YouTube Review - The Beer Thrillers

Beer Review: Chewbacca (Rotunda Brewing Company)

B. Kline — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 02:45:07 +0000

Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

I first had this beer back in October of 2019. (Which feels like ancient history.) And I remember wanting to write a review of it even back then for the site…. and for some reason I never did. Not sure why exactly. Maybe I just didn’t get around to it or something, but I even kept my photo of the beer on my desktop screen this whole time. Ironically, I recently had it again, so what better opportunity to revisit the beer for my second beer review release for Andor: Season 2. Last week I reviewed – Admiral (J Henry Barrel Aged Grand Stout) by Delta Beer Lab – and so this week, we’ll taking a look at a much closer brewery – Rotunda Brewing Company with their Imperial Black IPA (or Imperial Cascadian IPA). This is one of my favorite styles of beer, I love Black IPAs, and Double Black IPAs are event better.

But before we dive in, I want everyone to please take a look at our stream / podcast / video we made on YouTube. It stars myself, Drew of Knights of Nostalgia, and Tim (Aglets). You can view it here:

In the video we cover the first three episodes of Andor. So please be sure to check it out!

And now, onto the review!

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (at the Rising Sun in 2019)

The Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Beer: Chewbacca
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Black IPA / Double Black IPA
ABV: 8%
IBU: N / A
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Let’s check out this Wookie beast (not to be confused with the Wookie Monster by Fourscore). Will someone get this Walking Carpet out of my way so I can type!

Appearance

Chewbacca pours a deep, opaque brown-almost bordering on black-with a creamy, tan head that lingers like a loyal Wookiee companion. The lacing is impressive, clinging to the glass with each sip, leaving behind a trail reminiscent of hyperspace streaks.

Aroma

Right out of the gate, there’s a punch of roasted malt-think dark chocolate and fresh-brewed coffee-balanced by a piney, resinous hop profile. There’s a subtle undercurrent of caramel and a hint of citrus, like orange peel, that peeks through as it warms. The aroma is bold and inviting, promising complexity.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Taste

The first sip delivers a satisfying interplay between roasted malt bitterness and assertive hop character. Notes of espresso and bittersweet cocoa dominate up front, quickly joined by pine, grapefruit, and a touch of earthy spice. The Black IPA style shines here: the hops never overwhelm the malt backbone, instead weaving together in a harmonious, chewy mouthfeel. The 9.2% ABV is well-hidden, but there’s a gentle warmth in the finish that lets you know this is a beer worthy of a Wookiee.

Mouthfeel

Medium to full-bodied, with a creamy carbonation that lifts the flavors without feeling heavy. The finish is dry, with lingering roast and a pleasant, resinous bitterness that invites another sip.

Overall Impressions

Chewbacca is a robust, well-executed Black IPA that balances dark roast and hop bite with finesse. It’s a bold tribute to its namesake-complex, powerful, and just a little wild. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or simply a lover of big, hoppy dark ales, this is a beer that deserves a spot in your cantina. Untappd’s 3.8/5 rating feels right, but I’d nudge it a bit higher for the sheer fun and craftsmanship.

Wrap Up

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.8 (out of nearly 1000 ratings) (as of 4.25.25)

May the hops be with you-always.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (RBC) (photo courtesy of Rotunda Brewing Company)

I’m gonna have to check the archives of the site here, or on my computer, to see if I have any notes or anything from the initial first time I drank the beer, if maybe I started a review and then sadly – for whatever reason – never got around to finishing it. Maybe I was waiting for the right chance to post it, and never found it. Who knows, there’s over 70+ articles in my “draft” folder here on the site, some day I’ll get around to posting them…. unfortunately that day is not today though. But be sure to come back to the site, who knows, maybe it’ll be tomorrow…..

And check back next Tuesday for another (hopefully) Star Wars themed beer release. Over the weekened is May the Fourth Be With You, so once again, hopefully I’ll be able to grab some of the RAR Star Wars themed beers and will be able to review them weekly!

Cheers all and thank you for reading!

Chewbacca at Rotunda Brewery

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

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

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. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

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 #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of April 2025.) 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!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

Futurama Episode Review – The Impossible Stream and Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 (SpaceTime Meadery)

B. Kline — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 20:24:00 +0000

Omicron Persei 8 by SpaceTime Meadery

Futurama is Back Baby

As we covered in the previous two articles: Good News Everyone, Futurama is Back: Exploring Futurama – Inspired Craft Beers and Book Review: Futurama and Philosophy (Edited by Courtland Lewis) – Futurama is back, starting today with the first episode airing on Hulu streaming (July 24th, 2023).

Video Review

I did a YouTube (video) review of the first Futurama episode – Season 11 Episode 1 – The Impossible Stream. You can find that video here:

Futurama Episode Review – Season 11 Episode 1 – The Impossible Stream (as well as a Mead Review of Omicron Persei 8 by SpaceTime Meadery)

Please head over to YouTube by clicking the above video and checking out our YouTube page. Also please subscribe to be able to get more future YouTube content from us. We will be posting a weekly review of each episode of Futurama every Monday when they release. As well as there will be plenty more content.

