Wait--the last time I did an Urban Artifact was in 2020? Seriously? Nearly four years ago? Wow. That's something. Well, let me make amends for that today. 

Yes, here in October I'm doing an Urban Artifact beer. Because, believe it or not, the brewery's put out a pumpkin beer called Jack. Let's see how Jack's drinking on this fine, autumnal day.

Oops. Sorry. I promise I didn't mean to take all of June off from the blog. But now I'm back to it. It's summer, it's been hot, and I've had to cut my grass more times than I'd like to admit (even if I had to put a pause lawncare during that terrible heatwave we had a few weeks ago). Time for a beer.

Speaking of cutting the grass and beer, I've been on the hunt for my next favorite lawnmower. Today's can comes courtesy of my coworker, who gave it to me after deciding it wasn't for her. It's Jolly Pumpkin's (boy, I haven't had them in a good while) Blanca. Let's see how she's drinking.

Great Notion is a brewery of no small renown that, until this post, I've never tried. Men with greater fame and wealth than my own have claimed it to be "...the best beer on the planet, man."

It's cold and rainy here. Like, freezing rain rainy. It snowed last night and we're due for some more tonight. When I think of January in southern Ohio, this is the kind of weather I envision--drab and dour.

So I'm fighting back against the seasonal depression that's particularly severe on days like this. No, not with hygge, but with a burst of summer. I've got Piper's Summer Breeze pumping through my speakers. The heat's on in the house. I have a Lemon Bomb in the fridge, ready to be broken into. Take that, winter.

Today's bottle is numbered 293/500 which is insanely fitting because it feels like we're on day 293 of our COVID-19-induced lockdown. I know we're nowhere close to being that deep into this but, man, does it feel like it. Today dragged on and on here on the work from home front.

Looks like Lottie's just a permanent fixture in this pics now.

Since we're still knee-deep in COVID-19 territory, I'm still doing my Tales from the Cellar series. Today's is a beer I blindly pulled from my cellar and stuck in my fridge. With the shape of the bottle, I could've sworn it was a Warped Wing or a Jackie O's. Much to my surprise it's from Little Fish, one of my top three Athens, OH breweries! Let's see how Don Yon Holler is drinking two years out from its being bottled (the specific date on the label, if you can't see in the above picture, is 1/10/18).

Henrietta invaded my photoshoot.

Since this is still coronavirus times, let me preface this post by saying you should wash your hands. And, since it's still coronavirus times, I'll say that this was a random draw from my cellar. I plucked it from my hand-me-down yellow shelves this morning and stuck it in my fridge for this post. Now that I see what it is, I'm happy. I had this on tap two years ago; it was good then, but I'm excited to see how it's aged.

Back in February, I went down to visit some good buds in their new-to-me town of Austin, TX. It was a just a long weekend, but I had a blast on what was a well-needed beercation. One of these buddies, who was in our wedding party, took me around to a ton of Austin-area breweries: Jester King, Family Business, Fairweather Cider, Austin Beerworks, and Celis, among others. I brought some Ohio and Michigan brews down with me to drink and, by the end of the whole thing, I was pretty beered out.


But I knew that I wouldn't be beered out forever. So, I brought a ton of ATX beer home with me: some to split with people when they came to my place to visit (most of these were consumed with my brother before he left for New York), some to age, and, most importantly for our purposes this evening, two to feature here on the blog. The first of these two I'm visiting is Wee Beastie, a sour wee heavy from Blue Owl Brewing.

When I think of a biergarten, I think of outside drinking, like what you'd find at an Octoberfest. When I think of Octoberfest, I think of dreary, rainy days. Coincidentally, today is a rainy day. That means it has to be a perfect evening for me to enjoy Leinie's BeerGarten Tart.


Yes, I know that the "Tart" in the name of the beer leads itself to warmer weather than the Octoberfest experience I've just described. Fret not! It's pretty doggone humid in my apartment. Summer is just around the bend. It's a mixture of dreary rain and sticky humidity. As such, I'm willing to bet this Berliner Weisse-inspired brew'll be nice and refreshing.

Today is a good day to be a beer geek.

Let me back up a bit. I know the gadget at the bottom of the page says I'm supposed to be talking about New Glarus' Octoberfest offering right now. I'll get around to that soon (hopefully sometime this week). But, I felt I should put that off because something came up.

What was the something? The release of MadTree's 2016 Funk Series at the Funk Day 2016 event. This is an experience that began this morning and is now over. Luckily, I got to check it out and  I'm writing this now to share it with you. You'll note that this isn't you standard John Likes Beer post--Purrl is absent from it and I'm drinking beer out of a glass. Like I said, I'll get back on track with my typical reviews soon enough. But, I try to be timely when I can. And this post is, if nothing else, timely.

