sWheat Tart - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Tue, 17 May 2022 13:08:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 sWheat Tart - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Team Up With ‘Jam The Batter’ Collaboration https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/05/17/drunk-phils-fans-and-rotunda-brewing-company-team-up-with-jam-the-batter-collaboration/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=drunk-phils-fans-and-rotunda-brewing-company-team-up-with-jam-the-batter-collaboration Tue, 17 May 2022 13:08:06 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=9267
Jam the Batter (sWheat Tart) – A collaboration between Rotunda Brewing Company and Drunk Phils Fans

Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Teaming Up

As an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan (god have mercy upon my soul), I’ve always followed various Philly related blogs and pages (like Crossing Broad, Drunk Phils Fans, etc, etc.), and obviously I’m quite an avid drinker and beer fan as well (shocker right?!?) so I immediately jumped when I saw Drunk Phils Fans was teaming up with a beer – and with local favorites Rotunda Brewing Company of all breweries. Such a perfect fit!

So I immediately reached out to Drunk Phils Fans to get the low-down on their page, the beer, and everything else.

The Drunk Phils Fan

You will most likely know Drunk Phils Fans from their Facebook page: Drunk Phils Fans. They currently have 24, 977 likes and 26, 588 followers. So needless to say they have been around and garner quite a bit of attention. You can follow their website here: Drunk Phils Fans .com.

So I asked them some questions about how they started up, what they are, what they are up to, and how their beer collaboration with Rotunda Brewing Company came to be.

(For brevity’s sake, I will have The Beer Thrillers abbreviated to ‘TBT’ and Drunk Phils Fans abbreviated to ‘DPF’ after the first usage.)

The Beer Thrillers: How did you start the Drunk Phils Fans page? (How long ago, when/where/how, etc.) How has it evolved since then?
Drunk Phils Fans: This all started as a blog, which was named the same and first post was in 2010. I then started a FB group in 2010 and then switched over to a page once the group hit 1000 followers. The idea for the blog was to highlight some past Phillies season and players (mostly “forgotten” players, as well at to talk about prior and upcoming games. The FB page was always intended to be some of the talk and chatter you may hear at the local pub from intense Phillies fans. On Point, sometime irreverent analysis of the front office, games, players, opponents, etc

Rob G is an original member that is still providing content. The page evolved by adding in some talented authors: Chris D, who does all of the meme work and we added Waz, Al, Russell, Sean and Ashley as people providing content and helping to manage the page. I can’t point to a single element of how or when the page became more popular, but I constantly hear that people go to our page because of great content and valid observations/talking points about the team. Some of our posts did go “viral” with over a million views, but the growth was organic by building the audience through content.

TBT: How did this beer idea come up? Did you reach out to Rotunda Brewing? Did they reach out to you? What interested you in this beer and this brewery?
DPF: It has always been a dream of mine to have a beer that I created or somehow named/linked with me. I figured once the page got a large enough audience, it would be more enticing for a brewery to collaborate with us.

My wife and I went to Hershey this winter for a weekend getaway and toured some of the Hershey area breweries. Rotunda was on my list for two reasons: 1. A DPF fan, Brent, is a manager at Rotunda and offered a brewery tour for me and an insight on their process and facilities and 2. Rotunda has a GREAT lineup of different styles of beers, all highly rated and respected on Untappd, so I knew I had to try them. With Brent being a big DPF fan and me being a fan of Rotunda, I think it was a good match and I do not remember who “made the first move” while talking collaboration. To me it seemed mutually advantageous.

TBT: Stevie Glick absolutely nailed it with the logo. Just want to throw that out there right now, he does their artwork for them, and is absolutely phenomenal.

TBT: Did you have any input on the beer; style, ingredients, recipe, etc? Did you help them brew it?
DPF: We did have input on style. I am not a particular fan of IPA, so I did not want this beer to be of that style. I am a huge fan of darker beers and stouts, but wanted a beer for the summertime. So we collaborated with the sWheat line that Rotunda is well known for and created a fruited sour at 5.9%. We did send Rotunda about 30 name ideas for the beer, of which “Jam the Batter” won because of the double entendre of jam in the baseball sense and the fruit we are adding to the beer often seen as a jam. I did not physically help with the brewing process, mostly because of proximity to Rotunda from my home in Philly. However, it is something I would like to be involved with in the next go round!

TBT: What are some of your favorite breweries? Favorite beers? Go to beers? Preferences when it comes to alcohol in general?
DPF: Fave Breweries: I will do a top 5 in the Philly area no particular order. Rotunda, Imprint, Human Robot, Troegs, and 2SP.

