Tyler Budwash - The Beer Thrillers

Brewsgiving 2023

B. Kline — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:28:52 +0000

Brewsgiving 2023

Do you like drinking beer? Do you like seeing your favorite breweries collaborate for a brewfest? Do you like pro wrestling?

….and if the answer is even yes to one of those three – then Brewsgiving is the event for you, and they are going to open a can – of beer – and deliver one hell yea of a brewfest for you.

November 18th, 2023 in Pottsville Pennsylvania will be the returning Schuylkill County Brewfest – also known as Brewsgiving. With twenty breweries teaming up into ten tag teams to collaborate and hope to win the Brewsgiving Tag Titles.

Finally, the Brewsgiving Beer Festival has come back to Pottsville, PA! Use promo code COLLAB to save in tickets!

Saturday, November 18th, get ready to electrify your senses with PRO WRESTLING, CRAFT BEER, and the TAG TEAM COLLABORATION TITLES up for grabs!

If you smell what The Rock is brewing, it’s all about good beer, good vibes, and a whole lot of fun! #BrewsgivingBeerFest #TheRock #TagTeamTitles
Schuylkill County Brew Fest Facebook Post

Brewsgiving Details

The Schuylkill County Brew Fest is a one of a kind brewfest that comes around every year in November. Known as Brewsgiving as its just before Thanksgiving and brings breweries together that wouldn’t normally be collaborating on beers; this event is a great time for everyone – guests, breweries, and pro wrestling fans. Its also one of the few brewfests that will have live pro wrestling at its event.

Brewsgiving Tag Titles

Each year the Brewsgiving Tag Titles are on the line as breweries team up and fight to see who will be crowned the new Brewsgiving Tag Team Champions. You get to help make that decision when you attend Brewsgiving.

This year, on November 18th, 2023; in Pottsville PA, twenty breweries are getting together in teams of two, to battle it out to see who will be crowned.

From the All Events Page:

Brewsgiving Beer Festival!

Brewsgiving Collab Beer Festival returns to The Humane in 2023! Who, if anyone can dethrone our reigning champions?

What to expect? 20 of some of the best breweries paired up into 10 teams competing for the Brewsgiving Tag Team Championships! This is a smaller, more LIMITED event compared to Skook Brew Fest. We are only selling 250 tickets max!

TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1ST AT NOON!

LIMITED “Elite Hour” 1-2PM (less than 50 tickets available)
General Admission 2-530pm

live entertainment
pro wrestling
beer, wine, spirits, food and craft vendors!

BREWERY TEAMS

*Current Champions*
Rusty Rail
Seven Sirens

Robin Hood
Fluffy Bunny

Prototype
Wallenpaupack

Pour Man’s
Truth

Zerorday
Noble Stein

Pilger Ruh
Mystic Ways

Michaux
Brothers Kershner

Oakbrook
Stampede

Chatty Monks
Schaylor

Aldus
Fetish*

But there’s more! The top 3 homebrewers from the Skook Fest will be pouring beers too!
Eight Legged
Mission Day
Ramble On
Brewsgiving Beer Festival! – All Events

Tickets

You can purchase tickets for Brewsgiving 2023 here: Big Ticket Events – Brewsgiving 2023. Cost is 45$ for general admission and 60$ for VIP. General Admission is limited to 500 tickets and VIP is limited to 50 tickets.

If you check out the various Facebook pages (Schuylkill County Brewfest, Brewsgiving, Pilger Ruh Brewing, and other participating breweries) you will find discount codes to use when purchasing tickets.

The Schuylkill County Brew Fest proudly presents Brewsgiving: Festival of Friends.

Come out and enjoy a brand new one of a kind beer festival!

LIMITED tickets $45 (under 500 will be sold)

VERY LIMITED VIP tickets $60, 50 people, an hour early.

Tickets go on sale September 1st.

Tickets include glassware and unlimited samples from the breweries.

For this festival the Tag Team Championship Belts!

Keep up to date with us here or on Facebook!

Interested in being a Brewery, Sponsor, or Vendor? Email us at puffspromotions4@gmail.com or counsdaveent@gmail.com

Sponsored by Cousin Dave Entertainment and Pilger Ruh Brewing.
Big Ticket Events – Brewsgiving 2023

Participating Breweries

There is twenty breweries vying for the Brewsgiving Tag Titles. They are set up in tag teams, and worked to collaborate together on the perfect beer to win this year’s Brewsgiving. Here is the full line up of participating breweries and their tag teams:

The Tag Teams

The Tag Teams are:

Aldus Brewing and Fetish Brewing
Robin Hood Brewing and Fluffy Bunny Brewing
Chatty Monks Brewing and Schaylor Brewing
Oakbrook Brewing and Stampede Barbecue
Michaux Brewing Company and Brothers Kershner Brewing
Pilger Ruh Brewing and Mystic Ways Brewing
Noble Stein Brewing and ZeroDay Brewing
Pour Man’s Brewing and Truth Brewing
Prototype Brewery and Wallenpaupack Brewing

And the returning, reigning, Tag Team Champions: Rusty Rail Brewing Company and Seven Sirens Brewing Company.

