July fourth is Purrl's birthday. She's seven today--which is a big thing. I had originally planned to do a post for her today, a big blowout one featuring a lot of her, but I've decided to bump that back. Instead, this post won't really feature Purrl at all.


Yesterday, Michelle and I said goodbye to our dog, Pip. She'd been Michelle's dog for nearly fifteen years and mine for nearly three. With this post, I'm indulging in a little catharsis by remembering some of the great times we had with her. I'll also be talking about New Holland's new Dragon's Milk Reserve: Maple Oak while doing so--it's a brew I picked up last weekend while we were on a trip with her.

This will be a decidedly non-standard post. If you're here for the beer, great! I doubt you'll be disappointed. If you're here to gain some insight on my life, I hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane with me and all the cute pictures of Pip I'll be including.

It's a Sunday morning. Father's Day morning, to be exact. It's sunny here in middle-of-nowhere east-of-Cincinnati, Ohio, but the ground is still drenched from some heavy storms last night. I was going to try to mow before Michelle and I head to her family's Father's Day thing, but now that's not possible.


But, hey, when life gives you lemons, right? See, I kind of lucked out here. Yesterday was the second anniversary of Braxton Labs and, in celebration, they held a shindig and released a new stout for the occasion: French Toast. I ducked down to KY after work and grabbed three four-packs (two for me, one of a buddy of mine). Instead of hanging around for the whole party going on, I came home with aspirations of doing a post on the stout when time allowed.

And wouldn't you know? Time's allowing for that right now. So, here we go. Braxton Labs' French Toast.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, on June 1st, Urban Artifact held its First Annual Missing Linck Day. I, luckily, had the day off so at around thee o'cock Michelle and I left our house in order to make it to the taproom in time for its release.


Michelle had never been to a release before. Good for her but only okay for me, it wasn't like a typical can release. Instead, it was a mellow affair with no line and no bottleshare. That's fine, for an afternoon release I wasn't expecting the whole nine yards.

I'm happy to say that the release was a good time. But, this post isn't about that. This post is about the beer itself, a seemingly miraculous work wrought by the crafty minds backing Urban Artifact. This post is about a golden ale named Missing Linck.

For my wedding, my groomsmen and I all brewed special ciders. Mine contained Anaheim peppers and peanut butter. It looked awful as it fermented (it cleared before bottling), and it smelled not so great. But man, you could taste the peanut butter and feel the smack of heat from the pepper. I loved it.


In February, I went to visit one of my groomsmen in Austin, TX. On my first night there, he took me to a slew of local breweries. One of our stops was at Fairweather Cider Co., and the flight I got contained a taster of one Tejano Dreams (complete with phenomenal chile flavor)--I was astounded by it on tap and knew immediately that we'd have to swing by the joint again before I left so I could grab some cans of the stuff to bring back with me for a proper blogpost.

That time--after, what, three and a half months?--has finally come. So, here we go.