Fave Beers: This answer could be really long, so I will try and give the Cliff Notes. If I go to a corner bar that does not have craft beers, I will have Miller High Life, In the summer, I am a huge Hefeweizen fan. My fave is Weihenstephaner. In the Winter, especially leading up to Christmas, I look forward to the Troeg’s Mad Elf release. Otherwise, I spend a lot of the winter trying different dark beers (Stouts and Lagers). I have recently gotten into Rum and Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts even more and will always try them when available. I am also a Union season ticket holder and recently really liked 2SP’s Delco Lager. Supremely drinkable with a lower ABV.

TBT: Any other big plans with the page? Any other beer related collaborations in the works / in the future or anything you are interested in trying or wanting to do?
DPF: We are currently having a beer release party at Rotunda on May 21st at their Annville location from 1-4. We are also having some Phillies Watch Parties at local bars: May 25th at Jerzees Glenside and June 26 at Nick’s Roast Beef Cottman along with a special guests, Corner Sports Podcast where I will be in the show with them live on-site 1-3, followed by the Phillies game at 4. We would also like to do these watch parties at interested breweries in the near future. As far as the future of the page, we hope everyone loves our Rotunda collaboration and would love to collaborate with them or another Philly / Montco / Bucks brewery for a playoff beer for the Phils! I’d like to be more hand on to learn the process and work that goes into each step. I guess the big dreams would be a brewery of our own at some point. I dreamed of having a beer and that came true, so who knows!

sWheat Tart Series

Rotunda Brewing Company has been well known for their sWheat Tart series for a while. (We’ve even covered a few various sWheat Tarts here on the blog for beer reviews. You can read them here: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart – Beer Review and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart – Beer Review.) It is possibly their most popular line of beers, and they have done just about every imaginable flavor profile and combination with them. Definitely be on the lookout for this series whenever you see them in cans or whenever you visit either of their brewery locations in person (the Annville Brewery or the Hershey brewpub.)

Rotunda Brewing Company Tailgate

On May 21st (2022), the Rotunda Brewing Company is hosting a Tailgate party to celebrate the release of ‘Jam the Batter’. From their Facebook page:

“We’re releasing a collaboration beer with our friends at, Drunk Phils Fans and throwing a kick ass tailgate at our Annville location, this Saturday from 1-4 pm! Wear your best philly gear and drink some of our new Jam The Batter sWheat Tart, loaded with thick mango, pineapple & strawberry puree! More details to come! Drunk Phils Fans Rotunda Restaurant & Brewery

Rotunda Brewing Company (Facebook)

It looks to be a fun time, and I might be able to squeeze it into my busy schedule and stop out for a bit. Hope I get to see some of you out there. And we can all root on the Phillies and drink some delicious beers.

Philadelphia Phillies

I would be amiss to make this article, and not mention the Phillies even a little bit. They are currently sitting at 17 – 18 and 5.5 games behind in the NL East. Its a long season, and the Mets are looking tough this year, but we also all know how the Mets are…. so hopefully late season Phils can kick it into overdrive. Looks like we are coming out of a current slump and are starting to hit stride. (And my dad recently put down a 100$ wager at Hollywood Casino that the Phils will win the division, so for his sake, lets go Phils!).

The bats are finally starting to warm up with what we all thought they should be. Defense will be a struggle all season. And hopefully by trade deadline we can shore up the pitching staff and make this team a true contender. Long overdue for another deep playoff run and hopeful World Series.

More Information and Links

For more information about the event and beer release, you can check out the various sites:

Thanks For Reading

The May 21st date might just be as busy as the May 14th date was for me. First off, its my daughter’s 13th birthday. (So, preemptive and early Happy Birthday to Lilyana Rose.) Also, its the day of the Imprint “Haze” brewfest, as well as the Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company’s beer tailgate. As well as a host of other personal stuff for me and other staff members here at The Beer Thrillers.

I would like to say thanks to the Drunk Phils Fans for letting me reach out to them and talking to them and exchanging e-mails. I can’t wait to try their beer. They are great people over there (and at Rotunda as well), so its looking to be a great thing all the ways around.

As always, I do greatly appreciate you all reading this. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Comments, suggestions, and otherwise. Always love to hear from my readers! Either by comment here on the blog, or through e-mail or our contact page. Let us know your thoughts!

Cheers all! And lets go Phillies!