For More Information

For more information, you can visit these sites:

Our Other Articles

Looking for more articles here on The Beer Thrillers, check out these involving the guys from Pilger Ruh:

Pilger Ruh Brewing Expanding to Gettysburg
Brewers and the Industry Look Into 2023 (Tyler Budwash) (Pilger Ruh Brewing, Robin Hood Brewing, etc.)
Brewer Interview: Tyler Budwash (Pilger Ruh Brewing)
Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help

Other brewfest articles, and articles about some of the breweries involved:

Who Will Be Crowned the Tag Team Champions at Brewsgiving 2023?

Thank You For Reading

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Brewers and the Industry Look Into 2023

Tyler Budwash — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:07:29 +0000

Tyler Budwash asks some of his friends and co workers in the industry what they foresee for 2023.

A Look Into the Future

Let’s take a look into the future and see what the crystal ball sees. Its the start of a new year and with that comes ideas of what the future might hold. People start resolutions (and quickly drop them), people try new habits, people (the horror… the horror…) do “Dry January”, people work out more (for a week or so), etc.

Every year its a time of reevaluation, looking at the past – in this case the year of 2022 – and looking into the future – 2023 and beyond. Seeing what the new trends will be, and having interviews and articles like this let us take a gauge of all of that. It also then lets us look back at the end of the next year to see what we got right, what we got wrong, and why. Its a great launching point for speculation and thought, as well as serving as a great look back and retrospective and way to see the changes in trends, in the business, in brewing and craft beer in general.

Tyler Budwash – co owner of the Pilger Ruh Brewing Company out of Pottsvillle Pennsylvania, was nice enough to reach out to me with his chats and interviews with some of his friends and co – workers in the industry. He chatted with the brewers from Robin Hood Brewing Company, Bright Path Brewing Company, Mount Gretna Craft Brewery, Copperz Brewing Company, as well as the labelist and artist for Rotunda Brewing Company, and they all graciously allowed us to share their thoughts on 2023 and beyond.

I want to say thank you to all involved for this. I will make sure to thank you each individually at the end of the article. Also, if you like the breweries involved here in the article, be sure to check to the bottom where I will have a list of other articles with each of the breweries involved. Thank you.

Robin Hood Brewing Company

Caleb Peachy is the head brewer of Robin Hood Brewing Company. As per Untappd, they are a Brew Pub out of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. They have 212 unique beers with over 33,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.7 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Robin Hood Brewing Co. is a small-batch brewpub in Bellefonte, PA specializing in IPA’s and high quality experimental brews.”

When asked about future trends, Caleb Peachy said:

I think we will still see the trendy beers continue to be king. Such as the hazy IPA’s and fruited sours. But I do think we will start to see some fatigue with the hazy’s. Instead of having all IPA’s on tap, taprooms are going to need to have a variety. We will also continue to see breweries push creativity with what can be put into beers. I’d personally like to see more west coast IPA’s and easy drinking lagers become popular throughout the year. Nothing beats a crispi boi anytime of the year.
Caleb Peachy

For more information on Robin Hood Brewing Company:

For more articles about Robin Hood Brewing Company, see the end of this article.

Pilger Ruh Brewing Company

Tyler Budwash is the co – owner of Pilger Ruh Brewing Company. According to Untappd they are a nano brewery out of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They have 159 unique beers and over 6,000 ratings with a global average rating of 3.87 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Community Crafted Nano Brewery in Pottsville PA with 12 rotating taps, local wine, spirits, and cocktails. Beer to go available. Ask about our food menu!”

I’m not sure how the conversation went, but I like to think Tyler Budwash asked himself out loud what his thoughts were going to be on the trends of 2023. This is what he had to say:

Well let’s start with saying, I don’t think hazy IPAs, fruited sours, pastry stouts, or seltzers are going anywhere and we can officially say lagers are “back”. So in 2023 I think we will continue to see more approachable beers hit taps, as in lower abv and more of the classic styles returning. I’d personally like to see more milds.
Tyler Budwash

For more information on Pilger Ruh Brewing:

For more articles on Pilger Ruh Brewing please check the end of this article.

