ZeroDay - The Beer Thrillers

When it Rains it Pours – ZeroDay Production Slowed Down by Flooding

B. Kline — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 20:40:11 +0000

Due to the flooding ZeroDay Brewing’s production will be delayed

When it Rains it Pours – ZeroDay Production Slowed Down by Flooding

Downtown Harrisburg was awash with flooding from the storm, and unfortunately Reily Street was one of the worst hit areas. This is where MidTown Cinema and the production facility for ZeroDay Brewing Company is located. (Located at 250 Reily St, Harrisburg, PA 17102.)

No word yet on how much damage was sustained, but thankfully the beer has been fine, and it appears that it will be only a temporary production delay (if any).

ZeroDay posted today about the flooding and operations, with the following announcement:

250 Reily St. has been severely affected by last nights storm. We are still in the process of evaluating the damage and our next steps.

The beer is ok but our Outpost at @midtowncinema will be closed for a little while and beer production might be slightly delayed.

We will keep you all updated when we know more. Thank you for the continued support and understanding.

The Taproom and Outposts at @broadstreetmarket @freshmarkethershey are up and running. Please come buy our beer.

ZeroDay Brewing – at MidTown Harrisburg – on Facebook

For More Information on ZeroDay Brewing Company

The following comes via Untappd.

ZeroDay Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Harrisburg, PA. They have 457 unique beers and over 67,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.71 (as of 8.9.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Zeroday Brewing Co. is an award winning microbrewery located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania established in 2015. Taproom 925 N. 3rd Street Harrisburg Outpost at the Historic Broad Street Market 1233 N. 3rd Street Harrisburg Outpost + Hot Dog Bar at The Midtown Cinema 250 Reily St Harrisburg”

You can follow them at these social media platforms:

Brewery News

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ZeroDay Brewing is Opening Their New Tap Room

BKline — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 13:07:17 +0000

ZeroDay Brewing Company’s new tap room (photo courtesy of ZeroDay Brewing’s Facebook page)

March 23rd, 2021 is the new grand opening to ZeroDay Brewing Company and their unveiling and opening of their new tap room. Today (March 23rd) at 11AM the doors will open to their brand new tap room and we can all finally see all the hard work they’ve been putting in to get this new location up and running. Its been a while, but it definitely looks worth the wait!

Grand Opening – March 23rd, 2021

As per their Facebook post:

⊙ When the hell are you guys finally opening?
Tuesday March 23rd at 11am!
⊙ Where are you?
Our new Taproom is conveniently located just a few blocks away from the original Reily St. location at 925 N. 3rd. Street in Midtown Harrisburg, PA
⊙ Where should I park?
There is plenty of metered street parking in the neighborhood. Be sure to pay attention to the posted hours on the Standard Parking meters. The “Park Mobile” app is a super handy tool to download before your visit, but the meters also accept cards and coin. You can park your whip for free after 5pm everyday and all day on Sundays.
⊙ Beer makes me hungry.
Ok, that wasn’t really a question but we’ll let it slide this time because we completely agree!We are teaming up with our pals at @lacatrina_717 to provide a full-service dining experience featuring modern Mexican cuisine inspired by Chef Pedro Rincon’s desire to share traditional Mexican cuisine with his own unique and contemporary approach.
⊙ Are you pet friendly?
Absolutely, as long as they are well behaved and don’t poop on the floor. We just ask that you bring your furry friends in through the courtyard entrance on James Street
.⊙ Are you kid friendly?
Absolutely, as long as they are well behaved and don’t poop on the floor. High chairs and booster seats are available, and two of our 5 individual gender- neutral restrooms are equipped with changing stations. ⊙ I’m not really into beer, can I still come visit? We forgive you… and absolutely! In addition to our own handcrafted beer, the taproom bar is fully stocked with ciders, wines, spirits and even non alcoholic beers sourced our good friends across Pennsylvania.
⊙ Im a vegan or I have an allergy or dietary restriction.
No worries! Everything from our kitchen is freshly made and cooked to order. Chef Pedro’s team will happily work with you to ensure that you have a wonderful meal. – We got you!
⊙ What about COVID?
We will continue to follow the state and federal guidelines as they continue to evolve. Please wear your mask while not seated at the table and respect the personal bubble of those around you. You know the drill.⊙ What are my payment options? We accept all major credit cards as well as cash money. We highly recommend downloading the “Arryved” app which provides an easy and contactless way for you to open and close your tab directly from your cell phone.
⊙ Should I make a reservation?
We are currently not accepting reservations but please give the Taproom a call if you have a party greater than six.
⊙ Thanks for all this awesome info! I’ve been trying to check out your website and even tried calling but can’t get through. What the eff is going on??Sorry about that! I promise we weren’t trying to ghost you. Our website ZerodayBrewing.com and phone (717) 745-6218 are back up and running and include up to date beer, cocktail and food menus for all of our locations. See y’all Tuesday
ZeroDay Facebook Page

This is big time exciting news for the Harrisburg brewery and fans of the ZeroDay brand – and frankly – fans of good beer. They are consistently top of their class and one of the best breweries in the Central PA area.

The New Tap Room

The new tap room will be open seven days a week, and will have a seating capacity of 150 people. This gives the brewery a lot more room and time than their old location. There is indoor an outdoor seating. They also have a private event space for parties, gatherings, and other social events, this can seat up to 60 people. There is also expansion to their brew house with the new move; which includes a small experimental 3 barrel system for trying and experimenting with new beers and styles. Similar to their old tap room, the brew house will be viewable from their tap room, allowing guests to view and watch the brewing process. They also have a cellar for fermentation and barrel aging projects.

The old facility and tap room will now be completely and only for beer production. This allows them to have even greater capacity and growth in the beer market. The old tap room now houses a larger brewhouse as well as a canning line for distribution.

ZeroDay Brewing Company Growth

2020 has certainly been a challenging year for all of us, especially the brewing market. It has seen a lot of closures, staffing reductions, shrinking of companies, and loss of breweries. But thankfully ZeroDay Brewing has been expanding. While they spent the majority of 2020 constructing this new tap room, they also used their Broad Street Market (the ZeroDay Outpost) to keep operating, and and they are also looking to be opening their newest location in Linglestown. They currently still have their location at the Midtown Cinema (a second Outpost) as well. This is located on Reily Street in Harrisburg.

Their brand new location today opens at 925 N. 3rd Street in Harrisburg, PA, at 11AM. Their Midtown Cinema location is at 250 Reily Street in Harrisburg, PA.

For more information on ZeroDay Brewing and their Grand Opening, you can check out their media pages:

Thanks for reading everyone, and can’t wait to get out and check out the new tap room. And to think, after April 4th, we can be having some beers at the bar together! Until then, stay safe everyone, Prost!

-B. Kline

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(Also, don’t forget to check out our March Madness – Battle of the Breweries [2021] – we are in the fourth round. Click here to vote.)