When I bought this beer (at the behest of my then-girlfriend, now-fiancee) I knew the perfect kind of day to drink and write about it--a cold, dreary, mid-November day. I mean, just look at the art on the bottle! What other kind of day could work for this?


Well, it just so happens that that's the kind of day we got today in Cincinnati. Since I woke this morning and noted the rain outside, I've been planning on writing this post (yes, I'm putting off coursework for this--don't tell my professors!).

However, now that I've done some reading up on the brew, I'm beginning to think it may be better suited for summer. Oh, well. No time like the present and other generic "carpe diem" crap. Here we go.

Rivertown Brewing Company has a chance to re-win my heart with their Soulless Scarlet Sour Ale.Will they succeed? The answer will come in due time, my friends.

In my very first post, in which I laid out my hopes for this blog, I said I enjoyed hard cider. I'm at a point in my life where I'm purchasing beer and cider in equal quantities; one week I'll buy a pack of beer and the next I'll pick up some cider. This is my fourth real post, so I figure it's time I actually talk about this stuff.

Tonight I'm drinking Woodchuck (but you knew that already because you read the title, right?). I love Woodchuck for their "special" ciders such as their seasonals, special reserves, cellar series, and more lately (since it's been introduced) their Out on a Limb series. Truth be told, if I'm drinking a traditional non-special hard cider, I'd sooner reach for an Angry Orchard or Johnny Appleseed, but when it comes to taking chances on something crazy and unique, Woodchuck does it in style.

Woodchuck's been brewing cider since 1991. I swear I read on their Facebook page once that they kickstarted the US cider revolution, which is impressive (and something that I'd believe. I was only one at the time, but it seems like I didn't start seeing hard cider places until the mid-2000s)*. Still, Woodchuck wasn't on my radar until I saw it in my RA's mini fridge during my sophomore year at Ohio University. The brand's name stuck in my head and when I turned 21, roughly a year later, Woodchuck was one of the  alcoholic beverages I bought when I drove to Kroger on my first beer run.

What I'm drinking right now, Cheeky Cherry, is part of the company's Out on a Limb series. Out on a Limb came about in October 2014 as a way for the brewer to get some of its more experimental (some may say "risky") brews into consumer hands. Every few months the kind of cider offered in the series switches. As far as consumers know, once the style is gone it won't return. I never tried Chocolate Raspberry, the series' first offering, but it's second, Spitter Splinter, was delicious. It was sour but had distinct notes of bourbon (probably because it was aged in bourbon barrels).

The series' third and most recent offering, Cheeky Cherry, hit store shelves at the beginning of February (when many Woodchuck fans were still bemoaning the loss of the Chocolate Raspberry). Once I learned it was out I made my way to my neighborhood Kroger (because it sells Out on a Limb on the cheap: $7.50 for a sixer) to nab it. Upon tasting it, I'm not disappointed.

Purrl is disappointed, though. She only gave it 4 sniffs. I guess she doesn't like sour stuff.


Her nose is right: it's sour. But not too much. The story on the bottle implies that Cheeky Cherry is meant to pucker one's cheeks into perfect selfie taking form. It's not doing that for me, but I have a pretty high tolerance for sour things.

I'm basically Sheen.

It smells pretty sour, though, which is why Purrl was put off. It also smells apple-y. I'm not detecting any hints of cherry in the aroma.

Where I am detecting cherry is in the cider's body. Normally I don't write about body because I'm a strong believer in consuming brews the way they are presented--straight from the bottle (or, at times, can). This cider's an exception to that rule simply because of how pronounced the body is. Even through the amber bottle I can see that the cider's red. That's awesome.


Flavor-wise, it's a lot more green apple than cherry up front. The cherry really only makes its presence known in the aftertaste (I should note that it's also there if you hold a swig in your mouth for a little bit, but the aftertaste is really where the flavor of hits hardest).

Cheeky Cherry is incredibly bubbly, which seems to belie its 5.5% ABV. It almost has a soda-level carbonation. Almost. The sourness coats one's cheeks and sticks around long after a swig's been swallowed.

I lived across the street from a Speedway the summer between completing my bachelors degree and returning to school for my masters. The gas station was running a "Summer of Fountain Fun" (or something) promotion where any sized fountain drink could be had for a buck. I would routinely get an extra-large Speedy Freeze that was half Coke and half cherry-flavored. It was always a deep red color and the cherry was alway there as an aftertaste to the Coke. Those Speedy Freezes and that summer are what this decidedly winter-only release brings to mind. It was a good summer full of hanging out at bars with friends and living off of part-time minimum wage.

Purrl's nuts. Woodchuck Hard Cider's Cheeky Cherry is really good. A treat, if you will (and if you like sour things). Should you find it, I'd suggest you pick it up. It nets an 9.0/10 from me and if your interested in it you need to act fast--it'll only be available for a few months!

*Absolutely none of the facts contained within this sentence were checked and I could just be making all of it up (but I don't think so).