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May the Fourth Be With You – From a Non a Star Wars Lover at RAR Brewing’s Star Wars Fest (Amy’s Column)

AmyMWolfe — Sun, 04 May 2025 15:43:18 +0000

May the Fourth Be With You – From a Non a Star Wars Lover at RAR Brewing’s Star Wars Fest

RAR during the Star Wars Festival on May 3rd

I went to the RAR Brewing “May the 4^th Be with you fest but on the 3^rd” but I am not a Star Wars fan. I don’t mean I don’t like Star Wars I just never fell in love with it. I loved watching the 3 OGs that came out years and years ago. I will drop quotes and funny memes. And I am assuming since I am dating the Editor of this blog, I will be forced someday to do an entire streaming of all things Star Wars. I am here for it.

(See our article: RAR Brewing’s May the 3rd Fest)

(See our article: RAR Brewing’s May the Fourth 2025 Beer Can Drop)

I’m a Star Wars….

We arrived on the scene in Cambridge Maryland and scoped out the parking lot. It was small and not surprisingly already full. We drove a couple blocks away to a free street parking spot and pulled in ready for an afternoon of enjoying a fun brewery and street festival. There was a mix of local older aged attendees mixed with Star Wars lovers and some dressed in Star Wars Cosplay. The entire layout of the Festival was welcoming and relaxing.

May the 4^th be with you; and I also with you (sorry, I can’t help it) fest but on the 3^rd was a fun, relaxing afternoon in the quaint town of Cambridge Maryland. There was art, music, beer, lots of beer, merch and good food.

It was a tad bit confusing on how to participate in the tasting tent at first but maybe I also can’t read the instructions. We quickly purchased our bracelets and tickets to sample all the themed beers. It was exciting seeing all the beers available for tasting for some stellar breweries; Bash Bros Collective, Imprint Beer Co, Burlington Beer Co, 2SP Brewing Company, Autodidact Beer, Tripping Animals Brewing, Clag, Spylgass Brewing Company, Maine Beer Company, Movement Brewing Company, Voodoo Brewing Company, Dewey Beer, Frost Beer Works, Four Point and Finback

We started off with the “Cuddle Buddies” 10% ABV Cream Triple IPA from Tripping Animals and 10.1%ABV “Even Fuller Very Circular” Triple IPA W/ Citra and Mosaic by Autodidact. I think you already know The Beer Thrillers come in heavy. These did not disappoint, and we quickly found a spot in the shade to chill and anticipate our next sample tastings.

Then we had to try a flight of the RAR themed beers for the day. Swamp Planet -Hop Saturated Ale 8.5% ABV, Desert Planet -Hop Saturated Ale 8.5%, Deep Fried Porg, College Deep Friend Beers -Hop Saturated Ale 10.1% and the Dark Side DELUXE -4% ABV Blueberry, Cherry, heavy Saber -Toasted Marshmallow, a touch of Roasted Habaneros, and Midnight Pastry. These all killed with Desert being the fav for us.

We were drooling over the food truck offerings of Fried Porg Bucket (chicken tenders with RAR seasoned waffle friends and choice of sauce), Mojo Pork Tacos, Birria Beef Tacos and Chicken tacos. The Friend Porg bucket arrived in a square brown container; we missed the novelty of the Porg bucket offering. The chicken tenders and fries were amazing along with a side of honey mustard. We saw many other attendees enjoying the “deep friend Porg” along with the various taco options.

RAR’s Deep Fried Porgs

Even Fett had to get in on the Galactic Grill. Good thing he removed his helmet before eating the fries.

The second music act Black Dog Alley band provided a very mellow and friendly atmosphere among Fest goers. Most folks walking by were swaying or bobbing their heads to the beat. A few folks were seen dancing together. We listened and relaxed to cover songs by the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Gnarles Barkley.

The music at the event was wonderful

This dog friendly event gave dog loving fest goers plenty to enjoy. A friendly Pit bull puppy near us enjoyed some leftover Porg and fries. We were immediate friends and shared some cuddles.

We purchased beer to go, some merchandise and some art from a local vendor. We highly recommend checking out this yearly RAR May the 4^th be with you events even if you aren’t a Star Wars fan. We highly recommend checking out the quaint town of Cambridge Maryland and absolutely recommend checking out RAR Brewing company. We can’t wait to visit again!

Drink More Beer!
- Amy

RAR’s Promotional Material For the Event

For More Information on RAR Brewing

The following comes via Untappd.

