Now come the dark days! Tonight, we stand upon the precipice of that most harrowing of dates: All Hallows' Eve! Spirits shall speak, the dead shall rise, and all manner of horrors will bump into the night, bringing untold gloom and misery into the world!

What few comforts we have we should do well to keep close to us. Family, hearth, home, light, good food, and good drink. These are the very things which to aside these nightmares! These are the very things which will bring us through the coming dark and into the brighter days yet ahead!

For my part, I keep all that bring me that sense of safety well at-hand during this season of ghoulish tidings and haunts. Though the cold and dark press against my window, I keep them at bay, if only for a little longer yet. The elixir housed safely within the can upon my table prohibits the horrors from entering my abode. See now the power of Fat Orange Cat's Cat-O-Lantern!

Lo!, the veil now grows thin, weakening to a mere patch of gossamer hanging loose in its haphazard suspension betwixt our world and that of those who no longer walk amongst us. Devilry is afoot on this dark and unholy eve, dear reader. I hope that your curtains are drawn tightly over your windows. I hope that you are well-kept against the terror this night brings. I hope that should some manner of ghastly or gruesome creature call upon your door, you are able to appease its infernal appetite with what you are best able to offer, dispelling it forevermore from your dwelling.

What might you offer to this vision upon your step? Well, sweet treats may just suffice. Yet, if this monster prowls low as some horrid feline, something of greater heft and richness may be needed to make it leave you be. Would, perchance, a bottle of Southern Tier's Caramel Pumking would banish the beast? Perhaps, fellow cowerer in the dark. Perhaps.

I love me some Thirsty Dog. The brewery makes the best seasonal beer around (including my all-time favorite Christmas beer). Last year, I came to the conclusion that, aside from making great Christmas ales and Oktoberfest lagers, the Akron-based brewery also has a killer pumpkin ale in their repertoire. 

Earlier this fall (or late-summer, I guess) (probably sometime in August or September), the brewery posted an Instagram story featuring their Barrel Aged Imperial Pumpkin Ale. I was filled with an immediate curiosity. Where I live, I don't have access to much of the special beers Thirsty Dog puts out, but I kept my fingers crossed that I'd come across a bottle of this supped-up Pumpkin Ale. Luckily for me (and for you, reading this), I found one. Now, here at the very end of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month, I'm ripping the foil off my bottle and seeing if it's as good as I hope it is.

Southern Tier Brewing Company's no stranger around the blog (although my last post about one of their offerings was a little over two years ago). 

Southern Tier's Pumpking's no stranger to me. I've had it before. I've had a rum barrel variant of it. I've had a pre-aged variant (I can't find trace of this online, but it was just Pumking STBC held onto for something like three years before releasing it for purchase and consumption). It's a beer I know pretty well, and a beer that (anecdotally) many of my friends adore.

Today, I'm righting a small wrong. Today, I'm finally giving Pumking a full John Likes Beer treatment.

It's time, at last, for the first true breakfast beer post of the month. Hey, I made it nearly two weeks before ripping the seal off of that one, which has to count for something, right?

Today's offering comes to us from Rusty Rail. I've only had a single beer from them before and it impressed the hell out of me. This means that I have pretty damn high expectations for what I have on hand today: Waffle Sauce. If it holds up to those expectations, good news! I have a pint of it to drink. If it's bad, well, I'll still finish the pint.

This is a bottle I've been sitting on for two years, waiting for the perfect time to break into it. Tomorrow's the last day of my vacation and I don't have any more PTO in sight (we might have a snow day this week if the weather reports are right, but I've learned to not hold my breath). As such, and especially now that we're just beyond the two year anniversary of the beer, I'm deeming the time perfect enough. Let's say goodbye to my vacation in style.

The beer is Paradise's Off Kilter. I had three bottles of it initially. I took one down to Texas with me a week after it released and split it with a buddy. After today, I'll have one left. Who knows how long that'll last in my cellar before the time is perfect enough to break into it again?

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.

You might remember a little over a month ago when I broke into my first Black Is Beautiful (Streetside's variant of the world-wide collaborative stout effort, conceptualized by San Antonio, TX's Weathered Souls Brewing Company). The whole point of the effort is for breweries to commit to equality, make the beer (while possibly putting their own twist on the recipe), and give the proceeds from it to local organizations that support police brutality reform, legal defense funds for those who have been wronged by the police, and entities that support inclusion and equality. Information on the effort can be found on the official Black is Beautiful website.

I wasn't sure how many takes on Black is Beautiful I'd get to address here. Truth be told, I was excited to find the first from Streetside. I'm happy to break into my second today, Rhinegeist's variant, which is a 10% ABV Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Let's get to it.

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.

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.

We've made it to Halloween night which, on the blog, marks the finale of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month. It's been a gloomy Halloween, which may be why we haven't heard a single knock on our door tonight. Michelle and I weren't sure we'd get many trick or treaters here anyway, which means that now we have to eat all the candy I bought for tonight by ourselves. Bummer, I guess. (I did see a family across the street before the rain started in force, but it guess the downpour scared them inside.)

In late September of last year, my brother gave me an early birthday present. It was a beer in a box. Well, okay, a bottle of beer in a box. But, the box wasn't a shoebox or a typical gift box; no, this box was designed to be an extra level of packaging by the brewery responsible for the beer it contained.

In three days it will be Halloween! Unfortunately, I'll be working that night so I won't be able to fully get my spook on. The good news is that I still have two more Spooky Beers of the Season to get through so I won't be too down in the dumps on Tuesday.