I've had two Ellicottville beers on the blog, and neither have made an impression on me that goes above "meh." Four years ago it was Pumpkinville Latte, which I gave a 7.5/10. I tried their Blueberry Maple Pancake five months later--that one ended up with a 7.0/10.

Why, then, did I grab today's can when I saw it at my local bottleshop? I have two reasons: 1) I'm easily swayed by anything with the Headless Horseman on it and 2) I'm always allured by barrel aging. 

Here in our just-east-of-Cincinnati home, our pumpkins will soon be carved and our toddler's fast asleep. Now's the perfect time to find out if Ellicottville's Whiskey Barrel Aged Craft Ale with Coffee and Pumpkin (a collaboration with Iron Smoke Distillery) is scary good or frighteningly mediocre.

Today I'm bringing you a post that I'm super happy about. See, back when Michelle and I lived in Cincinnati proper, we lived in the city's Pleasant Ridge neighborhood. MadTree was a little over just down the road from our apartment--an easy drive, but not necessarily walking distance. While I was happy to have a great brewery so close to home, five years in Athens had me wishing for something close enough to walk home from after a drink too many.

Luckily, the summer before we split town Nine Giant opened. The brewery was a five minute walk from our place. I spent more than a few dollars there (and I continue to do so every chance I get). I've loved the brewery and kitchen from the day they opened (I attended their soft-opening with some friends). I was bummed when we moved out east of the city and hoped that Nine Giant's offerings would eventually get canned and hit distro. 

Today, thanks to a collaboration with Silverton's HighGrain Brewing, I'm about to crack into the culmination of that hope: Dank IPA, a beer brewed for April 20th.

This is the third in a series of four posts devoted to Local Blend, a collaboration series of coffee porters MadTree released in January. I'll be judging each beer individually, comparing it to the others in the series, and, finally, rating Local Blend as a whole.

Today is as good a day for coffee as any. In fact, I've already had a mug. I've also had some tea, for what it's worth. It's cold and cloudy outside my living room window, which stinks because it's been 70˚ the last two days (albeit with a strong chance of tornadoes yesterday). So, I guess you could say that the today's cloudy 40˚ is unpleasant and unwelcome. Couple that with crummy sleep last night and, yeah. Coffee's called for.


However, since I've already had a fair amount of caffeine today, and since I have work tomorrow and definitely need to sleep tonight, I'd rather reach for something that tastes like coffee instead of the actual stuff itself. As such, it's a good day to turn to the next in MadTree's Local Blend series: Columbus, featuring coffee from Stauf's.

This is the second in a series of four posts devoted to Local Blend, a collaboration series of coffee porters MadTree recently released. I'll be judging each beer individually, comparing it to the others in the series, and, finally, rating Local Blend as a whole.

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.

This is the first in a series of four posts devoted to Local Blend, a collaboration series of coffee porters MadTree recently released. 

I've had Deeper Roots coffee before. For my birthday last year, which was, coincidentally, celebrated at MadTree, my brother gave me a bag of Deeper Roots' Community Blend. It's really good stuff, and I can't wait to find out what Deeper Roots coffee adds to a beer such as a porter.


You see, last month MadTree dropped Local Blend, a group of four porters brewed in collaboration with four coffee roasters around Ohio. Each can represents a different city: Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Cleveland. I'm impressed with the sheer scope of this collaboration series, and, after sitting on my cans since I grabbed them on January 5th, I'm finally breaking into them one-by-one here on the blog. The goal is to review them individually, see how they stack up against each other, and give the overall Local Blend series a rating.

So, here we go. MadTree's Local Blend. First up: Cincinnati - Deeper Roots Coffee.

I've been waiting to try this one. I'm amazed that I was able to keep away from it for so long. It's been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks now. If you'll recall, my previous (and only) experience with Upland was extraordinary. It ended with my giving Bad Elmer's a very serious 9.5/10. So, needless to say, I have high hopes for REVved UP.


Compound this with the Schlafly coffee blonde I had a few months back, and my frothing demand for this brew increases. Go figure, too. I like other beers from the brewery. I like other beers in this style. I'd have to be a fool not to want to break into this bottle.