November is my favorite time for a beer. See, maple's my favorite beer adjunct. It's so versatile: it can bolster ABV, it can add sticky sweetness, or it can introduce a savory flavor. It's quintessentially North American and, for me, autumnal.

This post is about a ghost. No, not an actual ghost. Those don't really exist. Instead, this post is about a ghost beer. It's a bit of a mental leap to get to that claim, so I'll walk you through it.

Around the time I was really started my craft beer journey, MadTree released barrel-aged variants of its The Great PumpCAN. Pumpkin beers and I didn't really see eye to eye at that time and the BA PumpCAN releases weren't even on my radar. It wasn't until I visited MadTree a few months after the release that I saw a poster for the beers and knew what I'd missed out on.

Now, let's pivot to talk about whales. I promise, this loops back around. A whale is a limited, rare, and highly sought-after beer. I've been lucky enough to enjoy a whale or two in my life. But, what's more important to me are my personal whales. These are beers that I'm after--still usually pretty rare--that might not necessarily be on someone else's whale list.

Beyond that, you have your white whales, your Moby Dicks, the ones that get away and, no matter how close you think you are to finally tracking them down, vanish. For five years that's what Bourbon Barrel Aged PumpCAN was to me (and it's what the rum barrel variant of it still is). Then, out of thin air, MadTree broke some beers out of their cellar last fall, BBA Pumpcan among them. My white whale had returned from the dead. A ghost, one that I managed to trap, one that's been haunting my cellar since.

Today, on All Hallow's Eve, I'm tearing into this ghost whale. Let's see if it lives up to the hype I've built around it.

Yesterday was chilly but today's downright cold. Michelle and I are in our living room with a fire blazing in our buck stove, which is piping heat into our home (we also have a furnace that does this, but a fire's more atmospheric). For the first time in months, I'm not doing a review from my porch. This is from my couch, as I sit in a hoodie and sweats. I've got some Halloweeny dungeon synth pumping through my speakers. It's still, definitely, the witching season.

You may recall me drinking Warped Wing's Bourbon Barrel Aged Flying Heads for my penultimate spooky post last year. Well, this year we're turning that Flying Heads next-to-last Halloween post into a tradition with 2019's Rum Barrel Aged variant. Let's see how the last year's treated the ale.

It just feels like Halloween today, you know? Besides the grey overcast sky, the brilliant autumn colors alighting the trees, and the crisp breeze on the 50-something degree day, I mean. Tonight Michelle and I are carving our pumpkins while watching Hocus Pocus. Spooky.

So, to keep the Halloween convoy that is today's activities a-trucking, I figured I might as well do up my next post of the month. This is a beer I've had before (I bought it on a whim when it dropped the other month--late-August, I think). I haven't had it since but, if I'm remembering correctly, it's something pretty special. Today I'm cracking into Erie Brewing Company's Johnny Rails.

It's raining. They sky's a slate gray. Crows are cawing. Flaming orange and rusty yellow leaves are falling. There's a definite chill in the air. Yeah, this is officially the Halloween season.

This is the kind of fall day I absolutely adore. What better way to revel in the autumnal vibe of it than to crack into the next pumpkin brew I was planning to discuss here? Without further fanfare, here we go: Whole Hog's Pumpkin Ale.

Do you remember back in January when I discussed a beer from Breakside Brewery? If so, you may recall that my buddy from Portland, OR brought it as well as another bottle. In the post, I mentioned that I'd save that second bottle for a time closer to Halloween since it was pumpkiny.

Well, I'm breaking into that second bottle now. All the way from Oregon, we have 2 Towns Ciderhouse's Hollow Jack'd. It's been aging in my cellar since January with a bottling date of "1910HWJ07" (which I'm choosing to interpret as October 7th, 2019). Let's see how the bottle's drinking a year and a week after being bottled.

Okay. Here's the spookiest thing you might read on the blog this season: I'm about to crack into a hard seltzer. Don't worry, I don't have plans to drink another one for reviewing. In fact, Pumpkin Spice is my first hard seltzer. But, since it's out, you know I had to do it.

Last year I seriously expected a pumpkin hard seltzer to hit the market--it just seemed too obvious to not happen. I vowed that, when it did, I'd make it the first seltzer I'd drink. But, to my shock, a pumpkin seltzer never materialized in 2019. Thankfully VIVE's remedied that for 2020. Here we go: VIVE's Pumpkin Spice.

Long time readers may recall two years ago when I drank Platform's Yammy Yammy, a 7.7% ABV sweet potato pumpkin pie-spiced ale. I didn't like it much. It garnered a 6.0/10 rating.

But, never one to learn lessons, I was tempting into purchasing the two new Yammy varieties Platform dropped for this spooky season: Candied Pecan Yammy and S'mores Yammy. Why? Because I found them easily enough (which might not be so simple to do now--I haven't seen S'mores Yammy in the wild since I grabbed my sixer). How do they stack up to the base sweet potato ale? We'll see!

Has it really been three years since I've talked about Sam Adams on here? I guess so. There's a reason why that is and, by the end of this post, you might just guess what that reason is. 

Anyway, it's officially October now, so I can begin my month-long discussion of pumpkin beers/cider(s)/seltzer without getting grief for it. Because, whether you love all things pumpkins spice or hate it, it's in-season starting today.

I'm kicking off the festivities with a beer I've had before, one that I think'll set the bar for the rest of the month. That beer is Samuel Adams' pumpkin offering for 2020: Jack-O.