RAR is a micro brewery from Cambridge, MD. They have 931 unique beers and over 549,000 ratings with a global average rating of 4.01 (as of 5.4.25). Their Untappd description reads: “Based in Cambridge, MD on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay. ”

You can follow them on these social media platforms:

RAR Brewing – Official Website
RAR Brewing – Facebook
RAR Brewing – Instagram
RAR Brewing – Twitter
RAR Brewing – Untappd

Amy’s Column Series

All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

Star Wars:

Futurama

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA

Heroes of Barcadia:

Rollacrit Partners with Voodoo Ranger IPA for New Kickstarter, Heroes of Barcadia: Heroes for Hire Tabletop Game

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Philadelphia Eagles Running Back – D’Andre Swift – Visits Bald Bird Brewing Company

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Mario:

Beer Review: Level Up (Idiom Brewing)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Seinfeld:

The Muppets:

Other:

Thank You For Reading

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MAPS OF BREWERIES

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Beer Review: Green Milk (RAR Brewing)

B. Kline — Sat, 28 May 2022 01:07:00 +0000

Green Milk by RAR Brewing (Taco Thursday)

Taco Thursday

As you can see, last night was Taco Thursday at Bender Braus Brewing (or Casa De Kline). Deciding on which Star Wars themed beer (out of so many options currently in my fridge) to have along with the meal, I decided on Green Milk – namely because I know I’ll be picking up a second tomorrow at RAR’s Star Wars Day Drop. (Along with Blue Milk coming back, as well as new beers such as “As You Wish” and “Shooting Womp Rats”.) But here at the home of The Beer Thrillers we find any reason to have a taco night, and so last night – Thursday was as good as any. And not to humble brag too much, but we make some banging tacos too.

And of course, with making tacos, and eating tacos… comes drinking some beer. And since the next day (ie. today) was going to be the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, and needing to do a Star Wars review; what better than one of the Star Wars beers from RAR Brewing?

RAR’s Upcoming Star Wars Can Drop

Well, tomorrow’s Star Wars can drop to be exact. I’ve covered it pretty extensively in this article: RAR’s Star Wars Can Drop. We will be there for it, not sure what time, but we’ll be there. Planning on leaving the Carlisle area (have an early morning obligation in Carlisle) around 9:30 – 10 AM, so hopefully getting there around noon to one’ish. We might be leaving Carlisle even earlier (I was hoping to leave at 8 AM but I don’t think that will happen.)

The article covers the beers they are releasing and the time of the drop (spoiler – its 11 AM when they open). They will likely have some on tap, but not all, and maybe not even any, I’m not sure.

So I figured Thursday night would be a great time to check out the Green Milk (Batch 1) before the new release, and review it for my Star Wars day.

RAR Brewing

We’ve got several RAR Brewing’s beers here on the blog. Notably their Out of Order series – specifically for my Star Wars days (as well as just covering Star Wars beers in general on here). You can find our list of RAR Beer Reviews here:

RAR Brewing is out of Cambridge Maryland. Cambridge Maryland is near the bottom of the state, bayside.

You can find out more about RAR Brewing and the drop at their Instagram page: RAR Brewing (Instagram) and their Facebook page: RAR Brewing (Facebook).

Their Out of Order series is one of the most popular series of beers on the East Coast (up there with Burley Oak’s JREAM series, Dewey Beer’s Thrills, and Fourscores Jahmbas and Swerves). According to Untappd, there is 268 Out of Order (unique) beers.

According to Untappd, RAR Brewing is a micro brewery from Cambridge, MD. They have 672 unique beers with an exact global rating of 4 (as of 5.27.22). Their Untappd bio reads: “Based in Cambridge, MD on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay.”

Beer Review

Green Milk by RAR Brewing

Beer: Out of Order: Green Milk (Batch 1)
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Our lactose sour base conditioned on Thala-Sirens Milk.

Not often do I get to go into descriptors of “green” and “milky” for appearance. But here, today, I find myself doing just that. It looks like someone ate a bowl of Lucky Charms with only the green marshmallows, ate all the cereal, and left the milk. It poured very bubbly, very carbonated, even after having sat in my fridge for a year. I did roll it before pouring, and it poured smoothly, and left a few chunks in the can.

Aroma is sweet, has a cereal like smell to it, but also a sweet… candy, cloying, weird smell to it. Not bad weird, but just an odd smell for a beer certainly. It smells like a sweetness, like a cereal, lactose, sugary, frosty pop, kinda smell. Its a bit hard to describe, and maybe my ‘sniffer’ ain’t up to snuff on this type of stuff (its a young kid’s game anymore, there’s no country left for us old men), but its hard to quite pinpoint the aromas.

