Happy November (I know this is the second post this month, but it's the first true post)! This is a big month for me. It sits right between my two favorite holidays. It's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a challenge where I (and many other similarly-inclined fools) attempt to write fifty-thousand words of a novel in just a short thirty days. But, most importantly for the blog, it's Maple Month, wherein I explore beers and ciders crafted with my favorite adjunct, maple syrup.

We're starting off strong this month with a barleywine from Jackie O's. Calling back to Southeast Ohio's history, Iron Furnace is an ode to the Hope Furnace, a spot near and dear to my heart. Let's see if I'll hold the resulting beer in equal esteem.

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. 

Welcome to maple season post number two! I'm halfway through my NaNoWriMo word count for the day, so I figure now might be a good time to take a break and look at another maple-flavored beer.


Today's offering comes from Michigan's Odd Side Ales. I'll admit, I've had this beer a time or three before. I got wind of it and asked my dad, who spends a good deal of his time in the Mitten State, if he'd seen it. A few days later, he told me he'd nabbed a four-pack.

So, since I've had it before, I'm drinking this beer at room temperature--I've found that sipping on it when it's any colder dulls the flavors. Now, without further fanfare, here we go: Hipster Brunch Stout.

Have you ever heard of goetta? It's pretty much a quintessentially Cincinnati thing. It's a kind of breakfast sausage that has a lot of grain in it to kind of make it more substantial. It's a strange thing to explain but goetta is really great (I once had a hotdog with goetta and maple syrup on it--it was one of the best thing I've ever eaten).


Another quintessentially Cincinnati thing is Christian Moerlein. So, when they announced they were making a goetta-inspired lager, I got pretty excited. I didn't ever anticipate doing a post on the stuff, however, because I never thought I'd find it. Luckily, it was sitting on the shelf at a local bottleshop  yesterday. Thus, here we are: Glier's Goetta, a lager from Christian Moerlein.

And, ladies and gentlemen, I'm back just like that. It's been nearly two months since my last actual "Oh hey, I drank a beer and wrote about it" post and almost four months since I've posted regularly. Hopefully this post will usher in a new era of twice-a-month (or more?) posts.

I'm married now (!) and a homeowner (!!), and those are the two big 2018 things I had to do. Which means now I have time for beer and video games. I drank a lot during my wedding reception and honeymoon. Most of all this will be added into my Untappd account at some later date, so keep an eye on that if you're keen to know what I've been up to lately (I didn't check in much of what I drank while I was actually drinking because I was having too much damn fun).


Anyway, today's post is months in the making: Dogfish Head's Lupu-Luau IPA. How does it fare?

This isn't the first time I've had this beer. Last weekend a friend of mine came to visit. I took him on a trip to my favorite local beer store to buy enough brews to get us through the weekend. He saw this on a shelf and read that it's inspired by Spanish popsicles and had to try it. I figured "why not?"

Neither of us knew what a guayaba was but, judging solely by the color of the beer, we thought it might by watermelon-esque. If not that we assumed it'd be sweet and refreshing, at least. Boy, were we wrong. While my buddy disliked it heartily, I found it intriguing but unappealing.