Bright Path Brewing

Alex Franco is co – owner and brewer at Bright Path Brewing Company. According to Untappd they are a micro brewery from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. They have 20 unique beers and 2,900 ratings with a global average rating of 3.7 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Small craft brewery located in Jim Thorpe, PA focusing on lagers and session ales.”

Tyler Budwash asked Alex Franco what he foresees in 2023, and this was his response:

For 2023 I think lagers continue to grow but I hope that beer drinkers catch up to brewers. Hazy IPAs are everywhere and hard to distinguish between most of them so I hope beer drinkers start to see the wide array of beer styles and branch out to try different things.
Alex Franco

For more information on Bright Path Brewing:

For more articles on Bright Path Brewing, please see the end of this article.

Mount Gretna Craft Brewery

Brad Moyer is the brewer of Mount Gretna Craft Brewery. According to Untappd they are a micro brewery from Palmyra, Pennsylvania. They have 193 unique beers with a total of 19,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.64 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Hand-crafted beer inspired by a place where people share culture, art and ideas amid the lakes, trails and forest – historic Mount Gretna.”

When asked by Tyler Budwash what he saw coming in 2023, Brad Moyer said:

I think the thing I see most coming is diversification of Beer styles there’s been a lot of breweries recently, who hang their hat on 1 to 2 styles and that’s all they do. Now I’m not saying that they don’t do them well , it’s just people are demanding more these days and we are seeing a resurgence of lots of lagers and other styles that were one time not so sexy to brew. In a market where there is literally a brewery every 5 to 10 miles you have to be doing something that sets yourself apart and if you hang your hat only on, let’s say hazy IPA people will come but ultimately will want different choices and venture up the road.
Brad Moyer

For more information on Mount Gretna Craft Brewery:

For more articles on Mount Gretna Craft Brewery, please see the end of this article.

Rotunda Brewing Company

Stevie Glick is the artist and can labelist for all of the beautiful can art you see from Rotunda Brewing Company. Their logos, artwork, and can labels adorn their social media and their promotional material as well as both brewery locations (the brewery and restaurant in Annville and the brew pub in Hershey). Rotunda Brewing Company is a micro brewery out of Annville Pennsylvania with 458 unique beers, 83,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.94 (as of 1.4.23) according to Untappd. Their Untappd description reads: “Stop by at 11am on Saturdays to get your RBC 32 oz Crowlers TO GO! Quantities are limited and go fast! We are conveniently located at 245 West Main Street, Annville PA. Parking is available in the back. Call us today with any questions as we have a very knowledgeable staff on hand that can handle any beer questions you may have!”

When confronted by Tyler Budwash and asked about the future, this is what Stevie Glick had to say:

I don’t see much changing at all honesty.
Maybe everyone fine tuning their skills with heavily fruited sours.
We’re adding nitrogen to a lot of things – especially the Swheat Tart series

I most definitely see the bigger craft brewing company’s from the surrounding states are either setting up shop in PA or are finally getting some stretch with distro into their surrounding states.

Covid brought us Aslin Brewing Company, Trillium Brewing Company, and Other Half Brewing; and that’s amazing but may also bring the little breweries competition selling out of six pack shops.

I’m hoping to see more collaborations between little brewing companies and bigger ones.

And lastly. no one’s ever going to stop trying to push the boundaries of what should or could be in beer or what can be made from it – so who knows maybe a new unique style may pop out again that no one thought of.
Stevie Glick

For more information on Rotunda Brewing Company:

For more articles on Rotunda Brewing Company please see the end of this article.

Copperz Brewing Company

Justin Kershner is the brewer for Copperz Brewing Company, a brew pub out of Hamburg Pennsylvania. Based on Untappd they have 38 unique beers, 2,100 ratings, and a global average rating of 3.68 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Opened in December 2021, our 5bbl brewhouse supplies 10 rotating taps with a wide variety of styles. Full kitchen offering great food and a limited bar featuring PA liquors.”

