The Englewood - The Beer Thrillers

First Ever Hershey Beer and Music Festival Announced

B. Kline — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 19:46:07 +0000

Just Announced

Just announced on Facebook – by The Englewood Brewery (you can see their logo in the above Hershey Beer and Music Festival logo) – the first ever Hershey Brew Fest, set for July 30th, 2023.

Details are few as of right now, but The Englewood did say they would be announcing details later this week.

Their announcement post reads:

HERSHEY BREW FEST 2023 IS COMING JULY 30th!
Full details and your chance to purchase tickets for our first ever BEER AND MUSIC FESTIVAL are coming later this week. Stay tuned!

#hersheybrewfest #beer #craftbeer #drinklocal #brewery #hersheypa #music #englewoodbrewing #englewoodhershey
The Englewood – Facebook Announcement

(They updated their post, as it originally had the date of July 31st; they have since updated it to July 30th, a Sunday.)

Our Articles Featuring The Englewood

For More Information on The Englewood

The following comes from Untappd. The Englewood Brewery / Englewood Brewing is a micro brewery from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania (Hershey Pennsylvania, near Bullfrog Pond). They have 53 unique beers and over 10,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.68 (as of 6.12.23). Their Untappd description reads: Englewood Brewing is an independent craft brewery that produces sought after brews poured fresh from the taps, in cans and crowlers. The restaurant serves American fare variations out of the state-of-the-art kitchen.

You can find them on the following social media:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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Cheers.

-B. Kline

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Brews and Bands for Bart

BKline — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 22:00:00 +0000

Brews and Bands for Bart

Block Party of the Summer

How do you recognize one of the baddest and coolest party throwers around? By throwing one of the biggest and baddest bashes ever in his honor! Thats just what’s in store this Saturday at Tattered Flag. We’ve discussed Bartley Kaminski here on the blog before, in numerous different ways, but recently with his passing, and with the event here and various events in the distant past.

This event has been planned out for quite a while now, but has really blown up with Bart’s passing. Tons of breweries adding their names to the list, and lots of other additions, and add – ons and groups adding to it and showing up in various ways to help the cause. It looks to be one hell of a bash, and one hell of a way to salute, and remember Bart and to throw one final rad party in his honor and memory.

Bartley Kaminiski

We talked about Bart before here, and talked about his passing previously here: Farewell to Bartley Francis Kaminski. He founded Kollision Media, Hop Hedz Gear, and has been referred to as “The Willy Wonka of Beer Events”. I could go on and on about him here. He was just a great guy, the life of the party without being too much, and everyone who knew him, or even just met him at one event or the other has amazing memories or stories to tell about him. My buddy talks about Bart’s green – suit or green – man appearance at the Atlantic City Brewfest all the time. There was very rarely an event in the Central PA area where you didn’t see a Hop Hedz Gear stand or Bart himself. And I guarantee you there was at least one person walking around in a tee shirt or hoodie that he made.

I can’t do him justice here discussing his amazing life, but we can do him justice by having one heck of a party in his honor.

Brews and Bands for Bart

The final brewery list for Brews and Bands for Bart posted today (Wednesday 8.11.21)

Look at that line-up! And word is there might be more additions to come and stuff, even though this is the “finalized” list. And I’m sure some might have their own little additions or add ons or secret hidden stashes too.

Here is a full list with all of their Untappd links:

Word is also Lancaster Brewing Company, North Country Brewing, and maybe one or two more will be unofficially added. That is one hell of a lineup right there! With breweries from out of state like Tripping Animals (Florida) and much more.

And let us not forget the bands part of this event as well!

The music lineup for Brews and Bands for Bart at Tattered Flag this Saturday (8.14.21)

Also, as posted by Hop Hedz Gear on social media:

In addition to the 40+ breweries that will be attending the fest, we would like to thank our group of vendors who will be a part of the event! Thanks so Whimsical Wonders By Kris, Thicc Bois Glassware, D&S Cigar Lounge, Dutch Country Soft Pretzels, and Feathers Feed and Jerky. Be sure to stop by these booths, as all sales will have a portion of proceeds donated to the cause!

