John's Beer Blog: limited

11/23/25: Wandering Monsters Brewery's Viator Obscura: Maple Barrel Aged

5:44 PM

This month's gotten away from me, but, honestly, I knew that'd happen. Between my returning to work, juggling homelife with a wonderful wife and two rambunctious beans, NaNoWriMo (which I've adjusted from writing fifty-thousand words this month to just "write every day"), and the rest of everything happening, well, it's pretty clear that the blog would fall by the wayside.

A bottle of Maple Barrel Aged beside a glass containing it.

But it's maple month, the best month for beer drinking of the year! I won't let it slip away so easily. That's why, tonight, I'm getting around to Wandering Monsters' Viator Obscura: Maple Barrel Aged.

3 melba hiffs

10/27/25: Angry Orchard Cider Company's Blood Orange and Headless Pumpkin

1:33 PM

Four days out from Halloween. Four days from wandering the streets at night with my kid, calling on strangers' doors for treats. This season is one of my favorites and it always goes by too quickly.

Cans of Blood Orange and Headless Pumpkin beside Halloween decorations.

I have three posts left (including today's) to see it off. I'll have my annual Vincent Price-esque post next time (no AI is used in its making!), followed by the Halloween post proper. But first, we have to get to the only ciders I'm doing up this month. Out of the four varieties in the Thriller Pack, these are the two I wanted to write about. Without further ado: Angry Orchard's Blood Orange and Headless Pumpkin.

limited

10/21/25: Schlafly Beer's Vanilla Pumpkin Ale

4:21 PM

October keeps rolling on. Soon enough, the big night will be here (it's next week!). Until then, I have a small handful of pumpkin and Halloween-inspired beverages to get to. Will I make it to all of them? We'll see. That's the scariest part of the season for me.

A bottle of Schlafly Vanilla Pumpkin by Halloween décor.

Tonight, however, we're visiting a variant of an old favorite: Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale. How does adding vanilla to a tried-and-true standby tweak the flavor? Let's dive in and find out.

8 hiffs

12/31/24: Tales from the Cellar NYE Edition--Braxton Brewing Company's Dark Charge CInnamon Roll (2020)

9:27 AM

Dry January begins tomorrow, so this beer is my last hurrah for a month. Given that, I thought I'd break out something special. Yesterday, I ventured deep into my cellar to see what I could find. Now, let's explore this aged stout together.

Dark Charge Cinnamon Roll poured into a glass beside the bottle it came in.

I'm saying my goodbyes to 2024 with Braxton's Dark Charge Cinnamon Roll. This came as the second of three bottles in the Dark Charge Breakfast Box (I have the other two stashed away for who knows when). My bottle is number 49/1000. Grab yourself a beer and let's bid farewell to this year together and in style.

8 hiffs

11/26/24: Jackie O's Pub & Brewery's Cellar Cuvée 15

6:27 PM

What a month November's been! I'm sprinting to the finish line of NaNoWriMo (50k words is calling my name) and just about ready to deck the halls around the blog to ring in the Christmas season. But before we start the Old Saint Nick welcoming procedures, we have one Maple Month offering to make.

A bottle of Cellar Cuvée 15 on a bookshelf full of Tolkien books.

We're finishing Maple Month proper as we started it: With a barleywine from Jackie O's. But, it's more than just a barleywine, it's a barleywine cuvée. It's Cellar Cuvée 15.

1911 established

11/15/24: 1911 Established's Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Hard Cider

7:29 PM

The maple train keeps a-rolling this month. Today, we're looking at one of two maple ciders I have slated for Maple Month '24. I found this single can nestled in the shelves of a nearby bottleshop some few months back. Pleased to see it (I hadn't had much luck in finding maple beers or ciders for this year), I immediately grabbed it and headed to the checkout.

A can of Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Hard Cider

That cider is (as you probably deduced from the title of this post) 1911 Established's Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Hard Cider. I'm going into my can with no prior experience regarding the cider itself or the cidery. Here's hoping its worth my initial excitement!

