Here's one that I hadn't accounted for at the beginning of the month. Hell, I hadn't accounted for it three days ago. A quick search of the blog will show that Athletic's a frequent NA flyer around these parts. Yet, I've never had a crack at their pumpkin beer.

Why? Well, it's price-related. See, for whatever reason, the brewery only drops the ale online. That's fine, I get that. It's a niche beer in a niche market. But, the price is $14.99/sixer and shipping is $5. Suddenly, we're looking at $20 for a single sixer of the stuff. That's not a chance I'm willing to take.

But two days ago, I got an ad on Instagram from Athletic touting a 10% off code. That was the push I needed to finally try Dark & Gourdy. Now I'm sitting here with the beer, which says something about the brewery's shipping. Let's see how it is at $10.

Today we have a treat: This is the priciest beer I'm consuming this holiday season. The 12 ounce bottle I'm about to break into ran me $6.39. It's a BBA version of Bell's Christmas Ale, which I drank and wrote about here (that's the new recipe that Bell's uses by the way, which they're still holding strong to here in 2020).

I won't lie to you--I was ecstatic when I found a single bottle of this being sold. This is one of two beers I'm doing this season that I didn't think I'd be able to find, so stumbling across this bottle in the wild was exciting. Let's get to it: Bell's Old Fashioned Holiday.

This post has been a year in the making. I'm excited that I've finally conceived a plan of attack to take it on. See, in the midst of the blog's inaugural Maple Month, Braxton announced their first four 2019 Dark Charge variants. Key among them was blue wax-dipped bottle that caught my eye: Dark Charge Maple Breakfast. I knew, the moment I saw its Instagram announcement post, that I'd need to talk about it here.

There were a few issues with that: First was that Dark Charge Day is in December, the month after Maple Month, but I could deal with that; I'm no stranger to aging bottles. The second issue was that I knew the BBA Maple Breakfast bottles would be limited and I needed to ensure I got my hands on one. Again, this wasn't a big deal since I was lucky to have the fifth Dark Charge Day off (it was the first time since Braxton stated hosting it that I didn't have work on the first Saturday in December). Easy.

Henrietta invaded my photoshoot.

Since this is still coronavirus times, let me preface this post by saying you should wash your hands. And, since it's still coronavirus times, I'll say that this was a random draw from my cellar. I plucked it from my hand-me-down yellow shelves this morning and stuck it in my fridge for this post. Now that I see what it is, I'm happy. I had this on tap two years ago; it was good then, but I'm excited to see how it's aged.

We've entered November. This is typically a slow month for the blog--straddling the blowout seasons of Halloween (in October) and Christmas (starting pretty immediately after Thanksgiving and running until December 25th). Over the years, I've tried to throw up a few Thanksgiving-themed beers, but this year I'm doing something else. Maybe it'll carry through until November 2020 and become a thing? Who knows.

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month for the second year in a row and, let's face it, most of my writing tolerance will be going to attempting to meet that fifty-thousand word goal. But, I don't want to let the blog fall by the wayside so, why not focus on beers that I'm certain will bring me joy to write about. Enter, Maple Beer Season.

See, I love maple syrup. It's my absolute favorite flavor and it's a great addition to many things, especially beers. But, not every brewery utilizes it wisely. Hopefully I won't find an instance of that this month but, if I do, I'm sure I'll at least appreciate the effort.


Okay, now that you know what's going on around here for the next few weeks, let's get right into it. Today's beer is The Bruery's Vermont Sticky Maple.

I survived the transition from 2018 to 2019 and, if you're reading this, so did you. Congratulations! Both of us deserve some major props for that. I have no idea what the new year has in store for me, but I do know where I'd like to take John Likes Beer in 2019--I'll do a full "state of the union" type post about it soon.


Today, though, I have something else going on: Tucking into Saugatuck Brewing Company's barrel-aged variant of one of my favorite beers. Read on as I crack open a bottle Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Blueberry Maple Stout.

Do you remember September 30th, when I drank Warped Wing's Lagerstadt? In my post, I mentioned Holiday Special, a beer that I'd only glimpsed on Warped Wing's website, and promised to give it the full John Likes Beer to treatment come its release in December.


Well, guess what? It's December now and I've been able to track down a sixer of the lager. So, without further ado, I present to you my very first impression of Holiday Special, Warped Wing's holiday lager.

We've made it to Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month! It's October 2nd or, depending on the circles you frequent, the second day of Halloween. Regardless of how you view it, we are now firmly seated in pumpkin ale season, which is one of the great things about fall (actually, all fall seasonals--pumpkin or not--hold special places in my heart) and, in my eyes, is second only to Christmas ale season.


So, what better way to kick off pumpkin ale season on the blog than by drinking a yam beer! Up today, we have Platform Beer Co.'s Yammy Yammy, a sweet potato ale that seems to be a pumpkin beer alternative.