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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-B. Kline

With the success of any pop cultural phenomenon comes a beer dedicated to it. This is the way. Look at the myriad of pop culture themed and named beers throughout the craft beer world. Either current popularity or old nostalgia, beers love using names, themes, ideas, and pop cultural references. That’s the main thrust behind the Evil Genius marketing strategy, beers like Zey Goggles Zey Do Nothing, Santa I Know Him!!!, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, etc. A lot of breweries do it, some kind of reference to something else. Either as a homage or as a means of catching popularity and increasing sales. And being the sucker that I am for Star Wars, I fell for this one hook line and sinker. Thank the Maker this was good!

As many know (who either know me, or have been long-time readers of the blog), I am a big Star Wars fan. Been a major part of my life since I was 10 years old, and have loved it since I first came into contact with it. (My current reading pile right now as Battleground II: Inferno Squad by Christie Golden, Anthony Daniels’ Autobiography of his time as C-3PO – I Am 3PO, and Rebel Force Rising). My youngest daughter is named Mara – after Mara Jade (Skywalker). I could go on and on (or show thousands of pictures of my bookshelves in my office filled with Star Wars books, collectables, knick knacks, and Lego constructions), but I think you all get the general idea. (If you want to see my virtual bookshelves where I have all of my Star Wars books listed, you can check out my GoodReads Profile: B. Kline.) Also, I have done quite a few podcasts now with my friends over at So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… through either their WTF Did I Just Watch or their Esoteric Antics channels. I’ll provide links to the individual podcasts at the end of this post.

So as soon as I saw this pop up on some of my beer group feeds, I immediately started reaching out attempting to secure it. Throwing out ISO posts on tons of different groups and sites, finally landed me one. Thanks to Roy Ge who even met me at Boneshire Brew Works to hand deliver it (his first time at the brewery too and he loved it, so double win there). It came as a crowler and set me back just 16$, which was worth it for both the liquid gold inside and the awesome can art.

I enjoy the small nods and homages to the actual universe. Rather than just ticking off the box for the namesake and picture, they went a bit deeper, calling it a “MEIPA” rather than a “NEIPA”. (Mos Eisley IPA rather than New England IPA.) (For those not in the know – Mos Eisley isthe name of the city where Chalmun’s Cantina is that Luke and Obi-Wan visit in Episode IV – A New Hope, where they meet Han and Chewbaca.) Broken Goblet has done some fun and interesting crowler can art in the past, primarily their “Nightmare Fuel” one, which had Gritty’s face on it – even complete with googly eyes pasted to the cans.

Unfortunately I missed out on that one but if they ever come back out with it, I’ll be making sure to grab one of those bad boys. Thats about the biggest Philadelphia thing you can do right there. And for the record – I don’t care what you say, that 13 year old kid had it coming and Gritty is innocent.

But as you can see…. Baby Yoda is growing restless and sick of all this nonsense and wants his (or hers?) beer review. So lets move on and give it to him / her / it / whatever. (And yes, for the record, I know its “The Child”, and I know its not really Yoda, and I know the story behind the character… but it’ll still forever be Baby Yoda to me.)

Beer: This Is The Way
Brewery: Broken Goblet Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A hazy IPA hopped with Julius, Idaho 7 and Citra then dry hopped with Julius and Citra
Broken Goblet’s Description: “This Is The Way” is a juicy “MEIPA”, brewed on-planet with Mykyr Neti, Ergesh and Grenade Fungi from Yavin 4, which are very similar to Julius, Idaho 7 and Citra. The brewery dry hopped aggressively “until the Ergesh became angry about the whole thing and bit Bub. Such are the perils of hopping beers with sentient plants”.

As you can see in my picture, I brought two glasses from home to D. Scott’s for the podcast. Had to make it “proper” by drinking a Star Wars beer in some Star Wars glasses and share it with one of the biggest Star Wars nerds I know. (Glasses came as a Christmas gift from Mara, so its all full circle.)

