character are so high that overuse of the hop can also create a somewhat metallic flavor.

  • Zythos

It features notes and aromas of tangerine, grapefruit, pine and even pineapple. Its high alpha acid content means it can be useful for bittering but is largely intended to shine as an aroma hop.

  • Citra

Citra lends a wide range of delicate fruity characteristics including wonderful aromas and flavors of lime, grapefruit, bright orange, mango, lychee, and gooseberry. Citra is considered a flavoring/aroma hop. It does have the requisite high alpha acid and low co-humolone to make a good bittering hop, but in most cases brewers have found its bitterness too harsh.

Ok, now that we got the hops out of the way, you can see how the aroma (and flavor / taste) is so extremely fruity and hoppy. These hops are loaded into this beer and are all very fruit and citrus forward. You get heavy notes of mango, tangerine, lime, orange, lemon, with small hoints of pine, little earthyness, and it all wraps up nicely.

Enough looking at it and smelling it, lets get to drinking it. This is one delicious beer! It is extremely citrus, extremely hoppy, extremely fruit, extremely strong and powerful, and extremely delicious. I think the over usage of the word extremely here is needed. (And hey, I’m fresh off of watching The Rise of Skywalker, so extreme seems to be a right word choice). You immediately get the fruit and citrus hop notes, you are bombarded right off the bat – like from a Star Destroyer in space – of mango, orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, zest, lychee, and other fruit notes. It all kind of swirls around and hits you. There is some btitering to the hops, you get some pine notes, a little bit of earthyness, but all in all its a clean NEIPA style triple IPA. Its smooth, definitely has the feel (mouth feel, appearance, taste) of being New England style; just with a much heavy handed boozyness with the 9.8% ABV. The ABV does sneak up on you though. I think a good comparison beer for this would be Troeg’s Nimble Giant, where you don’t feel the ABV and then it kind of hits you… especially after your second or third of these; which with how smooth and how tasty it is, they go down so easily. It would be too easy to sit back on a football Sunday and kill a good number of cans of this.

This is a strong, bold, powerful, delicious Triple IPA, and Boneshire Brew Works through Alan Miller, and the collaborators Daniel Ploch and Mike Luckovich did a fantastic and wonderful job of crafting this brew. I would certainly love to see it enter ‘regular rotation’ rather than be a bullpen beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25 (hard to choose between ****.25 and ****.50 but settled for .25; I think after future refreshings of this, I will probably go with .50)
Global Untappd Rating: 4.34 (as of 12.21.19)

As the Winter Solstice brings the night to a close, and I wrap up this beer review; which took me longer to write than it should have; this was a fantastic beer, and a good strong first-day-of-winter Triple IPA. With the holidays upon us, we should soon be treated to Boneshire Brew Works’ Holiday Reserve 2019 (annual beer but different each year). Definitely looking forward to that to round out the year.

Sooooo…. after watching The Rise of Skywalker with Tony, drove him home, dropped him off, I was supposed to head over to Drew’s to hangout while they did their podcast on Christmas / holiday horror movies. But I got called to my parents to help them with a few things and unfortunately I didn’t have the energy at 10-10:30 after stopping at home to then go back out (20minute drive) to his house. My friend Dan and his fiance Kat were fresh home from a trip up north where they stopped at Tree House, Dan was nice enough to pick up me a few cans – Sap, Julius, Haze, Doppleganger, and Autumn. So you can definitely be sure to get some reviews on these bad boys – as lets be honest here – who doesn’t love Tree House?

For those interested in hearing the Christmas / holiday horror podcasts; you can check them out here:

The podcast is “So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar” and you can view their full listing here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar. I have been featured on a few of their podcasts now – The Irishman, The Mandalorian, Breaking Bad / El Camino Pt. 1 and Pt. 2. I typically discuss beer while discussing the movies. For the Breaking Bad pocast I brought with me Boneshire beer and for the Mandalorian and Irishman podcasts I brought Pizza Boy beer, and we also sampled some Troegs as well.

STAR WARS AHEAD

Since I started off this post about seeing Star Wars, and this being such a cultural phenomena, and Star Wars being one of my biggest joys and loves, and a huge factor into things, I can’t not use this space to discuss it. So if you have no interest in Star Wars, you can stop reading here (or skip to the bottom where I give credits, and a few last second blog comments, and my sources) or if you want to see my thoughts on Star Wars and Rise of Skywalker, you can continue. I will keep it spoiler free.

