I always worry that I begin looking for a good brew to save for Christmas in July a little too late in the season. To be fair, I never actually look for one--I somehow manage to stumble upon a can or bottle in the wild. 

This year, I changed it up. I found a bottle that I wanted to use for today's post in mid-December '20. I saw one of my local bottleshops share an image of it on their social, and I sped out to nab a bottle. I say bottle--it was actually a box set of two bottles. Yes, I thought. Finally, I've managed to prep myself adequately for Christmas in July. I don't have to sweat it from New Year's until I stumble upon a beer.

Today's beer isn't a beer from that set I bought. No, this is a beer I stumbled upon in February as Michelle and I were on our way out of town for a short holiday. I'd never been to Mount Orab, OH's Sons of Toil Brewing although I'd intended to get out and sample some of their wares for years . When I discovered our route was going to take us by their facility, I packed a growler to fill up with something they had on tap. 

While the bartender was filling my growler, I noticed they had bombers in a fridge. One of those bombers was Winter Warmer, their holiday ale. I quickly weighed my options and bought one. That box set I bought with intentions for today can wait. This year's Christmas in July is all about Sons of Toil's Winter Warmer.

I tweeted something nearly two weeks ago that hasn't aged very well. See, when the Brood X cicadas woke up in my area in mid-May, I was sure that breweries would flood the market with beers celebrating their emergence. I mean, this was a once in seventeen years experience. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for my favorite local spots to capitalize on a unique, summery phenomenon. In fact, I had planned on commemorating Brood X with a blog series featuring cicada beers.

Happy Independence Day! I'm celebrating the occasion as is appropriate for flammable me: sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets, and a holiday-appropriate sour ale.

That ale's Lone Pine's Blueberry Sparkler--a beer that's not (as far as I can tell) in active production. My can comes to us from August 11th, 2020. That's fine, though. Sours that are aged only grow more sour over time, right? 

I hope you'll take a quick moment from your holiday to crack open a beer of your own as the fireworky aroma of gunpowder lingers in the air and read along. 

It's June 21st, the first full day of Summer 2021. We've reached what I call "hella hot" as of Saturday. If you've been around the blog for a while, you might know what that means. 

Bell's released Mango Oberon last summer. I drank it on one of those hella hot early-July days and loved it. You can believe I was ecstatic when Tropical Oberon was announced in late May. I knew I had to try it. And, now that summer's officially begun and the days are heating up, I figure the time's come at last. So throw on some shades and pull up a city pop playlist on YouTube: It's Tropical Oberon Time.