Christmas is coming. Although we have a week to go until C-Day, it's evening now. My home's quiet and dark. My kid's nestled, all snug in his bed. Visions of sugar plums (or, at least, monster trucks) are probably dancing through his head.
I'm not yet in my cap and ready to call it a night myself. I have a beer post yet to write and some music to enjoy. I suggest you get your favorite Christmas album spinning and settle in for tonight's beer: Urban Artifact's Sugar Plum.
Wait--the last time I did an Urban Artifact was in 2020? Seriously? Nearly four years ago? Wow. That's something. Well, let me make amends for that today.
Yes, here in October I'm doing an Urban Artifact beer. Because, believe it or not, the brewery's put out a pumpkin beer called Jack. Let's see how Jack's drinking on this fine, autumnal day.
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.
Ah, Pabst. Or, depending on when you first encountered it, PBR. Well, I guess it's always been PBR but, when I was in my undergrad, the music and art kids who drank it prominently called it Pabst.
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a staple. I think I've seen it in every bar I've ever been in. Every gas station I've ever visited has has it. It's (anecdotally) as ingrained in American beer and brewing culture as AB InBev, and Miller, and Molson Coors, yet (again, anecdotally) thought of as being on a lower tier. And I've never really gotten that (well, okay, maybe it's deservedly lower than many of Miller and Molson Coors' beers, but it's definitely at least on-par with any Budweiser product).
Today, I'll drink a can and give you my thoughts.
I was recently at a local bottleshop looking at single cans and bottles when a guy (who was not an employee of said bottleshop) recommended today's beer to me. "It's an IPA," he cautioned. I told him I liked IPAs and happily put the can into the sixer I was building. That can was a pint of Pipeworks' Ninja Vs. Unicorn, aka today's beer.
Today's the official start of John Likes Beer's Oktoberfest season extravaganza! Sure, I've been drinking Oktoberfest-style lagers since they first hit the market in July (don't judge me too harshly--I'm always in a rush to get to fall), but I've been a benevolent blogger and kept my Märzen- and festbier-related hijinks away from the site.
Until now! See, the page on the calendar turned overnight and we've landed squarely in September. Munich's big Oktoberfest is two weeks and some change away. I'm not holding back anymore. Let's get my meager celebration started immediately and kick it all off with Platform's Brauraiser.
8/13/22: Bright Eyes' "Lifted" at 20 (and Little Fish Brewing Company's Barrel-Aged Woodthrush [2021])
7:08 AMBright Eyes' Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground is two decades old today. This is a remarkable milestone for an incredible album that sounds as timely today as it did when I first heard it as a seventeen-year-old.
The album's my favorite piece of art. I own it on CD (not pictured below--that copy lives in my car) and three different vinyl. I also happily preordered a new pressing of the work on Wednesday, when the band announced one through their new label, Dead Oceans.
I'm dedicating this post to Lifted in celebration of Conor Oberst's, Mike Mogis', et al.'s accomplishment. I'll be breaking the album down track-by-track and doing some light reminiscing along the way. Oh, and I'll be drinking/writing about Little Fish's Barrel-Aged Woodthrush as the post goes on.
Grab a beer of your own, get Lifted playing on your preferred music streaming service (here's a link to it on SoundCloud) or start spinning your disc or record (or playing your cassette, if you're one of the lucky few) of it, and settle in for a good, long post.
This is the only Thanksgiving beer I'm doing up this year. It's one that I saw on the shelves last year, but my Maple Month lineup was pretty set in stone by that point. As the holiday season waned, I saw it leave store shelves and figured that I'd missed my chance.
But! In February of this year, I found a lone can left in the build-your-own sixer section of a local bottleshop. I built a pack just to include it. Turns out that I didn't need to worry because the beer came back this year anyway. Or maybe retailers have found a few more packs of the stuff in their backrooms. Regardless, I have a slightly-aged can to crack into today. I'm calling that a treat.
Oh, and the beer's R. Shea's Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes (I should've included a spoiler here for those of you who didn't read this post's title).
We're here now, having traveled through the thick of Halloween's horrors to the holiday proper. You may be in the midst of fresh frights yourself, as ghost, goblins, and ghouls of all sorts call upon your door demanding treats in exchange for withholding tricks. Maybe now's a good time for you to dim your porch light for a bit and settle down with a beer. Or two, like I am.