When asked by Tyler Budwash what he thinks 2023 will hold, Justin Kershner stated this:

Ha, I wish I knew where it was heading. That’s kinda the fun part right? We don’t know. Just gotta roll with it.
Justin Kershner

For more information on Copperz Brewing Company, check out their social media pages:

Looking for more articles we’ve written here on The Beer Thrillers about the above breweries? Check these out below:

Robin Hood Brewing Company

Our Trip up to Bellefonte and Beyond (Hiking James Cleveland Trail, Visiting Axemann Brewery, Robin Hood Brewing Company, Short Bus / The Bus Brewing Company, and Shy Bear Brewing Company) (December 10th, 2021)

Bright Path Brewing Company

Visiting Jim Thorpe with Friends (Bright Path Brewing Company and Stoker’s Brewing Company) (June 25th, 2021)
Brewer Interview: An Interview with the Bright Path Brewing Brewers
Bright Path Brewing Company Opens in Jim Thorpe

Pilger Ruh Brewing Company

Mount Gretna Craft Brewery

Rotunda Brewing Company

Copperz Brewing Company

Hike: Pinnacle Rock (Hamburg, Pennsylvania)

Brewer Interviews

One of my favorite (B. Kline writing here) features of the blog, and one of my favorite things to do is get to interview brewers, people in the industry, and just people in general for the blog. The following is a list of interviews we’ve done for the blog.

Brewer Interview: Tyler Budwash (Pilger Ruh Brewing)
Brewer Interview: Rod Stahl (Axemann Brewery)
Brewer Interview: Sean Gorzynski (Logyard Brewing)
Brewers Interview: Alex Franko and Dillon Smith (Bright Path Brewing)
Interview: Ryan Galiotto (Fueled by Hops)

Thanks For Reading

Firstly I’d like to thank Tyler Budwash who reached out to me and did ther interviews and talked to his friends and co – workers. He messaged me wanting to do this end of the year / looking forward to 2023 and reached out to the fine folks above about it. We are always glad here at The Beer Thrillers to showcase and support the brewers and breweries that don’t always get ‘mainstream’ attention, and the attention and support they deserve. Especially with some of these being local and Pennsylvania based breweries, its nice to give them the attention and shout outs that they don’t get from other blogs and sites and groups on the web. Thank you Tyler for reaching out to them and for writing the article. (I, as B. Kline, did just editing, and adding this ending to the article.)

With that, I would like to thank Caleb Peachy, Brad Moyer, Alex Franco, Stevie Glick, and Justin Kershner for answering Tyler’s messages and questions.

Peel back the cover of the blog a bit, I started editing and formatting the article this morning at 8AM to try and have it done by 9AM so I could get ready for work… when 9:20AM rolled up and I realized “oh crap I’m gonna be late” and had to put it on hold to after work. So my apologies for not getting this out this morning, but I jumped on it right after work, and despite WordPress’s best attempts at being super slow and glitchy for some reason at just the moments I didn’t need or want it to be, here it is.

I hope you all enjoyed the article. Please make sure to stop out at these great breweries. We will be definitely hitting some of these places in the near future.

Let us know in the comments what you think will be the trends of 2023 and going forward in the world of craft beer. Think it will eventually become “The Year of the Lager” despite a big blog and group saying for four years that it will be? Think we’ll get even heavier stouts? More fruity sours? Who knows! Let us know your thought and opinions.

Also, please like, subscribe, and follow the page. Also make sure to check out our social media pages and follow us on there. Thanks so much for reading!

Cheers All! And a very Happy New Years!

-B. Kline

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

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

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help

BKline — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 02:00:00 +0000

The new home of Pilger Ruh Brewing

Pilger Ruh Brewing is currently looking for your help. They have finally found the location for their future home, in Pottsville Pennsylvania, they just need your help to get this dream up off the ground and get those taps flowing.

As with any older building, its going to need a lot of renovations, innovations, changes, and modifications to get it turned into a thriving business… let alone a bustling brewery. Which is one of the great thing about craft breweries – turning old buildings into brand new beautiful rustic but modern restaurants and breweries. Look at how Rubber Soul has turned the old police station (borough office building) in Hummelstown into their brewery. Or how Tattered Flag renovated their old building in Middletown. Its a common theme for many breweries; take an old building in a town they like, and renovate and modify it to meet their needs. It preserves the building, gives the brewery a unique look, helps the town, and helps the brewery. Seems like a win all around right?

Right.

So let’s help out Pilger Ruh Brewing get the money they need so they can do the same in Pottsville!

How can you help? Well, its really simple. Similar to a GoFundMe page, they have a indigogo page. You go there, donate what you can, and it all adds up. Want to help Pilger Ruh Brewing out and help them hit their goals and meet their dreams? Click here to donate: Pilger Ruh Brewing IndieGoGo Page.

Pilger Ruh Brewing

Why should you help out?

Well…. firstly, you would be helping a brand new brewery start up. You would be helping brewers, community members, friends, and family meet their dreams and achieve their goals. And secondly… you’ll get some perks out of it too!