Beer Review: Grand Cacao (Troegs Independent Brewing)

BKline — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 02:25:00 +0000

This was my ‘new’ beer of the night last night; for those new or unfamiliar, in November, I make sure to have at least one brand new (to me) beer every day in November – as well as write one new blog post every day in November (30 new beers, 30 new blog pots); it was a 12oz can I got from Deuane as a gift for bringing him some beers back from Urban Artifact and Braxton Brewing Company from my Indianapolis trip (you can check out links to the trip at the end of this article). So last night (Nov. 22nd) while I was writing up the first full day trip article I drank that and it was my new beer for the day, and I was planning on doing this review today (Nov. 23rd). Well, as it turned out, I ended up meeting my friends Drew and Andy (Drew – is the creator of Knights of Nostalgia; and Andy is the writer for the ‘What Makes a Great Quarantine Brewery article here on The Beer Thrillers) at Troegs Brewery in Hershey today for a lunch (well, beer lunch anyway).

I had originally ran out to Harrisburg because I had to go to the DMV to renew my license, only to find out that I now have to go to Enola to renew my license and they are open Tuesday through Saturday (which… of course… today is a Monday). So I walked my dog along the Green Belt and the Riverfront, taking her over to City Island and back, and then decided I’d hit up ZeroDay Brewing. Well… I forgot they are doing the renovations and reconstruction on the old ZeroDay Brewery on Reily Street, and that their new current location doesn’t open til 4PM; so that was obviously a no – go. So I drove home, dropped off Leela, and met Drew and Andy at Troegs.

Sadly, they did not have a cranberry beer, so I only have a cranberry / lemon or lime or something gose I picked up from Urban Artifact for this year’s Thanksgiving. Typically, Troegs does a cranberry every year for Thanksgiving, usually a porter, sometimes something different, and I try to pick up a 4 pack or 6 pack or a crowler of it for the meal. Also, in recent months, it seems Troegs has also really slowed up on their scratch series. Pre-COVID they were doing a new scratch release every Thursday (or nearly every Thursday; and even sometimes doubling up and releasing two on a Thursday), but it seems now they have really slowed up their scratch series, and are releasing them intermittently.

So there was a bit of a dearth in ‘new’ beers for me to try at Troegs today. I was afraid I’d have to drink more when I got home just to hit my requirement of a new beer today, but, I am being a bit cheeky and calling my Mad Elf and Mad Elf Grand Cru picks as ‘new’ since they are technically the Mad Elf (2020) and Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) vintages. Bit of a loophole… but I’m taking it.

Troegs has slacked a bit on their uptight mandates as well. No longer needing to check into the host and waiting for a text to be seated, and no longer having to “all be together” before seating, I was able to meet up with Drew and Andy who were already seated. Drew ordered a pork waffle thing (no clue), and Andy got fries, I just drank. I had a draft of the Grand Cacao, followed by the Coco-Nator, then the Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) and the Mad Elf (2020). Funny thing – the very first beer review on the blog here was the scratch Coco-Nator released a year and a half ago – Scratch #375 – Coco-Nator. They then released it later last year as a new seasonal – Coco-Nator, and now its been re-released for the first time this year. And now, here I am, also enjoying a Grand Cacao that I will be doing as another review for Troegs on the blog. (And here I was just thinking to myself how it’s been a ‘hot minute’ since I’ve done a Troegs beer review.) Its almost like coming full circle….

The nice thing about doing the thirty blogs in thirty days thing, is that it gives me a chance to do a lot of reviews I might have skipped, and to really hit a lot of local breweries for the reviews. Getting to do a Tattered Flag one (The Pandalorian) as a recent local brewery beer review. You can see all of my November 2020 posts here: November 2020. Its fun to do a mix-up of local brewery reviews to get the name out and to help promote and because its obviously what I’m drinking, as well as doing some bigger name ones that are maybe from further away breweries or just bigger known beers or breweries, like the Yuengling Hershey Porter or Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary, or Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage.

Troegs Independent Brewing has always put out very strong beers, solid, hard to ignore, hard to hate beers. They are also the biggest local craft brewery in the Central PA area. One of the biggest producers in Pennsylvania, and the East Coast alone. They are often talked about, and one of the more well known breweries. So its great having them theoretically “right in our backyard”. When I was coming of age (of drinking…. legally) (at 21), they were the first real craft brewery that I got into (not counting Sam Adams) and was really the first brewery I visited and went to often. I don’t get to them as much as I used to, and there’s a ton more options now in the area, but they are still a solid brewery.

So let’s break down this latest seasonal beer from Troegs Brewing:

Grand Cacao by Troegs Independent Brewing

Beer: Grand Cacao
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description:

Welcome to Grand Cacao. This deliciously decadent stout is built on a foundation of rich chocolate malt, caramel malt and roasted barley. Cold-steeping on Peruvian cacao nibs and natural vanilla doubles down on the smooth symphony of chocolate, and a splash of milk sugar delivers a velvety sweet and creamy finish.
We taste: milk chocolate, roasty grain, hints of sweet cream

As per usual with a stout, this is dark black, jet fuel black, Razor Ramon hair black. Stephen Hawking black hole black. Black as my….. (oh…. thats too easy….) ….anyway… moving on from the apt description of somebody’s heart and soul that I know….. This is a dark black beer. It had a nice creamy foam head to it, not big, but not small, nice carbonation, and nice lacing on the glass. Good bubbles that were diverse and varied in size.

The aroma is very chocolaty, very cacao, very baker’s chocolate. As me and Drew and Andy were discussing, like with the Yuengling Hershey’s Porter, which is a super sweet chocolate, we kind of (the three of us in consensus) agreed, that we prefer a more bitter baker’s chocolate to a chocolate stout. This smells just like that. This has more of the bitter, earthy, nib, roasted malt, chocolate smell to it.

Taste is surprisingly smooth, but its not the overly sweet Hershey’s syrupy / syrup taste that the above porter has. Despite this being smooth, silky, and creamy, its more of the bitter chocolate notes. The roasted malt and caramel also gives it a very deeper, darker tone and flavor, and brings out more of the bitter and earthy notes, rather than the sweet chocolate. That not to say that this isn’t sweet or creamy or smooth or silky, it is all of those things and more. I think there’s just more complexity to the flavor in that it provides a bitter chocolate taste, while being creamy and smooth and silk and sweet. A nice complexion and degree of difference between the vanilla and the bitter, between the sweet and the bitter, between the cacao nibs and the vanilla and milk sugar. This tastes more like the hot cocoa you get at a football game once the negative 10 degrees sets in fully and turns your hot cocoa into ….well… regular cocoa. Or the milk after a very chocolaty cereal and you ate all the cereal and are now draining the bowl of its chocolatey milk. This is also a pretty crushable drink too. I could easily down a six pack of the 12oz cans of these (thanks Deuane for the can by the way), or if they ever re-release it in four pack at 16oz cans, I could drink a few of them in that size as well. The 6.5% is pretty low (lower than Troegs own Perpetual IPA – their flagship and staple beer and IPA), so its enough to give you a good surprising buzz after a can or two, but not enough to send you hurting for a hangover the next day. (Jokes on my buddies too, telling me I’ll end up with a headache and hangover from the Mad Elf Grand Cru and Mad Elf I had after the Coco-Nator and Grand Cacao…. I don’t get hangovers anymore……..) A low ABV but high flavor stout is always perfect for the fall months and fall weather leading into the more wintry weather and months. This will go great for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties… I mean…. your own personal home get together’s of Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Not sure if this will become a seasonal regular for Troegs or if this was a one-shot done deal, but if it does become a seasonal regular each year, I will certainly be looking forward to it. Make sure you stop out at the brewery for some of this, not sure if the cans are hitting the distributors or stores, but its at the brewery, and its also on draft at the brewery, so make sure you at least get a try of it before it disappears.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 11.23.20)

This turned into a rather longer winded beer review than I intended, but hopefully you stuck around for it, as its now dragged me from 11PM when I started this til just a wee bit after midnight – 12 – so I’m still counting this as upholding my ‘post’ for the day of the 23rd. (Especially since the time stamp and posting of this is based on when the article was started, so I fly by on a technicality there.)