Appearance is a light and surprisingly not very hazy look for a New England IPA. Its relatively clear, and looks more like a general IPA or even “regular beer” as my friends would call it. Not completely transparent, but relatively so, no sediment, and obviously filtered. Pouring from the crowler (which was filled on location at Broken Goblet Brewery and brought to me just two days later and then consumed one day later) it has great carbonation, leaving a wonderful head and even on these small glasses good lacing.

Aroma is a fruity hoppy creamy smell, full of mango, some citrus notes, but pretty much full mango and some peach. I’m not familiar with Julius hops, but I am familiar with Citra and Idaho 7. You can smell the citra hops a mile away (as per usual with the hops) and the Idaho 7 has a nice blend with it. So lets do a little research on Julius hops: ….so far, nothing on either Hopslist or BYO: Compare Hops. HomeBrewStuff also doesn’t list Julius hops. And neither does MoreBeer. For all of these hop notes sites, the only J hops listed are Junga, Jerrylo, and Jester. So I honestly can’t tell you what Julius hops are, what the dry hopping of them adds, or anything really at all about them unfortunately. If anyone knows anything about Julius hops, please leave me some comments letting me know. I know about Tree House’s Julius. (Even did a beer review of it.) But I also know, the Julius beer, does *NOT* use Julius hops. So hopefully someone out there reading this will know something about it and can let us all know. The aroma is strengthened by the dry hopping, and you certainly get a good hop punch out of this.

Taste is super smooth. Creamy and very much like a light New England IPA. Lacking the hazyness and the unfiltered nature, and no real hop bite. This is incredibly smooth, easy drinking, and even for “non-IPA” fans would be very good (they probably wouldn’t even know it was an IPA). This is juicy, very heavy on mango, peach, and hints of citrus hop. Floral but very fruity. Not ripe and not pungent or overpowering, but just good fruit tasting IPA, like a fruit sour or fruit beer, or (non-alcoholic) fruit juice. There isn’t a heavyness to this either, it won’t lay on your tongue, it won’t be too much for you, its just simply tasty, smooth, crisp even, with the right amount of fruit flavor.

My Untappd Review: ****
Global Untappd Review: 4.05 (as of 2.7.20)

Well, thats my thoughts on this…. for anyone else whose had it…..

As always, thanks for checking out the blog. Like I said, I’m a big Star Wars fans, and so are the guys I do the podcasts with (D. Scott, D. Arndt, Esteban, and a random assortment of others who step in and out from time to time like Andy, Andy, Alan, Jared, Josh, etc.). You can check out the full podcast listing here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…
For the Mandalorian first-half: Esoteric Antics: The Mandalorian. And for our discussion on Rise of Skywalker and wrap-up of The Mandalorian: Esoteric Antics: Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian Wrap-Up.

I have done other Broken Goblet Brewing beer on here, you can check that out here: They Burn Them All Away (Beer Review).

I might be finishing up my series of Tree House beer reviews either tonight, or tomorrow, or Sunday, depending on if I go out tonight, and how everything shapes up tomorrow with the bottle / beer share at Tattered Flag. The last beer in the series is Doppelganger. I have previously done: Sap, Autumn, Haze, and Julius.

Speaking of tomorrow, I (B. Kline) will be attending (with D. Scott) the Breweries in PA beer / bottle share at Tattered Flag. I had done a local for local beer trade with a guy out in Eureka California, sending him Troegs Independent Brewing, Tattered Flag, Pizza Boy, and Boneshire Brew Works beers in exchange for some locals there. He…. kinda screwed me over on his end though. We were both to send out on January 31st (I did and proved receipt). He waited until package was in hand (attempted delivery on the 3rd, but his bar he works at was closed, and so he received it on the 4th), the whole time telling me he was sorry it was taking so long and that he would expedite it. Well, on the 6th, he claimed it’d be 200$+ to expedite it, and thus he would send it regularly. So, now, no ‘interesting’ California beers for the bottle / beer share. I will probably be hitting Breski’s Beverage and pickup something good from the cooler or maybe a big stout to bring. Sorry for those attending that my beers won’t be as interesting or likely as unfamiliar to most of you. I tried, I really did.

