Anyone from South Central PA?

I'd quibble with great, but there are a lot of options and most are solid or better. More on the way, too.

 

Wouldn't say that it is not too big of a fan. I think there are a number of places making beer that I'm happy to drink. I spend a majority of my time at Troegs and Pizza Boy. I think they're a legitimate step above the others in the area. To be fair, I would say that off the top of my head I can't think of a place that has opened and hasn't gotten better. To what degree is up for debate, of course. For instance, I think Tattered has come a decently long way in their three years, but frankly, they started out making some really unfortunate beer. Similarly, a place like Moo Duck has come around and is making some solid to enjoyable stuff.

I really don't want to sound like I'm being overly negative, or argumentative.

I'm very interested in getting over to Wolf when they get going.

I guess I come back to the idea that if I lived elsewhere and traveled here, what would I leave saying "THAT place, that place was awesome...." Obviously, Troegs has a large reach and is an impressive operation overall. Pizza Boy is making a fair amount of exciting beer and would be considered a place that I'd travel much longer distances too, as well.

 

Yes to all, including not being a fan of the vast majority of ABC's stuff. Too bad, because I love the Cameron Street location. Great building.

I like Boneshire, but between the hours, the bland building/atmosphere, and the fact that they don't always have a ton of their own stuff to offer, we don't go there that much.

Millworks is a gorgeous place. We like the food a lot, the concept.... the beers just don't jump out to me. Nothing really horrible, but definitely just solid, and if you get more than that, it is a pleasant surprise.

ZeroDay is kind of a strange situation for me. The vibe is really neighborhoody, tight knit, and seems like it is really embraced by the local Midtown crowd. Hit or miss beers, though. I will give them credit for stuffing a whole tree into their equipment. Kudos to that.

Rotunda....I just don't get it. I am not here to tell people they can't rate beers how they feel, and that they shouldn't support local breweries.... but I go on Untappd and look at their beers and am just amazed at some of the ratings they pull. I've had some of the SWheatTart beers or whatever, and their hoppy offerings, along with a stout or two. They ranged from bad to slightly better than solid.

Newfangled is another strange situation. They seemed to have taken forever to get their main system up and running, and while they had a nice list of PA beers on in their place, that is now gone and they seem to focus almost exclusively on their own products. Not that that is a bad thing, but they're to me still getting their feet wet with regards to their big system, so I'd grade that one as an incomplete as of now. I do like their room, though. Haven't been next door to Koda for a meal.

 

There have been a lot of new breweries opening up in the area; won't go through the tedium of naming the ones that haven't already been mentioned except to say that Ever Grain is one that has really been making a name for themselves lately.

 

Used to live in HBG and still work there now, so pretty familiar with all of these breweries minus Rotunda. I think the area does have some great breweries minus a few named in the posts above.

Went to Millworks when it opened and wasn't too great for their beer, but the food was fantastic. The beer may have gotten better?

Zero Day had some great stuff when I had gone there in the past and do agree on the Midtown tight knit vibe, but that's what made it what it was. You would go in there and chances are you'd run into a group of people you know.

Pizza Boy was probably my favorite brewery at one time (not too long ago), but their stuff seemed too inconsistent and the prices were increasing. I didn't mind dropping $15 for a 6er of pounders for an IPA that might be OK, but I refuse to drop $18-20 especially because of the inconsistency.

Tröegs is a great brewery between their beer and food. I actually worked there for a little bit of time and really enjoyed it. They treated their employees great, which says a lot. That said, I think they are starting to branch out and try different things not including the Scratch batches. I actually haven't had any of their recent 16 oz can releases, but happy to see they are doing this and I do believe it was certainly needed.

 

Blended? Like how? For example, lime gose and blackberry gose combined after fermentation to come up with blackberry lime gose?

 

Any reason why this shouldn't be merged with this thread? It's a great discussion and would be a nice addition to it:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ad-york-harrisburg-lancaster-etc-2019.602120/

I am originally from Harrisburg and still have family/friends there. I pretty much hate the place (well love/hate may be more accurate) so I don't go back too often. But the list of breweries is impressive and the few times a year I go back I do like to try the ones I haven't been to yet.

 

I'm not sure what this would do to be honest. Maybe someone looking at this thread could shed some light.

 

Good stuff, here. I'm in favor of a merger with the other thread but that is a decision for someone else.

I would be absolutely stunned if Troegs ever sold. Remember, they actually changed their official name to Troegs Independent Brewing, did they not? That would be quite a thing to then sell off to someone like InBev, MillerCoors, whatever. Could I turn into an iguana tomorrow? I very strongly doubt that, but how do we really know? Kind of the same approach that I'm taking as far as predicting that one with regards to their Independence.

As far as this blending concept, I wonder if people are taking the idea of double/triple batching and running with it? Their brewhouse is far smaller than the 800 (or is it 1,000?) bbl outdoor fermenters they have out back. Brew once, pump it in, pitch, and then brew it again until you've reached your capacity for your fermentation tank. Plenty of places do that, and while I don't *know* that Troegs does.... I have to imagine they do given the discrepancy in sizes of brewhouse to fermentation tanks. But again, I don't know who's coming up with that original hypothesis, so....

Troegs most likely does take some hits because they're big, they're older, and maybe not as nimble (no pun intended) with regards to the latest hot thing Still a fan, though.

 

Thanks for the reply. I knew you would have good insight.