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

I don’t care what anyone says, the one and only true thing that goes with a baseball game is — beer. And family (or friends). But, mostly, beer.

Peanuts, cracker jacks, coke, etc, are all distant thirds and fourths compared to the above two. And luckily the Harrisburg Senators’ field – FNB Field – has numerous good options as far as craft beer goes; and from many local places.

Behind first base line and the hometeam dugout in the back is a “cans” stand, which has your typical tallboys of Yuenling, Miller Lite, Coors, Angry Orchard, Cidre Stella, and Blue Moon, as well as the aluminum Budlights and Budweisers. BUT… it also has a fairly good selection of cans from Desperate Times (Hazy Galaxy), ZeroDay (Mango Habanero, Good Vibes, and a few others), and Tattered Flag (TMI IPA, Because I Was Inverted, and a few others). The prices are a bit on the high end (9.50$ for a can of Tattered Flag, Desperate Times, or ZeroDay).

Also in this section is a few food places (a BBQ pit, an Arooga’s stand, a fries place, etc,) that have domestic and craft on tap as well. Here the only “craft” was Goose Island, Blue Moon, Troegs, and Desperate Times. The Troegs was Perpetual IPA only. Goose Island I’m not sure of, but I believe it was Goose IPA. Desperate Times was the Pineapple Kolsch, which sounded perfect for a hot sunny August baseball game in the heat. 7.75$ for the draft, 4.25$ for a small thing of fries, and 4.75$ for a large coke for my dad and we’re good to go and ready to start to enjoy the game.

Luckily the beer started off much better than the game. (First inning, second batter gets a double, gets moved to third, scores, and the final out takes the pitcher to a ridiculous pitch count due to numerous fall balls before making the final out.)

Beer: Pineapple Kolsch
Brewery: Desperate Times Brewery
Style: Kolsch
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 21
Untappd Write-Up: A clean, crisp beer with soft malt and hop character flavored with pineapple.

So firstly, being at the game, I’m not getting a chance to go into a full “sniff sniff, drink, sniff, taste, sniff, drink, sip, keep it on my tongue, cleanse my palate, sip, then finish” drinking performance like I *COULD* do (not saying I always do something like this…. errmm…. cough….) but I’m just saying being there at the game with my oldest daughter, my dad, and in a full section, I’m not being that pretentious jerkwad who does it. (My apologies to any pretentious jerkwads reading this who do do that whilst out in public settings surrounded by 3,000 people and drinking from a small plastic container in a tiny cramped plastic seat with potential flying foul-balls whizzing 80MPH by your head.)

So, needless to say, these two reviews might be up to the snuff of previous reviews on here, or who knows, maybe they’ll be better because I won’t come off like I know more than I do? Who knows. What I do know, is that I enjoyed the beer, I enjoyed the company I was with, and I enjoyed the game, and I’m going to try and give this a half-way decent craft beer review that it does deserve.

The coloring of the beer is a light straw, see through, with a little bit of foam and fizz to it. It has the look and appearance of a typical kolsch, nice coloring, slight carbonation to it, transparent, and a good ‘beers look’ to it.

Aroma is straight pineapple. This is simply put, a pineapple bomb. If you’re into that this will definitely work for you. If you are only half-way into it, its still a great beer with a good decent flavor, if you absolutely hate pineapple, this beer won’t work for you. So I think the average drinker will still enjoy it, the pineapple lovers will love it, and the pineapple haters will hate it. But that middle margin is big enough and the beer itself is good enough, that it should target a large swath of people.

That goes with the taste, its absolutely pineapple. I would compare it to a pineapple lifesaver, though the bartender at the BBQ pit shack compared it to a pineapple gummy, its all one in the same, its juicy, candy like, and very pineapple. A slight tartness but not much at all, nothing near the puckering of some sours and kolch(es? s?) or saisons I’ve had in the past. This is perfectly refreshing for a hot summer baseball game at the park.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.64 (as of 8.24.19)

Approaching the start of the fifth inning and the Erie Sea Wolves are just about to step up to the plate. The score is miraculously still only 1-0 Sea Wolves over the Senators despite the pitching being a bit lackluster, but for the most part McGowan has settled down and gotten into some kind of a rhythm.