-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! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

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Beer Review: Going Rogue (Tattered Flag) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/07/09/beer-review-going-rogue-tattered-flag/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-going-rogue-tattered-flag Thu, 09 Jul 2020 17:46:27 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=3844
Going Rogue by Tattered Flag in collaboration with Hop Hedz Gear

It’s not every day I get to review beers that aren’t even released yet, so this is a fun change of pace. Yesterday (Wednesday, 7.8.20) was my first day off work since starting back up, and my plan was to stop at Boneshire Brew Works for a beer or two (they had Rotunda’s Wootenberries sWheat Tart – which was actually the plan for today’s beer review) and then run my errands. I had the Rotunda sWheat Tart, then the Sly Fox and Stoudt’s Black Lager collaboration, and then Justin – the head brewer at Tattered Flag stopped out to join me at Boneshire Brew Works after he got done at work.

Needless to say, I never ran my errands.

Justin left around 8:45ish or so, and I ended up leaving a bit after around 9-930ish. After that, I went do D. Scott’s place to drink some of the new beers and hang out, we enjoyed the Going Rogue sour and the Flavor Guided Juice Missile (regular version). We watched the latest Halloween (from a few years back) and Friday the 13th, Part V.

My beer at Boneshire Brew Works with the beers Justin dropped off for me.

Justin was telling me it was a long day of canning at Tattered Flag and doing the behind the scenes stuff for Bart’s Hop Hedz Gear promotion with the beers. Speaking of that promotion, you can watch their video here:

Bart does a great job of being entertaining and funny with his promotions, in-person and online. So always be sure to check him out and check out his store – Hop Hedz Gear.

The four-pack of beers from Tattered Flag that Justin dropped off

So, this friday (tomorrow – 7.10.20) Tattered Flag is releasing three of those pictured; the ones done in promotion with Hop Hedz Gear. They are: Going Rogue (Sour Fruited), Flavor Guided Juice Missile (IPA) and Flavor Guided Juice Missile DDH w/Guava (Double Dry Hopped IPA). Mercenaries of Juice will get released the following friday (7.17.20).

Going Rogue by Tattered Flag

Beer: Going Rogue
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Sour ale conditioned on raspberry puree, cinnamon, vanilla, and lactose.

Apologies for the bad picture above, but it was a long night and D. Scott’s basement (where his studio is set up and the TVs are) has some poor lighting when we’re not doing the streaming or podcasts or YouTube videos. But, anyway, this is a pretty reddish / pinkish to purplish sour. Big foamy head to it, lot of carbonation, with a nice dark sour look to it. Creamy appearance. Nice carbonation. Nice interspersed bubbles.

The nose for this is very heavy raspberry. With hints of the cinnamon sticking out as you take your first whiffs before sipping. You get a sense of the lactose, but nothing definable as far as that goes. The majority of the aroma on this bad boy is the raspberry, and its very powerful and upfront, like a good sour should be.

This is a delicious sour. Its tart, not extremely sour, but just downright tasty. The cinnamon hits a bit hard, so if you’re not into that ‘bite’ this might be off-putting, but its not major detraction or problem even for non-cinnamon fans I would think. The raspberry is incredibly tasty and the most potent part of this beer. This tastes and feels like a big strong beer, but its only 6% so it’s actually quite a bit lighter than you would think. The vanilla and lactose rounds it out nicely, smoothing the cinnamon edges, and making it a smoother and slicker beer. This will make for a wonderful four pack of sippers on the porch in this hot weather. You and a buddy could each crack two of these and enjoy a nice hour or so of socially distanced time together on the porch in the hot sun discussing if there will be a baseball season this year or not (and discuss how bad the Phils will do, at least we know they can’t lose more than sixty games this year). From appearance, to nose, to taste, this is a great beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global: I was the first to check it in, so there’s no other ratings yet.

Be sure to be on the lookout for this tomorrow at Tattered Flag. Released with the two Flavor Guided Juice Missiles as well. This will be a great release, and make sure to check out the video Bart produced for Hop Hedz Gear. This will definitely not be a release you will want to miss out on.

I want to thank Justin for the beers, was a nice surprise and drop, and was great hanging out with you at Boneshire. Always great to get beers fresh off the canning line. I will likely have the review of the Flavor Guided Juice Missile tomorrow to accompany this review. I was thinking of doing this as a multi-beer review, but I figured I’d split it up into a few beer reviews due to their release and all. So be on the lookout tomorrow for the Flavor Guided Missile review. Also, since I switched it up, be on the lookout in the near future for the Rotunda Wootenberries sWheat Tart review as well.

I do also want to point out that I edited the home page and start of the blog. So please be sure to check that out at HOME PAGE and let us know what you think of the changes. The top is now more navigable and there’s more easily accessible links, as well as links right to our social media accounts. Also, the font has been changed, and I hope its more readable and flowing. Not that there was anything wrong with our old font or that it was unreadable, but I just like this new font a bit more. But all the same, let us know what you think of the changes. Good or bad. Love to hear from you guys. Thanks!