And, since we’re on the subject of Breweries in PA, you can check out their initial press release of This is The Way: Broken Goblet Introduces “This is The Way”. And while we’re at it, you can always check out the big article I wrote for them: Touring Through the Harrisburg – Hershey Area – Touring the Breweries That Surround Harrisburg.

With this event tomorrow, I will be doing a write-up / wrap-up on it. Most likely Sunday, possibly Monday. Sunday is a big give-away promotion at the casino, so its going to be a hectic day for me, and one I’ll probably need some beer afterwards. For tonight, maybe tomorrow, not sure, I’m hoping to get to Stoudt’s Brewery before it closes. So maybe me and a buddy will go tonight, or maybe me and D. Scott will go after the bottle share tomorrow, or we might go on a Wednesday or Thursday (my days off) next week. According to my phone, its a 48 – 52 (depending on traffic) travel time from Hummelstown to Adamstown. So not the easiest travel, but not the worst.

Some upcoming beer reviews are: Wild IPA – Loki (Newfangled Brew Works), Doppelganger (Tree House Brewing), Anagnorisis (Boneshire Brew Works), Pink Hippo (Boneshire Brew Works), possibly First Cut (Troegs Independent Brewing), I Cannot Tell a Lie (New Heights Brewing), and then eventually when the beer mail arrives – the California beers.

So please stay tuned for all of that. Also this Saturday is the York Hibrewnation. Would love to hear from anyone going and then afterwards how it went. Sounds great!

I am waiting hearing back from Brad Moyer to do our piece on Liquid Noise Brewing. That will be fun when we get that all set-up. The Mellow Mink one went fantastic and I’m looking forward to doing the same there.

As always, there is a ton of things in the works here at The Beer Thrillers, so please be sure to subscribe, follow, like us on Facebook and Twitter and keep drinking and reading along with us. Please feel free to leave feedback or contact us through our contact page. We love hearing from you guys! Hopefully I’ll see some of you guys at Tattered Flag tomorrow for the beer / bottle share. Thats from 11AM to 2PM and sounds like a blast. Let us know in the comments if you’re going.

Thanks for reading everyone, cheers!

-B. Kline

This is a monumental beer, and a monumental achievement, and it was released on a monumental day. This is Troegs Independent Brewing’s 400th scratch beer on their scratch system. Not their 400th beer released in total, just their 400th scratch. A very significant feat, and given the improvements they’ve made to their scratch system (and upgrades in general to their brewery) I don’t think it’ll take us long at all to get to Scratch 500. I know I personally can’t wait.

Just like I’m finally publishing this article on a significant date (2.2.20, palindrome day, Groundhog’s Day, Super Bowl LIV Sunday), this beer was released on a significant date – January 16th (2020). January 16th is known as “Prohibition Day”.

Let’s take a quick look at the history of it, from our favorite historical perspective news source – Wikipedia:

In the United States, after the battle against slavery was won (and even prior to it with the 1851 Maine law), social moralists turned to other issues, such as Mormon polygamy and the temperance movement.^[11][12][13]

On November 18, 1918, prior to ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary Wartime Prohibition Act, which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28%.^[14] (This act, which had been intended to save grain for the war effort, was passed after the armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11, 1918.) The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30, 1919, with July 1, 1919 becoming known as the “Thirsty-First”.^[15][16]

The U.S. Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16, 1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920.^[17][18]

On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson‘s veto. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them.^[19] Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it.

Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, cirrhosis death rates, admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis, arrests for public drunkenness, and rates of absenteeism.^[5][20][21] While some allege that Prohibition stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread criminal activity,^[22] two academics maintain that there was no increase in crime during the Prohibition era and that such claims are “rooted in the impressionistic rather than the factual.”^[23][24] By 1925, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs in New York City alone.^[25] Wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime.^[26]

On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. On December 5, 1933, ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. However, United States federal law still prohibits the manufacture of distilled spirits without meeting numerous licensing requirements that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal beverage use.^[27]

Source: Prohibition in the United States (Wikipedia)

And thank goodness that madness has ended. Not going to go into the politics of it all and not really going to discuss the politics of the time (or now) as I like to keep this blog readable for all. But I think everyone reading this blog can agree on this one thing – Prohibition was a bad idea.