Oh boy, lets dive into this one. I grab this quote directly from my review of Blue Milk: “The texture, consistency, and overall look follows suit. It has the texture, a light grittyness, but still overall smooth of a drink still, of melted ice cream. Everything about this just has the appearance of melted ice cream, which I think is the overall attempt of it.” And think it completely applies here…. just green instead of blue. It is very sweet, it is very juicy, and no real sourness to it. This is very smooth, silky, and sweet, and drinks easily enough for how its appearance is. It can be a bit cloying, and it is possibly overly too sweet. I would highly recommend not chugging this beer, thats 100% for sure. Its a slow sipping beer, probably best for desert and a long night, rather than to have as part of a huge group of beers, or to hang out, or maybe even with tacos. It might not have been the greatest combination. All in all, its a fun beer to drink and enjoy, would make great for sharing and having people over with, a full can isn’t horrible, but starts bordering on the ‘too much’ area. Recommend at least giving it a try if nothing else but for the novelty’s sake of it.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.08 (as of 5.27.22)

Spoilers Time

Ok, we’re now up to the spoilers portion of the beer review. I’m going to discuss Episode 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi show. So if you want to stay spoiler free, you can exit out here, or fly down to the bottom of the review.

Earlier today I covered in a beer review – Vader (Mispillion River Brewing Company) and covered Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 1. Check out the beer review to see my thoughts on Episode 1 (or Part 1) of the Obi-Wan show.

Some quick links for discussion:

I will right out say I enjoyed both episodes. Imminently, miles ahead of The Book of Boba Fett. Which I pretty much downright panned on here. And I don’t think that was just my cynical Star Wars fan, typical nerd nit-picking either. I just didn’t care for the show much at all. (I’ve expressed my thoughts on that show enough here on the blog that I don’t think I need to go into it any further.)

I will say that episode two is a bit weaker than episode one. The stuff on the streets and everything was interesting, but I feel its a bit straining to think nobody recognizes Obi-Wan, but then again, thats a bit personal bias since we know him, don’t live in a galaxy full of trillions, and its also been 9 years in the show since the end of Episode III (the movie).

The stuff with Leia was a bit overplayed and over dramatic, and forceful just to make it a full episode I think. I’m also not a fan of parkour in shows and movies when it doesn’t really outright need to be used. The shoot out scenes and stuff were fun and interesting, I enjoyed the giant crock head alien. I am a bit disappointed though that there’s not a ton of “Star Warsy” aliens. Like I said previously.

I was not a huge fan of the ending. With Reva turning, and stabbing The Grand Inquisitor, as well as the “big reveal”. I still think it was a very good episode, maybe a 7 out of 10 whereas Part I was 8.5 or 9 out of 10. I have high hopes for next week’s episode. Sad to see its only a 6 part series, but I think that will benefit it in the end. A quick, easy run time, for a straight linear story. And now we’re 1/3rd the way through already. And after next week’s episode, we’ll be 1/2 the way through.

Nerd Reviews

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

Star Wars:

Lord of the Rings:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Phillies:

Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Collaborate Together on Jam the Batter sWheat Tart

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this second edition of Star Wars friday! Check with us next friday for the next Obi-Wan Kenobi show episode and beer review!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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!

Beer Review: Mangolorian (Brewery Fire)

BKline — Tue, 04 May 2021 13:24:05 +0000

The Mangolorian by Brewery Fire

May the Fourth Be With You! Been waiting to post this beer review up here on the blog. Been keeping it on the backburner just for this day. (This review has been written and revised and edited and updated time over time, and I’ve just been waiting for the perfect time to upload it – and what more perfect time than May the Fourth?)

As anyone familiar with this blog will know, I am a huge Star Wars nerd and if there’s a Star Wars themed beer, then its gonna get reviewed as soon as I’m able to try it and review it.

Back in early January me and my friend Ming hiked in Maryland and visited Flood Zone Brewery and Brewery Fire (January 2nd). Turned out Brewery Fire is known for their pop culture beers (they had Simpsons referenced ones, like Eat My Shorts Dude, and Star Wars themed ones, etc.). I had grabbed this as a four pack and took it with me to go.

January 2nd, 2021

Going back to when we visited the brewery and everything, lets start with the day. You can read more about it here: “Catoctin Mountain Hike, Flood Zone Brewery and Marketplace, and Brewery Fire”. This was a day hike me and Ming did in Maryland on the Catoctin Mountain, which then led to us stopping at the Flood Zone Marketplace and Brewery for food and drinks, and then at Brewery Fire on the way home.

The hike was pretty and nice, but muddy (had rained two days prior). Flood Zone Brewery was very nice, and even had live music, which is always nice, especially back in January, where in Pennsylvania you wouldn’t have been even able to go into a brewery to sit and drink or eat (due to the second shut down of COVID-19), so that was a nice added treat. We then stopped at Brewery Fire on the way back home to Mount Joy – to drop Ming off before I headed home.

Brewery Fire Mural

We drank (well, I drank) outside, since Ming didn’t really feel like going inside and be around people more than he had to (can’t say I blame him on this really, COVID or no COVID). The coolest feature about the Brewery Fire venue was the large pop culture mural on their wall. Which you can see in this group of pictures I took here:

Brewery Fire Mural

How many pop culture references do you get? How many characters do you recognize? Hopefully it’s a lot. And its a pretty interesting and diverse grouping too, and I like the interchange of most of them. The artwork is also well done.

