Well, here we are. It's the official start of the Christmas shopping season. It's exactly one month out from Christmas. You know all of this because I'm about to crack into my first Christmas beer post of the season. Hold onto your seats, boys and girls. We're about to get festive.


Before we go any further, let me say this: I've had this beer before. Quite a few time before, in fact. But this is the only post of the season that isn't about a new-to-me beer. That means that for the next five posts you read here (if you read all of them) will be completely new experiences for me. That's fun stuff.

Now, without any more ado, 21st Amendment's Fireside Chat.

Christmas is right around the corner, but we in the US have another holiday to get through before we start awaiting a large, magical fat man who will invade our homes via our chimneys and explore our under-trees. That's right, we have to get through Thanksgiving.

What better way to prep myself for Turkey Day than Long Trail's Harvest? I mean, on Thanksgiving we celebrate the harvest by stuffing our faces, right? I know that I'm excited for it and I expect you are too. So, let's get into the beer at hand.

Have you seen The Witch? I have. And I think it's dang good. Then, sometime months and months and months ago (shortly after I saw the movie for first time), Blake's announced an autumny cider based upon one if its characters: Black Phillip, who is a goat (well, in a manner of speaking--I don't want to spoil the flick for those of you who haven't seen it).

After Blake's' announcement, I constantly monitored the cidery for updates on Black Phillip's release. And then, finally, it happened. And I search for it here. After finding nothing, I waited patiently and search again. And again. And again. But to no avail. I even looked in Michigan grocery stores (Blake's is based in Armada, MI). Still no luck.


Then, during my vacation last month, long after I had given up all hope of finding the cider, I spotted it on the bottom of a shelving unit in the Athens, OH Kroger. Without a second thought I snatched up a sixer. I've been drinking it steadily since then, but wanted to save my final can of it for the full John Likes Beer treatment. Is it good? Well, if you'll let me spoil it in advanced of the full review below, yes. Now you'll have to read on just find out how good it is.

As long-time readers of this blog (and fans of my Facebook page) can most likely attest, I can usually be expected to run a little behind. My Halloween post last year came a day late. I really, really tried to get around to writing this post on time this year. I've had the bottle for it sitting in my fridge since I called Michelle during the afternoon of Halloween asking her to start cooling it for me. As you should now see, my intentions were good.

But, as happens, life gets in the way. Taking that vacation last week, while a good idea, was incredibly irresponsible of me because I'm still a student. I got behind on my schoolwork (oops). But, that's all rectified now. I'm caught up to the point where I don't have anything that needs to get done this evening. So, with that, let's pretend this Thursday's Monday and dive into this timely Halloween-themed brew.