So thankfully that horrific time is over, and thankfully its now 2020, and we can enjoy fantastic and wonderful beers like this Scratch 400 from Troegs. (See how I segued that? Like a champ!) And this really is a wonderful and tasty brew from Troegs, regardless of the significance behind the numeration. If this was Scratch 1, 400, 69, or 285, it wouldn’t matter, it’d still be a great drink.

I started this article up on the night of January 16th after my date night with my youngest (six at the time, just now turned seven the other day). But this was written during the blog’s getting ready for the Mellow Mink article going live, and so I pushed it back, and figured today’s important numerical (2.02.20 – palindrome day!) significance would be a more meaningful time to publish this. (I wrote the beer review then, everything else being written now.)

So, February 2nd, 2020, Groundhog’s day seems like a very appropriate time to be posting this article. And heres another segue – I wouldn’t mind if this was the beer I was drinking if I had to be stuck on a time loop on Groundhog’s Day.

So, in honor of Punxsutawney Phil lets move on and review this beer!

Beer: Scratch 400 – Pre-Prohibition Lager
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Lager – American
ABV: 4.3%
IBU: None listed
Untappd Write-Up: For our 400th Scratch beer, we’re turning back the clock for a pre-Prohibition lager, and we pulled a few extra levers to let our house lager yeast shine. For starters, we included blue corn grown in Imler, Pa., in the malt bill. Blue corn, floury and high in protein, lowers the free amino nitrogen in the wort, which elevates the esters of the yeast. We also open fermented this beer, an old-world technique we use for every batch of DreamWeaver Wheat. This also helps to bring out the yeast flavor. A session Troegenator? We like the sound of that. We taste: notes of corn, dried stone fruit, and subtle caramel and nuttiness.

A session Troegenator might be a great way to describe this. Far lighter, thinner, definitely lower ABV (only 4.3% !) and certainly less heavy then Troegenator. But that doesn’t take away anything from this beer though either.

Appearance is a beautiful chestnut, light brown, clearish hue. This is finely filtered, there’s no particles, no sediment, no haze, no dankness, nothing opaque, just a nice fine, well crafted, well brewed lager. Its not completely see through, but it has definite clarity and is somewhat transparent. It has a fine head with diverse bubbles, and the head retention is strong, it also leaves beautiful lacing on the tall boy glass that Troegs serves this gorgeous beer in.

Aroma is wheat and corn heavy. You get almost an acorn smell, a very heavy farm field to it (in a good way, not in a knee-deep in ‘cow patties’ kind of farm field smell). A nice rainy day aroma where you can smell the wheat, barley, grass growing. Something only a ‘good ol’ local boy’ might be able to rightly describe to you, and even then it wouldn’t be precise. This is a more subtle beer smell then some of those big macro Lagers that just have that stale, old, unwanted beer smell. The smell most of us grew up on smelling off grandpa’s breath at the family reunions and parties. Whereas this smells homely, crafted, and far better.

This is what Yuengling should pretty much be. An old fashion style, old fashion created, and old fashion lager. Germanic pride in the glass right here. Its malty, its corny, it has a bit of a nutty taste, its kind of heavy on the palate but also a bit thinner then say the Troegenator, it does still have a full body to it, and despite its only 4.3% ABV its still a hearty beer. It does have an ending sweetness to it, nothing cloying, but a fine stickyness that hangs to your palate and tongue. Nothing in a bad way about that, it just provides a nice ending sweetness. The open fermentation, the house yeast strain, and the PA home grown blue corn, definitely gives this a flavor all to its own. A uniqueness to it thats not going to be reproduced outside of using these exact means. I get notes of acorn, corn, nuttyness, malt, some sweetness from caramel malts, maybe kind of a plum like note to it, wrapping up all very nicely. This is a fine tasting brew I wouldn’t mind them possibly tweaking a bit, or keeping even as is, and releasing yearly on January 16th (or approximate) as a small seasonal run. It would most likely do well, and could have a catchy name like “Prohibition Lager” or “America’s Lager” or “Before The World Went Crazy Lager”. Eh, who knows about good names, actually, you know who does? Ffej, with his Fuzzy Nudge. Now thats how you name a beer! Either way, what I *DO KNOW* is that this is a fine tasting beer, that won’t last much longer at Troegs, and was a very significant beer for them, and for all of us fans of Troegs and fans in the Central PA area. So make sure you stop by Troegs brewery, drink up, and enjoy before its gone!

