Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Harrisburg Hershey PA
Harrisburg Hershey PA
Planning a new way home from Delaware in May. Anybody?? Anybody been to Tröegs? Decent beer bars?
Just a quick follow up to the deafening silence on this thread.
If you are in the neighbourhood, GO to Harrisburg.
Pop. proper is 85K Metro Area 500K
First, Troeg's has a great facility there. Huge tasting room with growler fills and all their beers on tap plus 3 seasonals.
Harrisburg itself has a compact beer drinking downtown.
We hit 2 places within a block of our hotel (Hilton) on a Sunday.
Based on research on the interwebs we hit :
Anthonys Micro Pub and Bar
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anthonys ... 0497701923
72 taps - almost all US craft.
I'll try to post a picture later of the menu.
We enjoyed:
Pints ( 3.50 during Happy Hour 4-6 everyday)
21st Amendment Back in Black (X2 one of my top 5 beers)
Ballast Point Sculpin - fanstastic
Smuttynose Robust Porter - Ex!
DFH 60 min
Lancaster Double Chocolate Milk Stout - surprisingly good
Samples (4 ozs)
DFM Aprihop
Troegs Flying Mouflan
Boulder Mojo IPA
Brooklyn Brown Ale - great!
Then we moved onto Arrogas just to be different
http://www.aroogas.com
Pints
Ithaca Flower Power
Bell's Two Hearted x2
Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA
Kona Brewing Company Koko Brown Ale
Founder Breakfast Stout
If you look at their website its clearly a sports bar right down to the food (Burgers, wings, pizza and 2 for 1 Stromboli's Sunday night) and all delivered in the best Hoosters style.
But the Beer!?

Let's just say Hooters is not in the same league when it come to beer.
( from the website for the downtown location - 50+ taps plus they do growler fills!!)
Brewery Beer Style Location ABV BA
Anchor Brekle's Brown Brown Ale San Francisco, CA 6.0 83
Anheuser Busch Bud Light Light Lager St. Louis, MO 4.2 49
Anheuser Busch Budweiser Pale Lager St. Louis, MO 5.0 59
Anheuser Busch Michelob Ultra Light Lager St. Louis, MO 4.2 47
Anheuser Busch Shock Top Belgian White Belgian White (Witbier) St. Louis, MO 5.2 71
Anheuser Busch Shock Top Raspberry Fruit Beer St. Louis, MO 5.2 69
Arooga's Liquid Assets Arooga Light Light Lager Harrisburg, PA 4.5 NA
Bell's Two Hearted Ale IPA Kalamazoo, MI 7.0 95
Bieres de Chimay S.A. Chimay Tripel (White) Belgian Tripel Baileux, Belgium 8.0 91
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter Porter Denver, CO 4.7 79
Brouwerij jvan Hoegaarden Hoegaarden Original White Ale Belgian White (Witbier) Hoegaarden, Belgium 5.0 87
Coors Brewing Coors Light Light Lager Golden, CO 4.2 51
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA IPA Milton, DE 6.0 91
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA Double IPA Milton, DE 9.0 95
Dogfish Head ApriHop IPA/Fruit Beer Milton, DE 7.0 86
Dogfish Head My Antonia Double Pilsner Milton, DE 7.5 90
Dogfish Head Red & White Belgian Strong Ale/Witbier Milton, DE 10.0 88
Elysian Men's Room Red Amber/Red Ale Seattle, WA 5.6 83
Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA Frederick, MD 8.3 90
Founders Breakfast Stout Double Stout Grand Rapids, MI 8.3 98
Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy Grand Rapids, MI 8.5 90
Guinness Ltd. Guinness Draught Irish Dry Stout Dublin, Ireland 4.2 79
Ithaca Beer Company Flower Power IPA Ithaca, NY 7.5 92
Kona Brewing Company Koko Brown Brown Ale Kailua Kona, HI 5.5 82
Kona Brewing Company Longboard Lager Pale Lager Kailua Kona, HI 4.6 78
Leinenkugel Summer Shandy Fruit Beer Chippewa Falls, WI 4.2 71
Long Trail Double Bag Altbier Bridgewaters Corners, VT 7.2 88
Magic Hat #9 Fruit Beer Bridgewaters Corners, VT 5.1 78