Sad to say, Ming only got a few of the references. Do you think you can do better than him? Hopefully, if not, I doubt you’d be reading this blog anyway with the sheer pop culture references and nerd-isms that I throw on here.

Brewery Fire

As I’ve done with past recent beer reviews, I’m devoting a section of each review to the brewery itself behind the creation. Brewery Fire is a pretty small venue and brewery located on the backend of a bowling alley. Me and Ming had to do a drive through the parking lot to find it, even with the sign at the road, the actual location and entrance is a bit tricky and hard to find.

According to Untappd, Brewery Fire is a nano brewery with 126 unique beers, and 6,480 ratings (as of 5.4.21). It has a global average rating of 3.89. The Untappd description reads: “Small batch craft brewery and tasting room.” They are located in Taneytown, Maryland. You can check out their Untappd page here: Brewery Fire (on Untappd).

While I was there, I had a flight of their beers, and grabbed the Mangolorian as a four pack to take with me. My flight consisted of: Black Ka’kaRYE, The Chrystal Calls, The Hero of Canton Drinks the Best Rum in the House!, and Eat My Shorts, Dude. My ratings for them: Black Ka’karye – 3.75, The Chrystal Calls – 4, The Hero of Canton – 3.75, and Eat My Shorts – 4.

Beer Review

As you can see this was a beer I got in January, but drank that night, as well as several other nights. The review portion of this post was written in March after the latest time I had the beer. (Don’t worry, the IPA held up, plus, I had the notes from the first times I had drank it, in case it didn’t.)

(This portion of the blog post has not been touched since it was written, the above sections were, and then the ending of the post was, but the actual review is as it was since March, with only the average rating changed to reflect the date and updated for any change in the overall score.)

The Mangolorian by Brewery Fire

Interesting note here – the beer on Untappd was originally The Mangolorian, as well as it saying so on the can, but if you look up the beer now, it is only just “Mangolorian” on Untappd. Not sure why the name change, but this is just an interesting fact that I’ve noticed from when I first drank it – January 2nd, til now – March 16th. So sometime in this period there was a name change at least insofar as Untappd goes.

Beer: Mangolorian
Brewery: Brewery Fire
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6%
IBU: 40
Untappd Description: This beer is dry hopped with Vic Secret hops which is perfectly accented by a copious amount of Mango. This is the way.

Obviously, this better be Mango flavored and scented, otherwise… well… that would just be a fail right? And that is most certainly NOT THE WAY. Thankfully, this is very mango forward, so problem solved, and it fits all criteria, and thus, adheres to the way.

So lets start off with the appearance. It looks clean and crisp, it has a lighter color west coast IPA look to it, a bit bubbly and almost a champagne look to it with its effervescence. It is clear and see through with a nice amber hue. It has a decent small foamy head to it that retains for a fair bit of time, and it leaves some lacing on the glass.

Moving on to aroma, you certainly get its namesake – it smells just like a Mandalorian would…. I mean… it smells very heavy mango. Not very heavy Mandalorian. Which is probably a good thing, because I can only imagine what a warrior trapped in Mandalorian armor would smell like after an intense day of bounty hunting…. *shudders*…. poor Baby Yoda (Gogru!). If you are a mango fan, then this is a treat, if not, you probably should just pass on this beer altogether. It has a very strong and upfront nose of mango, that then gets a bit hoppy, but the mango still is the strongest nose to this bad boy.

I would best describe this as a ‘dry IPA’. Its the “old school” (god, do I feel old having to describe ‘regular’ IPAs as “old school”) West Coast style IPA. The mango is interesting in the flavor for this, compared to the nose of it. On the nose, I thought the mango was very strong and powerful, but in the flavor its a bit of a different story. And its almost a ‘by the can’ type thing. The one can I had, the mango flavor was pretty strong, but the other three, it was much more subtle and in the background. A friend who had visited the brewery before (unbeknownst to me, he had it at a different time, and I had never even heard of this brewery or knew he went there until we discussed it), he had it on draft and had two pints of it, he said it was subtle to slightly more upfront in draft. The first pint he said it was very much in the background instead of the forefront, and in the second it was a bit more forefront, but this could also be because it was his second draft of the same beer. It is a pretty light and crushable IPA, and not a hazard to drink the whole four pack yourself in one sitting. It only clocks in at 6% so it’s not too strong, and at 40 IBU’s, its not a palate wrecker. I wouldn’t label it a “Session IPA” but its certainly on the lighter side of things (for example – Troegs’ flagship IPA – Perpetual IPA – is a 7.5% and 85 IBU). This is sort of a dry IPA but still flavorful with a nice hoppy flavor and mango taste (be it forward or background). The Vic Secret hops are a nice combination with the dryness and the mango flavor. It has some champagne characteristics (possibly champagne yeast?) that ties in with the dryness. Nothing is off flavored, and nothing is too strong or overpowering or cancels out anything else, there’s no cloying, or poor taste, and the mouthfeel feels right on, not too heavy, not too slick or light. No bad aftertaste and nothing off putting.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 5.4.21) (Originally: 3.96 as of 3.17.21).