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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Brewery Event: Bottle Share (Tattered Flag) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/02/12/brewery-event-bottle-share-tattered-flag/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=brewery-event-bottle-share-tattered-flag Wed, 12 Feb 2020 15:31:53 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=2145
Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA’s Bottle Share (February 8th, 2020).62+ Tickets were ‘sold’. Packed house down in the brewhouse of Tattered Flag. (Thats me in the red Pizza Boy shirt, and my friend D. Scott to my left.) (Photo Courtesy of Chad Balbi – Breweries in PA).

On February 8th, 2020, Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA co-hosted an event at the Tattered Flag Brewery in Middletown PA. It was a ticketed event and promoted across Tattered Flag’s social media and Breweries in PA’s social media (their Facebook page and their Facebook group). Tickets were free. Welcome to all that were to come out. According to Justin (brewer for Tattered Flag) 62 tickets were given out. Myself and my friend were two of those tickets, and so let me take you through the event.

Let’s back this up a bit from the time of the event. Starting with the event itself. It was first announced near the beginning of the year. Luckily it was a Saturday I was able to get off from work (a rarity in my case). And my friend D. Scott was also off and along for the idea. So, the premise of the event is simple – bring 2-3 (or more) beers. Everyone who comes to the event, does so, and once the event is underway you place your beers in the corresponding coolers (IPA, Sours, Wheats and Kolsches, Stouts), and then after everyone has grouped up, you start cracking beers and sampling and moving on.

The premise is simple and neat. Anyone whose ever done a beer / bottle / can share or swap at home with friends, its the same premise just on a much larger scale. (A 62+ person scale that is.)

Leading up to the event my friend stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up a four-pack of larger beers to bring with. He grabbed Thief Share (2016) by Strange Roots Experimental Ales, Blue Farm (2017) by Free Will Brewing Co, a German Chocolate Cake Stout from a brewery I’m drawing a blank on, and New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk (2019).

I had set up to do a beer trade with a guy from Eureka California. We were both set to send our packages on either January 31st, or February 1st. (I sent on 31st and showed proof.) He unfortunately, kept saying he would get to it… and get to it….. and he kept NOT getting to it…. and NOT getting to it. Finally, he promised he would expedite it next day to make up for its tardiness…. and I get a message from him “Sorry, it’d be 200$+ to expedite, so I sent it regular. Sorry it won’t be there in time.” …..Massive annoyance and disappointment on those fronts. So at last second, I had to figure out what I was bringing.

Unfortunately I had just ran through my cans from Tree House brought home by my friend D. Arndt. If I would have known…. I would have brought the Sap, Autumn, Julius, Haze, or Doppelganger I had. So I likewise stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up some beer for the event. I got Grimm Artisanal Ale’s I Still Love the Old World (2018), Lickinhole’s Virginia Black Bear, Clown Shoe’s Coffee Sombrero, and Trial by Wombat (mainly for the name and picture).

Saturday morning comes and I do my typical morning chores and errands and take Leela (my border collie) for a run. D. Scott is Ubering to Tattered Flag, and I’m going to meet him there. Planned to get there at 10:40, but ended up getting there closer to 10:50 with our tickets and my beer and meet him just inside the door. He shows me the beer he’s bringing and we go over our small sample size. At just a bit before 11AM, Justin comes through and tells everyone to follow him down into the brewhouse.

Since 2018 I’ve done some volunteer canning work with Tattered Flag – though recently they’ve stopped using volunteers now that their employee force is big enough to keep it all done in-house, so I’m quite familiar with their brewhouse and back of the brewery operations and location.

At the time, there’s not too many people yet. Maybe 15-20. Justin goes over the rules. (Big rule: don’t touch any valves. Little rule: throw your trash away. Big rule: DON’T TOUCH ANY VALVES. Little rule: put your beers in their appropriate tubs.) They had bussing tubs with a label for each: IPA, Sour / Saisons, Wheats / Kolsches, and Stouts. Bigger bottles were kept in the front or where room was for them.

The guys from Breweries in PA introduced themselves. And then we were off to the races (…or beers). Talked with the lady from Breweries in PA and she was saying how the Dayman can was the last “known in the wild” can to exist, due to them getting hit with a Cease and Desist from Disney. And we talked about Disney with recent news, and how past places have gotten hit with some C & D’s.