Miller Brewing Miller Lite Light Lager Milwaukee, WI 4.2 56
Molson Breweries Molson Canadian Lager Lager Montreal, Canada 5.0 69
Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Lyons, CO 6.5 89
Otter Creek 20th Anniversary Ale Strong Ale Middleburry, VT 12.0 80
Red Hook ESB Extra Special Bitter Woodinville, WA 5.77 78
Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout Sweet Stout Newport, OR 6.0 94
Rogue Ales Hazelnut Brown Nectar American Brown Ale Newport, OR 6.0 91
Rogue Ales John John Dead Guy Ale Maibock Newport, OR 6.4 86
Sam Adams Angry Orchard Hard Cider Boston, MA 5.0 NA
Sam Adams Arooga's Amber Ale Amber Pale Ale Boston, MA 4.9 NA
Sam Adams Boston Lager Vienna Lager Boston, MA 4.9 87
Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Fruit Beer Boston, MA 5.3 74
Sam Adams Summer Ale Pale Wheat Ale Boston, MA 5.3 78
Sam Adams Tasman Red Amber IPA Boston, MA 6.75 87
Sam Adams Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea Boston, MA 5.0 NA
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Chico, CA 5.6 91
Spaten-Franziskaner-Brau Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Hefeweizen Munich, Germany 5.0 90
Stella Artois Stella Artois Euro Pale Lager Leuven, Belgium 5.2 71
Stone Arrogant Bastard American Strong Ale Escondido, CA 7.2 94
Stone Ruination IPA Double IPA Escondido, CA 7.7 95
Troegs Nugget Nectar Amber Ale Hershey, PA 7.5 97
Vermont Hard Cider Company Woodchuck Belgian White Hard Cider Middleburry, VT 5.5 NA
Vermont Hard Cider Company Woodchuck Pear Cider Hard Cider Middleburry, VT 4.0 NA
Victory Golden Monkey Belgian Tripel Downingtown, PA 9.5 84
Victory Ranch R Double IPA Downingtown, PA 9.0 86
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA Double IPA Easton, PA 9.0 92
Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA Black Ale Portland, OR 6.5 85
Widmer Brothers W'12 Dark Saison Saison Portland, OR 5.5 82
Yuengling Traditional Lager Amber/Red Lager Pottsville, PA 4.9 79
Cask:
Victory Uncle Teddy's Bitter English Bitter Downingtown, PA 4.0 91
Victory Headwaters Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Downingtown, PA 5.1 88
If you are in the neighbourhood, GO to Harrisburg.
Pop. proper is 85K Metro Area 500K
First, Troeg's has a great facility there. Huge tasting room with growler fills and all their beers on tap plus 3 seasonals.
Harrisburg itself has a compact beer drinking downtown.
We hit 2 places within a block of our hotel (Hilton) on a Sunday.
Based on research on the interwebs we hit :
Anthonys Micro Pub and Bar
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anthonys ... 0497701923
72 taps - almost all US craft.
I'll try to post a picture later of the menu.
We enjoyed:
Pints ( 3.50 during Happy Hour 4-6 everyday)
21st Amendment Back in Black (X2 one of my top 5 beers)
Ballast Point Sculpin - fanstastic
Smuttynose Robust Porter - Ex!
DFH 60 min
Lancaster Double Chocolate Milk Stout - surprisingly good
Samples (4 ozs)
DFM Aprihop
Troegs Flying Mouflan
Boulder Mojo IPA
Brooklyn Brown Ale - great!
Then we moved onto Arrogas just to be different
http://www.aroogas.com
Pints
Ithaca Flower Power
Bell's Two Hearted x2
Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA
Kona Brewing Company Koko Brown Ale
Founder Breakfast Stout
If you look at their website its clearly a sports bar right down to the food (Burgers, wings, pizza and 2 for 1 Stromboli's Sunday night) and all delivered in the best Hoosters style.
But the Beer!?

Let's just say Hooters is not in the same league when it come to beer.
( from the website for the downtown location - 50+ taps plus they do growler fills!!)