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.82 (as of 1.17.20)
Updated Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 2.2.20)

To read up even more on Scratch 400, you can check out Derek Markel’s excellent article over at ItsABrewLife: Troegs Scratch #400 & Beyond. ItsABrewLife is a wonderful blog written by Derek and Chelsea Markel. They are wonderful writers and a great influence on the scene in Central PA. She’s one of the co-founders of Harrisburg Beer Week, and he is an accomplished homebrewer who makes some delicious beers. So definitely pop over there and read this excellent article.

Here at the blog, we’ve been super busy as always. I’ve been writing nonstop it seems in the last few days. Beer reviews for This Is The Way by Broken Goblet, my series of Tree House beers – Sap, Autumn, Haze, Julius, and Doppelganger. Our beer review of Scarlet Sunrise by Mellow Mink, as well as our visit to Mellow Mink. The sad news of Crystal Ball’s Closing in York PA. Beer review of Hill Farmstead’s Florence. Also been doing several podcasts, LOST Seasons 1 and 2, LOST Seasons 3 and 4, Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian, and possibly soon one on the final season of BoJack Horseman. We also have much more content coming out, more beer reviews, visits to breweries, openings, an article on Liquid Noise opening in Marysville PA, an article on the progress of Rubber Soul opening in Hummelstown PA, and much more. So please be on the lookout for all of that great content. Click the follow here. Use the RSS feed to follow us or enter your e-mail, or if you already have a WordPress account, you can sign right up with that (probably the easiest way to get our blog).

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Also, if you ever check out FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs, you’ll see we are currently sitting in the #9 position now since January 15th. (Previously we were #11). We are super proud to be in the Top 10. (Especially since #3 and #4 are the same link, so I guess that sort of, pseudo, technically, maybe, makes us really #8… I dunno.) So give that a click, and then click on us coming back, show them how much you love us!

As you can see in the pictures here, this was my daddy-daughter date night with my youngest. She absolutely loves Troegs. She loves the smell of the brewery (as does my ten year old) as soon as we get in. I picked her up from an after-school function. Took her to the Hershey Library, she picked out two books, and then we had dinner at Troegs. We read her books, she devoured her fries (which, by the way, Troegs has some of the absolute best fries ever) and I enjoyed Scratches 399 and 400. Both were fantastic beers, and Mara had a great night. The laid back atmosphere of Troegs is a nice family-friendly place, that all three of my daughters love coming to. If you are ever in the area, and never been here, I highly recommend it. Yes it gets pretty full in the summer time and with lots of kids from the park, but its still worth at least a one time visit.

And as always, we greatly appreciate all of you, our fine readers. Thank you so much for stopping in, checking us out, and giving us a read. We hope you liked what you read and choose to stick around and check out our other articles. We have tons of stuff here on the blog, from beer reviews, to home brewing stuff with Default Brewing, to some guest writing from LetUsDrinkBeer’s blog and their contributions, to brewery reviews, beer events, even some book reviews, and much more.

Final note, tonight’s the Super Bowl, or technically as everyone who isn’t the NFL has to call it “The Big Game”. San Fransisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs. It should be a good game. I am going against the grain, and thinking it’ll be low scoring, and I’m predicting San Fran 21 to Kansas City’s 10.

So you heard that here folks, that as of 9:42AM, I, B. Kline, predict this as your Super Bowl LIV Final Score:

San Fransisco 49ers: 21
Kansas City Chiefs: 10

Leave your thoughts, comments, score predictions, and other esoteric antics (call back to the podcast!) in the comments section. Love to hear from you all. We greatly appreciate all the feedback we get. It means so much to us! Cheers, and thank goodness that ground hog saw no shadow! Spring is clearly on its way, rodent meteorology for the win!