Star Wars

How is everyone else planning on spending May the Fourth? Last year I posted an article (a listicle) of some of our various Star Wars themed beers and activities – which you can see here: “May the Fourth Be With You (2020)“.

Since then I’ve done quite a few more Star Wars themed beer reviews, and to see them, you can look at this list here:

I’m sure there will be plenty more in the future. If you know of any Star Wars themed beers that should be on my horizon and on my wish list, please make sure to leave me a comment, and if you can help me track them down, all the better! I guarantee I’ll review them here on the blog.

So how is everyone spending their Star Wars day? I’m currently working my way through Alexander Freed’s book 1 of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy “Alphabet Squadron” (aptly named huh?). I’ve been slow reading it, but it’s been pretty good.

Also today – Bad Batch airs on Disney+, so I’ll be checking that out after work, as well as hopefully posting up a Star Wars themed book review. So be on the lookout for that this evening. (Fingers crossed.)

To see the Bad Batch trailer, check that out here: Bad Batch Official Disney+ YouTube Trailer.

Hope everyone has a tremendous Star Wars day! May the Fourth Be With You! And cheers everyone, there is light at the end of this tunnel of COVID, and its looking like we’re getting through it. People are getting vaccinated, places are opening up, the dawn is breaking. Like Star Wars always espousing about hope, so we are hopeful here too at The Beer Thrillers. Enjoy a delicious Star Wars beer today, speak like Yoda all day, and Be Kind to everyone and have a great day!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thanks for reading everyone!

The various pop culture / nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done here on The Beer Thrillers:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Other:

More Info:

Beer Review: This is The Whey (Bolero Snort Brewery)

BKline — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:48:40 +0000

So Tuesday night, while snorting around at Breski’s Beverage, filling out two mix-a-six packs, trying to get a good healthy sampling of beers to survive the Snowmageddon 2020 or “2020: The Season Finale”, I found this on the walk in cooler freeze shelf with some of the other Bolero Snort beers. Always been a huge fan of Bolero Snort. They are always one of the must stop at tents at the Atlantic City Music and Beerfest that me and my buddies go to every year…. ….except 2020….. *insert sad face and low whistle sound*…. Anyhoo…. they are always fun beers, good beers, and have some great names. I usually pick up one beer from them whenever doing a mix a six there; usually for the purposes of this blog, and because I love their beers. (I have several beers of theres with half-written reviews that I need to finish out, like the Hoofa beer – like Jimmy HOFFA but instead its HOOFA…. and Mue? instead of CLUE its MUE…. get it?). Anyway… you will most likely be seeing a few reviews of Bolero Snort in the near future, so if you enjoy their beers, or enjoy me making cow and bull related puns…. hold onto your antlers you are in for a treat! (Oh… no…. its already started.)

But enough of that. This isn’t about cow related punnery, this is about STAR WARS…. don’t you like STAR WARS? (Try to do that in your best RLM / Red Letter Media impersonation… if you know who they are; which you might, based on the Mr. Plinkett reviews of Episodes One, Two, and Three, you’ll understand what I meant there.)

The season finale of The Mandolin…. I mean…. The Mandalorian Season 2, just came out today, and just ended, and wrapped up the season. Have no fear, this review is spoiler free. As much as I really want to dive into it, and discuss the show and all the spoilers, I’m not going to, so have no fear… I won’t talk about how Darth Vader rises up from the dead and joins Darth Bane and Freedon Nodd to take over the galaxy, but luckily the Mandalorian with Jango Fett (who is also resurrected, though headless), get off two lucky shots killing them all in a fiery explosion aboard the Death Star III and saves the galaxy at the last second….. oh…. no…… I spoiled it all. I ruined everything!

This is the Way

So as we all know, Season 2 of the Mandalorian establishes that the big baddie is Moff Gideon, that he’s done evil things, he’s a Moff, he’s Giancarlo Esposito, ie. Gustavo Fring, ie. a suave dude you don’t want to **** with. This season, we’ve gotten to see a lot of cool things, and here I will drop a few spoilers for past episodes, so if you don’t want to read about things that aired several weeks ago then don’t read the next few sentences of my blog, and just skip down past the next .gif where you will be safe and spoiler free again. So…. here comes the spoilers, so tune out here. In Season 2, we’ve gotten to see that The Child or “Baby Yoda” now has a name – Gogru, we’ve gotten Ashoka coming back (as Rosario Dawson), we’ve gotten Thrawn’s name thrown out there, Boba Fett coming back with his ship Slave One, as well as seeing the Mandalorians like Bo-Katan and several others (one of whom is played by Mercedes Vernado aka Sasha Banks from WWE – who is also related to Snoop Dogg by the way), and overall lots of cool things have happened in this season. The finale is set to look like its going to be Mando, Gina Carrano’s character, Fett, and the Mandalorians taking on Moff Gideon to rescue Baby Yoda… err… Gogru. Ok… so, now heading back to non-spoiler territory now.