As I said, I’ll keep this spoiler free, which for the movie makes it hard to review, so this won’t be the biggest review you’ll read. At some point, somewhere, I’ll post up on my thoughts in full on it, and I’ll probably link it here in the blog. Likewise, most certainly, we’ll be doing a podcast on the movie, and it will be spoiler heavy, and you can listen to that then as well.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Episode IX

I…. well… I didn’t hate it. Its certainly no The Last Jedi (take that however you want, but let it be known, I am not a fan of it). This is certainly not a masterpiece movie, and its probably not the final movie of the series that we needed. I will say; and this isn’t a spoiler, unless you’ve avoided movie posters, and all trailers and pictures of the movie – Emperor Palpatine’s return is…. so meh. It reeks of desperation, and it reeks of ‘we need a new bad guy!’. I know there has been some hints and things about the Emperor in the new canon’s EU (Expanded Universe) – through books like Aftermath trilogy and the comics Shattered Empire, but even then it didn’t really hint at his return, and kind of made it all seem like it was a set-up for Snoke. Who we saw in The Last Jedi is not the big main baddie. So Emperor Palpatine’s return is very meh and very lackluster.

I will say, I’m also not a fan of exactly how Kylo Ren / Ben Solo has been handled, but I think he was done very well here. Rey is super over-powered in this movie, moreso than in the previous two, and if you watch the movie, I know the explanation they’ll give, but its not really one I buy. I think another disappointing character becomes Finn. Who potentially had a very cool backstory and arc – a stormtrooper who defects, and becomes good, but that gets all kind of shunted to the side to make him just a sidekick. Poe certainly becomes a main character; far more than in The Force Awakens here. Leia is handled well… considering the real life issues of Carrie Fisher’s passing away. So there was certain limitations in how they could handle her character, and I think they did it very nicely.

At the end of this though, I think the biggest takeaway though, is that its not a good wrap of the entire saga. The whole 9 movie saga feels ‘changed’ and not for the better because of how the Sequel Trilogy (ST) impacts both the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy (PT). I know the PT had a lot of flaws and problems, but I never thought it undermined or made the OT worse. Whereas the ST feels like it made the OT worse; and undermines a lot of it. Mainly Anakin / Vader’s descent, fall, rise, and redemption. It also seems to undermine Luke in the grand scheme of those things as well. It also makes the sacrifice of our beloved characters in the OT more meaningless; and not because of their being a new war, but because its the SAME war over again, and because their characters reverted – Han – or were ruined – Luke – or underutilized – Chewie / R2-D2; only Leia really gets usage and remains primarily unscathed (as far as character persona).

I will say the movie felt impressive, and looked impressive. It was a Marvel superhero formulaic movie, mixed with a big (BIG) budget blockbuster and thrown in some Star Wars. This might be the future and new wave of Star Wars; I dunno, maybe I’m an old curmudgeon, but I’m not a fan of it. I do love The Mandalorian, and I did love Rogue One, but this trilogy just didn’t do anything for me. The lack of cohesion, the undoing of TFA by TLJ and then the undoing of TLJ by TRoS, just…. its flattening and its disappointing and depressing. Especially given that this is the complete wrap-up of 40 some years and 9 movies and so much more.

My movie ranks for Star Wars now goes:

5 – 4 – R1 – 6 – 3 – 7 – Solo – 9 – 1 – 2 – 8

Obviously thats subjective, so take it with a grain of salt, and some of those could be interchanged. And with future viewings might change too. Your mileage will obviously vary. If you want to discuss it more, I will answer questions / thoughts in comments (or we can move to private then if you want to discuss spoilers). Please, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the movie, so be sure to leave some thoughts or comments here on the blog, I’d love to hear it!

—END STAR WARS—

Ok, back to blog stuff and this post stuff. Be sure if you check out The Hog at Boneshire Brew Works, you check in at The Wall along the back leading to the bathroom, that is where you will most likely see Mike Luckovich, and by the corner of the bar is where you will most likely see Dan Ploch. Tell them good job and congrats.

Hop sources are:

You can check out Boneshire Brew Works here on Untappd: Boneshire Brew Works. And make sure you check out The Hog on Untappd. And check out The Wall location on Untappd to see the collaborators.

As always, thanks for reading, be sure to leave a comment – on either the beer, or Star Wars, or Rise of Skywalker, or whatever, be sure to click follow, like, rate, all that good stuff. And we would as always, ever so gladly appreciate you following us on Twitter and Facebook and passing this on and sharing it. Hopefully you all enjoy reading this as much as we do writing it and drinking it.

In the coming weeks you can expect some end of year re-caps and beer reviews and brewery things, as well as our trip out to Mellow Mink this thursday (Dec. 26th). So be on the lookout for that as well. Me and Josh will be making that trip, so we will both most likely be writing something up. Sorry this review took a while writing and getting out there, started the title of it Thursday night, did a little writing Friday amongst the thousands of errands I ran, wrote the bulk of it Saturday night (Winter Solstice) after work, but finished it this morning (Sunday the 22nd). But its done and out there, so hopefully you enjoy.

Also, check out our buddies at Let Us Drink Beer’s blog where they interviewed beer bloggers, writers, journalists, podcasters, and YouTubers from around the country – (myself included) – and asked them what their drinking for Christmas. You can find the article here: What Craft Beer Enthusiasts Are Drinking For Christmas.

As always everyone, cheers, and enjoy your holidays, tomorrow is Festivus afterall. Can’t wait to hear some airing of grievances and seeing some feats of strength.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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