Welcome back to round number two of the four rounds of four beers I had during the last streaming I did with Drew on Knights of Nostalgia. The first was Pixels by Seminar Brewing, this is the second, the third will be Great Notion Brewing’s Fruit Monster, and the fourth will be Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage. (Spoiler alert: all four beers were really good.)

Aslin Beer Company is one of the many great breweries along the East Coast. In the middle of the East Coast; Virginia, Maryland, D.C, West Virginia, Delaware area; Aslin Beer Company, Burley Oak Brewing Company, The Veil, The Answer, Adroit Theory, Dewey Beer Company, are often mentioned on “must visit” and “top breweries” and “great” lists; they are usually the sought after, the traded for (the Facebook group ISO / FT), and the breweries that people mule back from. So needless to say, it’s fantastic to see some of these breweries (notably Aslin Beer Company and Burley Oak Brewing Company) popping up in distribution (distro) in the area. Breski’s Beverage on Eisenhower Boulevard (outside of Harrisburg between Harrisburg and Middletown) has been getting some wonderful cans from both breweries, as well as many other notable breweries, and is always worth checking in to see what they currently have in stock.

The mix-a-six selection at Breski’s and similar places are phenomenal right now (…phenomenally tasting; horrible on your wallet however). Last Tuesday before stopping at Tattered Flag for their Taco Tuesday, I stopped at Breski’s and got two mix-a-six six-packs (and paid about 60$), but picked up some tremendous beers; like the Isolation Anniversary Beer, two Great Notion beers, a pilsner (Billsner) from Burley Oak, a Black is Beautiful from Non Sequitur, Stickman’s The Growfather (can’t resist a good Godfather pun), two from Stranger Root’s Experimental Ales, Alarmist, Atlantic, etc. All in all, a wonderful selection of beers that you will be seeing reviews of (at least nine out of the 12 anyway, and hopefully in a timely fashion).

So, since I have a ton of reviews to do, and limited time (don’t we all limited time afterall?) I better get right down to this and do this beer review shouldn’t I?

Ok…. lets do it!

Beer: Isolation Anniversary Beer
Brewery: Aslin Beer Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double Milkshake
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Always a little disappointing to see the description left blank (its nice to see notes from the brewers / brewery, or maybe a joke or pun, or some context behind the beer or the beer name, or why or how it was brewed, if it was a collaboration, if its someone’s favorite recipe, or something at least), but I think this beer doesn’t really need a description, as it stands on its own.

Appearance is similar to that of a New England IPA; its opaque, its hazy, its bright, and orange, and glowing, but its even thicker than a normal New England IPA looks. It has ‘floaters’ especially if you don’t roll it before opening it up and pouring it. Its very well carbonated and has a great foamy white head, with a good pour it has just the right amount of head, with a bad pour I could picture this filling a whole glass with just head. The bubbles on it are nice and it leaves a nice lacing in the glass. It’s turbid, busy, and active.

The nose on this is hoppy, juicy hoppy, citrusy hoppy, but also creamy and vanilla and lactose, like silky smooth creamy milk with lots of fruity, citrus, juice, hops in it. I get mango, peach, citrus, a bit of zest, and a small whiff of grapefruit hop notes in this blended with the vanilla sweetness and cream of the lactose.

First sip… wow. Second sip… double wow. This has a LOT going on. Which is not a fault or problem at all; granted sometimes it can be, but not in this case. This has a lot going on, but all in proportion to the beer itself and within its style and how the beer is supposed to be. It’s not going off into all kinds of different places with varied and confusing mixtures of flavors, or with off flavors, or with competing notes. This just has a lot going on within it, but all with a purpose, all within the style, and all just how you should want it. Its a milkshake, its a hop bomb, its juicy, its turbid, its hazy, its strong, its delicious. Most importantly…. its delicious. And… did I mention yet…. that its delicious? This was hands down my favorite of the night, and it was the boldest, most flavorful, and had the biggest wallop of flavors, notes, aromas, hop, juiciness, and outright drinkability. I could easily kill a four pack of these, and probably in short time too; its just that drinkable. Which is scary at its 9.4% ABV, but it doesn’t feel heavy, or boozy, or knocking you on your face and teeth skittering across the cement floor of the basement kind of alcoholic; its just crushable but at a higher ABV. This is like drinking a smooth, juicy, silky, creamy, orange juice with the fruity citrus juicy hops in for extra flavor. Just like with aroma, I got mostly mango and peach with the flavor, but also got citrus, some zest, and a teeny weensy bit of grapefruit. I do have to say, as much as I could crank down a four pack of this, as someone with lactose intolerance, thats probably not a great idea. These milkshake IPAs and milkshake sours and such with some having an insane amount of lactose in them (this one probably has a rather large amount in it) typically give me some ‘gastro’ issues next morning when I wake up. One or so don’t usually hurt too much, but after that it starts pushing it, especially with the very heavy lacto ones.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 10.25.20)