After sampling Dayman, and then Nightman, I saw a lovely looking Smoked Porter big bottle. Unfortunately I forget the name of it, and it appears I never checked it into Untappd (something I didn’t do too good of a job of). (Just like pictures, unfortunately I took no pictures of the event either, so I have no pictures of my own, and had to try and remember the beers I tried for Untappd later on.) So whoever brought the big bottle Smoked Porter, I’d love to know what it was. ….but also… oh boy that carbonation! As soon as I popped the cap on it, it just gushed. Foam everywhere, so much so that I had to set it down under the table over the grate, it just wouldn’t stop, for a good solid 2 minutes it kept going. (So yes, I apologize for being ‘that guy’, but….. it wasn’t my fault!)

A cache of the beers at the bottle / can share. Photo courtesy of Justin Hoak.

Me and D. Scott kinda hovered over the Stouts area. Talked to Justin and his girlfriend Aimee, about recent events with Tattered Flag, as well as Hibrewnation that took place, as well as the upcoming Prototype Brewery and Meadery and the Prototype Invitation Brewing Event.

The beer share at Tattered Flag. Photo courtesy of Justin Hoak.

After a few more samples, me and D. Scott headed back into the caverns a bit, where there was more space, as by now we were likely up to about 40+ people in attendance. And out by the brite tanks and fermenters it was getting pretty crowded. After a bit, the guys from Breweries in PA brought a few of the bussing trubs out into the side-room where we used to do the labeling for Tattered Flag’s canning run. They brought out a few beers of each type as well and so there was now a more mixed variety in the different areas.

While in the side-room, I branched out a bit from my stouts and sours and had a few IPAs. Bearded Iris’ Homestyle, Psycho Simcoe by Three 3’s, Ex Novo Brewing’s Spirits of the Dead, and Double Luv by East Branch Brewing. Hanging out, talking with D. Scott and some of our fellow drinkers in the area, we also cracked open the Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery, which was amazingly fantastic. While discussing the ridiculously high ABV on it (19.5%), one of the guys talked about the beer he brought from Nimble Hill, a Maple Stout in their Mysteria Series, that was a 25%. I’ve always been a huge fan of big ABV beers…. so my ears and eyes and nose, and mouth, all perked up. The kind gentleman went back and got it and brought it out. After a bit of a struggle getting the cork off of it, we each drew a good sample size of it (and I won’t lie and say I didn’t have two samples of it).

The description on Untappd for it reads:

MAPLE SYRUP STOUT
This super limited creation is an off shoot of Turbo Diesel.
But instead of using hops, we added a few gallons of maple syrup and a dash of molasses and fermented it to the limits.
The result is a thick dessert stout with a strong maple syrup and imperial stout finish, followed by hearty warming from the 25% abv. Served without carbonation for a smooth and velvety finish.

It was smooth, dry, but with an amazing maple syrup flavor. Tasted like drinking a maple syrup wine. It was pretty much fantastic. And the nice 25% ABV to it, certainly didn’t hurt. I would like to throw a shout out to Ryan Haraschak. Fantastic, gorgeous gem to bring to the bottle share! Kudos my man!

We also tried a gentleman’s RIS Homebrew that was wonderful as well. And somehow, quickly, we realized we were approaching the end of the time for the bottle share, so me and D. Scott went back by the fermenters to try some of the beers still over there.

While hanging out there, and chopping on some tortilla chips, the Harris Brewery guys came in. Got to talk to Harris guys for a long time about their upcoming brewery, black culture in brewing and craft beer, Allison Hill, the impact their hoping to make, the old Coke-Cola building / factory on the corner of 19th and Derry, the obstacles their having to overcome for their brewery, their GoFundMe vs. the Kickstarter, and much more. We also drank from their growler of their collaboration with The Vegetable Hunter which was fantastic. If you would like to support the Harris Family Brewery, and add to their GoFundMe you can do so here:

Harris Family Brewery Start-Up Go Fund Me

Shaun Harris posing at the end of the bottle share. Photo Courtesy of Harris Family Brewery.

As the time dwindled down, we quickly tried to sample a last few beers. There was an Intuition Ales that I tried with a large dragon on it (wax sealed originally, no idea on the name), as well as two Hegemony Anniversary Beers from St. Boniface. Also back to back Black IPAs; one from Pour Man’s Brewing – Black Market, and the other from Heavy Seas – Night Swell. Also tried the 2SP and WaWa coffee stout – Winter Reserve. As well as a last sampling of the Candy Hearts by New Trail Brewing.

As it wrapped up, they told us to take anything we wanted that was unopened. Seeing my Lickinghole Virginia Black Bear unopened I grabbed that, as well as an IPA from Mainstay Brewing and one of the bakeries from The Bruery. My buddy grabbed a couple and we put them in the six-pack holder and took them out to my car and then came back in to use our free beer and food discount.

Tattered Flag with the (free) ticket, being the gracious host was giving one free pour with the ticket as well as 10% off food. D. Scott got an order of loaded chips, and I got Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry). His free drink was either the Custardy Tropic Like Its Hot or the Custardy Black Crumble. We had also sampled these in cans during the bottle share.

