I don't care that most of last week was in the 80-degree range. It's October. It's finally, finally October. And, here in week two of the month, a chill is beginning to settle upon the region. What's the weather going to be in a few days? Who cares? It's cool now. The nights are dark and lengthening. Let's dive into pumpkin season.

The first beer of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month 2023 is something I picked up after '22's pumpkin beer season. I saw an eight-pack of it on my local bottleshop's shelves and couldn't resist the impulse purchase. I drank the first seven in pretty quick succession but have held onto the the final can for today. I'll let you know what I remember about the ale: It's light and I like it.

The beer's from Lone Pine (makers of my favorite Independence Day beer not brewed for Independence Day). Grab yourself a drink and find a blanket for the cold. This evening, we're drinking Pumpkin Party.

Ah, Christian Moerlein. I've had more than a few of their beers and can't say I particularly care for what they do. The only one I've done up on the blog was their Glier's Goetta Lager, which landed squarely in the "okay" range. Anything else I've had from the brewery unfortunately ranks lower.

I'll tell you now that the only reason I picked up this beer was because it was the first Oktoberfest available at my local Kroger this season. I've had it and have already formed an opinion on it (you might be able to read between the lines of the above paragraph for a spoiler) that I hope to get down in type today. Buckle up; it might just be a rough ride.

It's that time again for what's become a yearly tradition here on the blog. See, for the uninitiated, San Francisco, CA's Anchor Brewing does a special beer each year for Christmas. Each annual label bears a different hand-drawn tree each year the beer boasts a new secret recipe. This goes back to the first Anchor Christmas Ale, in 1975.

Since 2015 (when I drank the 2014 Christmas Ale out of season), each new variant of Christmas Ale's been around the blog. Some I liked more than others. Let's see how 2022 stacks up to the rest.

I've never had anything from St. Bernardus before. 

I know, I know. They're a famous brewery and their Christmas Ale is what a good chunk of Europe seems to view as the definitive Christmas beer. I've always associated winter warmer ale styles with Christmas, but, because it's the jolliest day of the year, let's give St. Bernardus Christmas Ale a go.

Maple Month's roaring right in this year. The weather's attained a sustained chill. I've spent the better part of the day writing my heart out for NaNoWrimo and working for the man so it's time, at long last, to break into a beer.

I'll drop the fanfare here and get right to it: Today I'm drinking Roak's French Toast Devil Dog. I had initially hoped to do a two-for post, featuring this and its BBA variant but a quick glance at the ABVs of the stouts led me to think better of that plan.

It's suddenly hot again. Why? I mean, it wasn't exactly chilly when my last post went up but today it feels like we tripped into some weird time vortex and wound up in mid-August. Which is fine--I don't harbor any particular ill-will toward summer--but I've already mentally shifted into my fall space.

It's good that I had today's beer stashed in my fridge. I was planning on drinking it regardless of how the day's temperatures turned out. Now that I'm breaking into it, here's hoping that Narragansett's Fest can help me regain that bit of fall that I've lost so abruptly.

Summer's not over yet! While I've moved onto Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales in my personal, non-blog drinking life, I still have a summer series to bring to its conclusion. I have a couple more lo-cal beers to write about and just under a week to do it. Easy enough. Don't sweat that this is my first August post.

It's especially easy enough since after today I'll only have one left. And, speaking of easy, today's beer should be an easy-drinking one: MadTree's Ramble On. This is a beer that's been on the market for a while now, but I haven't given it a go. Let's see how it is.

Happy Labor Day! We're back at it again with a MadTree beer. This isn't exactly a new beer--I think (but I can't find any info to back this claim) that today's beer dropped in MadTree's taproom either last year or the year before. 

It is, however, new to the blog. See, this year MadTree canned it threw it into distribution. That means that I was able to track some down to drink from home. I ran out the day it hit the market to pick up a sixer. Now, I'm about to crack into my seventh can of it (meaning that, yes, I've had this before, as those of you who follow me on Instagram can probably tell). What is today's beer? Oh, it's Ziegler, MadTree's Oktoberfest lager.

Did y'all have a nice Valentine's Day? Michelle and I went out to dinner, came back, had a drink (beer for me, wine for her) and went to bed. It was uneventful, sure, but it was pretty much my ideal Friday night.


Well, we did all of the above while swinging by a bottle shop between dinner and coming home. The goal was to purchase her wine (which, if you read that first paragraph, you'll know was a successful in that endeavor), but I also was looking for a little something special to write about today: Listermann's Kris, a cheetah beer (it's pretty well documented on the blog and on my Twitter that I'm a big cheetah supporter). I was lucky enough to find it, packaged with its companion stout, Remus. So, today, I'm drinking them both and presenting my thoughts on them to you. Let's get to it.

Michelle and I were excellent consumers today. We were out from 9ish until 4- or 5ish. Now that we're home (I'm the proud owner of a PS4, since the PS5 is supposedly on the horizon), we've since busied ourselves with decorating for Christmas. We set up our tree (Chrissy Treegan, a Colorado Spruce and sister to last year's Chris Pine), and Michelle swapped out our fall decorations for Christmas ones while I hung our lights outside.


After that, we trimmed Chrissy to Nat King Cole's gentle crooning (I have a 1967 pressing of The Christmas Song on vinyl and, boy, is it a treat). Now that I've showered the sap off me for the second time, it's officially the Christmas season here on the blog. So, let's christen it with tonight's beer: Braxton's Jubilee.

Today is the first autumn day that actually feels autumnal. When I took Lottie out this morning, I was compelled to throw on a hoodie because it was 54°. Can you believe it? Better yet, the forecast isn't showing anything above the 70°s for the next few weeks (it's refusing to show me anything further than that). What a spectacular day to put up my second Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month post!


For your frightful pleasure today, I'll be discussing Ellicottville Brewing Company's (EBC from now on) addition to the wide array of pumpkin beers: Pumpkinville Latte. Let's find out if it's up to the blog's spooky standards.

Full disclosure: I've had Franz before. It's been a Cincy Oktoberfest staple since I've lived here. It's one of those standbys that fill shelving units at grocery stores, gas stations, and bottleshops from August and into October. It's a pretty popular beer.


A few years ago, when Michelle and I started house hunting, we took her dad to Rhinegeist's HQ. On tap at the time (mind you, this was in August) they had a sour variant of Franz that I adored. While I'm still holding out that Rhinegeist will bottle that someday, I'm ready now to crack into my can of the classic Franz to give my "official" thoughts.