And of course – make sure you “smash” that like button, subscribe button, and hit the notification button. Otherwise Nixon will sneak into your house at night and wreck up the place.

Futurama

We will be covering a weekly blog article each and every Monday for all 10 episodes of the Season 11 run on Hulu. I will also be following that up with a weekly video on YouTube giving my thoughts, opinions, and other commentaries about each episode. I will also likely be doing these reviews while having a beer and giving a quick review of the beer as well.

The first Futurama weekly blog article is a Book Review of Futurama and Philosophy, edited by Courtland Lewis.

Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 by SpaceTime Meadery

Before we completely jump into this mead review, let’s first take a look at Omicron Persei 8.

Omicron Persei 8

From “The Infosphere” (Futurama’s version of Wikipedia or akin to Star Wars’ version of Wookiepedia), we get the following information on Omicron Persei 8:

Omicron Persei 8 is a planet situated about 1000 lightyears from Earth, in orbit around the star of Omicron Persei. The rulers of the planet are Lrrr and his wife Ndnd. Its surface seems to consist mainly of deserts. It is the home world and capital of the warlike Omicronians, the single greatest threat Earth and the entire Democratic Order of Planets are facing. It seems to have a small, asteroid-like satellite. ^[1ACV12] In addition to this, there are hundreds of small moons in the planet’s low orbit. ^[7ACV16]

In 3017, Fry travelled to Omicron Persei 8 to retrieve an artifact that would help clear the universe of hypnowaves. Lrrr, upset because he was using the artifact to steal cable channels from Earth, invaded New New York, and wouldn’t leave until President Nixon turned Fry over to him. The Omicronians were surprised that the Earthicans put up such a fight, and decided to call off their attack. However, Lrrr and Ndnd remained on Earth, along with a replica of the Omicronian Palace and several other Omicronian buildings.

……..

The Omicron Persei system contains at least 27 planets, as Omicron Persei 27 has been mentioned and the number indicates which planet in the system is being referred to, with the highest numbers being furthest from their stars. Omicron Persei 8 is neighbored by the planets Omicron Persei 7 and Omicron Persei 9 as have been referenced by Ndnd. This is a reference and a gag on the common Earth expression, and book by John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, the planets that “surround” Earth on either side of its orbit. It is merely meant to hyperbolically portray the large gap in cultural understanding between the sexes.

In “T.: The Terrestrial“, it is shown that the planet has hundreds of small moons in its low orbit. Its “third moon” is mentioned by Lrrr in “Spanish Fry“.
Omicron Persei 8 (The Infosphere)

Mead Review

Omicron Persei 8 by SpaceTime Meadery

Beer: Omicron Persei 8
Brewery: Space Time Mead & Cider Works
Style: Mead – Metheglin
ABV: 9.3%
IBU: N / A
Untappd Description: Omicron Persei 8 has a nice hop character with almost malt like taste created by the buckwheat honey and coffee (think stout). This semi sweet mead is made with local wildflower honey, buckwheat honey, hops grown by Avery Mountain Bines & Twine, and Moka Origins Coffee. Hops and buckwheat honey added in boil. A wonderful mead when you are devouring. Lightly Carbonated. Gluten Free. Featuring art by Alexya Rauso.

Not going to go too crazy in depth on this due to discussing it in the video, but this was a really lovely mead. There is a nice hop character to it, but its also a lovely dry and crispy mead. There’s a non – cloying sweetness to it deriving from the honey and wildflower that adds a very nice character to it.

We had stopped in Scranton area and stumbled upon the meadery and loved its SciFi, science, NASA, themes, and being a huge Futurama nerd I had to grab a can of this to go.

(And I am so glad I did.)

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: (Not Enough Ratings) (as of 7.24.23)

The Impossible Stream

In this video:

Futurama Episode Review – Season 11 Episode 1 – The Impossible Stream (as well as a Mead Review of Omicron Persei 8 by SpaceTime Meadery)

I give my full thoughts on Season 11’s Episode 1 – The Impossible Stream. So I will give it a proper rating here on the blog, and let you watch / listen to the video for my full thoughts.

On a score of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst, 10 being the best) I gave The Impossible Stream a 6 going to 6.5; and with benefit of the doubt I’ll stick to 6.5.

So for each future episode, I’ll keep a running tally of the season. So far:

Season 11 Episode Ratings

Season 11: Episode 1: The Impossible Stream – 6.5 out of 10
Season 11: Episode 2: Children of a Lesser Bog – (will air next week – July 31st, 2023)

I will keep this list updated and will show the next upcoming episode after. There is 10 episodes for each of the two seasons currently greenlit for Hulu. Season 11 and Season 12 are both scheduled to have 10 episodes, and all of the episode names have been announced.

Futurama – Season 11 Episode 1: The Impossible Stream

So make sure you come back each week for my video recap and reviews of each episode, as well as the accompanying blog articles.

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

Good News Everyone, Futurama is Back: Exploring Futurama – Inspired Craft Beers
Book Review: Futurama and Philosophy (edited by Courtland Lewis)
Futurama Review: The Impossible Stream (Season 11 – Episode 1) (Video)

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

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

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:

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)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

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

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

-B. Kline

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. 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 on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

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 #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) 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!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.