When, Where, How

When is this amazing block party bash? This Saturday, from noon to 4PM. Where is it? At Tattered Flag Brewery on South Union Street in Middletown, Pennsylvania (Dauphin County). How do you get tickets? Check out Hop Hedz Gear, or go here: https://shop.hophedzgear.com/products/brews-and-bands-for-bart

(UPDATE: Tickets have sold out. On the day of, they will have roughly 100 tickets for purchase at the door. This will be the only way to attend the event now.)

Tattered Flag and Breweries of PA Collab

“Hard Pills to Swallow” Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA Collab

Make sure to check out the Breweries in PA tent to find the special Hard Pills to Swallow Tattered Flag collaboration that they made just for the event. It is also available in cans, and you can purchase it through the statewide shipping “Supply Drop” that Tattered Flag offers.

More Information, Facebook Event Page, and Beer Thriller Links

For more information, you can read the event page description here:

“

“As you may know, in late February, Bart Kaminski was diagnosed with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Sarcomatoid DIfferentiation. A rare form of cancer that quickly spread to his adrenal gland, lymph nodes and surrounding bone marrow.To support Bart’s growing medical expenses, we are throwing a unique brewfest! It will take place on Saturday, Aug. 14 in the block in front of Tattered Flag Brewery and Still Works in Middletown. The event is $40 (in advance) or $45 the day of the event and that gets you a pint can glass and unlimited samplings. Food will be available for purchase.This event is co-sponsored by The Beer Busters Podcast who will be recording live at the event.We are going to have a fantastic line-up of bands! Noon – 12:45 p.m. – Shannon Bobb acoustic
1:00 – 2:15 p.m. – Colt Wilbur Band
2:30 – 3:45 p.m. – The Martini Bros.Breweries will be announced every few days. Here are the breweries that have already been announced:Artiface Ales & Mead
Big Dog
Boneshire
Breweries Of PA (TF Collab)
Chatty Monks
Dancing Gnome
Englewood
Evergrain
Fahnestock & Baer
Four Score
Funk
Human Robot
Lovedrafts
Levante
Lions Head
Liquid Noise
Mad Chef
Moo Duck
Naked Brewing
Our Town
Pilger Ruh
Pour Man’s
Raney Cellars
REHAB
Root Down
Rotunda
Samuel Adams
Seven Sirens
Shy Bear
St. Boniface
Stickman Brews
Stolen Sun
Tattered Flag
Tripping Animals
Troegs
Wingcraft
Wolf
Workhorse
Yards
Zeroday

Please help us do everything we can to support Bart!

Location: Tattered Flag Brewery
1 S Union Street, Middletown

The Capital Region’s first co-branded and co-located Craft Brewery & Craft Distillery.
@tatteredflagbsw
www.tatteredflagbsw.com“

The Event Page can be visited here: Brews and Bands for Bart Event Page.

Some previous links to articles on The Beer Thrillers where we discuss Bart Kaminski:

Some Tattered Flag related articles:

Thank you everyone for reading! And hopefully see you all out and hope everyone finds it in them to contribute and donate. It really does go to a good cause and will help the family immensely. Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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Multiple Beer Reviews: Brambleberry, Blueberry Yum Yum, Dutchboi, Bourbon Chocolate Stout (Iron Hill Brewing, Hershey)

BKline — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 14:35:00 +0000

Flight and a chicken sandwich at Iron Hill Brewery (in Hershey, Pennsylvania) (left to right: Brambleberry, Blueberry Yum Yum, Dutchboi, and Bourbon Chocolate Stout)

Out of work and waiting for my car to be fixed (dropping 515$ on new brakes, lines, etc), what to do… what to do…. Oh I know… go enjoy some great food and a flight of beers, because…. why not?

So thats exactly what I did. I found myself with two hours to kill, a good book in my hand, and an appetite for both food and beer. And in the Hershey area there is a lot of options to pick from while waiting out a car repair. Seeing as how its been a while since I had been in Iron Hill (other than picking up their release of the Black is Beautiful beer) I decided to stop in and try out a flight, since I was sure there’d be new beers I haven’t tried yet. And luckily there was. One of which was one I had been waiting to try – Dutchboi.

Firstly, as I’ve said many on times here on the blog, I am by no means a foodie, but I still would like to take the time to mention the food. It was extremely delicious. Out of all the things, at least with the COVID restrictions of requiring me to ‘have’ to buy food with my beer, at least its making me / letting me try some delicious foods at places like Iron Hill, or Troegs, or The Englewood, etc; where otherwise I would be just ordering my beers and skipping on the food entirely.