Some perks include: free t-shirts, hoodies, limited edition glasswear, tickets to conventions, discounts on mug club memberships, getting to name some of their fermenters and tanks, brewing with them, hats, and getting to name some of their beers.

Thats a lot of incentive just right there to help them out.

Want to read their story? (You can go to their IndieGoGo page to read it) or read the following:

“Pilger Ruh Brewing is a new craft brewery coming to Schuylkill County PA! The whole dream started three years ago in the summer of 2017 when owners Tyler Budwash, Anthony Deppen, Conlan Budwash, along with friends Matt and Alex started brewing together. We quickly joined the beer festival circuit and received great reviews from consumers all over the state. Our brewery has over 14 years of combined brewing experience and we plan to bring great local beers of all styles to Pottsville PA in 2021! Co-Owner Tyler has been homebrewing since 2013, started the Schuylkill County Brew Fest, and has been to over 250 different breweries in the US, a graduate of Kutztown University where he has a BA in Political Science. He currently lives in Schuylkill County with his 2 children and girlfriend Corine. Co-Owner Anthony Deppen has been homebrewing since 2017, world traveled professional wrestler, currently lives in New Cumberland PA with his wife Cassidy where they are expecting their first child in November 2020. Head Brewer Conlan Budwash has been the assistant brewer at Snitz Creek the last 4 years, worked at Troegs Brewing Company the last 5 years, lives in Pine Grove, and graduated from the Brew Science course through HACC.
We started this campaign to help raise some money to cover additional renovations to complete our taproom and gain some extra working capital upon opening. (we aren’t asking for a lot). Getting this brewery off the ground has been financially challenging for us, but we have faith that we can make this work no matter what the situation is. Instead of asking for money outright, we want to offer you a number of different options where you gain something as well. No matter what you decide to give we are very appreciative of you for that and each and every person that has supported us on this journey.
Our goal is to raise at least $25,000 to complete our renovations (floors, walls, bathrooms, reinforcing the basement etc). As we said earlier, we want to offer you something for helping us. Some of the perks we have lined up are limited edition glasses, shirts, deals on mug club memberships, naming tanks, brewing with us, exclusive beers, hoodies, hats, free tickets to events ran by us and more! We set our goal a bit higher than we wanted to, so no matter what amount we reach, ALL proceeds will be going into getting the taproom ready for early next year.
The brewery plans to be very community oriented, which is why we chose to move our operations to Pottsville PA. We want to bring something new to the area and help it gain more traction and give back to the community as much as we could. Five years ago there weren’t any actual craft breweries in Schuylkill County, now after we open there will be technically six. Anyone that has had our beers over the last 3.5 years knows what to expect when we open, and that’s quality beers. Our beers have been speaking for themselves at each and every event and we plan to continue that quality when we open next year.
We are aware that starting a new business comes with a ton of risks, especially when it comes to beer. I mean we could fail in a year and be gone, but we will not let that happen because we cannot fail and we will not fail. We chose the not so expensive route for all of our equipment, we bought things that made sense with our budget, not dropping thousands of dollars to look good or buy huge name brands. This project has been trying to get off the ground for 2 years now, we were unable to obtain funding from quite some time before we were able to save up a lot of our own money and gain a small SBA loan for our equipment. Unfortunately COVID19 set up back a few months with getting our plans and permits ready, but we are now ready to go. We’re very happy to be in the situation we are in now and want to finish up renovations so we can open and start paying back all of our debts. Every last penny will be going towards the brewery, whether it be our glassware or something as small as a floor mat.
If our perks aren’t something you’re interested in you can still help. We would greatly appreciate you sharing our Facebook page and inviting all of your friends to like it. Give us a Like on Instagram, tell all your friends and family about us, and when we open come say hi!
Thank you!
-Tyler, Tony, and Conlan”

The building’s location is 213 N. Centre Street in Pottsville, PA. They have quite a few renovations they need to do to make the building into a brewery. Namely flooring, walls, reinforcing the basement, drainage, ditches, new bathrooms, etc.

Their current goal is 25,000$. As of posting time (9.23.20 – 10PM) they are up to 3,468$. So there is a ways to go, and every penny will help add up!

You most likely have met, known, or heard of Pilger Ruh Brewing, or the Budwash brothers from the various events and brewfests. They are typically a staple at the Litiz, Mount Hope, Lancaster, and Schukyll Brewfests (they actually run the Schukyll Brewfest). They are also usually seen at Ffej of July, at the Kegs and Eggs at Rotunda, and many other events, brewfests, and charity events. They have been working at Troegs Brewing and Snitz Creek Brewery, behind the scenes things, and as of now, brewing for Snitz Creek. You can also find their own Pilger Ruh beers on tap at the Snitz Creek Annville (the old Funck’s – right next to the Fort Indiantown Gap Cemetery) location.