Be sure to check out some of my other Troegs beer reviews:

For those interested in the Trip to Indianapolis, you can read more through the following articles (some full length articles, some recap articles):

The Trip to Indianapolis – Full Articles:

Day One: Thousand Steps Trail, Juniata Brewing Company, Ghost Town Trail, Levity Brewing
Day Two:
Day Three:
Day Four:
Day Five:
Day Six:
Day Seven:

The Trip to Indianapolis – Recap Articles:

As always everyone, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the beer review and your time here at The Beer Thrillers. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe, and if you want, comment or ask any questions please feel free to do so. Love hearing from you all.

Also be sure to stay safe this Thanksgiving week, with COVID-19 and everything going on, this is going to be a tough week, and one where everyone needs to do their best to stay safe and healthy.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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!

Multiple Beer Reviews: Sogni D’oro, Wastin’ Daylight, Market Research, Peach Novelty, Oktobock, Lucky Cat Lien (ZeroDay Brewing Co.)

BKline — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 03:53:42 +0000

My flight of beers at ZeroDay Brewery

Day four, and we’re kicking it up a notch here at The Beer Thrillers. Bigger, badder, bolder, better…. or other cliche crap marketers say. But all that withstanding, what I’m really doing is a multiple beer review again. Following a lecture at the Mid-Town Scholar by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith promoting her book “Stop Being Reasonable” I walked down to ZeroDay to have myself a flight, read some of the latest book I purchased at Mid-Town Scholar, and be entertained by the antics of people playing trivia.

Eleanor Gordon-Smith at Mid-Town Scholar

As I typically like to do when visiting breweries I don’t get to too often (its been about 4-5 months since I was last at ZeroDay) I get a flight, relax for a while, slowly sip, and if alone, read. And following the lecture at Mid-Town Scholar thats exactly what I chose to do. ZeroDay does great flights. Up to six beers at a time, for 2$ each for a total of 12$ (plus tip). Thats about as good and unbeatable of a flight as you can make. And ZeroDay typically has pretty top notch beers to boot, so thats as good a combination as you can make.

So I maxed out and went for a full six, with five new beers for me, and one I wanted to give a try to again, because the first time I didn’t enjoy it but was hoping my opinion of it would change. (And it did, not super super much, but it did.)

Sogni D’oro by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

Beer: Sogni D’oro
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: A Biscotti inspired Pastry Stout brewed with 2018’s Dream Beer Winner. Sweet and Savory, this nitro stout is a dream in itself!

Started off the flight with basically a pastry stout (though listed as a Milk / Sweet; the style “Pastry Stout” isn’t used much in Untappd and isn’t fully recognized by a lot of people; the new Pastry Stouts would often get listed as Milk or Sweet Stouts under the old style guidelines).

Appearance is interesting for this one, not black, and not fully brown either, it has almost a purplish hue to it.

Aroma is sweet smelling, vanilla, some rich malts, bready smell to it. A good whiff of this gets you that biscotti smell but you also can already pick up the nose of booze on this one… which leads me to…

Taste… immediate booze which is interesting since its only a 8.8% (ABV) so its kind of odd to get a bite of booze right out of the gate. Especially non-barrel aged, so no added bourbon, scotch, whiskey, etc. flavors from a barrel for this; so the booze bite is odd, not bad really though. Its not off putting, just a “oh… hey… ok….” kind of immediate reaction. There is a very nice malt backbone to this that gives the biscotti bready flavor a great profile to work on. The booze taste lightens off and your left with a very fine tasty pastry stout.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.68 (as of 11.4.19)

Wastin’ Daylight by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

So this is the one I’m giving a second try to. The first time, I did not enjoy it, but this time that has improved. So either my palate or tastes changed, or the beer has, or my opinions / reflections of the day have, maybe it was my mood, or who knows what, perhaps bad tap lines, who knows.

The first time I had it was June 7th, 2018 and my Untappd rating was **.75 and gave it a: “Ehh… typical cream ale but a bit worse off.” Not a whole lot to go on, and I apparently didn’t feel like giving a really good, in-depth review, but apparently I must have thought it very bland and boring and not too tasty. That has changed a bit. I got a lot more flavor out of it this time.

Wastin’ Daylight from 2018

First thing I’ve noticed looking back, is the appearance has changed. The one I had in 2018 looks much lighter, more straw colored, more like (hate to use this as a comparison point, but I think its apt) Miller Lite or Coors Lite. The one I had in 2019 is a bit darker, more amber-brown hued, and looks to have a fuller body.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here, so lets get the stats out:

Beer: Wastin’ Daylight
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Cream Ale
ABV: 4.9%
IBU: 12
Untappd Write-Up: Crisp and refreshing, this light-bodied cream ale brewed with corn is the perfect brew to sit back, relax, and waste some daylight with.

So as I was saying, the hue for this (now anyway) is a light amber to brown. Still see through, still transparent, but darker hued than previously. It also looks to have a fuller body. This is what is leading me to think there was a recipe tweak or change since the first time I’ve had it.

Aroma is thin, not a whole lot going on, you got some light flavors of vanilla and cream and a light smell. Cream ales typically aren’t known for a robust aroma (at least in my experience, I’ll admit I’m not fully diverse in this style).

Flavor is much better this time around. You get a rich creamy mouthfeel. You got some nice relaxing sippable flavors that make this a whole-day crushing beer. A keg of this late summer going into fall would be wonderful for pre-bonfire start (and of course one the bonfire kicks off then you go into the heavy stouts before passing out).

My Untappd Rating (NOW): ***.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.35 (as of 11.4.19)

Market Research by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

Beer: Market Research
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 75
Untappd Write-Up: After years of conducting our own market research and brewing experimental batches, we developed this West Coast style IPA. Highlighting Amarillo, Mosaic, and El Dorado hops, Market Research has a level of perceived bitterness, which is balanced by a prominent malt backbone. Enjoy this crisp, clear IPA time and time again because it’s not going anywhere!

Its always nice to find a well made IPA – West Coast (or regular or American) style. In a market dominated by New England IPAs, Milkshake IPAs, and the like, its great to find the occasional West Coast IPA, especially one thats done well, and not just meant to be a hop bomb to distinguish itself purposefully from the sea of NEIPAs.

This looks just like your prototypical West Coast IPA. Light brown strawish earthy coloring. This is not a knock on it, this is exactly how it SHOULD look, and it does that exactly.

This smells perfectly like a well made IPA. Very hop forward, but not total hop bomb. You get notes of the grain and malt but the hops do powerfully overtake it. Amarillo, El Dorado, and Mosaic are some of the more “juicy” hops so they provide a very strong aroma note.

