Who'd've thunk that the second post of Oktoberfest season '24 would bring the second Festbier of '24? I know, I know; it's wild. I'm more of a self-professed Märzen man (they're more complex and offer me a little more if I sit with them and mull them over), but I'm finding singles of new Oktoberfest-style lagers to be more and more challenging to come by.

Which isn't to say at all that I don't like Festbiers! They're a great alternative to their typically heavier Oktoberfest cousins. Despite their relative lack of complexity, they're still fun to drink. And, you know, there can often be beauty in simplicity. Let's see what beauty we find in today's beer: Eredità Festbier.

It feels like fall now. Monday (which was Labor Day here in the US) was our farewell to summer. Michelle and I started decking our halls for Halloween. We took our toddler to his favorite splash park for the last time this season and shut the place down. The mornings have been cooler and darker, and we're looking at low temperatures in the 40-degree range this weekend. Yeah, autumn's arrived (I don't care that it's not technically autumn until later this month--we're on my blog).

What better way to welcome fall and September than by beginning the blog's official Oktoberfest season? Let's do just that. Today, we're doing something a little special with Modist's The Time Is Nigh. You'll see what I mean.

Here on the last day of August, the heat's outrageous. Hell, most of this month has been damn near unbearable, temperature-wise. There was a span of something like four days a few weeks back that was nice and cool, putting me in a pleasant early-autumn mood. Before I could get too comfortable in it, however, the oppressive heat came back full-force.

Oh, well. That just means that I'm not quite ready to shift into Oktoberfest season on the blog yet. I have three (looking for possibly one more) Oktoberfest-themed beers to do up next month. But, for now, let's send out the standard summer season. Michelle and our son are inside taking a nap and I'm out on my porch, weathering the humidity, with a beer in-hand and my laptop open on the wrought-iron table before me. Let's get into it. Here, for your reading (and my drinking pleasure) is State of Brewing's Shuteye Peak.

Merry Christmas in July! I'll start this post by saying that today's beer isn't the beer I'd intended to do up for Xmas in July '24. When I found myself at a nearby bottleshop in February looking for a beer among their straggling holiday ales, hoping to find the one today, I inadvertently snagged something that'd I'd reviewed before. Honestly, considering I've been doing this whole blog thing for nearly a decade, I'm surprised incidents like that don't happen more frequently.

I didn't realize my mistake until last weekend. In July. Do you know how many of last year's holiday beers are still kicking around on store shelves this deep into the summer? I headed out to another nearby bottleshop with little hopes of finding anything worth drinking for today.

Despite my forlorn outlook, luck was on my side! They had a cart full of four-packs of Toppling Goliath's Holidotz clearanced out for $8/pop. Having had and liking one or two of the brewery's beers before, I saw this as a sign and grabbed a pack. Let's see how this special holiday lager's drinking!