My list of beers sampled (that I was able to record on Untappd) was:
* Nightman (Stable 12 Brewing Company)
* Schmoojee Strawberry Orange Banana (Imprint Beer Co)
* Bible Belt (2019) (Evil Twin Brewing)
* Frucht: Fruit Punch (The Bruery Terreux)
* Churro Sombrero (Clown Shoes)
* Autumn Friend (Forest & Main Brewing Company)
* Spirits of the Dead (Ex Novo Brewing)
* Psycho Simcoe (Three 3’s Brewing Co.)
* Black Tuesday (2017) (The Bruery)
* Maple Stout, Mysteria Series (Nimble Hill Brewing)
* Double Luv (East Branch Brewing)
* Kriek Marriage Parfait (2015) (Brouwerji Boon)
* Black Market (Pour Man’s Brewing Company
* Night Swell (Heavy Seas Beer)
* Pack & Brass Coffee IPA (Wallenpaupack Brewing Company)
* I Still Love the Old World (Grimm Artisanal Ales)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver7ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver8ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Cold Pro (Union Craft Brewing)
* Winter Reserve Coffee Stout (2SP Brewing Company / WaWa)
* Candy Hearts (New Trail Brewing Co.)
* Homestyle (Bearded Iris)
* Custardy: Blackberry Crumble (Tattered Flag)
* Custardy: Tropic Like Its Hot (Tattered Flag)
* Thief Share (2016) (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)
* Blue Farm (2017) (Free Will Brewing Co.)
* Gingerbread Crunchee (Other Half Brewing Co.)
* Double Vice Coffee Porter (Grist House Craft Brewery)
* Chili Nelson Hazy Habenero (The Vegetable Hunter)
* Winter Wassailand (The Vegetable Hunter / Harris Family Brewing)
* Dayman (Stable 12 Brewing)

These are the ones I remembered / checked-in on Untappd anyway. There were so many more I didn’t get to try, some I definitely wanted to. I saw some Aslin cans, I believe 4th Anniversary Sours, that I missed out on, as well as a few Other Half’s and similar. In the comments – for those of you who went – I’d love to see what you brought, had, and what was your favorites.

This was a fantastic event. I’ve been to some friend / home beer bottle / can shares, and its always a blast. Passing around beers, sampling, and talking about beer and just hanging out with good people. The craft beer community is an exceptional and diverse community and its so great to talk to so many different people. Bottle shares are like mini-brewfests in a way, sampling a ton of different beers from different places / breweries that you most likely won’t get into contact with. Its not a bad way to kill a Saturday morning, thats for sure.

My favorites that I got to sample were: Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery and the Nimble Hill Maple Stout Mysteria (the 25%). D. Scott said his favorite was also the 25% Maple Stout as well as the Custardy: Blackberry Crumble.

It was great of Tattered Flag to put up some of their own beers in the share, a great gesture on their part. Also, humorous note, I think I did see a Blue Moon in one of the tubs, not 100% sure though, but I think I did. Kudos to whoever brought that. I did think it’d be funny to bring a single Coors Light bottle or Miller Lite High Life bottle and sneak it in, but didn’t know how it’d go over.

The Kill Shot from the Beer Share at Tattered Flag hosted by Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA. (Photo courtesy of: Chad Balbi)

As you can see from the kill shot, there was a ton of great beer brought in, and sampled and served. Breweries from all over Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other big breweries like Other Half, Bearded Iris, Aslin, Dogfish Head, Brewery of Omnegang, Grimm Artisanal Ales, as well as some homebrew, and some heavy PA hitters like Free Will, Tattered Flag, Strange Roots, Imprint Beer Co, Dancing Gnome, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, and New Trail, and even upcoming brewery Harris Family. It was a wonderful and diverse selection, bottles, bombers, growlers, crowlers, cans, and even wine bottles.

Interested in reading some reviews of beers from some of these places, you can check out my beer blog: The Beer Thrillers. We’ve reviewed beers from Tattered Flag like: Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, Inexplicably Juicy, Pink Guava, Fatum Series: Member Berries, and more. New Trail’s Broken Heels. Broken Goblet’s This Is The Way, Burn Them All Away. Boneshire Brew Work’s The Hog, Dillston, Harrishire (with Harris Family), Sunburst, Good Walk Spoiled, Road Less Traveled, and more. Wolf Brewing collaboration with Tattered Flag – Imperial Churro and collaboration with Imprint – Wolf Prints. Rotunda Brewing’s sWheat Tarts: Mango Guyabano and Juicy Fruit. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing’s Fuzzy Nudge, Coco-Nator, and Scratch 400. You can check out our brewery visit and recap (and review) of Mellow Mink and their Scarlet Sunrise. Or our brewery reviews of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery. Or the recent, unfortunate news of the closings – Crystal Ball and Stoudt’s.

