Recommendations for PA trip

Even if you only get a couple of hours at Troegs, they’ve got what you are looking for, including some of their scratch beers that don’t get distributed. The basic tour is self guided and the space fairly open but “walled off” from the work spaces, so you all can watch but not touch.

 

Pizza Boy is before Harrisburg when headed east and you can find cans of plenty of their beers as well as lots of beers on tap from PB and many other breweries. Also has pizza and arcade games and is spacious so kid-friendly. And crowlers too, I believe.

Troeg’s is kid-friendly also and has a good menu that will appeal to the whole family.

 

The first 2 posts hit exactly what I was going to say. Pizza Boy and Tröegs. Pizza Boy always has at least 4-5 cans on hand to go and Tröegs always has something in cans or bottles that isn't distributed.

If you get some extra time, you can even hit up Ever Grain in Camp Hill. It's probably 10 minutes max from Pizza Boy. They have cans to go as well and their beer is pretty good (at least what I've had).

IMO, the 3 mentioned above should be at the top of your list just because they'll have stuff you can't get, but you'll be able to get cans/bottles to go without having to get growler/crowler fills.

 

Always good to know how long you'll be in town and how far out of your way you are willing to go. Troegs and Pizza Boy are places you should go, for sure. Frankly, Ever Grain has better food than they do beer. Their beer is fine, but the food is particularly yummy.

If you're looking to get out of region stuff that isn't necessarily local, Breski Beverage is a good spot. Their website is up to date and you can hover over "view prices" to see how much of something they have. Here is a link: breskibeverage.com/craft

If you have extra time and a desire to head a bit east of Hershey, Lancaster has some good spots, namely Hunger and Thirst. Not a brewery, but a really great beer bar with a bottle shop attached to it. Probably 25 minutes from Hershey.

Funk is in Elizabethtown and that is probably 10 minutes from Hershey. They do can but I'd say it isn't as much of a sure thing as Troegs or Pizza Boy. They do some pretty nice hoppy beers if that is your thing.

Any other questions, just throw 'em out there. Enjoy.

 

They are nailing, I do this trip quite a bit. Troegs is excellent in the foodie bistro style, pizza boy is a favorite of my family(in fact our mantra is, "for the kids!" when we go there, big regional tap list at pizza boy also.

Dancing gnome and brew gentleman are not particularly kid friendly but their beer is outstanding. Brew gentleman is one of the best breweries I've been to. Along your route an easy stop is at the Brew Kettle in Northern Ohio, great stop right off the highway. Ohio is a great beer state for certain. Voddoo in Hempstead is not great for the kids, questionable neighborhood, beer is good though.

 

Depending on when in August, you may want to check if Fat Heads new production brewery might be open in northern Ohio. Also near highway. A good chance to see a new site up close.

 

I'll be visiting family in Harrisburg next week. Already hitting Pizza Boy, do that every time.

What are the thoughts on Rotunda? Saw they are canning so my interest was piqued.

 

Rotunda is weird for me. They've somehow racked up impressive untappd scores, but the beers are just average for me. They used to have a tiny little brewery /tap room next to the Batdorf, but now they've filled that space to the gills with a 7 bbl system and are using the Batdorf as a de facto tap room. I haven't seen any cans of theirs in the wild, and maybe they only do can sales at the Batdorf, so I can't comment on those. I don't mean to be too negative, as I've had a handful of their beers and came away unimpressed, but not entirely disappointed, but something with the whole picture is out of whack for me.

If you've got the time, you're probably only 20-30 minutes from them based on where you may be in Harrisburg, so give it a shot for yourself.

 

Thanks, that was the plan. Pizza Boy on Tuesday, Tired Hands for lunch then Rotunda for dinner on Wednesday, then off to Vermont.

 

You’d be doing a lot of zig zagging back and forth with PB -> TH -> Rotunda, but I don’t know what else you’ve got lined up, so just mentioning it.

 

Pizza Boy - Tuesday - dinner
Tired Hands - Wednesday lunch
Rotunda - Wednesday dinner

 

Right. Enola -> Ardmore -> Annville. Not the most linear thing on its own, but regardless I hope you have a blast. Report back as far as how you enjoyed it, if you feel up to it.

 

Staying in north Harrisburg (my entire family lives there), so not really a linear way to go West and East in any particular order, so figured I would break it up into separate days.

Will do. Have been to Pizza Boy, Troegs, Lancaster before.

Ones I am looking to try in the area:

1. Rotunda
2. Funk
3. Mellow Mink
4. Collusion Tap Works
5. Boneshire

 

Mellow Mink is opening Labor Day weekend. Assuming you won’t be there for that, I’d say Funk and Collusion are my two favorites on that list. Not close, really.

I’ll take this opportunity to say it again: I’m trying to temper my expectations for Mellow Mink. Unsuccessful so far...

 

Was just places I wanted to check out in the future, not all this trip.

 

Collusion is awesome. If you do go to Collusion, you may as well stop by Liquid Hero.

Not sure how far South County would be from the route you're taking, but I'd certainly hit that up. I haven't been there before, but their beer is fantastic. Love me some Cosmic Nod.

 

There is no collusion! Fake news! I bet this is the first time someone has used this joke.

 

Maybe as a joke. Sometimes, people may even believe it.

 

What's there to not believe about it?