I decide to venture past where we were located (Section 201 Box Seats) and checkout what all else FNB Field has to offer. Noticing a tent/pavilion under the scoreboard that loudly reads “CRAFT BEER” I decide to make my way there. (Bit of a hike from the visitor’s dugout area all the way over, but not too bad. When I was a kid, there wasn’t even seats over there, and the stadium didn’t wrap around the outfield like it does now. The field has definitely seen some nice makeovers and improvements in recent years after the various floods and damages.)

The craft beer bar underneath the scoreboard (cleverly titled “The Scoreboard Bar”) is all decked out in Troegs sponsorships. You can get cans of Perpetual IPA, Sunshine Pils, and Hop Knife. Other craft breweries were represented in can form – Tattered Flag with TMI IPA and Goose Island with Goose IPA (I know… I know…). In draft they had ZeroDay with a few options, Desperate Times with a few options, Iron Hill with an option, and Riverbend Hop Farm with two options. They also had “claws” and other hard seltzers as well as the crap tallboys from Yuengling, Blue Moon, Angry Orchard, Coors, Miller Lite, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Twisted Tea, etc. (as well as some wine and mixed drinks as well).

The Dry Irish Stout was calling my name so I had to grab a draft of that. And forgetting that I recently shaved, I got to show my ID for a second time (the perks? joys? of shaving a beard down to the jawline from when it used to look like you were wandering the Egyptian desert for 40 years). Took my sip, loved it, grabbed my photo, and got to watch the Senators outfielder make a tremendous grab before heading back to the third base line seats with my daughter and dad.

(One thing should be noted here, that I have been amiss to mention, was that it was Harry Potter night, and due to this, I’ve gotten to sit next to my daughter who espoused on every detail from the smallest to the largest of the Harry Potter universe, I now know I am a Slytherin, she is a Ravenclaw, and my father is a Hufflepuff. And so now… you need to know these things too.)

Beer: Dry Irish Stout
Brewery: River Bend Hop Farm and Brewery
Style: Stout – Irish Dry
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

I don’t care what people say (or think), but this is a perfectly acceptable beer at a baseball game. Especially down by the riverside like the Senators in the later innings when it was dropping into the low-70s. It tasted wonderful, it was refreshing, and it went great with the game and with the company. So thats all I can ask for. And I turn my nose up to those who say stouts are for cold months and IPAs/pale ales/kolsches/etc are for summer months.

The appearance is spot on. It looks good and it has a nice ring of head to it despite the plastic cup and having to trek from nearly center field to third base.

The aroma is bitter like an Irish Stout would be. Hard to get much more out of this in the aroma category due to all of the various other smells of the game, and I’m not cramming my nose down into the plastic cup to get a good whiff. (Because like I’ve already said, I’m not a pretentious jerkwad. Sort of. Maybe. Depends who you listen to.)

Taste is wonderful. Deliciously bitter, deliciously tasty, and deliciously good. It has a good malty backbone, no off flavors – even when the mayfly landed in it and I had to pick him out – and it left no bad aftertastes.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.74 (as of 8.24.19)

By this point in the game, the Senators worked themselves out of a jam with the bases loaded, scored a run in their own innings to tie it up, and now have just scored another to go ahead.

The Senators scored again in the 7th (or 8th) and went on to hold the Erie Sea Wolves scoreless after that initial first run in the first and win the game. My daughter is a bit bummed that the Hufflepuffs won the house cup at the game, and both me and my dad are bummed by how the Phils blow a 7-0 lead to the Marlins (and eventually get thrashed by them 19-11). After the game there was a tremendous and wonderful firework display and then the typical forty minute wait on the parking lot and then home. All in all a great time by the three generations.

In todays news, I will be attending the Lancaster Craft Beer Fest (my first time at it), so I will at least snap a pic going in for the Twitter feed, and probably no more pictures after that. I will try to keep up somewhat consistently on my personal Untappd feed with the beers I have. Ming is accompanying me today as the DD. There will possibly-maybe-hopefully be a blog post about it in the future. (Just like I still have the Moo-Funk and the Ffej of July and various other ‘event’ blog posts to write up…. hopefully this week! Fingers, toes, and …oh noes…. crossed.)

Alright everyone, enjoy your beers and keep on putting that liver to work!

-B. Kline