This was fun to drink. It seems rare that I get to drink a good hoppy West Coast IPA anymore, unless its done too overblown. Like their making a point by being as hoppy as humanly possible with extreme IBUs and thirty different hop varieties thrown in. This falls in a nice place, just right, not too hoppy, not unhoppy either. Just right. Mouthfeel and drinking it is nice, little thin, but overall its a solid beer.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.89 (as of 11.4.19)

Peach Novelty by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

Beer: Peach Novelty
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 45
Untappd Write-Up: With loads of fresh peaches from Strites Farms, this bright and sunny peach milk sugar IPA hopped exclusively with Mosaic, is like sipping sunshine and rainbows, and is sure to hit all the right strides.

Here’s another one of those ‘oddities’ of Untappd and everything else. Its listed on Untappd as a “Fruit Beer” but it specifically says in the write-up “Milk Sugar IPA”. And if you see it, look at it, drink it; you’d know this is a Milkshake IPA far and above anything else. I don’t know if its because of how peach forward it is, but whoever entered this one into Untappd did it a bit of an injustice. I’d assume they even promote, market, and write it on their draft lists as a Milkshake IPA, no “fruit beer” style anywhere to be found with this beer. (Not a knock on fruit beers, I love them too; just this a fruit beer it is not.)

Appearance for this is your spot on NEIPA / Milkshake IPA. A sugary hazy, opaque, unfiltered IPA. The sediments floating, the look of sugar coating the glass, the hazy yellow glow.

Aroma though is extreme peach. Almost as if cutting a peach right in front of you. There is some notes of vanilla but the peach is just extremely overpowering on the aroma front.

Taste is pretty much just the same. Peach dominates. Extreme domination. Extremely dominating. (I probably popped up in all the wrong sorts of SEOs and search engines now… oh boy…. oh well….) This has a rich creamy feel to it, and with the peach flavor, it does very much feel like drinking a peach milkshake. So if you don’t like peach you probably want to avoid this, otherwise its a terrific beer.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Rating: 3.8 (as of 11.4.19)

Oktobock by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

So let me just change gears a slight bit and preface the rest of this entry…

Everything up to and prior to this was written this morning before I went to work. But I ran out of time and had to finish up tonight. Well, after work, I stopped at the Gin Mill in Lebanon and just now got home to finish. So the last two beers for this multi-beer review are after having a few drinks at the Gin Mill and after a long day of work. So take that for what its worth.

Beer: Oktobock
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Bock – Dopplebock
ABV: 8.7%
IBU: 26
Untappd Write-Up: This one was Theo’s brainchild. As a creative team, we wanted to start focusing on craft lagers as a new series. ZerØday Pilsner was our first go, and Oktobock is the second iteration. Think the drinkability of a Marzen lager with the deep flavors of a Doppelbock.

This is pretty much a mashup of a Bock and a Marzen, and its very tasty for it.

Appearance is darker in color, similar to how bocks and marzens both are. Both of these styles look relatively similar that its not an issue. And this coloring matches up with both.

Aroma is bready, heady, and more on point with a marzen. Though once again, marzens and bocks can smell and taste and look pretty similar.

Taste is pretty complex. There’s a lot to this. Its bready, its heavy, its got some nice fall flavorings with complexity, its got a deep and heavy mouthfeel, its got a deep and heavy malty grain bill that really tastes and acts complex, it looks deep, it looks interesting, it tastes even more so.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 11.4.19)

Lucky Cat Lien by ZeroDay Brewing Co.

Beer: Lucky Cat Lien
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: This Hazy IPA is opaque in appearance but light in body, and the use of rice in the grain bill really lets the hops shine. Generously hopped with a combination of experimental 07270, Amarillo, and Vic Secret, drinking a glass of Lucky Cat Lien reminds us of enjoying papayas and grapefruit in a tropical oasis.

I think looking at it, and at first sip, I wanted to like this more than I should have. That isn’t to say that this is a bad beer. Just not what I was expecting or wanting, and kind of talked myself into (perhaps) rating it a bit higher than it deserved.

Appearance is heavy and dark and opaque. Its a hazy orange-juice color, with a nice ring of head but not too much. This is certainly unfiltered.

Aroma is pretty hoppy but not too crazily so. Theres not a whole lot to smell in a NEIPA like this, but a nice hop aroma definitely adds to the overall of the beer, somehow adding to the actual taste.

Taste is a good NEIPA. Not amazing, but good. It did taste a bit less than most NEIPAs I’ve had. It had the haze, it had the hop, it just… the flavors might not be jelling that well, or maybe something was just a bit off in the beer or recipe or production or something.

My Untappd Rating: ***.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.64 (as of 11.4.19)

Thank you for reading this long winded review. Sorry the last two were a bit short and not as in-depth as the others. But… well… I had two Toppling Goliaths, and a Dewey, and a bit more than that, to drink at the Gin Mill.

And this concludes #4, just 26 more to go!

-B. Kline

Book Review: For the Love of Beer (Dr. Alison E. Feeney)

BKline — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 03:45:00 +0000

For the Love of Beer by Dr. Alison E. Feeney

I got to pick up this book by Dr. Alison E. Feeney last Thursday at the Mid-Town Scholar ahead of her panel discussion (alongside Hannah Ison, Jeffrey Musselman, and Sara Bozich). You can read about that here: “For The Love of Beer – Panel Discussion“. It was a fun and entertaining (and informative) night at the Mid-Town Scholar getting to listen to the three of them discuss breweries, beer, brewing, and community.

And that is the heart of this book. Communities. Even moreso than the breweries this is ‘about’, the heart of the book though is communities. And at the heart of a lot of communities, and growing, is craft breweries. Breweries, in particular craft breweries, are the seat of many things in communities now adays. Places like Boneshire, Moo-Duck, Troegs, and many other breweries that give back to their communities through charities and other activities. Breweries like ZeroDay and Millworks that act like centerpieces for revitalization of downtown areas.

There is so much to love about craft breweries and what all they do (and can do). And Dr. Feeney’s book covers that so well. From revitalizing downtown areas, or old historic buildings, to providing a center and a place for a community, to being an employment opportunity for the local town, to sustainability and environmental help, providing spent grain for local farmers, to helping charities, to hosting events, to having delicious food, to having local ingredients, etc, there is so much that breweries do for their local communities.

Dr. Alison Feeney has traveled all across Pennsylvania checking out various breweries, hop farms, malts, grains, communities, universities, etc, and has gotten a feel for the state, its history, its brewing industry, and the breweries and the people. She’s interviewed tons of people, she’s talked to customers, brewers, hop growers, home brew shop owners, just about everyone you can think of attached to the industry.

The book covers a lot of different breweries across the state. From big to little. From regional powerhouses like Victory and Troegs to smaller localized shops like Moo-Duck, Boneshire, Bonn Place, etc. She has traveled all across the state, all of the regions covered.

There is a wealth of information in the book detailing the history of beer, the history of brewing, the history of Pennsylvania, and brewing and beer in Pennsylvania, as well as a wealth of information and knowledge on brewing, the beer industry, and hops and other things in general. There is a ton of information on the breweries she’s visited as well, small details like the beers they have, or the information on how they restored the buildings they occupied, or little bits and info on the brewers or their styles.