Awww…. look how cute Baby Yoda is…..

Ok, and we’re back into non-spoiler territory. Hopefully you are still reading this. As everyone knows who has done any reading on this blog, I am a huge Star Wars fan. (My youngest daughter is named Mara – named after Mara Jade; who ended up being Luke’s wife in the old Star Wars EU [Expanded Universe] before Disney “deleted it” to make their new Expanded Universe with the Sequel Trilogy and other movies, books, comics, and shows.) I have covered several Star Wars themed beers on the blog before, which you can see here (most are Mandalorian themed):

Actually, in fact, I’ve done a lot of pop culture related beer reviews, and Josh has done a few as well. I’ll link them all at the very bottom of this beer review, in case you want to see what all pop culture and nerd culture beers we’ve covered (everything from Space Balls, to Back to the Future, to Seinfeld, to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

And there’s nothing really wrong with doing pop culture beer reviews right? I enjoy doing them, because then it gives me something to talk about on here, more than just saying, “Ok, this is a nice color…. this smells nice… I like how the hops work together….”

Don’t You Agree?

Craft beers and pop culture go hand in hand too. Due to naming, and trying to find market shares, a lot of breweries do themed names and borderline IP (intellectual property) theft to sell their beers. Which is actually a big debate and something I might cover at some point here on the blog. How much do craft breweries owe to these properties they steal from? Is using something like the Mandalorian and calling your beer “This is the Way” by Broken Goblet a bad thing? Is it IP theft? Are they indebted to Star Wars, Lucasfilm, etc? Honestly, I don’t know, and its a big debate and controversial topic to talk about. Theres a lot of factors on both sides. I enjoy doing pop culture and nerd culture beers and covering them, so in a way, I kind of feed off on this, so I guess I am a bit guilty of it all too. Like I said, who knows, maybe I’ll cover this in a big opinion piece sometime in the near future here on the blog. If I do, be sure to check it out please. (Shameless shill there.)

But, I think we’ve discussed enough about everything else other than the beer, and this is a beer review afterall, so lets get to the beer itself!

This is the Whey by Bolero Snort Brewery

Beer: This is the Whey
Brewery: Bolero Snort Brewery
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: The force is strong with this one. The next entry in our Steer Wars Saga, This is the Whey is our tribute to the gunslinger from Moondalore. Make no Fetts about it, this big Corellian vessel comes in at 8% packed with Galaxy, Bru-1, and Cryo Idaho-7, and is sure to make you feel like you’re covered in some Besko Armor drinking some intergalactic tropical juice!

Gotta love all those puns in that Untappd description! (Though…. I do want to point out – its BESKAR armor, nor BESKO armor…. but anyway….)

Appearance for this is similar to a New England IPA, more than just a regular IPA. Actually, I would say its more of an ‘in between the two’ type. Its golden to honeyed color, its darker, and a bit richer looking than a New England IPA, and its not as unfiltered or hazy, but it is darker, not opaque, but also not see through. It has a nice white foamy head, and great carbonation out of the can.

Aroma is very hop heavy, and an interesting combination of hops too, with Galaxy, Bru-1, and the new Cryo style of hop with Idaho-7. Cryo hops are newer, and are more concentrated hops basically. They are a way to get extreme, concentrated bittering oils out of hops, and are very high alpha acid. This is very strong hop nose because of this, a very heavy hop pine, tropical fruit, citrus, and smells very good. Borderline pungent, but in the right way. Super strong, but good.