10w-40

10/14/24: Hi-Wire Brewing's Pumpkin Spicewalla Latte 10W-40

1:59 PM

This evening's beer (a surprise! I was saving the for later but the sudden chill in the area bumped it up) was a gift from my dad. He and my mom came down to visit last month so they could spend some time with their favorite (i.e. only) grandkid.

Pumpkin Spicewalla Latte 10W-40 by some Halloween decorations.

While doing so, we all swung by a local bottleshop. I somehow (that's sarcastic, by the way. It doesn't come through great over text) convinced Dad to grab a couple of beers for himself. One of those was Hi-Wire's Pumpkin Spicewalla Latte 10W-40 (Pumpkin Spicewalla henceforth). Before he left, he broke the four-pack in half, taking two cans with him and leaving two with me. Thanks, Dad! Let's see how this stout drinks.

7 hiffs

11/20/23: Tales from the Cellar--Goose Island Beer Co.'s Bourbon County Brand #4 Stout (Revisited)

5:48 PM

I'm making the second post of 2023's Maple Month a fun one. I try to nab an extra bottle/can of the beers I discuss in November whenever I'm able, in the hope that I'm able to revisit them some Maple Month down the road. I have a small shelf in my beer cabinet dedicated to this.

BCBS #4 in a Goose Island stemmed glass beside its empty bottle

Do you remember two years back when I did up Goose Island's maple-forward Bourbon County Brand Stout? I loved it, giving it my highest recommendation. Since I'm keeping things compressed this month, I figured I could break into my second (of two!) bottles of the beer today. Let's see if BCBS Special #4 is just as good at three years old as it was at one.

28 hiffs

8/30/23: HighGrain Brewing Company's Tipper

2:56 PM

Possibly my favorite kind of beer for summer months is a spruce tip IPA. Not sours nor lagers (although I drink both styles during the summer, too!), but this very specific adjunct IPA.

I've only had a few IPAs of this style in the past (and I wrote about one over seven years ago). Seriously, these are things I encounter with great infrequency. Imagine, then, my surprise at finding a single can of one at my local bottleshop. I picked it up without knowing anything about it other than the brewery (which I've had before and have featured on the blog). Figuring that I love the this kind of beer and can appreciate the brewers, I bought the can. Today, let's see if HighGrain's Tipper is what I'm hoping for from one of my favorite styles.

7 hiffs

9/28/22: Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.'s Oktoberfest

9:21 AM

We have, after nearly a month, now arrived at the penultimate Oktoberfest 2022 post. When I wake up now, the temperatures are in the 40s (that's Fahrenheit, mind you). Soon enough, there'll be dawn frost, the trees will finally don their autumn's best, and Michelle and I will be carving our little family of Halloween Jack-o'-lanterns.

But, before we get to all that, we have to run out September and the final few Oktoberfest-style lagers. So, today we're doing the single can I bought of Toppling Goliath's entry into the canon. How's it drink?

4 háma hiffs

9/21/22: Off Color Brewing's Waddle

2:26 PM

This one's something special. Off Color is one of those few breweries who seem to craft magic whenever they put malt, hops, and yeast to water.

When they announced Waddle's distribution range this year, I knew that I'd be able to secure a can: It's available in Chicago (and, most likely, the rest of Illinois), Missouri, and Michigan. Guess whose parents were in Michigan in time for the drop? Yeah, that's right. This one's for my mom and dad.

28 hiffs

7/2/22: Jackie O's Pub and Brewery's Double Who Cooks

12:21 PM

Okay, okay. I promise you that I didn't intend to do to Jackie O's beers in a row. Hell, until a few days ago, I had no clue today's beer existed. But the stars suddenly aligned and here we are.

We're doing an owl beer today, and there's a point to it (one we'll get to in due time). Here we go: Jackie O's Double Who Cooks.

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