The book is filled with pictures and images from all assortments of things, like hops, to the various breweries, to beer, to the workers at the breweries, to signs, to locations, etc. These pictures help fill in an overall image and idea of the breweries from across the state for those who haven’t gotten to visit them yet. Also with each brewery mentioned there is a small map of Pennsylvania showing where its located with an actual address as well. Its not a complete map of every brewery, and Dr. Feeney even states at the beginning that she isn’t providing a comprehensive listing of every brewery in PA as it’d be out of date before the book even saw print. Case in point – the book mentions Harty Brewing which has since folded up (relatively recently). But don’t let that fool you, this book is chock full of information and knowledge about PA beer and breweries.

At the beginning of the book is a note saying that a portion of the proceeds of the book are going to animal shelters and local places for animals. After this is the chapter previews which list which breweries are mentioned in which chapters and provides an outline for the book. Early chapters discuss beer and the history of it, progressing from Europe and Africa and Asia to America. Detailing the early pioneers to America and bringing beer over on the Mayflower, etc. It then discusses the history of beer and brewing in Pennsylvania.

Following this is how breweries affect communities, how they revitalize communities and buildings, and a chapter on historic buildings and how breweries are reusing old buildings. A chapter on the sustainability and environmental issues and help that breweries are doing and then a closing chapter on looking forward.

This book is a good read for anyone interested in beer, brewing, and especially for those interested in the craft breweries of Pennsylvania. She has provided lots of knowledge on the inner workings from the beginning to the present day on just about every tangential topic with the beer industry. I would certainly recommend this for anyone looking to learn about brewing and beer in Pennsylvania or just loves reading about breweries in Pennsylvania.

My GoodReads Score: ****
Global GoodReads Score: 4.00 (two ratings, three now, as of 10.9.19)

This was the first book review on the blog, hopefully you all like it, I know its a bit different then the beer and brewery reviews. But I am looking forward to doing a few more of these as I have a lot of beer books to read and go through. This is combining two of my loves – literature / books and beers, so this is definitely a double-win for me getting to review books about beer here for the blog. So if you are interested in this, let us know! Also if you have any beer book recommendations, be sure to leave them in the comments!

Thanks and cheers all!

-B. Kline
My GoodReads review link can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3007622590

Beer Event: For The Love of Beer

BKline — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 12:03:03 +0000

For the Love of Beer – Speakers: Dr. Alison Feeney, Hannah Ison, and Jeff Mussleman

Dr. Alison Feeney has recently published and released a book, called For the Love of Beer: Pennsylvania’s Breweries (clicking the link will take you directly to the book page on Amazon where you can purchase the book). In celebration of this and to kick off the Harrisburg Book Week and Festival she spoke (alongside Hannah Ison of ZeroDay Brewing Company and Jeff Mussleman of The Millworks) at the Mid-Town Scholar. The speakers talked from 7PM to 8PM with a beer tasting before hand from 6:30-7PM and afterwards from 8-8:30PM (times being rough estimates). Dr. Alison Feeney also signed copies of her book purchased at the Mid-Town Scholar. The Facebook event listing can be found here: For the Love of Beer – Speakers Conference and Symposium.

Dr. Alison Feeney is the professor of geography and earth science at Shippensburg University. A press release from the university about her book can be found here: Dr. Alison Feeney Releases a New Book. Shippensburg University has started up several courses and classes based on brewing, home brewing, the science behind brewing and making beer, as well as many adult classes (enrichment and for the work force and industry) based around beer and brewing. They were given a $70K grant to “boost beer brewers” and provide the education to make this possible. This grant was given by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). To learn more about their brew science you can click here for the inquiry form to receive information. They are serving both the industry with these classes as well as home brewers looking to better their own craft for their own enjoyment. Shippensburg University cultivates future brewers : Home Brew Course Success. A listing of their courses, online information, and Shippensburg created articles about their brewing programs and classes can be found here: Shippensburg University Brewing Education.

So there is a lot to be excited for with the brewing future thanks to Shippensburg University and with Pennsylvania being such an integral part to the craft beer and brewing industry as a whole there is much to be excited for with the future of the hundreds of breweries in Pennsylvania. If you’ve been to just a few breweries in Pennsylvania, it might feel like you’ve been to a lot, but I guarantee you haven’t even scratched the surface. Pennsylvania is currently home to 300+ breweries and it is constantly a number in flux with openings, closings, and expansions. Thankfully there are far more openings than closings, but sadly there is some closings. Some websites and groups like Breweries in PA keep an updated list and map of all of the breweries in Pennsylvania operating.

The back of the book, as well as the Amazon description for Dr. Alison Feeney’s book is:

“Pennsylvanians have enjoyed a long, rich love affair with beer. The state not only ranks first in the nation for the number of barrels produced but the breweries, beer, and their craftsmen all have interesting stories to tell. This book examines Pennsylvania s brewing history, geography, and cultural richness while highlighting over 100 of the states thriving craft breweries. It explains some of the enjoyable stories and local legends behind the naming of beers, while detailing the unique buildings and architectural treasures that contribute to the renovation of urban areas and revival of small communities. Short descriptions of each brewery provide the reader with an understanding of which brewers use local hops, fruits, and grains in their recipes and how proceeds support local rail trails, waterways, animals shelters, and community events. From long-lasting breweries that survived Prohibition to the most recent openings with upscale food and cutting edge technology, this book describes how craft breweries in Pennsylvania have something to offer everyone. Set out on the road and record your visit to each brewery and enjoy first-hand facts about local breweries with someone who lives, works, and studies this fascinating and dynamic industry. “

Dr. Alison Feeney’s biography on Amazon reads:

“Alison Feeney is a Professor in the Geography and Earth Science Department at Shippensburg University. She earned B. A. degrees in both history and geography from the University of Connecticut, a M.S from Portland State University, and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. She truly loves to blend work with pleasure as she travels around Pennsylvania to research breweries.

When she is not working she enjoys time with her friends and family riding bikes, playing tennis, snowboarding, kayaking, and learning to sail. Her passion for coral reefs leads her on several trips to the Caribbean each year to scuba dive and kill invasive lionfish. “

The Millworks’ Oktoberfest (with Albert Camus books in the background)

Just like most people, I love hearing people in an industry speak and talk about their industry. Shows like Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” and things like that are fascinating to me. To hear those who create discuss their creations, and those who do discussing their …. doings. So getting to hear Dr. Alison Feeney, Hannah Ison, and Jeff Musselman discuss their works and creations and their businesses (writing, brewing, owning a brewery), was a definite must for me.

I dropped my youngest off at her cheerleading practice at 5:45 in Hummelstown (don’t worry, her grandparents were picking her up, she wasn’t going to get left there), and I then went downtown. Arrived and parked by Mid-Town at about 6:15 (slow and go on I-83 due to the rain). Checked out the Mid-Town Scholar’s Tent Book Sale (which is going on today; Friday – as well as Saturday and Sunday). After finding a few books (I could literally buy thousands if I really had the energy to, but decided on just a few) I purchased them and then took them back to the car before heading over to the Mid-Town Scholar itself. Got inside around 6:30 and went up to the sample table immediately. Grabbed the Oktoberfest by The Millworks to begin my browsing of the store (my first time ever being inside it). Independent bookstores are such a low-level thrill (ok…. big high level thrill, but it just doesn’t sound as cool to say) for me. Browsing through endless aisles and tables at places like this, like The York Emporium, or at independent bookstores at beaches, is just love. Independent bookstores are losing more and more to the tide of places like Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc. in a similar way to how craft breweries have to constantly fight against InBev and Miller Coors; small independent bookstores have to fight against these giants. Sadly, where craft beer is doing pretty well (as a whole) against their large titan competitors, independent bookstores aren’t. So we all need to shop local, shop independent, shop individual, shop craft, over macro, over major, over non-caring owners, over-CEOs raking in $8Billion a year for themselves while paying employees 8.50$ an hour with minimal benefits.