Brewery Beer Style Location ABV BA
Anchor Brekle's Brown Brown Ale San Francisco, CA 6.0 83
Anheuser Busch Bud Light Light Lager St. Louis, MO 4.2 49
Anheuser Busch Budweiser Pale Lager St. Louis, MO 5.0 59
Anheuser Busch Michelob Ultra Light Lager St. Louis, MO 4.2 47
Anheuser Busch Shock Top Belgian White Belgian White (Witbier) St. Louis, MO 5.2 71
Anheuser Busch Shock Top Raspberry Fruit Beer St. Louis, MO 5.2 69
Arooga's Liquid Assets Arooga Light Light Lager Harrisburg, PA 4.5 NA
Bell's Two Hearted Ale IPA Kalamazoo, MI 7.0 95
Bieres de Chimay S.A. Chimay Tripel (White) Belgian Tripel Baileux, Belgium 8.0 91
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter Porter Denver, CO 4.7 79
Brouwerij jvan Hoegaarden Hoegaarden Original White Ale Belgian White (Witbier) Hoegaarden, Belgium 5.0 87
Coors Brewing Coors Light Light Lager Golden, CO 4.2 51
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA IPA Milton, DE 6.0 91
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA Double IPA Milton, DE 9.0 95
Dogfish Head ApriHop IPA/Fruit Beer Milton, DE 7.0 86
Dogfish Head My Antonia Double Pilsner Milton, DE 7.5 90
Dogfish Head Red & White Belgian Strong Ale/Witbier Milton, DE 10.0 88
Elysian Men's Room Red Amber/Red Ale Seattle, WA 5.6 83
Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA Frederick, MD 8.3 90
Founders Breakfast Stout Double Stout Grand Rapids, MI 8.3 98
Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy Grand Rapids, MI 8.5 90
Guinness Ltd. Guinness Draught Irish Dry Stout Dublin, Ireland 4.2 79
Ithaca Beer Company Flower Power IPA Ithaca, NY 7.5 92
Kona Brewing Company Koko Brown Brown Ale Kailua Kona, HI 5.5 82
Kona Brewing Company Longboard Lager Pale Lager Kailua Kona, HI 4.6 78
Leinenkugel Summer Shandy Fruit Beer Chippewa Falls, WI 4.2 71
Long Trail Double Bag Altbier Bridgewaters Corners, VT 7.2 88
Magic Hat #9 Fruit Beer Bridgewaters Corners, VT 5.1 78
Miller Brewing Miller Lite Light Lager Milwaukee, WI 4.2 56
Molson Breweries Molson Canadian Lager Lager Montreal, Canada 5.0 69
Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Lyons, CO 6.5 89
Otter Creek 20th Anniversary Ale Strong Ale Middleburry, VT 12.0 80
Red Hook ESB Extra Special Bitter Woodinville, WA 5.77 78
Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout Sweet Stout Newport, OR 6.0 94
Rogue Ales Hazelnut Brown Nectar American Brown Ale Newport, OR 6.0 91
Rogue Ales John John Dead Guy Ale Maibock Newport, OR 6.4 86
Sam Adams Angry Orchard Hard Cider Boston, MA 5.0 NA
Sam Adams Arooga's Amber Ale Amber Pale Ale Boston, MA 4.9 NA
Sam Adams Boston Lager Vienna Lager Boston, MA 4.9 87
Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Fruit Beer Boston, MA 5.3 74
Sam Adams Summer Ale Pale Wheat Ale Boston, MA 5.3 78
Sam Adams Tasman Red Amber IPA Boston, MA 6.75 87
Sam Adams Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea Boston, MA 5.0 NA
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Chico, CA 5.6 91
Spaten-Franziskaner-Brau Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Hefeweizen Munich, Germany 5.0 90
Stella Artois Stella Artois Euro Pale Lager Leuven, Belgium 5.2 71
Stone Arrogant Bastard American Strong Ale Escondido, CA 7.2 94
Stone Ruination IPA Double IPA Escondido, CA 7.7 95
Troegs Nugget Nectar Amber Ale Hershey, PA 7.5 97
Vermont Hard Cider Company Woodchuck Belgian White Hard Cider Middleburry, VT 5.5 NA
Vermont Hard Cider Company Woodchuck Pear Cider Hard Cider Middleburry, VT 4.0 NA
Victory Golden Monkey Belgian Tripel Downingtown, PA 9.5 84
Victory Ranch R Double IPA Downingtown, PA 9.0 86
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA Double IPA Easton, PA 9.0 92
Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA Black Ale Portland, OR 6.5 85
Widmer Brothers W'12 Dark Saison Saison Portland, OR 5.5 82
Yuengling Traditional Lager Amber/Red Lager Pottsville, PA 4.9 79
Cask:
Victory Uncle Teddy's Bitter English Bitter Downingtown, PA 4.0 91
Victory Headwaters Pale Ale Pale Ale (APA) Downingtown, PA 5.1 88
- S. St. Jeb
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:44 pm
- Location: Burlington, ON
Spent our Thanksgiving weekend in Lancaster, Pa which is about 40 minutes southwest of Harrisburg, so I'll post comments here.
In the recently revised thread "Around the World Beer Trip...where would you go?", a few people have differentiated a beer-focused trip vs a trip where you seek out beer in the places you go.
For me, it has always been the latter, and so it was for this trip. It was actually my intent to keep the beer aspect quite limited. Prior to going down, I had identified a couple of breweries of interest right in Lancaster (Lancaster Brewing Company and Spring House), and a couple of retail outlets.