-B. Kline

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boneshire Brew Works IPAs on The Beer Thrillers:

• Iscariot – Black IPA / Rye IPA
• AuZealand 2.0 – American IPA
• Caucus-Race 6.0 – American IPA (West Coast)
• Road Less Traveled – New England IPA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lets break down the hops used:

• Simcoe

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

• Amarillo

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

• Zythos

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

• Citra

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• WTF Did I Just Watch: Christmas Movies (non-horror)
• WTF Did I Just Watch: Christmas Movies (horror)

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

STAR WARS AHEAD

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

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

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Episode IX

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

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

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

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

My movie ranks for Star Wars now goes:

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

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

—END STAR WARS—

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

Hop sources are:

• Learn-Keggerator (Citra, as well as Simcoe, and Amarillo)
• Hoplist (Zythos)

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

Finally getting back into the saddle with a beer review. The first since – my Multiple Beer Review of my flight of beers from Troegs – Scratches 394, 395, 396, and Mad Elf. And my first blog post since the November Recap. (The guest blog contribution from Let Us Drink Beer blog – Five Breweries to Visit in Atlanta was the most recent blog post here.) So its good to get back into the rhythm of writing and posting, and blogging, and all of this fun jazz.

Last week, (exactly one week ago), after handling all the activities of being an adult (and a parent) I stopped at Official BBQ and picked up two six packs – one six pack of Ice Dreamz and one mix-a-six (Michael Meyer’s Lemon IPA, Shabby Sheik IPA, 2x Sunny Side Up, Hop Vision: Amarillo, and LegenDairy Pumpkin.) During the podcast at D. Scott’s, where we did a podcast about The Mandalorian with Alex and Andrew, we followed this up with a podcast on The Irishman with Esteban. Both of those podcasts are now available to listen, and you can here:

• The Mandalorian
• The Irishman

So make sure you check those out, download or even listen directly on the site linked there. Both were great fun to make. In the Mandalorian episode we discuss the beers we’re trying a bit. Alex had the Michael Meyer’s Lemon IPA, Drew had the Sunny Side Up, I had the Ice Dreamz (at first; then the Shabby Sheik, then the Hop Vision: Amarillo and LegenDairy Pumpkin during the Irishman podcast), Andrew had brought his own from Troegs – he started with a Blizzard of Hops, before having a Hopback, a Perpetual, and I believe a Troegenator. All wonderful beers. The Mandalorian is wonderfully nerdy about Star Wars, so if your into that, definitely check it out. (Spoilers for the Mandalorian but not for Rise of Skywalker). The Irishman podcast gets pretty heavy into mob and mafia / mafioso and gang stuff, and we spoil other Scorsese movies as well (namely Goodfellas, Casino, Departed, Wolf of Wall Street). Both have some cursing, and could be considered ‘R’ rated probably due to that. But please give them a listen, their about an hour and a half. (I’ll relink them at the bottom of this blog, with a bit more details on both.)

So getting back to the blog, its about time I wrote a beer review right? December has been a bit of a slow month here on The Beer Thrillers and I apologize for that. Hopefully this will snap me out of the slump and right the ship a bit, and we get a lot more productivity and blog posts out of December. Fingers, toes, and other things crossed.

Beer: Ice Dreamz: Cranberry, Cherries, and Tangerines
Brewery: Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

Untappd lists three variants made by Pizza Boy Brewing for Ice Dreamz – Ice Dreamz: Raspberry, Ice Dreamz: Blueberry, Blackberry, and Lime (which sounds amazing and I really want to try), and Ice Dreamz: Cranberry, Cherries, and Tangerines.

I haven’t tried the other two variants (yet). But this tasted absolutely delicious. And the others at the podcast – Alex, Andrew, and Drew, all devoured the can I gave them. (Can and all even! Damn monsters.) They all loved the beer just as much as I did, and it was certainly the beer highlight of the night (though Sunny Side Up is always up there as well, as thats just an amazing stout.)

All three variants are listed as Sour – Fruited and 5% ABV on Untappd. So their most likely the same recipe and made the same, with just the different adjuncts (Raspberry singled, then blueberries, blackberries, and limes for the second; and for the third and the one I got to tried – cherries, cranberries, and tangerines).