(Ok, small rant over. Stepping down from my soap box.)

Grabbed another sample, this time “When Did We Get a Dog?” by ZeroDay. I had the watermelon version of this recently (at the RenFaire Brewfest). I then made my purchases (picked up Dr. Alison Feeney’s book, as well as The Rebel by Albert Camus, since I read it back in high school, loaned it out to a friend, who promptly lost it, and I’ve been meaning to give his canon and collection a re-read, so might as well start with lost Camus). I then grabbed a third sample – Single Hop Series #11 – Citra Hops – by The Millworks, and took my seat, third row to the right.

Setting up for the conference / symposium / speakers / whatever you want to call this event.

A worker for Mid-Town Scholar introduced the panel (sitting from left to right – Sara Bozich, Dr. Alison Feeney, Hannah Ison, and Jeffrey Musselman), and introduced the Harrisburg Book Week Festival, and discussed the slew of speakers they were having over the next several days, and mentioned the book sale tent outside, among other things.

Sara Bozich then took over as moderator and ran the panel (I guess panel is better term for it, than conference, or symposium, or motley crew, or whatever terminology one might use). She began introducing the members on the stage and discussed Dr. Alison Feeney’s work at Shippensburg and a barebones description of the book.

Hannah Ison of ZeroDay Brewing talking during the panel discussion.

Sara Bozich asked several questions of the panel that related to central themes to breweries and those in the book; like community, revitalization, diversity, the beer itself, and breweries in general.

Hannah and Jeff then talked about some future projects for their breweries and themselves (Hannah soon welcoming a child into the world, December due date; Jeff with The Millworks opening a second location in Camp Hill, hopefully spring 2020).

After about forty minutes or so of the panel they opened it up to an audience Q&A to close out the last twenty minutes. There was a wide range of questions during the Q&A. Topics ranging from women in the work force, diversity, things to know about as a brewer (like any head brewer will tell you, the job is mostly sanitation, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning), the new Pennsylvania brewery tax, Untappd, favorite beers/breweries/styles, and the last question went out to a woman who talked about community displacement. Like breweries coming in and displacing the current population. This possibly provided the most interesting question of the night. Dr. Alison Feeney discussed how Yards opening their giant new production and tap facility in Philadelphia, where once was a very urbanized and African-American central area, now has very few African-Americans, and that the lines into the brewery are predominantly white people (typically white males). Jeff discussed how despite what they are doing, craft beer is essentially a completely luxury, even moreso than macro beer. That beer in general is a luxury item, craft beer especially so. Where a pint might run 6-8 or even 10 dollars, compared to Bud Light or Miller Lite or Coors Lite always being 2-4$. And unfortunately there is no easy answer to this. Its a fine line to create a new thriving business where something didn’t exist before, and as much as a place (be it a brewery or any new business) wants to identify and become one with the community, there is going to be a change with that new business going in, and that business will already have its own clientele established before opening its doors, and that might not align with the local community one hundred percent.

Single Hop #11 – Citra Hops, by The Millworks

After the Q&A the Mid-Town employee went over the panel one last time, and talked about the weekend’s events again, as well as brought up the beer tasting and book signing to follow.

During this part of the tasting I had the Watermelon When Did We Get a Dog?, the Mango Habenero staple from ZeroDay, and one last Oktoberfest while standing around chatting with Dr. Alison, Hannah, and Jeff.

Saying goodbye to the panelists (and their respective special persons) I dropped my books bag off at the car and walked a block and a half over to The Millworks brewery and enjoyed myself a flight of some of their recent beers, including two ‘PA Preferred’ beers, just discussed during the panel.

This was a wonderful two hour (ish) event with dedicated individuals who wanted to talk about their works, be it the author – Dr. Alison Feeney – or the brewers – Jeff Musselman and Hannah Ison or Sara Bozich who has helped collaborate and set up the Harrisburg Beer Week as well as many other events and activities in the Harrisburg area. The dedication, interest, and love for their work and the works of others, and for community, and for what craft beer and brewing can stand for was evident from all, and it showed in their talks.

I highly recommend picking up For the Love of Beer by Dr. Alison Feeney, I’ve begun reading it (started there at the bar at The Millworks) and I’m currently about thirty pages in (don’t worry, there will be a book review on here when completed), and I am enjoying it, and it is very informative.

For The Love of Beer by Dr. Alison Feeney

Please keep checking out the blog, make sure you like, subscribe, follow, comment, etc, we have a lot of exciting things coming out in the upcoming days, some even sponsored by breweries and lots of fun events. So make sure you keep up to date and check in on us daily, as we are looking to be posting daily!

Until next time, keep the brain sharp with books, and the liver busy with beer!

-B. Kline

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19)

BKline — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:15:00 +0000

(Editorial Note: This article was originally written and submitted to Breweries in PA. They will be publishing it in roughly one weeks time on their page and FaceBook page. It was written by lead writer here at The Beer Thrillers – B. Kline, and is being posted here as well. This was a guest-article written by B. Kline for Breweries in PA. Since there is some pertinent and timely information included in the article [namely Tattered Flag & Levante’s Tap Takeovers and Can Releases for 9.7.19] this article is being posted here and now. When it is posted on the Breweries in PA website and FaceBook page, links will be provided to the article’s locations there. Likewise, since this was created for their site and blog, as well as written in Microsoft Online Word DOC the formatting may be off in some places. When the mistakes are noticed, we will try and correct them. -The Beer Thrillers staff.)

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg
By: B. Kline

In the area surrounding Hummelstown (17036), there is several breweries. In all directions, roughly within 5 miles, there is some fantastic breweries in Hershey, Middletown, and the outskirts of Harrisburg like Rutherford and Union Station. I’m going to take a look at a few of these and suggest a nice weekend trip to these locations that won’t take a lot of your time up, and what all events and plans they currently have going on. In this article, we will be taking a look at Troegs Brewery, Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, and Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery.

There is a lot of great choices of breweries in Pennsylvania, and even in just Harrisburg itself, there is several fantastic choices. Coming from the small town of Hummelstown itself (where I’m located – B. Kline – writer for the blog The Beer Thrillers). In Harrisburg central there is ZeroDay Brewing, The Millworks, and The Vegetable Hunter. Along the outskirts of Harrisburg in Rutherford you will find Boneshire Brew Works and in a small development off of Union Deposit in Union Station you’ll find Newfangled Brew Works. In Hershey you’ll find Troegs Independent Craft Brewing and Iron Hill Brewery. In Middletown you will find Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. And soon, in the future in Hummelstown you’ll be able to enjoy some beverages at the old police station by Rubber Soul Brewing.