But, let me say, this chicken sandwich (and the fries) were absolutely delicious. Half of it filled me up, and I saved the other half for another night. Wonderful beer that went really well with my beers….

Which is why your here, so lets get to it and discuss my flight of beers!

Brambleberry by Iron Hill (Hershey)

Beer: Brambleberry
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Other
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Well, not a whole lot to go on with this, no description, the notes on the menu said it was a “farmhouse saison, slightly funky, slightly tart, but full of flavor”. And that was about it. So…. quick spoiler – this was sadly my least favorite of the flight. I was hoping for a berry flavored saison, but didn’t quite get that. This is what Wikipedia has to say about brambleberry (under the page heading of ‘Bramble’): “A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus Rubus, which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries.^[1] “Bramble” is also used to describe other prickly shrubs such as roses (Rosa species).^[1] Bramble or brambleberry sometimes refers to the blackberry fruit or products of its fruit, such as bramble jelly.^[2]

In British English, bramble usually refers to the common blackberry, Rubus fruticosus. R. fruticosus grows abundantly in all parts of the British Isles and harvesting the fruits in late summer and autumn is often considered a favourite pastime. An especially hardy plant, bramble bushes can also become a nuisance in gardens, sending down strong suckering roots amongst hedges and shrubs and being particularly resilient against pruning. Many consider R. fruticosus a weed due its tendency to grow in neglected areas and its sharp, tough thorns which can be hazardous to children and pets.^[3]” (Source: Bramble.)

This doesn’t seem to fit that mold too much. Color is what you typically see in a saison or tart sour. But not a fruited sour or anything like that. No black coloring or anything to resemble a blackberry; this looks exactly like your typical farmhouse or farmhouse ale or saison. Wheaty, light golden to yellow color. Small amount of head to it, but with a taster that’s nothing to truly discuss because by the time of pour and its brought over and with the smaller pour size, heads and foam can be definitively off from what would be a normal pour.

Smell has that farmhouse yeast smell, that tart, funky, ‘off’ to some people, ‘on’ to other people smell. It has a crisp nose to it that you can pick up on immediately. Not a whole lot else to say on the smell, there’s no berry, no fruit odors, just the wheat and yeast smell.

Taste is…. well… its crisp. It is smooth. But it has kind of a bite to it. A funky, weird, tart but not the normal farmhouse or saison tart, kind of an off tartness to it. Like a bad berry tart funkyness, but not fully that bad or off. Like some blueberry beers where it gets the funky blueberry rather than the fruity – tart blueberry, but not quite to that full level. It has a definitive lingering taste to this that isn’t pleasant but isn’t completely unpleasant, more or less just kind of ‘ugh’. Nothing is completely horrible about it, but nothing is completely great about it and bordering past the ‘good’ into a category of just ‘do not like’ due to the aftertaste and all around weird funkyness / tartness to it. I wouldn’t say its a bad beer or a poorly made one, but just off, and not my cup of tea or style so to speak. I do love Farmhouse Ales and Saisons though, so this was a bit disappointing because of that.

My Untappd Rating: ***
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 8.25.20)

Blueberry Yum Yum by Iron Hill

(A Different picture than the above, apparently I only took the flight picture for the first two drinks)

Beer: Blueberry Yum Yum
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Description: This kettle sour uses blueberries, graham cracker pie crust, vanilla beans, and lactose to trick your taste buds into thinking you’re drinking a fresh pint of blueberry cobbler.

This was much better. Much, much, much better. Definitely enjoyed this one.

Color is spot on for a fruited sour, especially any heavy in one of the major berries (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry). It has that purplish beautiful glow, incandescent one might say. Light foamy head, nice bubbles, pop, almost like a champagne type pop to it.

The nose is wonderful, tart, blueberry, fruited sour smell. You know exactly what you are getting with this. A great finishing flourish of vanilla, some bread crumb, and a hint of something more, something earthy – ish, something more than just the fruit and vanilla but not bread. Hard to pinpoint on that, but it detracts nothing from the aroma or the beer.