You can also read our other article on Breweries in PA: Touring the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg. (Also located here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg.)

We are currently listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs at #9, and have been there for a few weeks now (moved up from #11). (If you would like to write for us, you can contact us through our contact page. Or if you would like us to write for you.)

You can check us out on Facebook as well as Twitter. Or just search for us – Facebook – The Beer Thrillers – and on Twitter – @thebeerthriller.

The blog is ran by me – B. Kline, and mainly written by me, but other writers for the blog include J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (of Default Brewing). We also have Let Us Drink Beer Blog do some contributions as a guest writer.

I also do podcasts with D. Scott and Esteban – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… where we discuss beer, pop culture, movies, TV shows, and much more. Always hilarious and always insightful, so make sure to check that out as well.

(Ok, that concludes the article for Breweries in PA. The rest from here on out, is just for the Beer Thrillers faithful and my blog only. Its also a little more personal and detailed than the above, so keep reading if you want to hear more.)

So as per usual with me, after the beer share event, my night didn’t end. It was about 3:30-4PM by the time we finished up at the Tattered Flag bar. Way too early to call it a day. Being in the area, we decided to check out the Lancaster Brewing spot off of Eisenhower Boulevard in Harrisburg. Neither me nor D. Scott had ever been there. And this checks off a “new brewery location” that I want to do each month. (January was Liquid Noise Brewing, so February will be Lancaster Brewing, and hopefully March – before they close up – will be Stoudt’s.) Its funny that neither of us have ever been here to this location. Its so close, and we’ve jumped and hit all of the Harrisburg breweries numerous times before.

While there we met up with friends D. Arndt, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend. I did a flight, D. Scott got a draft of their eggnog, and I have no recollection of what the others got. My flight included:
* Jam Series #22 Mexican Style Lager
* Jam Series #21 Gingerbread Spiced Brown Ale
* Lancaster Lager
* Jam Series – Track #20 Eggnog Blond
* Jam Series – Track #19 Chili Smoked Baltic Porter
* Winter Warmer

Lancaster Brewing Company’s Spiced Gingerbread

All were pretty tasty. I enjoyed the Smoked Porter the most with the Spiced Gingerbread coming in second. Wasn’t a huge fan of the eggnog blond, but I’m not a fan of eggnog so kind of knew that going into it. Drew loved his, but then again, he’s a huge eggnog fan. So mileage may vary on that type of beer.

Lancaster Brewing Company’s Mexican Lager

Finally around 730-8PM or so we left and went to D. Arndt’s house, where we hung out with him and his fiance Kat and his dogs (the one of which is a Corgi named Indiana Bones). While there he had a can of Intemperance by Tree House which was absolutely delicious.

Intemperance by Tree House Brewing

Look for me to be adding the Intemperance to my series on Tree House. Also, most likely tonight Doppelganger will be going up to finish what was originally the series. But now, with the addition of Intemperance, the series will be going from 5 to 6, making it a nice easy and sensible six-pack. Makes sense for a beer blog (a beer blog making sense?!), I like it.

So, this was supposed to be written and was supposed to go up Sunday, the 9th. But… work was crazy, as it was a ticket promotion give-away and we were swamped there, and afterwards, I was supposed to go to D. Scott to watch the Oscar’s (and drink the remaining of the beer share beers), but… Haley forgot the crowler of Rotunda Brewing Company’s ‘Beautiful Trauma’ that I got her, so I had to swing back to work and then deliver it to her at Irgo’s Tavern. Where I then proceeded to stay and play pool with several co-workers until 1AM. So obviously… no posting that night.

Then Monday I did go over to D. Scott’s and we watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (finally got around to seeing it, fantastic movie, and Tarantino is still just as good as he always was). So once again, no blog posting Monday. But, last night I did start this, and sadly, only after editing, getting to finish it this morning. Sorry for the delay in things, but I rather edit and make sure I like the way blog looks, and that there’s no misspellings or grammar problems or anything (though I’m sure one or two will still sneak through). There’s two ways to write:

“You either write sober and edit drunk, or write drunk and edit sober.”

I also finally got that California beer mail Tuesday. Looks like some delicious brews to drink down and dive into and review for you all.

So definitely expect to see some beer reviews come out of that 10-pack. There’s a lot of tasty ones (I am super looking forward to the Chocolate Donut porter.)

