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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• A Sneak Peak at the New Rubber Soul Brewery in Hummelstown
• Boneshire Brew Works Set to Open Second Tap Room in Harrisburg
• Voodoo Brewing Closes in Lancaster
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion in Philadelphia
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing in Mechanicsburg

Additional source:

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

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Leap year means leap beer. The best thing about a leap year? Its an extra day to drink! And Boneshire Brew Works provided that with their release of a new Long Tongue Liar. Long Tongue Liar, a beer I’ve mentioned on the blog before, but not reviewed, was quickly one of my favorites from them when first released. Its not released as often as some of the more staples that Boneshire offers (like Green Machine, Testify, etc.) but when it does, I’m quick to order a pint (…or two… or three…. or perhaps even four.)

This version of it though is something special altogether. This was barrel aged, for 2.5 years; aged in a California Chardonnay barrel with Pennsylvania cherries and Brettanomyces Lambicus. It was worth every day this beauty spent penned up and locked in that barrel. This is just a beautiful and wonderful beer.

First, let’s dive into what makes this complex beer tick. Starting off with something people might not know about: Brettanomyces Lambicus. Wyeast has this to say about it: “Brettanomyces lambicus. Profile: This is a wild yeast strain isolated from Belgian lambic beers. It produces a pie cherry-like flavor and sourness along with distinct “Brett” character. A pellicle may form in bottles or casks.” (Wyeast) From Wikipedia: “Brettanomyces is a non-spore forming genus of yeast in the family Saccharomycetaceae, and is often colloquially referred to as “Brett”. The genus name Dekkera is used interchangeably with Brettanomyces, as it describes the teleomorph or spore forming form of the yeast.: (Wikipedia) The quick and the short of it – is that the Brettanomyces lambicus is what gives this beer its tartness, its sourness, what turns it from being a Belgian into something reminiscent of Belgian Lambics such as the famous ones like Cantillon.

This is the heavy duty yeast strains that Mellow Mink works with a lot. If you recall our visit there earlier this year, where we sampled some from the various barrels that were currently aging beer; as well as their Scarlet Sunrise, this is THEE yeast that does all the magic for all of these types of beers.

Obviously, the next big thing to discuss is the California Oak Chardonnay barrel this is aged in. And aged for a WHILE to boot. Two and a half years to be exact. Thats a long time to age, and it imparts a lot of the Chardonnay flavors and tannins. This is where most of the dryness comes from, as well as a bit of the tartness. You also get some of the oak flavors in the beer; as well as the wine like qualities from the Chardonnay. The barrel definitely imparts a lot of nuanced flavors into this beer.

But, ontop of the yeast strain, and the Chardonnay barrel, the cherries give this beer the biggest punch of the tartness. Cherries on their own can have a tartness, but let to sit in a beer, aging in oak, for two and a half years, and you are gonna get a lot of tartness. Some dryness. But also a ton of flavor, and that’s certainly achieved here.

So, now that we discussed some what makes this beer tick; let’s break it down and review it!

Beer: Long Tongue Liar – Barrel Aged with Cherries and Brett-Lam
Style: Belgian Tripel
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This version of Long Tongue Liar was aged with Pennsylvania Sweet Cherries and with Brettanomyces Lambicus. This strain of Brett intensifies the cherry flavor and sourness and creates a distinct “Brett” character. All of this was done in a California Chardonnay Barrel. Did we mention that this sat patiently for 2.5 years?!

Appearance is dark wine red. Like the barrel this aged in (Chardonnay) it gives off a very vibrant red coloring, both from the barrel as well as all of the cherries that this sat and soaked in with. It has the look and feel of a heavy Belgian. This is definitely a full, heavy bodied beer.

Aroma is strong, powerful, like uncorking a bottle of wine. You get the cherries super powerful, right up front, kicking in the front door and leading the charge, you get the oak of the barrel, you get the Chardonnay wine notes, and then you get the distinctive Belgian (particularly the distinctive original Long Tongue Liar) notes; that particular smell that comes from the yeast strain, the various spices, etc. Its bold, its strong, and its powerful. This just smells damn delicious before even getting to the first sip.

And oh boy, what a first sip that is! I think calling this complex might be a bit of an understatement. There is a lot to unpack with this beautiful beer, and it just rocks you right on that first sip. First off, this is chock full of cherry flavor. Both sweet and tart cherry, but neither more overpowering than the other. Its more sweet cherry but the tartness of the Brett and aging makes it very tart as well. So right out of the gate you got very heavy cherry flavor thats competing in kind of a tug of war between sweet and cherry, then you get rocked with the oakyness of the barrel, which segues right into the Chardonnay flavor. Chardonnay is an interesting wine; like most wines, it gets a lot of its distinctive notes and flavors from the area the grapes are mostly harvested from. This can lend it all kinds of fruit flavors; apple, lemon papaya, mango, and even pineapple. It is also a dry wine, with a medium level of acidity and alcohol (compared to other wines). When stored in barrels, it gets different notes based on what barrels its stored in; oak typically gives it a vanilla and smoothness to it that alleviates some of the acidity. What this imparted to the Long Tongue Liar – (or at least what I took from it or tasted) was some apple, lemon, some of the vanilla smoothness, I also took away a little of the papaya in its buttery smoothness though this could also be part of the vanilla flavors I picked up on. The tartness really shines in this beer, it gives you a very mouth puckering, enjoyable, dry, dense, tartness that really brings out the flavors. There is nothing cloying about this, nothing too sweet. The mouthfeel feels exactly spot on, heavy, nothing is watery, certainly no off flavors and no bad aftertaste. Finally the final notes of tasting are the various Belgian spices: coriander, orange peel, clove, all in minute, subtle, just a hint of each. All combined to leave this as one of the most complex, gorgeous, and well rounded and tasting beers I’ve had in a looooooong looooooong looooooong time.

My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 4.23 (as of 3.6.20)

This article was meant to be posted yesterday, but my time kept getting used up… plus then it got gorgeous out…. so I had a lunchtime beer outside while reading… then I had to run errands… and then before I knew it, it was time for my business meeting with the rep from Visit Hershey & Harrisburg at the new Tattered Flag Distillery Lounge; formerly the Hershey Biergarten. That was a great meeting, scheduled from 5-7, instead hung out with the guy until 8:40 discussing the blog, beer, the local area, various breweries, ways to promote breweries, and things that I can’t discuss here yet on the blog (but soon!). Lots of exciting things planned in the future; not just for myself, but for the local breweries and everyone. So definitely stay tuned for all of that, and we’ll be right on the front line of that.

There is definitely lots of fun things on the horizon here for The Beer Thrillers. So be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and like and subscribe to us here on the blog.

(And before I forget, Boneshire Brew Works still has bottles of this beauty at their brewery on Derry Street, for 22$ a bomber. As of last I have seen, they still had this on tap, but by the time you’re reading this, it might be kicked because they only saved a little for kegging.)

Slainte!

-B. Kline