Taste is certainly interesting on this bad boy, and I love it. I think the cryo hop use of Idaho-7 and Galaxy is really good. Galaxy is a fun hop and I love the profile on it. Its very citrus, between the Galaxy and the Idaho-7 hops (which are in concentrated form too), you get a very strong, hop presence, mostly citrus, a lot of pine, some peach, passion fruit, earthy notes. I also get a bit of pineapple, some stone fruit like apricot, which all might be from the Bru-1 hops, not 100% sure on that, I’m not too familiar with Bru-1 hops. There is a bit of a kick to this beer in the hop department, its not full juicy and dank like a New England IPA would be, but its not a full bitter West Coast style IPA either. I think its a nice middle ground between the two, and would probably appeal to fans of both styles. It is a bit strong at 8.4%, but you don’t outright taste it, but you can feel it creep up pretty quickly. This is still a smooth drink, and has a nice mouthfeel too, its not too heavy, its not thin or slick or watery, it tastes right, there’s no off flavors, nothing acidic, nothing cloying, nothing too bitter, nothing out of place with the flavors or the malts or hops, no bad aftertaste, you won’t be burping this up hours later, its a very well done, well crafted beer. The beer looks nice in a glass, it has good carbonation out of the can, it leaves nice lacing on the glass, it has an amazing aroma, especially if your a hophead, and it tastes like a fine IPA. A middle of the way IPA between New England IPA and West Coast IPA. Its strong at 8.4% so you can’t really full kill a 4 pack of this by yourself (well… I mean… I guess you could, if you want to… but I hope you’re safely tucked in at home watching The Mandalorian on TV in your pajamas and have already called it a night anyway), but its also not so strong as to fully knock you on your butt right out of the gate on one of these. This was a great pickup at Breski’s Beverage for me, I think it was the last one on their mix a six shelf too when I was there, and at 5.99$ for the can, it was definitely well priced. I fully, highly recommend everyone grabbing one of these if you see it out on shelves, either in four packs or in singles, not sure if its on draft, but if it is, I still recommend it that way too. The can art is also stellar, and I always love the Mandalorian themed can arts (like Tattered Flag’s The Pandalorian), and this fits that bill.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 12.18.20)

This is The Whey by Bolero Snort

See, just look at that can art, isn’t it beautiful? Its a Baby Yoda as a Baby Bull, and the Mandalorian is a Bull / Cow Mandalorian. Its great. There’s even little Millennium Falcons on it, and sound effect words on it too. Great beer, great can art. I do love Bolero Snort too, from the brewery and the workers to their presence at the AC Beerfest, to their pun beers, great stuff from them, make sure to check them out if you haven’t before.

Hopefully you all have gotten to watch The Mandalorian Season 2 finale now. I will be interested in hearing your comments and thoughts on it, be sure to leave them in the comment section here. Love hearing from you guys either way, especially about The Mandalorian and Star Wars and craft beer. Check out the reviews below of other Star Wars beers or other pop culture / nerd culture beers too. Thanks for reading everyone, stay safe and healthy during this pandemic, make sure to wash your hands, stay distant, mask up, etc., we’re getting near the end of it. I’m off to Tattered Flag in about an hour to do a canning day, so be sure to read about that in the near future too. I always enjoy my canning days there. (Nothing like getting to crack open beers and drink early in the day while “doing work”.) I was at Boneshire Brew Works yesterday, sitting out in the cold drinking with Drew, and we went back and watched Santa’s Slay, Silent Night Deadly Night (we watch this every year), and Silent Night Deadly Night II, and drank quite a few Other Half beers (so you can expect some beer reviews of those), and somehow I was still able to wake up at 7:30AM, despite only leaving his house at 2:40AM and getting gas. Tonight is also a Christmas type party with Ming and Don at their place, and I’m supposed to get up bright and early tomorrow, we’ll see how that goes. But, you will be getting lots of beer reviews in the near future, especially since I’m still furloughed until (at least) January 4th. We’re also 5 days away from Festivus everyone, so Happy Holidays is an expression we can now start using. Alright, see you guys hopefully at a brewery in the near future, and hopefully you’ll be back to read future articles here on The Beer Thrillers. Cheers!

-B. Kline

The various pop culture / nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done here on The Beer Thrillers:

Star Wars:

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Other:

Search for ‘Star Wars’ on The Beer Thrillers

Yoda dad joke.

Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)

BKline — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:36:43 +0000

Its another Friday, and we all know what that means – another episode of The Mandalorian. So of course, I waited til today to drop this review. As soon as I heard them announce this, I had to grab a four pack of this.

First, Tattered Flag is one of my favorite local breweries, and secondly, its a Mandalorian themed beer, and thirdly…. Pandas. Seriously, what could go wrong here?

Absolutely. Nothing.

The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

So, since I am still doing some ‘at home’ quarantining after my trip out to Indianapolis from work, yesterday I did a bit of day drinking and had to make sure this was one of the several wonderful beers I had, and as you can see, I made sure to use my new glass I got from the Vonnegut Museum and Library.

On The Beer Thrillers we have done several Mandalorian and Star Wars themed beers before, so it should be obvious to any reader of ours that I am a huge Star Wars fan. You can see our Mandalorian themed beer reviews here:

And our Star Wars themed beers here:

Space Balls themed beer:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

If you use our search function on our blog and type in STAR WARS, these are some of the various articles where I mention Star Wars in them: STAR WARS on THE BEER THRILLERS.

Rotunda Brewing Company in Annville (and their brewpub in Hershey) are re-releasing their Chewbacca beer this weekend, a black IPA which I have had before. I am going to be getting a can and doing a review for that as well. (Can never have enough Star Wars themed beers to review on here, believe me. So if you know of any, or have any and would like to see me review it, contact us through the CONTACT US page.)