This starts off fully vanilla and blueberry then tapers off into blueberry only real quick. It has the very heavy fruited sour vibes to it, which is perfect and just what I wanted out of this, especially after appearance and smell. The vanilla fades away quickly, and leaves you with the tart but not too overly funky blueberry, which is where this really shines through. Full blueberry flavor with just the hint of bread crumbs and vanilla at the end. If you like bright, full, tasty blueberry tartness, then this is exactly what you are looking for it. Not really funky, not the over ripe blueberry, but the ‘just right’ ‘ just ripe’ blueberry tartness that really brings out that wonderful flavor – that I know personally, I love, not sure about everyone else, but I prefer the ‘tart’ blueberry over the ‘funky’ blueberry. From talking to a lot of people, that seems to be the preferred, but I’m sure there’s some who enjoy the more ‘funky’ blueberry tastes than the ‘tart’ blueberry tastes. To each their own. But I certainly loved this brew and would highly recommend it to any sour or tart lovers.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.63 (as of 8.25.20)

Dutchboi by Iron Hill (Hershey)

Beer: Dutchboi
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Stout – Other
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: One off cask aged stout. Cinnamon, vanilla, serano pepper

This was the one I was most looking forward to with my flight. I had seen the Facebook and Instagram posts with the whoopie pies being mashed in, so I was certainly intrigued. My Pennsy Dutch side of me was all kinds of intrigued.

Color is the stout maxim; dark, black, cold, like my soul and heart (ask around, they’ll tell you). Or, as my personal saying is – “black like Razor Ramon’s hair”. Take that as you will, and depending on your level of interest in Scott Hall or wrestling you’ll understand it. But, this looks like any other stout really. Black, light foam head, in a taster glass, could almost be beer or coffee or motor oil, who knows. (These are all just jokes and not knocks on the beer or stouts; they just don’t typically have too much variance in color.)

Aroma kicks things off and separates this from other stouts. Definite notes of ‘whoopie pie’ on this. Vanilla, cinnamon, bready, with hints of the oak cask system used. I didn’t really pick up any pepper. Once again, going back to Wikipedia, this is said about the serrano pepper: “The serrano pepper (Capsicum annuum) is a type of chili pepper that originated in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo.^[1] The name of the pepper is a reference to the mountains (sierras) of these regions.^[1]” (Source: Serrano Pepper) I didn’t really pick up any hint of heat or pepper or anything (either smell or taste, which we’ll get to in just a bit).

Taste is delicious on this. Its got all that dark heavy stout flavoring you love (if you love stouts) but its not too heavy and high ABV like some stouts (eyes up Weyerbacher). At 7.5% its in the same tier and level as Perpetual IPA by Troegs Brewing (7.9%). So this isn’t going to be killing you but will be leaving a good buzz (on a full pour). The oak cask comes off with this nice, lending it some darker notes, but it also has a slight airy, fluffy, creamyness perhaps the ‘whoopie pie’ part of it. There is a bit of the creamy vanilla that makes this smoother, but there is some bite, perhaps thats the pepper but I attributed it to the cinnamon. I don’t think any one flavor is overly powerful and overrides the other, more of a nice gentle blending that leaves this a very good and tasty stout. This would probably be better as a bottle, than a taster or even a can or crowler, with a good pour into a glass. But I certainly still enjoyed it.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.9 (as of 8.25.20)

Bourbon Chocolate Stout (Iron Hill)

This brings us to the final beer of the flight, and as it turns out, my favorite of the flight. (Perhaps a surprise, perhaps not a surprise. I was anticipating liking either the Dutchboi or the Blueberry Yum Yum more, but I’m also a big fan of bourbon stouts and heavy stouts too…. so I guess this wasn’t really a surprise in hindsight.)

Beer: Bourbon Chocolate Stout
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 10%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

It is interesting, looking over the Untappd reviews for this, it seems to jump from people giving it 1 cap reviews to four or five cap reviews, and not a whole lot of wiggle room on their reviews. Either a hate it or love it beer I suppose. Personally, I enjoyed it. Perhaps its not for everyone, perhaps its the very heavy bourbon notes, or the bitterness, I’m not sure, but we’ll get to all that.

As always, this looks, acts, and more importantly… again… looks… just like a duck —- err, I mean, a stout. Dark, black, velvety, creamy possibly looking, slight foam head. Black as the night.

Aroma is strong bourbon, light chocolate. You get a definite nose of bourbon right out the gate, and then you get some of the chocolate, some bready earthy tones, and a bit of a dark, rich, bitter smell that is probably the chocolate coming back through.