I’ve decided to write this in the best route method for driving and convenience. I debated exactly how I wanted to write-up the breweries of Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag, and Troegs, and decided this might be the best and most logical way. The times I’ve done this ‘brewery trail’ this is always the way I’ve done it, and it also stops the ‘why was X first and Y last’ arguments. So lets take a look at these four breweries, what they got to offer on tap, what they got going on, and why their worth a stop in and check out.

Newfangled Brew Works

Located At: 8001 Union Station Blvd, Harrisburg, PA 17111
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/NewfangledBrewWorks

Newfangled Brew Works is located inside Union Station, a recent development built off of Union Deposit Road (a long road that connects Harrisburg to several of the smaller towns in the area like South Hanover Township, Union Deposit, Hoernerstown, and even to Hershey). It is right as you enter into the development in a large building conjoined with its restaurant pairing – Koda. Koda is a high scale restaurant located to the right of the main entrance into Newfangled. Newfangled also has its own built-in Taco Truck tucked away in the back lefthand corner.

Lets discuss the food first, the taco truck has fabulous tacos, quesadillas, and other taco and Mexican related foods. Artisanal tacos is the best way to describe these, as this is definitely no Taco Bell menu (and a whole heck of a lot better tasting too). Their food menu can be found here: Food, their hours of operation are: Sunday 11AM-9PM, Monday-Friday 4PM-9PM, and Saturday 12PM-10PM.

Pictured here is the quesadilla taco from the taco truck, with the added beef meat it came to be 7.42$ (pre-tip). Beer picture is the Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour. The taco was extremely delicious and the kettle sour washed it down perfectly. This is the side-porch and patio area to the left of the building (when facing the entrance).

The brewery itself currently has 16 beers on tap for consumption. Some of their own, and a few others. Of their own currently on tap they have:

Passionfruit Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5%

Ariana Flockhart – Blonde Ale – 4.9%
Blood Orange Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5%
Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6%
Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6%
Brut IPA – IPA – Brut – 7.7%

Double IPA – IPA – Imperial – 8.2%
Irish Red Ale – Red Ale – Irish – 6%
Saison – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 6.8%
Newfangled American Wheat – Wheat Beer – 5.2%
Lager – Lager – 5.2%

IPA – IPA – American – 5.8%
Stout – Stout – American – 6.5%

The non-Newfangled Beers on tap are:

Yuengling Lager – Lager – 4.5% (Yuengling Brewery)
Standard – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks)

I have currently had all but their lager, double IPA, Brut IPA, and the blood orange blonde ale. I have enjoyed everything I’ve had so far. Found nothing to be horrible or terrible and no off flavors or infected beers.

They offer their beers right now in pints or traditional pours, dependent on the style, as well as half pours and flights. Pricing is your normal fair for a craft brewery (5$-7/8$ depending on style and costs to make the beer).

Currently, Newfangled Brew Works has produced 22 unique beers, and has a global average rating of 3.73.

Upcoming events for Newfangled are:

Live Music – Fridays and Saturdays 7PM – 10PM
Trivia – Wednesdays 630PM – 830PM

Boneshire Brew Works
Located At: 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/BoneshireBrewWorks

Coming down the road from Newfangled and getting onto Nyes Road it will lead you to Derry Street. From there you take a right hand turn and find yourself after a few blocks at Boneshire Brew Works. Boneshire was started by Alan Miller, Carson Brooks, and Alex Govelovich.

Boneshire’s brewery is a small little ‘pub’ style brewery. As soon as you enter you feel already a member of a club where everybody knows your name. If you’ve been there once, your second time there, you are a ‘regular’ and quickly become on a first name basis with all of the staff.

Currently food is limited to a few behind the bar items like pickle flights and bologna, but it is a BYOB environment with a pizzeria just two doors down (to the left of the building is a Crossfit and after that is the pizza shop, how lucky are those crossfit hard-workers being “stuck” between a pizza shop and a brewery?).

Boneshire currently offers a taplist of their own, as well as a taplist of several breweries from Pennsylvania. Their current taplist is:

Their own:

Dillston – Red Ale – Irish – 5.5% (made with Greystone Public House)
Caucus-Race (6.0 Zappa Hops) – IPA – American – 7.5%

Harrishire – Smoked – 7.3% (made in collaboration with Harris Family Brewery)
AuZealand 2.0 – IPA – American – 6.3%
Dark of the Forest (barrel aged) – Stout – Coffee – 10%
Derry St. Wheat – Hefeweizen – 5%
Good Walk Spoiled – Sour – 4.5%

Guest tap lists:

Jelsa – Mead – Melomel – 12% (Larsen Meadworks)
Magic… Under Where? – Pale Ale – 5.5% (Pizza Boy Brewing)
Kriek Nouveau – Sour – 6.9% (Free Will Brewing Co.)
Brawler – English Mild – 4.2% (Yards Brewing Co.)

Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.7% (Stoudts Brewing)
Summer Scrumpy – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks)
Fruit Wagon – Sour – 6.3% (Saucony Brewing Company)
Java Cask – Stout – Imperial Double – 14.3% (Victory Brewing)
Pikeland Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.9% (Slyfox Brewing)

Boneshire Brewery has a steady string of events going on. Mondays are D&D nights, Tuesdays alternate between Open Mic Nights and Bar Bingo nights, Wednesdays are trivia nights, Thursdays are live music nights. Their Facebook page has a full list of events with the band names already signed on for each Thursday through October. They also occasionally have live music on Saturday nights.

Boneshire also does cans to go, in 4-packs of most of their in-house made beers. A few exceptions based on styles and things, but nearly all of their brewery beers are set to go. And typically at much better prices than a pint at the bar. They also do growler fills.

They currently have 126 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating of 3.82 on Untappd.

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery

Located At: 1 S Union St Middletown, PA
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/TatteredFlagBrewery

Leaving Boneshire we can get right up onto 322 from Derry Street. There we can then turn right and get off at the Hummelstown / Middletown exit and go along Middletown Road (which becomes Vine Street), not much further we’ll turn right onto Main Street and then turn left to get onto Union and we are at our next destination. Middletown’s first (and so far only) brewery and distillery – Tattered Flag.

Veteran owned and having just hit their third anniversary they have really been pumping out some outstanding beers in recent history. With new brewing crew of Dave Marrow, Justin Hoak, and Cliff Plank, they have been putting out exceptional IPAs (NE IPAS specifically) and sours. They were just voted Harrisburg best Brewery and Distillery.

They have been doing some excellent collaborations with numerous breweries in the last few months as well. Beers with Wolf Brewing Co. , Levante Brewing, Abomination Brewing, and up and comer Pilger Ruh Brewing.

They have a downstairs bar that is also their coffee shop as well as the distillery area. It was called the Nuclear Bean but on Untappd they refer to the bar as the Distillery Bar now. They also have their main restaurant and bar upstairs, though you can order food at either location.