As you can see, like I said above, I am also using my brand new Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library glass. It has such a great quote of Vonnegut which he also used in Slaughter-House Five:

“I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”

Story had it, he would drink and call people, just to basically yell something poignant and quick to them over the phone, and then slam the phone down. Not to strangers or random numbers, but to his friends and colleagues. I can certainly relate to some late night drunk texts (I think a lot of people can actually). So I see where he is coming at with this.

Alright, now that we’ve established the background for the beer and for the glass, let’s actually review this beer shall we.

The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

Beer: The Pandalorian
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Hazy Imperial IPA made from a blend of base malts, generous wheat addition, oats, and flaked maze bring forth a sweet backbone complimented by Sabro in the kettle and a massive Sabro Cryo dry hop. Expect sweet coconut ? up front followed by citrus lime and a sweet creamy finish.

As you can see above, this is hazy, but on the lighter, softer orange – yellow – golden scale. Not the deep heavy dank, but a lighter, softer looking hazy New England style IPA / DIPA. Justin, the head brewer for Tattered Flag does a lot of New England style IPAs (and a lot of sours) and does them all very well, making them different from each other too, which is sometimes hard to do with the style. You have some that look bright orange to golden with a very dank and heavy haze, and then you have some that are lighter softer yellow to golden like this, with some haze. There is some orange here, but I would say its mostly yellow and golden. There is a thin head to it, and great carbonation, and left nice lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a blend of hop, mainly a blend of coconut, tangerine, the fruity and citrus hop aromas. Sabro is a pretty strong hop and gives this a very strong hop presence and nose. On the nose you get coconut, tangerine, hint of cedar and mint, with some cream, some lime.

This is a very smooth and drinkable DIPA. At 7.5% its in a middle ground of ABV for IPAs and DIPAs. In comparison, Troegs Brewing’s Perpetual IPA (their flagship West Coast IPA) is a 7.5% (and right there is where the comparison between the two of these stop). 7-8% is a good middle ground area for IPAs and DIPA’s I feel. Its enough to get you to notice the ABV, but not enough to make it boozy, to heavy, or to get you too drunk. A nice general buzz is all that is needed and required. This looks and tastes similar to New England IPAs, but its not a generic New England IPA / DIPA. The Sabro hops gives it a very different taste than most New England IPAs, as Sabro isn’t really a much used hop, especially in the Cryo style. This gives The Pandalorian an interesting start with a different finish to it. It has a coconut, tangerine, citrus, taste at the beginning, but it ends on more of a zest lime, cream flavor. Overall its a silky smooth drink that is very easy to drink. There is a bit of an ending bite as you get to the bottom of the glass, but that is typical for most IPAs especially as you get closer to the finishing last sips. Despite the Sabro hops and the nose, there isn’t much of a cedar or mint flavoring that I was able to pick up on, but I did get tangerine, coconut, lime, and cream. My one friend suggested grapefruit, but I wasn’t able to pick up any grapefruit, and thats also not typically a characteristic of Sabro hops either. I very much enjoyed the smoothness of this, and the flavor profile, the aroma was on point, and the ABV was nice for a good buzz, a four pack is nice for sharing with buddies while streaming (which me and my friend did during the Konami games live stream we did on Knights of Nostalgia). This adds to the growing list of good and great New England IPAs that Tattered Flag has put out over the recent year. Definitely make sure to check this out, either for namesake or for the beer itself. Not sure how much longer the four packs will last at the brewery, so if you want the great can art be sure to pop in soon, they also have it on draft which will probably last a bit longer. This is a good smooth, tasty New England DIPA that will certainly not disappoint.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 11.20.20)

You can check out more beer reviews I’ve done from Tattered Flag below:

Also, Tattered Flag now does statewide shipping through their SUPPLY DROP. Make sure to take advantage of that if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania and are unable to make it to their brewery.

On Black Friday they are doing a big bottle release at their upcoming Lancaster Barrel House location. More details can be found on their Facebook page – Tattered Flag @ Facebook and Tattered Flag Barrel House @ Facebook. I will be doing an article covering that shortly as well.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I got the pint glass from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. You can visit them and donate as well as order online, and if you are a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, I highly recommend it.

You can read about my trip (in recap form) to Indianapolis and back through the following:

The Trip to Indianapolis:

My time in Indianapolis is covered specifically in the Day Four recap.

The books behind the beer in today’s blog post are: “Happy Birthday Wanda June” by Kurt Vonnegut, “Armageddon in Retrospect” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron” by Alexander Freed.

Also, be sure to check out some of our other beer reviews in recent history:

Star Wars themed articles:

You can check out the tabs at the top of each page to visit our BEER REVIEWS, BEER EDUCATION, TRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, 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!

Thanks for reading everyone, please stay safe out there, I know cases are on the rise and spiking, so make sure to wash your hands, stay distant, enjoy your craft beer, and wear a mask. Cheers and May the Force Be With You!

-B. Kline