Today we reach the end of the blog's Oktoberfest season. We're going out with something special.

A few years ago I went to my first Cincinnati Oktoberfest. No, not Zinzinnati; the Germania Society's Oktoberfest! I was happy that they were serving authentic German beer: Warsteiner. I'd never had anything from the brewery before so I got in touch with a German buddy about it. Apart from asking me why I was drinking it and telling me it was awful, he also let me know that Warsteiner isn't served at Oktoberfest. The quick conversation ended with him telling me that I should go to Germany and try good German beer (I still have to make it over there).

I hope I'm not breaking his heart by wrapping up my Oktoberfest month with this. I happened across a twelve-pack for $10 and couldn't resist. So, without further ado: Warsteiner's Oktoberfest Special Edition.

It's sunny and breezy. I'm wearing a hoodie. I know it's not *technically* fall until later on this week, but whatever. It's fall now. And I'm excited to get into the first official beer of my newly proclaimed fall: West Sixth's Oktoberfest, DankeChain.

Why am I excited? Well, West Sixth has produced two of my favorite beers: Snake Eyes (a very good stout) and Belgian Blonde (which is my favorite example of the style and one that I could've sworn I'd discussed on the blog before. I'll have to remedy that soon). I can't wait to see the treatment they give an Oktoberfest lager.

Fun fact: I've never had a Sonder beer before. The brewery's based out of Mason, OH. This means it's local enough to me for it to be somewhat of an oddity that I've never before sampled their wares. I say "somewhat of an oddity" because, believe it or not, there's still a small smattering of local-ish breweries I've never tried. But, I digress.

When I saw that Sonder had an Oktoberfest, I knew that I had to add it to the beers I'd be drinking on the blog this season (being one of the first of the style to hit the Cincy market played into its being featured, too). I stuck a can of this in a sixer I built last month, and, until I put it in my fridge this morning, that's where it's been. But now it's cold and I'm thirty. Let's get to it.

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.

Lock your doors. Pull your curtains tight. Strike a match and light a candle. Grab your cat, or your dog, and hold it close. When the knocking comes at your door, pay it no mind. The trick-or-treaters were nestled in bed by their parents long ago. Whatever this is, it doesn't want candy.

What's that?! A shadow at the window, behind the curtain? No, don't get up! What are you doing?! Keep the curtains shut, no matter what! Why are you pulling them open? No, shut your eyes! NOW!!


It's too late. You've met your doom. You cannot unsee it now and it will haunt you until there's nothing left. It is: Avery Brewing Company's Rumpkin!

It's the week of Halloween! This means, very unfortunately, that Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month 2019 is on its lonely way to the gallows. But, fear! October 2020 will be here before we know it, gnashing its teeth and ready to avenge its horrible comrade.


Before this year's legs stop kicking, however, there are still two beers to get through. Today's is one that I wasn't expecting to include when I first started gathering brews for the blowout. But, luck was on my side and my local bottleshop got a few bottles in. Today's pumpkiny, Halloweeny beer is Warped Wing's Bourbon Barrel Aged Flying Heads.

Today was exhausting. Luckily for me it was the good kind of exhausting--the kind that reminds me of why I wanted to get into my line of work in the first place. So, in honor of that, tonight's spooky beer will be one of celebration.


Please, come along with me on this haunted evening as the witching hour draw ever nearer. Tonight, we break into a horrifying beer; one that reminds us of the reason for this nightmarish season. Now that the sun has set and the moon is on the rise, we experience it: The Fear.

It's a rainy night here in east-of-Cincinnati, middle-of-nowhere Ohio. I'm sitting inside (my posts over the last few months have all been typed on my front porch, meaning that this post is the first to actually mark how the changing seasons are affecting my habits) while good, spooky music pours out of my speakers.


The beer open and on the coffee table before me is the biggest yet for the season: Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale. It's tantalizing, and I cannot wait to tear into the brew. So, let's have it.

Casual observation has shown that Southern Tier, who has graced the blog before, is mostly known for their Halloweeny brews. Of the two they make one, Pumpking (and its variants [coffee and rum barrel-aged]) appears to get the majority of the press. The other one is spoken about in hushed tones and is far less lauded than its royal sibling.


Given that, I think it's only fair that we discuss this seemingly less-loved brew first--I've always rooted for underdogs. So, here we have today's beer: Southern Tier's Warlock.

We're officially into my favorite time of the Halloween season: It's getting dark earlier and dawn's coming later; the cold's moved in (Michelle and I had a fire in our fireplace this morning and I'll be starting another one as soon as this post goes live); and, most importantly, the beers are getting bigger and bolder.


Case in point: Tonight's ale is the second 8% ABV beer I've had in two consecutive evenings. Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin Ale should stave off the cold until I get the fire stoked up. But let's see how it fares as a Halloween brew.

If you said to me: "Hey, John. I'm getting tired of all the pumpkin beers!" I wouldn't blame you. I know I've been doing a ton of pumpkin posts lately. While I wouldn't say I agree with you, I definitely wouldn't fault you.


I still have plenty of pumpkin brews to get to over the next few weeks, but I figure now might be a good time to take a break from the gourdy goodness. Tonight, we have an ale that's decidedly Halloweeny, but not spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, or anything else that's graced most of this month's posts. No, tonight I'm going for something else. Tonight, I'm taking a look at Great Lakes' Nosferatu.