After wrapping up the beer review here, I wanted to do a bit more research on the beer for the blog, so I did a quick Google search (ASLIN ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER) and the first site was their online ordering form for the beer, which you can find here: Order Isolation Anniversary Beer. It also came with a description for the beer which reads:

“🎉 ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER 🎉 Today‘s the day we opened our (garage) door 5 years ago! 🍻In honor of the 1825 days that have passed since then, we bring you our Aslin ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER. Soft ripe yellow peach, mango, and passionfruit unite with explosively juicy results, and a full-bodied, perfectly zippy taste that finishes off with woody resin notes from Cypress & Sugar Maple wood. This is juicy fruit flesh squeezed into a hazy DIPA!! We’re raising a glass of this to all of you for your incredible support that has helped bring us to YEAR 6. Hang tight, this is not the only drop in our 5th Anniversary series! 🎉 🍻”

Also came with a picture:

Hopefully that provides a bit of closure on the beer and fills in for the lack of a description on Untappd for everyone.

As always everyone, thanks for reading, and be sure to check back soon as I do the other two beers, as well as some recent travelogues (just did a recent hike with my faithful canine companion Leela to the Pinnacle Overlook in Hamburg and stopped at 1787 Brewing Company and Schaylor Brewing Company). As always, there is a ton to check out here on the blog, so be sure to be on the lookout, hit the subscribe and follow button, and always feel free to comment, we love to hear from you!

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)

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

Also, in recent news, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) 2020 ended (their 34th edition; this year virtually rather than in person in Boulder, Colorado), and they’ve announced their winners. You can see what Pennsylvania Breweries won here. As well as the 2020 NAGBW Awards.

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

-B. Kline

Happy Revenge of the Fifth…. or Cinco de Mayo… or Taco Tuesday; whatever you’re celebrating. But either way, quarantine or no quarantine, its a day to celebrate, especially in the beer world, and current events be damned if we’re not going to have fun right?

This would have been the ultimate brewery night. Taco Tuesday. Cinco de Mayo. All the craft breweries with a restaurant would have been all over this event. Especially places with a Mexican theme or influence, like Mad Chef, Rotunda Brewing, etc. Or Tattered Flag with their excellent tacos that they serve. So many places to go to eat and or drink at. Along with St. Patty’s Day and yesterday with May the Fourth; bars and breweries are missing out on some specialty days and holidays that typically boost sales for them and help bartenders earn some extra tips.

I did my ‘celebrating’ at home. For lunch, I grilled the family tacos and made it all from scratch myself, while enjoying a delicious a Mexican chocolate (pastry) stout from Celestial Beerworks (collaborating with Islla St Brewing).

So, despite the pandemic, murder hornets, incoming cold weather (with forecasted snow in MAY here in Central PA), released footage of UFOs, and whatever other nonsense is going on in the world, lets take a look at this delicious beer. But first, since I’m sure you want to see my tacos, here you go:

Don’t worry, more lettuce, onions, and shredded cheese was added. Not sure why I didn’t take a fully completed taco picture to be honest (probably because I was finishing that 10% pastry stout, haha).

So, the beer in question came from my Texas beer mail package and is brewed as a collaboration between Celestial Beerworks and Islla St Brewing.

Ok, time to jump into this beer review and deliver the goods to you fine readers.