Blog news – I am going to be trying to get 2 blogs up a day for the next few days to catch up some of the beer reviews I’m behind on. Fingers crossed anyway. This blog post is also going up on Breweries in PA’s website, so you’ll be able to check it out there (albeit abbreviated). Once its live, I’ll come in and edit this to include it here.

Tomorrow (Thursday, the 13th), I have yet another funeral to go to. This time my Uncle (mother’s brother in law) passed away. (Last Thursday was a funeral for my Great Uncle, my father’s Uncle.) In the evening Funck’s in Palmyra is doing a tap takeover for New Trail. I might be stopping out for that (might not, depends on time). New Trail makes some great beers, so I’d love to check it out.

Some beer reviews that are due up are Doppelganger and Intemperance, New Heights I Cannot Tell a Lie, Boneshire Brew Work’s Anagnorsis, Revision’s Pete’s Stache, Rivertown’s Triple Belgian, and much more. So be on the lookout for a lot of beer reviews coming at you in the upcoming days.

Like I said earlier in the post (mainly for the Breweries in PA page), please check out our Facebook, Twitter, and other social medias, and please click follow, like, subscribe, both on those platforms and here on the blog itself. You can enter your e-mail at the bottom to get notifications immediately whenever a new blog post hits the internet, and we’d greatly appreciate it. We also love it when you use the ‘rating’ at the bottom so we know how we are performing, and click the LIKE down below as well. Also, even more importantly, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, feedback. So leave us a comment, or two, or three, or forty-four. I try to respond and reply as quickly as I’m able to. And if you ever want, you can contact us at our contact page and leave me a message.

Thanks everyone so much for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed it, and if you were at the event, hopefully you had as much of a blast as I did (and D. Scott). (Which speaking of, be on the lookout for some new podcasts on LOST Seasons 3 & 4, Fullmetal Alchemist, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and potentially / possibly / hopefully BoJack Horseman.)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Tattered Fag and Breweries in PA’s February 8th, 2020, Beer Share – the final kill shot.
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Beer Review: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart (Rotunda Brewing Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2019/08/11/beer-review-juicy-fruit-swheat-tart-rotunda-brewing-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-juicy-fruit-swheat-tart-rotunda-brewing-company Sun, 11 Aug 2019 04:37:54 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=359
Juicy Fruit, another wonderful rendition of the sWheat Tart series.

I think Josh summed it up best by saying : “Unlike the real Juicy Fruit this flavor will last longer than 5 seconds.” And he is absolutely 100% correct with that. This is another fantastic beer in a series (sWheat Tart) that the guys at Rotunda are just killing with. I don’t think you can find a bad one in the bunch.

They’ve been doing this series for a while now, and each new iteration is just as good if not better than the last. Different adjuncts, different varieties, and different tastes, and theres just one common theme: their all very good.

This one is a bit different though, its a Pale Ale – American, where as all of the other prior versions were Sour – Fruited or Sours of some sort. This is not some bureaucratic typo, this is a straight up New England style Pale Ale, and as the picture above shows, its hazy golden, and great tasting.

Beer: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.9%
IBU: (blank)
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

The coloring is hazy, golden, orange juice like, unfiltered. Not puree and nothing crazy like a ton of floaters, but some sediment and some floating activity, none of which is a bad thing. If this was a can, I’d recommend rolling it before opening it, but there is nothing wrong with the appearance or the activity of it.

Aroma is juicy, mango forward, with some slight hop notes, but mostly a juicy fruit gum smell. There is a lot happening here aroma wise, a lot of smells combining, I took notice of mango, grapefruit, citrusy hops, all kinds of things working together in combination to make this an aromatic juicy fruit gum bomb.

The taste is a juicy incredible pale ale unlike any I’ve had prior. Pale Ales tend to be a notch down on the flavor scale and tend to be more grain oriented and less hop oriented, but this is just pure full throttle flavor. Immediately your tongue is inundated with flavor, juicy notes of all kind, mango, peach, gum, grapefruit, melon rind, juicy fruit gum, citrus style hops, everything. Its like the whole fruit cart got dumped into your mouth.

This is definitely one to seek out. Make it a point to stop in at Rotunda Brewery or Batdorf in Annville and try this.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: (As of Midnight 8.10-8.11.19 there has not been enough ratings to make a global Untappd rating. After all, it was just released today. I will edit this and provide a post-script with a global Untappd rating at some near future.

Some current scores on Untappd have been: ****.5, ****.25, ****, *****, ***, ***, ***.5, ****.25, ****.25, etc.)

POST SCRIPT: As of 8.18.19, the Global Untappd rating for Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart is: 4.06.


Ok, until next time, keep that liver employed!

-B. Kline

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