At the downstairs Nuclear Bean / coffee shop / distillery bar, you can order drinks. Their taplist there currently is:

NP Project – Kombucha (Renewal Kombucha)
Nuclear Bean Nitro Cold Brew – Coffee

Blue Raider Kolsch – Kolsch – 5.2%
Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen – Hefeweizen – 5.4%
Fatum Series Ale – Strawberry – Sour – 6%
Because I Was Inverted (Mango) – IPA – Milkshake – 6.6%
Makin’ Love at Midnight (2019) – IPA – Milkshake – 7.8%

Silent Professional Foxtrot – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 7.8%
New Zealand Hop Test – IPA – Imperial Double – 8%
Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk – IPA – Milkshake – 8%
TMI IPA – IPA – American – 6.5%

They also have cans to go, which you can pick up upstairs or downstairs, there list of cans to go currently are:

Tattered Abomination – IPA – New England – 7.8% (made with Abomination Brewing)
Prepare to be Flabbergasted – Sour – 7%
Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen
Blue Raider Kolsch
O’Dusseldorf Rules – Altbier – 5%

Honey I Added More Hops – IPA – New England – 7%
Double Knife Fight in Space – IPA – New England – 8%
Makin’ Love at Midnight 2.0 – IPA – American – 7.5%
Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit – IPA – New England – 8%
Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) – Sour – 7.8%

TMI IPA

Their taplist upstairs currently is:

Silent Professional Foxtrot
Blue Raider Kolsch

Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen
DDH Double IPA – IPA – Imperial / Double – New England – 8.4%
Swattier Divide (2018) – IPA – New England – 8.2%
Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit
TMI IPA

Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk
Should’ve Got a Warrant – Sour – 7.6%
Stars and Stripes 20.19 – IPA – New England – 7.8%
Sparklerz (Meyer Lemon) – Hard Seltzer – 5%
Five Sided Puzzle Palace – Stout – Imperial / Double – 12% (Levante Brewing colab)

Because I Was Inverted (Mango)
Double Knife Fight in Space
Groundhops Day – IPA – New England – 6%
Honey I Added More Hops
Makin’ Love at Midnight (sour)

Prepare to be Flabbergasted
Tattered Abomination

Make sure to check out my blog (The Beer Thrillers) for reviews on Prepare to be Flabbergasted, Tattered Abomination, and Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) all due to being posted within the next several days.

I’m not much of a foody, but I do love going to Tattered Flag or helping with their canning run, just to get to eat there. It is top notch gourmet style food. All bases covered, from hot dogs and hamburgers, to salads, to tacos and quesadillas, to steaks, and seafood. Everything is covered and everything is absolutely phenomenal.

This weekend, Tattered Flag and Levante Brewing are doing their big release. Saturday, September 7^th, starting at 11AM, they will be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Wasted Away Again, a key-lime pie sour. They will also be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Five Sided Puzzle Palace. As well as having several of Levante’s beers on tap in the brewery. Ontop of this, from 1PM to 4PM the Hershey Biergarten in downtown Hershey will be selling their cans and having the beers on tap as well. Tattered Flag and Levante will also be featured at sip of Soma.

Of course I have to mention that you should check out the distillery if you have any inclination in liquors. Dan, the distiller for Tattered Flag is amazing and provides exceptional spirits. (He also does ghost tours in Gettysburg.)

Tattered Flag Brewery has 351 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.77.

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Located At: 200 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey, PA 17033
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/troegsbrewingcompany

And last but not least of our little tour is Troegs Brewery. Which at this point, really needs no introduction. They are always some of the top rated beers in the state, and is generally considered “the top” of the craft industry in the state (behind Yuengling). The brewery itself is always jam packed, weekday, weeknight, afternoon, or evening. Some of which is due to its fantastic location next door to HersheyPark, and some of that due to the excellent beers in production, as well as a top of the line brewery tour.

They have certainly been expanding too. Adding the foeders and making a larger cellar room. They’ve added a beer garden outfront. And lots and lots more parking. Which somehow still doesn’t feel like its enough!

They have also branched out and done a lot more of their Splinter Series beers, done more and more regular scratches, and even begun to can some of the scratch beers, and upped the number of rotational/seasonal beers. Releasing some big hits like Lollihop, Golden Thing, and various Scratches in beer can that have all gotten great reviews.

They have also added an upstairs loft with its own food menu and its own bar (though the taplist is the same as it is in the side-room by the foeders and at the main bar, just slightly more limited). The pizza upstairs is the best new feature total though, hop on that immediately!

Their current taplist at the main bar is:

Perpetual IPA – IPA – American – 7.5%
Troegennator Double Bock – Bock – Imperial – 8.2%
Sunshine Pils – Pilsner – 4.5%
HopBack Amber Ale – Red Ale – Amber Ale – 6%

DreamWeaver – Wheat Beer – 4.8%
JavaHead – Stout – Coffee – 7.5%
Hop Knife – IPA – American – 6.2%
Nimble Giant – IPA – Imperial / Double – 9%
Naked Elf – English Ale – 6.9%

Golden Thing – DDH – IPA – Double – 8.2%
Boysenberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5%
Raspberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5%
Fest Lager – Lager – Marzen – 6.1%
Dear Peter – Farmhouse Saison – 7.6%

Hazy IPA (Scratch 387) – IPA – New England – 5.2% (same as Trail Day Pale Ale)
Tangerine Passionfruit Guava Tart (Scratch 386) – Sour – 4.6%
Krausened Dunkel Lager (Scratch 385) – Dunkel – 5.4%
Tangerine Blackberry Guava Tart Ale (Scratch 384) – Sour – 5%

In Bottles Only:

LaGrave Triple Golden Ale – Belgian – 8%
Jovial Dubbel Ale – Belgian – 7%
Mad Elf Grand Cru (2018) – Belgian Strong Dark – 11%
Wild Elf – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 11%
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Impending Descent – Russian Stout – 12%

Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator – Double Bock – 9.8%
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Flying Mouflan – Belgian – 11.5%
Dear Peter
Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 6.5%
Blackberry Tizzy – Sour – 7.8%

Mortal Cherry – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 6.6%
Apricot Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 7.4%

Troeg also has cider from Big Hill Ciderworks as well as numerous non-alcoholic sodas in bottle (for children and non-drinking drivers).

Troegs currently has no events listed for this weekend in their brewery. It has seemed they do less and less events in house at the brewery, and more and more out at various places. Most likely due to how full the brewery already is getting plus it expands the brand more to do these events at a wider range of places.

They do however have a big event coming up on October 4^th weekend – their annual Hop Harvest Fest. Which since putting in the beer garden they’ve been putting to good use with this. Look for more information to come out soon on bands performing and beers they will be releasing.

If you’ve never been to Troegs Brewery before, make sure you take the walking tour. It’s a quick 5-10 minute self guided tour but you get to see some neat things along the way (like the krausen for DreamWeaver as well as their bottling and canning lines).

Troegs currently has 385 uniquely produced beers (according to Untappd, which is a bit dated on this, since a lot of their scratches were released before Untappd was created, and they are currently up to Scratch 387) with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.79.

Thank you for checking out this brief brewery hopping tour around the outskirts of Harrisburg and centralized around Hummelstown. I hope you all found it informative and helpful and will give these four great breweries a look over. They all definitely deserve your time and attention as they are all pumping out some wonderful beers and have great stuff going on at their breweries all the time.

And lastly, make sure you hop on over to my beer blog – The Beer Thrillers, where me and beer buddy J. Doncevic have been writing some wonderful beer reviews, brewery reviews, trip recaps, beer event reviews, and all kinds of other beer related things in the Central PA area since May. Make sure to stop and check us out and let us know in the comments that you came from here, we’d greatly appreciate seeing you there!

B. Kline
The Beer Thrillers
https://thebeerthrillers.com/
http://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/