I’ve gotten to know all three quite well over the years, from different events, from the Central PA Whalerz, from Tyler’s love of the civil war, all three’s love for professional wrestling (Anthony Deppen is actually a professional wrestler – Tony Deppen – who wrestles for promotions such as Ring of Honor [ROH], amongst many others), and their collaborations with Tattered Flag.

They are all a bunch of great dudes, so let’s help them make this happen. The world needs more great beers and more great breweries and brewers. So lets band together and help them out!

You can follow them on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You can read our interview with Tyler Budwash here. Brewer Interview Series: Tyler Budwash.

Some beer reviews of their collaborations:

So let’s get this done guys! Donate now!

Donation Link: Pilger Ruh Brewing IndieGoGo

The future home of Pilger Ruh Brewing

Links:

Lots more stuff happening here with the blog. Look for an interview with Scott Smith (of East End Brewing) soon. An interview with a Cape May brewing scientist. More beer reviews. A Poconos trip soon. (Finally!) The YouTube Video. Highway Manor’s Opening. And lots more. So be sure to stay here and check it all out. So be sure to follow, like, subscribe, and follow us on our social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Thanks!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Brewer Interview: Tyler Budwash (Pilger Ruh Brewing)

BKline — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 01:19:00 +0000

The guys from Pilger Ruh brewing a collab with Chatty Monk Brewing. Left to Right: Tyler Budwash, Anthony Deppen, Conlan Budwash, and David Morrow (Chatty Monks head brewer)

Welcome to our first of the brewer interview series that I am introducing to the blog. This is going to be a new section to the blog that will include interviews with head brewers, assistant brewers, beer scientists, home brewers, fellow beer bloggers, and other craft beer industry workers. This has long been a segment and series I wanted to introduce to the blog, but finally got off the ground. If you are a brewer or industry worker and would be interested in doing an interview, contact us through the CONTACT PAGE (link here or see above in the menu).

A crowler from Pilger Ruh Brewing

Our very first interviewee for the segment is Tyler Budwash of Pilger Ruh Brewing. Tyler is a great guy, I’ve gotten to know him through helping out with Tattered Flag’s canning line where Pilger Ruh has done a few collaborations, as well as several brewfests, Ffej of July, and discussing Civil War battlefields with him; as well as the Central PA Whalerz.

Our interviews will follow a pretty simplistic and easy formula for everyone we interview. Topics will be introduced in bold and underline, questions will be asked in bold, and answers will be in regular font. TBT stands for The Beer Thrillers. The interviewee’s name will be initialized in his answers. (Example: TB = Tyler Budwash).

Starting off with the simple, softball, questions:

TBT: What is your name and do you currently work for a brewery?

TB: My name is Tyler Budwash, I currently work for the Social Security Administration, but will also be working at my brewery when we open.

TBT: What is your brewing background?

TB: I got into homebrewing in early 2012 (Mr Beer Kit). At the time I wasn’t aware that alot of extract beer is kind of gross the way it is so I had some okay beers but quite a few misses before I got into all grain brewing in 2013 or so. I then stopped brewing all together in late 2014 as I was preparing to have my first child and didn’t get back into it until 2017. Both Conyngham Brewing and Rotunda let me come in and collab on some beers for my fest (Schuylkill County Brew Fest) and I haven’t looked back since.

TBT: What are your interests in and out of the industry?

TB: Pro Wrestling, history, weight lifting, Carolina Panther Football, coordinating events.

TBT: How did you get into beer? What were your ‘starting beer’ days like? What were the first craft breweries you tasted / visited?

TB: My starting beers were Miller Lite, Yuengling Lager, Budweiser, and Hurricanes. Some of the first “craft beers” I got into at the time were Sam Adams, Magic Hat, and Saranac..I always got variety packs to try as many different beers as I could. This was pre – Untappd days so I wasn’t even getting any check-ins/badges! As far as actual breweries that I first visited…it’d have to be ABC in Harrisburg, Troegs, and a brew pub in Myrtle Beach that’s now closed called Liberty. ABC and Troegs definitely got me more into the scene. I ended up going to a ton of beer fests just to see what else was out there. I had no idea there were as many PA breweries as there were and this was back in 2013.

TBT: How did you get into brewing?

TB: The love of beer, beer fests, and starting my own festival all gave me the itch.

The future home of Pilger Ruh Brewing

Brewing Specific:

TBT: What is / will be your full job at Pilger Ruh Brewing?