Beer: Islla en el Cielo
Brewery: Celestial Beerworks
Collaborator: Islla St Brewing
Style: Stout – Pastry
ABV: 10%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This 10% Imperial Stout is loaded up with Star Crunch and Mexican chocolate. It is smooth and balanced. It has cinnamon on the nose and deep flavors of caramel and milk chocolate. It has a little heat and is beautifully sweet.

For those not Spanish, quick thing: en el cielo means in the sky. Isla (according to Google) not Islla; means island. So roughly the beer means: Island in the Sky.

Star Crunch is a Little Debbie cookie, as their site describes it: “A chewy cookie topped with caramel and crisp rice then covered in a layer of fudge.”

So whoever said my blog wasn’t informative and that reading it you wouldn’t learn things right? I’m teaching you Spanish, about Little Debbie cookies, about tacos, about Star Wars, and now about Texas breweries!

Celestial Beerworks is a Micro Brewery in Dallas Texas. According to Untappd they have 137 unique beers and a global average rating of 4.14. Their Untappd description reads: “At Celestial Beerworks, we believe that beer should be consumed in its freshest state. Our core line-up will focus on hop-forward, approachable, complex brews… We think that visiting a taproom should be an experience. This experience will combine our three favorite things: art, science, and delicious, fresh beer. We are working hard each and every day to bring this vision to fruition.”

Islla St Brewing is a brew pub in San Antonio Texas. Untappd credits them with a 150 unique beers and a global average rating of 4.05. Their Untappd description reads: “Islla St. brewing creates innovative and culturally rich small batch craft beer. Drawing flavors and influence from unique fruits and spices tied to our culture, history and contemporary influences. It is our hope to impact the craft beer industry and bridge a cultural gap through a deeper and richer experience of flavor intended to inspire curiosity. We are looking to open doors for those wanting to explore their heritage and influences in unconventional ways.” (Both breweries global averages are as of 5.5.20.)

The beer is pure black. Pure dark stout, as per typical, it has that lovely dark coloring. Very thin head to this. No foamy mass of head, just a very thin small head with few bubbles. This isn’t really a problem, especially since this isn’t a creamy stout, but more of a dark, rich stout full of various flavors.

Aroma is a bit all over the place. There is an underlying (Mexican) chocolate note to this that is the heaviest nose on the beer. But there is also plenty of other aromas; heavy cinnamon right away but not long-term, some caramel from the malts, a bit of breadyness but not a whole lot. Perhaps drinking this while making the tacos wasn’t the best idea for smelling the nose, but I got some of the heat of the beer in the nose, a slight vanilla, but mostly cinnamon and chocolate.

There is a little bit of heat to this. Nothing like the heat to say Boneshire Brew Work’s Mexican LazaRIS stout, but there is an undercurrent of heat to this. (Which pairs perfectly with tacos by the way.) You definitely get the cinnamon, chocolate (Mexican and otherwise), some bready notes, the caramel malts, and a slight vanilla or milk taste. The biggest notes are the cinnamon and Mexican chocolate. These work very nicely in tandem. The milk chocolate, milk and vanilla notes, slight fudge, probably comes from the Little Debbie Star Crunches. The beer is bouncing back and forth between ‘heat’ and ‘sweet’, almost per sip. One sip you get the heat of the cinnamon and other notes and then the next you’re getting the sweet of the chocolate and Star Crunch. Makes for a interesting beer overall. I certainly digged it, and I think most will too. The heat might be a slight turn off to some, but its not really that prevalent in the beer, so its not bad. Its more of just a ‘bite’ to it than anything else. There is also a little bit of a boozyness to this, especially with it being a 10%, so load up on some tacos as you eat it to keep our belly nice and full and happy.

My Untappd rating: ****.25
Global Untappd rating: 4.09 (as of 5.5.20)

Well, this certainly wasn’t a typical Cinco de Mayo, just like we haven’t had ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ in a long time in general. But we will get there. I think we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully soon we’ll be back in the breweries enjoying a pint together.

Cheers! Salud! Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Mantente segura, quedate en casa, quedate feliz!

-B. Kline