Taste is where its going to jump on people. Strong, very heavy strong, initial bourbon bite and very alcoholic taste right out of the gate. Like drinking a strong Weyerbacher barrel aged stout, this jumps right in at you and grabs you. Some might say its too strong, or too bourbon, or too alcohol, but I definitely enjoyed it. I think it tapers off pretty steadily after that initial sip (perhaps its just me getting used to it, not sure), but it leads off into the bittering of the chocolate, like baker’s chocolate, and this might be off putting to some people too. This isn’t a creamy Hershey’s like chocolate, this is more of the baker’s chocolate, bitter, but with that still characteristic chocolate taste. The bourbon flavor I think blends nicely with that bitterness, but that could possibly be ‘too much’ for some people. It does clock in at 10% and you certainly taste and can feel it, so it does have a strong, over powering feel and effect as well. Certainly more of a sipper than a guzzle or quick drink. And at a full glass that would be the best approach, especially with its 10%.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.51 (as of 8.25.20)

My flight and food at Iron Hill Brewery in Hershey, PA.

Welp, that was my delicious flight and food. Got the car back, and just a mere 515$. The upcoming days should be interesting, on Thursday (8.27.20) will be my 35th birthday (officially old / half my lifetime / mid-life crisis / one foot in the grave / gaining speed down the hill) and me and my buddy will be heading out to West Reading / Wyomissing / Reading area to hit a few breweries. So look for that in a future post. You can read about it a bit here: “Visiting Reading.“

Saturday I will be attending The Englewood’s beer release, they are finally having their own beers on tap, and will be checking that out. So be on the look out for a review of their beers (most likely in a multiple beer review like this). I was out there before on the day they opened, which you can read here: “A Taste of Englewood“.

You can read a past beer review of Scrooge IPA by Iron Hill if you are still in the mood to read about Iron Hill Brewery and their beers in Hershey PA.

As always, lots of good stuff coming here to the blog, so be sure to like, follow, subscribe, and do all that fun stuff so you can read all about whats going on!

Cheers and see ya all at some point soon!

-B. Kline

A Taste of Englewood

BKline — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 01:30:00 +0000

The Englewood Barns (photo from englewoodhershey.com)

Today (Monday, 7.20.20) was the opening day for the brand new ‘The Englewood’ in Hershey / Hummelstown PA. So tonight after I got done at work (6PM) I made my way straight there to try it out.

The Englewood is a ‘craft brewery’, ‘restaurant’, ‘fine dining’, ‘live music venue’, and a ‘bar and tavern’ all kind of rolled up into one. Unfortunately, so far the ‘craft brewery’ portion isn’t “up and running yet”, but will be soon (I’ve been told, unofficially, that they should have their own beers on tap in about a month or so). In the meantime they have a relatively large cocktail and liquor (PA only) and a pretty limited beer menu. But, they have a very extensive and delicious food menu.

Before I go into the food and my little trip, I just want to note that this is just kind of a ‘brief trip’ view and not a full in-depth review of the restaurant (or brewery – for obvious reasons); something like that will be forthcoming in the future. I do just also want to note an interesting historical fact (for me personally anyway) – my Great Uncle lived and farmed on the land that is The Englewood and Cocoa Beanery while working for Hershey Dairy and Hershey Farms. I’m not 100% certain of how all the details of his work arrangement was; but he was the head farmer on the land and lived on property. My grandma took me to visit him (her brother) when I was very young and remember going in the barn and seeing the cows and the land. His name was Leroy Speck.

Ok…. moving forward.

The Englewood – view from the upper deck on the back

I arrived sometime around 6:20-6:30PM. Masked up and walked in the main entrance. At the hostess desk she took my temperature and asked where I’d like to be seated, I said I had no preference and she asked if the deck was fine, I said certainly and off we went.

The back of the barn has a small width deck as well as a lower courtyard like area. Both had decent seating, though much more could be accommodated once we are through with COVID and capacity restrictions. The deck was slim in the area right behind the barn with larger areas on the ends.

The beef brisket at The Englewood

Jen was my waitress and she did an absolutely wonderful job. I’m a pretty simple eater and knew pretty quickly from just looking at the menu what I wanted. I ordered the beef brisket. For beers; sadly with them not having their own on tap yet, their options were quite limited. They have a similar license as that of most craft breweries in PA where they can offer guest taps of other PA brewed beers. And similar to how Newfangled Brew Works opened without their beers on tap (due to the government shutdown), The Englewood did the same. Their beer menu consisted of Victory Golden Ale, Victory Dirtwolf IPA, New Trails Broken Heels IPA, Troegs Brewing Haze Charmer, and Troegs Brewing Perpetual IPA.