TB: We didn’t give ourselves any fancy titles yet, but I’ll be Co-Owner/Brewmaster? I’ll basically be running the day to day activities (brew/personnel scheduling, event coordinating, ordering etc) while our other Co-Owner Tony Deppen is more of the big picture. My brother Conlan Budwash will take the Head Brewer position and he’s also a minority owner.

TBT: What do you like to brew? What styles do you like most?

TB: I like brewing stouts, whether it’s going to be heavily adjuncted or straight up. I also like brewing Pilsners, they’re not an easy beer to brew so I enjoyed the challenge.I’m going to sound just like every other beer boi out there right now but I enjoy my hazy IPAs and fruited sours, but again my palate had come full circle and I’m enjoying alot of Pilsners, hefeweizens, and kolsches as of late.

TBT: Who are some of your favorite current brewers and breweries? What do you like about them, why do you like them, etc?

TB: This is a loaded question. Favorite brewers? My favorite brewers are the friends I’ve made over the last couple years, so it’d be Dave Morrow (Chatty Monks), Justin Hoak (Tattered Flag), Derek Wolf (Wolf Brewing), Brad Moyer( Liquid Noise), and Eric Stubbs (Rotunda). I’ve been picking their brains for years now and they’ve all been nothing but great to me and Pilger Ruh. Favorite breweries… I’ll do it like this. Locally I really like Tattered Flag (great beer and chicken sammiches), The Millworks (I love the not so over the top styles and of course their chicken sammiches), Hidden River (awesome beer and ambiance) , and South County (they knock everything out of the park and I miss the Gelato line beer shares). Outside of this general area I really like The Veil, Urban South Htx, Dancing Gnome, Cinderlands, Cushwa.

TBT: What styles do you think you do best? What are some of your hardest styles to nail down?

TB: I’ll have to go back to stouts as the styles I do best, along with sours, and Pilsners. Believe it or not IPAs were very hard for me to nail at first (oxygen and shit). Luckily that’s no longer an issue.

TBT: What do you think are defining qualities of a good beer?

TB: Your water. Does it match your description?

TBT: What do you think are defining qualities of a good brewer?

TB: Being able to adapt, never think you know everything because you never stop learning.

TBT: Same vein as the last two – what do you think are defining qualities of a good brewery?

TB: Good beer, ambiance, and friendliness.

Pilger Ruh Brewing Specific:

TBT: Tell us about Pilger Ruh. What is Pilger Ruh Brewing? How did it form? Who all is involved? What are the plans for the brewery/etc?

TB: Pilger Ruh started when myself and 4 others wanted to start a homebrew club. At that point we were going by Keyhop Homebrew Club. One thing led to another and we found ourselves on festivals around the state.Right now, as I said earlier it’s myself, Tony Deppen, and my brother Conlan as the three owners/brewers. We have 2 others (Matt and Alex) who have been helping us along the way.Plans for the brewery, well we are going to open on a 5 barrel system in a 2400 square foot building in Pottsville PA. We’ll have 12-15 rotating taps from Milkshake IPAs to Dark Milds. We will be focusing on the popular hype beers but will have something for everyone.

TBT: Where do you foresee Pilger Ruh Brewing in 5, 10, 15 years from now?

TB: I hope to see ourselves growing with production, and paying off all our debts ASAP as possible. Buying a canning line. My personal goal would be to open a second location, where we’d get a bigger system.

COVID-19 and Beer Industry Specific:

TBT: How has COVID-19 impacted Pilger Ruh Brewing? Impacted your brewing and impacted your current work?

TB: I’ve been working from home since mid March. I actually get less work done with the brewery than I do when I’m at my office. It impacted the brewery by the cancelling of all the beer festivals, closing on our loan, but at the same time it bought us time as I wouldn’t want to open during this pandemic.

TBT: How do you think COVID-19 has impacted the beer industry as a whole? Specifically the craft beer market, and even more so in PA?

TB: It shows that people care about their local breweries and that you better have a crowler machine or canning line. I guess now you have to have your permit to sell food.

TBT: What do you think will be the big trends in the foreseeable future?

TB: People reverting back to easy drinking beers and doing everything you do to sours to some classic styles (blondes, hefes, wits).

TBT: What are some trends you think have benefited the craft beer industry?

TB: Seltzers, low cals, all around light beers. I feel fruited sours and IPAs bring people in, but there’s only so many you can drink. I can drink PBR all day.

TBT: What are some things, aspects, or trends of the craft beer industry you don’t like, or think has been a negative on the craft beer market?