Two? That's correct. Three years ago, MadTree retired The Great PumpCAN, it's pumpkinless pumpkin-flavored beer. While it still appeared on tap during its hiatus, it was absent from store shelves, the "CAN" of its name seemling forgotten. Until this year, when MadTree made my wish come true and resurrected its practice of canning the ale.
That still doesn't explain my two beers of the evening. See, I had squirreled away my final can of 2018's batch. Why? Well, I'd actually planned on aging this can anyway. But, once MadTree made it clear that the ale wouldn't be returning the for the foreseeable future, I vowed to keep hold of my can until PumpCAN's triumphant return. That return's happening now.
You ever have a super productive Saturday? Whenever I do, it's always because I got up early. Take today for example: I woke at 6:30, ran errands (and got donuts from the local bakery), did some yard work, and have plans to do dishes and clean the bathroom later. But, since we've settled into the afternoon (it's 2 o'clock as I'm writing this), I think I've earned a bit of a break.
That break's being ushered in with Paulaner's Oktoberfest Bier. I'm drinking it while listening to some traditional Oktoberfest tunes on vinyl (courtesy of my public library). Later on, before getting back into the game of the day, I'll enjoy a hot pretzel. Ah, Oktoberfest season.
Also, this post will be a little different from my usual posts. After this paragraph I typically launch into the history of the brewery. Today's brewery is Coors and I don't really want to do that. They're American big beer. You can look them up yourself. Also, I'm not really going to go into much about the beer itself. It's Keylightful, a raspberry lime Keystone Light that Coors seems to have brewed to replicate the success of Naturdays. It's 4.1% ABV and you can find pretty much just that on Keystone Light's website. I got a 30-pack for $10.
Okay, I guess that was a bit of a lie. See, I do know something that tomorrow'll bring: peepers, the harbingers of springtime. I know that peepers are pretty divisive critters, much like summer's cicadas. But, much like with cicadas, I really enjoy the peepers' music--it's a nice, nightly reminder that winter's on its way out and warmer, brighter days are ahead.
When I saw that Maine Beer Company had a beer called Peeper, I knew it'd be my post to shepard in spring. Today, while Michelle and I were out provision hunting (to little avail--what a time to actually need toilet paper), we swung into the bottleshop where, less than a week ago, they had plenty of Peeper bottles. To my dismay (and luck) there was just one left today. I bought and, well, here we are.
After the day I've had, I'd say it's time for some comfort. Here's where the first post of 2020 comes in: Dogfish Head's Suddenly Comfy, a beer that came out in October and sold out pretty immediately around here.
Case in point: Tonight's ale is the second 8% ABV beer I've had in two consecutive evenings. Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin Ale should stave off the cold until I get the fire stoked up. But let's see how it fares as a Halloween brew.
Boston Stoker isn't a coffee brand I've enjoyed before. Sure, I've seen bags of their blends around. And yeah, a few of my friends like their Facebook page--some of these are big coffee folks, leading me to believe that I'm in for a treat with Dayton Local Blend.
When MadTree dropped its Local Blend collaboration series last month, I was, to say the least, excited. I like MadTree, I like porters, and I like coffee beers. Why the hell wouldn't I be excited? Drinking the Cincinnati Local Blend the other day (see, each can in this collab four-pack represents a different Ohio city, and each features coffee from a company that calls that can's namesake home) only increased that excitement. So, let's go ahead and break into today's can.
If you've hung out around the blog here long enough you know that I'm no stranger to craft lagers (see lagers here and pilsners here). While it's never been my favorite style, it's one that I thoroughly enjoy and, over the years, I've learned what makes a lager seem great to me. And unbeknownst to you but beknownst to me, I love cheetahs. They're my favorite animals and have held that spot ever since Beast Wars was on TV. So, when Rhinegeist announced that their craft lager, Cheetah, was being canned for year-round availability, I just about lost it.
See, when it hit the market this year, Bell's announced that it had changed up the recipe: Christmas Ale is now a traditional, boozy Scotch ale. When I saw a single bottle of it at my local beer store, long after I'd heard the news about the recipe switch-up, I had to pick it up. How does it compare to the old stuff?
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