Lancaster Brewing Company
We went there for lunch on Saturday. It is located in a very old industrial building in the heart of the city. It didn't have a huge footprint and maybe four stories high. I think it was built to dry or process tobacco. It was beautiful, definitely my type of place with a great atmosphere. Food was really good, and they had several beers available in cans to go.
I had a flight with these beers.
Amber Lager
Oktoberfest Lager
Haze Farmer IPA
Centennial Mosaic Hazy IPA
Baked Pumpkin Ale
Kolsch
All were really good, but honestly, I'm not that hard to please, especially if I'm in a situation that is making me feel good.
If anything, I might have been slightly disappointed in the IPAs, but I think that says more about the tremendous selection that we have these days than it does about their beers.
In addition to some of the ones I had at lunch, I purchased Blood Orange Tart Ale, Hop Hog IPA, and Milk Stout to go.
Appalachian Brewing Company
We were in Lititz a bit north of Lancaster on Sunday, and when looking for a place to have lunch, we "discovered" Appalachian.
They were located in a newer building that was designed to look old. Lot's of timber inside, really nice looking. They also had an excellent atmosphere and the food was really good.
With lunch, I had:
Hoppy Trails IPA
Outta Focus Double IPA
They were decent; same comment as above.
The only downside is that they had a very limited selection of canned beer to go that you could buy as singles. Most of their canned beer came in homogenous six-packs. But they did have 3 x2 mix-six (Argyle IPA, Mountain Lager (German style), On Point Pilsner), so I took that. I've never understood why breweries would limit what you can buy in this way.
Bespoke Brewing
This was also a surprise find that we saw just a little to the south. It didn't match the other two. While the food was good and the two beers I had were fine, the atmosphere left something to be desired. It was very plain, no character at all. We were taken to a side room off the main area. The whole place had a vibe more like a cafeteria than a brewery or bar. Also, when we walked in, I saw their cooler with canned beer to go - and it was empty.
I had chili, which was quite good, an Oktoberfest beer and a pilsner, which were fine, but for the 'experience', I can't recommend it.
In the recently revised thread "Around the World Beer Trip...where would you go?", a few people have differentiated a beer-focused trip vs a trip where you seek out beer in the places you go.
For me, it has always been the latter, and so it was for this trip. It was actually my intent to keep the beer aspect quite limited. Prior to going down, I had identified a couple of breweries of interest right in Lancaster (Lancaster Brewing Company and Spring House), and a couple of retail outlets.
Lancaster Brewing Company
We went there for lunch on Saturday. It is located in a very old industrial building in the heart of the city. It didn't have a huge footprint and maybe four stories high. I think it was built to dry or process tobacco. It was beautiful, definitely my type of place with a great atmosphere. Food was really good, and they had several beers available in cans to go.
I had a flight with these beers.
Amber Lager
Oktoberfest Lager
Haze Farmer IPA
Centennial Mosaic Hazy IPA
Baked Pumpkin Ale
Kolsch
All were really good, but honestly, I'm not that hard to please, especially if I'm in a situation that is making me feel good.

If anything, I might have been slightly disappointed in the IPAs, but I think that says more about the tremendous selection that we have these days than it does about their beers.
In addition to some of the ones I had at lunch, I purchased Blood Orange Tart Ale, Hop Hog IPA, and Milk Stout to go.
Appalachian Brewing Company
We were in Lititz a bit north of Lancaster on Sunday, and when looking for a place to have lunch, we "discovered" Appalachian.
They were located in a newer building that was designed to look old. Lot's of timber inside, really nice looking. They also had an excellent atmosphere and the food was really good.
With lunch, I had:
Hoppy Trails IPA
Outta Focus Double IPA
They were decent; same comment as above.
The only downside is that they had a very limited selection of canned beer to go that you could buy as singles. Most of their canned beer came in homogenous six-packs. But they did have 3 x2 mix-six (Argyle IPA, Mountain Lager (German style), On Point Pilsner), so I took that. I've never understood why breweries would limit what you can buy in this way.
Bespoke Brewing
This was also a surprise find that we saw just a little to the south. It didn't match the other two. While the food was good and the two beers I had were fine, the atmosphere left something to be desired. It was very plain, no character at all. We were taken to a side room off the main area. The whole place had a vibe more like a cafeteria than a brewery or bar. Also, when we walked in, I saw their cooler with canned beer to go - and it was empty.
I had chili, which was quite good, an Oktoberfest beer and a pilsner, which were fine, but for the 'experience', I can't recommend it.