The Englewood beer and cocktail menu

So not the biggest beer selection to start off with, and mostly ones that people in the area would have already have had numerous times; but on the flipside – ones that are also staples and well beloved so no bad picks to be found, just nothing new or out of the ordinary.

My food arrived promptly and was very delicious. The beef brisket was phenomenal and not very costly either at only 12$ it was enough to fill me up and give me some leftovers for later.

The Haze Charmer was good as always. It has quickly become one of my favorite Troegs offerings overall and its only been out since… February / March (2020).

My food and the view from the deck on the back of The Englewood barn

From the deck you have a beautiful view of the area. You can see some of the research center in the background, as well as part of the walking path leading to Bullfrog Pond. To the corner, just out of view of my two pictures (there was a couple at a table in the way and didn’t want to be rude taking a picture) you can see the Life Lion helicopter pad – which actually took off while I was there.

It also looks like they have planted an orchard of some sorts just past the courtyard as well. So once they mature and bloom that will make an impressive and beautiful scenery. The courtyard area below the main deck also looks pretty and impressive with some interesting firepits and seating arrangements. The deck where I sat, possibly from being new or just how it was designed, was a bit …. ‘bouncy’, and not sure if that’s a good term, but I’m no architect or deck – planner. But when people would walk by on the deck, it was loud, and felt like the deck bounced underneath your seat.

I completely enjoyed my quick meal and quick time there. Got to read a bit, got to enjoy a delicious meal, and had a very tasty local beer while sitting out in the shade but with a gorgeous sunny view. Perfect for after 10 hours of work where I’m stuck inside the whole time. The music they played on the speakers had a nice ambience to the venue as well. The venue and restaurant, as well as the food, reminded me of The Mill in Hershey, so if you are a fan of The Mill as far as ascetics and food goes, you will certainly like The Englewood as well.

I definitely recommend giving them a try and checking them out. I’m sure you will love the food and its a beautiful venue. I can’t wait for when the brewery portion opens up and get to try their beers, and its nice that their local as well (just down the road from Bullfrog Pond, Cocoa Beanery, Hershey Medcenter, Lower Dauphin High School and Hummelstown Police Station), its great seeing more breweries and options opening up in the Hummelstown / Hershey area. This technically has a Hummelstown address but is located in Hershey / Derry Township. With Rubber Soul opening soon, as well as Howling Henry’s soon, and with stalwarts like Troegs Independent Craft Brewing and Iron Hill – Hershey, there is a fair amount of options just in the Hershey / Hummelstown area. And that’s not including the Rotunda Brew Pub on the edge of Hershey going into Campbelltown (Palmyra) or Boneshire Brew Works in Rutherford and Official BBQ and Burgers (Pizza Boy’s secondary location) in the back of Rutherford. There is also Newfangled Brew Works just off of Nyes Road as well. Of course there’s also the great breweries of Harrisburg like ZeroDay Brewing, The Millworks, The Vegetable Hunter, as well as Boneshire Brew Works’ Secondary Tap Room soon to open. So as you can see, there is definitely TONS of great options in the area.

All in all, as an “official” review from The Beer Thrillers, I enjoyed it, and definitely recommend it. As a brewery visit alone though, I have to say give it a month til they have their own beers on tap, but in the meantime, its a fantastic restaurant and venue.

Be sure to check out their website at: The Englewood – Hershey.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

The Englewood in Hershey PA

Brew Barons Beer Trail App Launches

BKline — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 13:50:00 +0000

Brew Barons Beer Trail Beer App

Finally, a Dauphin county centralized beer trail and beer app has been released. Created by Visit Hershey and Harrisburg PA, its the first beer trail app for the greater Harrisburg and Hershey area. It launched Monday (July 13th, 2020) and its called Beer Barons Beer Trail. You can find it in the Google Play and Android stores on your phones, tablets, etc.

