It's a gorgeous mid-September day in my little corner of the world (that's east-of-Cincinnati, middle-of-nowhere to you). The sun's high overhead, there're a few clouds scattered across the sky, the summer's last insects are buzzing blissfully in the tall grass and woods of the lot nextdoor, and the oppressive heat has finally let us be. I have some work before me this afternoon still (cutting the grass and an oil change), but it's time for a well-deserved break.

The beer I'm using to supplement that break is Bell's Octoberfest Beer. This is one I've been itching to try for years, but haven't found it in time to fit it into the blog's Oktoberfest schedule. Thankfully, that's changing today.

It's June 21st, the first full day of Summer 2021. We've reached what I call "hella hot" as of Saturday. If you've been around the blog for a while, you might know what that means. 

Bell's released Mango Oberon last summer. I drank it on one of those hella hot early-July days and loved it. You can believe I was ecstatic when Tropical Oberon was announced in late May. I knew I had to try it. And, now that summer's officially begun and the days are heating up, I figure the time's come at last. So throw on some shades and pull up a city pop playlist on YouTube: It's Tropical Oberon Time.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale was the first IPA to ever hook me. It was the first offering of the style I'd had that didn't wallop me with loads of hops from the first swig onward. While I've since trained my brain to overlook that "wow, this is really bitter and probably poisonous" response and can get behind some super hoppy IPAs, there'll always be a special place in my heart for Two Hearted.

So, when I found out Bell's had Light Hearted, a lo-cal sister beer to Two Hearted, I hunted some down to try immediately. I recall being impressed. Yes, that means that this isn't a new-to-me entry in my ongoing lo-cal beer series. But, I do think it's been long enough since I had Light Hearted (I only ever bought that single sixer before grabbing today's can) that I'm heading into the ale with fresh enough taste buds. Let's see how my initial impression's held up.

It's mid-January now, somehow. Which is weird. But fine, I guess? We still have the majority of 2021 spread wide before us and, while the breweries that will have long since announced their lineup for the year, there's always wiggle room for special every now and then, right?

There are some rules I'll be abiding by for my choices: 

1) Each beverage on my list must be a beer

2) It needs to be a beer that's not currently available via distribution

3) It needs to be a beer whose distribution has been slumbering for at least a year (meaning that you won't see a Christmas beer that's only just returned to a brewery's vault)

4) No collaborations--while I wish some of my favorite collabs will be brewed again, I know that the odds of two or more entities working on a beer they've already done is slim to none

Now that you know how this'll be played, let's get to the list. These aren't in any particular order aside from how they came to mind. I'll give five beers I want to see hit distro and I'll tack a few extras on at the end that don't necessarily fit the criteria I've listed above. Because what's the point of rules if you can't break them?

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.

Bell's' Oberon is a summer constant. I have some when the air turns hot each year. Usually, I pick up a sixer or two and a mini-keg (I plow through the latter over the course of a week). Sure, it drops in March but I don't want an Oberon until it's hella hot out. The world needs the heat to make the beer special.

No Lottie today--she's busy sleeping off a big weekend.

Well, now we have today. It's 95° and, until moments ago, sunny. An Oberon would be especially nice today, sure, but I'm doing one better. See, on July 6th, Bell's announced that a mango variant of their ultra-popular summertime wheat ale was being bottled. To my utter delight, I found it stocked at a local grocery store last week. I'm happy to pop into it amid today's rumbling thunder and break it down for you.

Okay, so for today's post I'm revisiting a beer. Nearly two years ago I made a post for Bell's' Christmas Ale. It was good. No spice. A 9/10. Since then, something happened.


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?

Hey there, everyone! If you follow my Instagram, you'll know that I recently stocked up on wide array of brews to drink while Michelle and I were away on vacation. Well, we were gone for the better part of last week and I managed to drink every single beer I brought into the cabin with me (and a growler from Devil's Kettle). In total, I consumed twelve (!) brews I have not discussed previously on the blog. I want to take a brief moment to rectify that now.


As you'll note, I said brief above. And that's what this post'll be. Brief. Purrl won't be in it. I won't go into details about the breweries. There'll be no memory sharing. I'll post a picture of each beer, a link to the brewery that crafted it, and the thoughts I recorded while drinking it, all in the order they were consumed. Short and sweet.

Here we are at Bell's again. This marks the fourth offering from the Michigan brewery I've discussed on the blog. Why do I write about it so much? Chalk it up to the following reasons (these are the most easily recognizable causes I can imagine): 1.) Bell's makes so many seasonals that they're easy to find and, therefore, try; 2.) I'm a state removed from the brewery, so their beer is basically everywhere I turn to buy beer (not a bad thing at all, by the way); 3.) I have family in close proximity to Bell's, so I heard a lot about it growing up.  Regardless of the reasons, I'm not upset that I get to try so much beer from Bell's.


Winter White Ale does, however, receive a distinction that only one other Bell's beer about which I've written has enjoyed: The experience I'm about to describe is the first time I've tried the brew.

Going into it, I don't know a lot about Winter White. I know that it's a wheat ale. I know that it's ABV is 5%. That's about it. I'm expecting this to be something of a wheaty Belgian white style ale.

This the half-way point of my Christmas beer posts. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that I've seen Bell's' Christmas Ale in stores before. I've seen it plenty of times. It's just never appealed to me. It features a Christmas tree standing alone in a field of grain. That's never exactly struck me as Christmasy.


Until now, that is. I would never in a million years be able to tell you why I'm ready to try Bell's' yuletide offering this year. I just am. Let's hope that that readiness works out for me.

What grabbed me most about this beer the first time I saw it was its label. The owl, the mossy tree branches, the sweeping red and orange leaves. I'm someone who loves autumn. It gets under my skin and into my bones. Without knowing what experience I'd find in the bottle's contents, I could tell from the label alone that it'd wrap me up in fall.


Now that I've had a bottle (and then many more), I am able to judge whether that initial impression of Bell's' Best Brown Ale was accurate. This means that, yes, I have had this beer before. This is not a fist-time experience for me. But, do not let that lessen the value of my discussion in your eyes. You may be surprised by what I have to say (or, you might not).

Not too long ago Bell's Brewery, Inc. (hailing from That State Up North) got into some hot water with Innovation Brewing (of South Carolina). From what I gathered Bell's didn't like Innovation's name (Bell's had a bumper sticker that said "innovation" (or something of the sort) years and years ago. Anyway, I had heard that lawyers were involved. And then, like magic, I heard nothing else about it. I'm sure a quick google search would turn up more info, but I don't really care.

As far as this all concerns me is as follows: I boycotted Bell's for a bit. But, eventually, I decided that I like their beer too much to care about something of which I'm only really half sure (I've had different people involved tell me different things).


What this means is that today I'm able to sit here with a clean conscience and enjoy the bottle of Oberon before me.