TB: Oh God, well you’re in some of the same beer groups as me so you can see whatever negatives there are. I think as a brewery you always got to put your customers first, never think you’re above them or anyone. There’s lots of people making good beer, it doesn’t mean you have to be a douchebag about it.

TBT: Is there such a thing as the “craft beer bubble” and if so, do you feel like it’s going to burst – soon, in the future, or is currently happening?

TB: Are we seeing the bubble burst right now? Look how many breweries in the last year or so that closed because they got too big too quick, got locked into a distributor contract, or there was no market for their beer. One thing I want to absolutely avoid is distribution. If we ever did distro our beer we will do it ourselves. Too big or too small may be an issue going forward. However, I do think there could be a brewery in every other town and everyone could be successful. You have to pick the right location and know your market.

TBT: What are some ultimate goals you have for Pilger Ruh Brewing, for your own brewing, etc?

TB: I want to help build a community around us in Schuylkill County. We owe alot of breweries collabs, but I want to bring non beer people into the scene and get them involved. I want to show my area that a brewery like us can succeed. I want us to be able to give back to the community, make it better for others, and leave the area better than we found it.

TBT: What do you foresee being the big changes happening to the craft beer market in 5, 10, 15 years?

TB: More breweries getting bought out by the big guys and competing for shelf space while we sell all of our beer from our taproom. More seltzers and easy drinkers, fruited sours/hazy IPAs will still be here.

You can follow Pilger Ruh Brewing on their following social media platforms:
Facebook: Pilger Ruh Brewing
Twitter: @PilgerRuhBrews
Instagram: Pilger Ruh Brewing
Untappd: Pilger Ruh Brewing

For articles on or about Pilger Ruh Brewing here on The Beer Thrillers, you can check out:

This article has impeccable timing on its release, as today is Tyler Budwash’s birthday. So make sure you give him a big Happy Birthday.

Make sure to check out our growing Brewer Interview series. A. Parys is currently wrapping up his interview with a beer scientist from Cape May Brewing Company, so be sure to check that out. If you would like to be interviewed or know of someone who would like to be or would make for a good interview, be sure to either comment here or contact us using our CONTACT PAGE.

Cheers Everyone!

-B. Kline

Tyler Budwash, Anthony Deppen, and Conlan Budwash of Pilger Ruh Brewing at Chatty Monks Brewing with head brewer Dave Morrow.

Coming Soon – A New Segment to The Blog!

BKline — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 21:29:52 +0000

Coming soon, in the upcoming days we will be introducing a new segment to the blogs – Brewer Interviews. This segment is pretty straight forward. We, The Beer Thrillers, conduct an interview with a brewer (or brewers). Be it in person, over the phone, or through e-mail. Local to Central PA or far away, the game plan will be interview all types of brewers from all different types of breweries.

I think it’ll be a fun and informative new segment to the blog. We’ll get to hear from new voices, different people, and all learn all kinds of things about the different brewers, breweries, and brewing methods. Plus, it’ll provide some exposure to the brewers and breweries (as well as ourselves), so it seems like a win all around.

I know A. Parys is already working on an interview with a beer scientist from Cape May Brewing Company. I have talked to Tyler Budwash of Pilger Ruh Brewing, as well as several other brewers, so we are set to go with some exciting interviews to kick this new segment of the blog off.

Similar to how our beer reviews are prefaced such as: “BEER REVIEW: X (X)” where X is the title of the beer and (X) is the title of the brewery, the new brewer interview series will be similar. They will be titled, for example: Brewer Interview: Tyler Budwash (Pilger Ruh Brewing). So you know who the brewer is, and what company he is brewing for (at time of interview).

This is likely to expand greatly, and will include all manner of people working in the beer and craft beer and specifically brewery industries. From brewers to owners, to bartenders, to beer scientists, lab workers, hop farmers, home brewers, you name it. As well as expand regionally, going from the Central PA area to cover all sorts of areas, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Vermont, and the list will just continue.

Of course, if you are a brewer and would like to be interviewed, please contact us, you can contact us through the page here – CONTACT PAGE – or you can contact us on our FACEBOOK page through the messenger system. Or even contact us through TWITTER message or INSTAGRAM message. All will work. (Best results will be the CONTACT PAGE and FACEBOOK MESSENGER).

Hope you guys will find the new segment fascinating and interesting. And hope to hear from some brewers interested in being interviewed. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Tyler Budwash - The Beer Thrillers

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Brewer Interview: Tyler Budwash (Pilger Ruh Brewing)

Coming Soon – A New Segment to The Blog!