The picture makes this beer look a little bit darker than it is, but it has a very nice cranberry color to it. A slightly dark red with pink hints. It has the sour look and texture to it, and there is a thin head with nice bubbles. It left a nice lacing on the glass, and no sugary residue or sediment really involved, but an obvious sour look and complexion to the beer.

Aroma is very strong and powerful. From cracking the tab on this one you are assaulted with the various fruit aromas. The cranberry is the standout. It jumps out and is very pungent, powerful, and strong, and nothing in the bad way. You get the notes of cherry and tangerine after that. Probably with tangerine being the least strong (less strong? not as strong?). You can distinguish them with a good clear nose, but just in order of strength it would be cranberry (by a fair margin) then cherry then tangerine.

This is a very smooth, non-textual, sweet sour. The lactose smooths things out, and with it not being a pulpy mess or a sugary smoothie like sour, your not left with that gritty sour texture or clumping that goes on in some other beers. This drinks smooth and sweet to sour. As with the aroma, you get the cranberry very much upfront and strong, like drinking tart cranberry juice, followed with a bit of cherry – luckily not too much, and not the medicinal cherry cough syrup flavor either – and then you get a bit of a blast of citrus kick to end it with the tangerine. It makes for a very nice and well rounded beer with the flavors changing as you sip down and as it all works it way through the beer and down to your gut. Its much more sweet and then tart than a true heavy sour. Its puckering to a small degree but nothing crazy. It tastes a lot like cranberry juice in that aspect. The lactose certainly smooths out the edges of the tartness and makes this a very pleasant beer. And with the 5% you could easily down quite a few while hanging with buddies…. perhaps doing a podcast? Perhaps discussing the finer points of The Mandalorian or Star Wars lore or culture? Who knows what you’ll discuss while drinking it… but I know what we discussed while pounding these bad boys out!

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.04 (as of 12.12.19)

Let me say a final note on this beer – that the can art is pretty cool too, a nice ‘hippy’ / ‘trippy’ cool piece of artwork:

This variant of the Ice Dreamz is currently on draft at both Al’s of Hampden Pizza Boy location and the Official BBQ and Burgers location. They also have a few sixpacks left at the Official BBQ place, for 18$ a six-pack, a fantastic value.

And for those of you sticking around about the podcasts, here’s more information.

The official channel is called “So a Mexican and a Scot walk into a bar…” (Esteban and Drew Scott started the channel, so you can see where the name came from.) You can find their official channel on BuzzSprout here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk into a Bar….

I have done three podcasts with them now. I did the Breaking Bad and El Camino (broken up into two parts – Part 1 and Part 2), as well as The Mandalorian, and The Irishman. Theres a few different sections to the podcast and categories that they are doing. For the movies and shows they will be mainly under the heading “WTF Did I Just Watch” and for the more esoteric and nerdy things, that might stray away more from just a show or a book or a movie, its going to be under “Esoteric Antics”. The Mandalorian episode was the first under that heading, or category, or show, or series title, or whatever you want to call it. You can find their podcasts to download on BuzzSprout, Google Podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, and you can download straight from the site linked here. You can also listen directly to the podcasts on the site as well (though you will need to keep your internet on the whole time.)

Esoteric Antics : The Mandalorian – 1:28:43 – Staring Drew, Ben, Alex, Andrew
WTF Did I Just Watch : The Irishman – 1:45:53 – Staring Drew, Esteban, Ben

My older podcasts I did with them:

WTF Did I Just Watch: El Camino / Breaking Bad (Pt. 1) – 1:09:28 – Staring Drew, Estey, Ben
WTF Did I Just Watch: El Camino / Breaking Bad (Pt. 2) – 1:13:22 – Starring Drew, Estey, Ben

Their other podcast topics have included Halloween, Trick or Treat, The Joker, and Stephen King, and have included various other guest hosts like Dan and Andrew.

Thank you everyone for reading and checking out the podcasts. Once a site or FaceBook or Twitter page is set up for the podcasts, I’ll be sure to link them here for you all to see as well and hopefully follow so you’ll be kept up-to-date on the happenings there as well.

Cheers!

-B. Kline