Back in March I met with Rick Dunlap of Visit Hershey and Harrisburg PA. We discussed many things while enjoying a lovely dinner and a couple (that turned into a few) beers at the Tattered Flag Distillery Lounge in Hershey (the former Hershey Biergarten). We discussed my blog – The Beer Thrillers – the upcoming openings of a few breweries in the area (notably Rubber Soul) and we discussed their app; which I had to keep under wraps until now.

There is a ton of features, and a lot of great things to really like about this new app, so definitely be sure to check it out and download it. I’ll break some things down here, and discuss in greater detail in an upcoming article – giving it a full in-depth review.

I’ve gotten to ‘test drive’ it a little bit, hitting three breweries so far with it and gotten to try out a few features. This weekend being off, I’m going to be trying out a few more stops and hopefully hitting the first ‘goal’ of the rewards section.

A screenshot of the opening screen of the Brew Barons Beer Trail App

Firstly, let’s take a look at the opening screen page of the app. At the top the menu is all clickable and will redirect you to the screens you want, and on the opening screen the big blocks are clickable too – they are: How To Play, Beer Trail Hotel Packages, and Explore Hershey and Harrisburg.

First, you will need to create an account, and I recommend checking out the “How to Play” section first. This will let you create the account and learn about the app.

Beer Trail screenshot

If you click on Beer Trail, you can see a list of the participating breweries. And it will list them by distance from your current location. (Do note, you need to have location set on for this app.) as you can see I visited a few breweries and it shows which ones I’ve checked-in at.

Beer Trail map of participating breweries

A great feature of the app is the map. Which shows you where each participating brewery is. This is great for new people to the area or if you want to play your own day-trip and hit several breweries in a given area. As you can see, its not directly Harrisburg and Hershey, the map and participating breweries extends to Mt. Gretna brewery in Campbelltown as well as Tattered Flag and The Vineyard of Hershey in Middletown and out to Pizza Boy in Enola and Liquid Noise in Marysville.

Something to note – Newfangled Brew Works does not appear on this because they chose not to participate in the app.

All told there is 19 locations participating, with more to come as they open. As it shows The Watershed (The Millworks soon to be opened second location) will soon be opening. Rubber Soul Brewing in Hummelstown will also be added to the list once they open soon. There is other new breweries opening soon; and hopefully they will likewise get added (The Englewood, Howling Henry, Ever Grain Farms, and Wolf Brewing).

The app was created by Jason Meckes, a craft beer enthusiast; he has dedicated quite a bit of time to creating this app and is extremely proud of it. While recently discussing the app with Jason, he said: “Some breweries, like Rubber Soul and new Zeroday locations, are in a holding pattern until they open, but will be added once they can have people inside. We are hoping to add thousands of visitors to these breweries, and we have just been waiting for the right time when a good majority of them were OK to welcome guests again. The framework with so many breweries will help spread out that demand, too.”

The app definitely has a chance to help out many local breweries and restaurants as well. Something Jason made sure to point out to me, one of his favorite little features to the app – “One of the coolest ‘hidden’ features is the restaurants tab, which lists all Dauphin County eateries, ordered by closest to you.”

Brew Barons app logo in the ‘store’

There is definitely a lot to see in this app and it looks tremendous. As I have said and shown above, I’ve already gotten to check-in and visit three breweries, and looking at adding a few more on the weekend which coincides with my days off. So I will be able to give a much more in-depth review. So be sure to look for that companion piece to go along with this. That article will provide even more information and give a much more documented look at the features involved in the app.

Its fun to see new apps pop up in the beer and brewing industry, especially local ones. With the loss of HopPlotter and the Breweries in PA app not being the greatest, its really nice to see this well done, intuitive, and easy to use app pop up for the Central PA (Dauphin county specifically) area. So if you are in the area be sure to take advantage of it. There’s also some great prizes to be ‘won’ by checking in at different locations – from decks of cards to glasses, to even better swag. Which I’ll go into more detail in the next article.

For more information, you can also read The Burg’s launch release on the Brew Barons Beer Trail App, which has some more direct quotes with creator Jason Meckes.

Brew Barons Beer Trail

As always, thanks everyone for checking this out. Be sure to check out some of our other recent industry news articles below, and please stay safe, keep your distance, wash your hands, and enjoy some great craft beers at some great local craft breweries! Cheers!

Additional source:

The Burg: Brew Barons Beer Trail App Launches by Visit Hershey and Harrisburg PA

Cheers!

-B. Kline