Christmas is coming. Although we have a week to go until C-Day, it's evening now. My home's quiet and dark. My kid's nestled, all snug in his bed. Visions of sugar plums (or, at least, monster trucks) are probably dancing through his head.

I'm not yet in my cap and ready to call it a night myself. I have a beer post yet to write and some music to enjoy. I suggest you get your favorite Christmas album spinning and settle in for tonight's beer: Urban Artifact's Sugar Plum.

Happy Independence Day! I'm celebrating the occasion as is appropriate for flammable me: sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets, and a holiday-appropriate sour ale.

That ale's Lone Pine's Blueberry Sparkler--a beer that's not (as far as I can tell) in active production. My can comes to us from August 11th, 2020. That's fine, though. Sours that are aged only grow more sour over time, right? 

I hope you'll take a quick moment from your holiday to crack open a beer of your own as the fireworky aroma of gunpowder lingers in the air and read along. 

We're ten entries deep into Tales from the Cellar. It's been fun, but, barring an intense resurgence of COVID-19 (which I'm actually kind of expecting but hoping we avoid), this'll be the penultimate entry. I'll do one more, but that'll be it. I'm now working at my place of employment for three-fifths of my week. The virus isn't gone, we're still up to our chins in this pandemic, but life's moving on. Like it always does. Regardless, you'd still better be wearing masks when you go out.

Today's entry is from Asheville, NC's Burial Beer Company. I've been to the brewery twice: Once when I was visiting a buddy from college and again during our honeymoon. The beer-day trip to Asheville that held that second visit was super self-indulgent of me but Michelle was a trooper during the whole thing (she liked Asheville even though she's not big into beer--thanks for humoring me, Shelly!).


This bottle of Anno Domini MMXVIII (2018 henceforth) was purchased during our honeymoon. I was saving it for the bottleshare of a big, funky sour release day that one of my favorite Cincinnati breweries used to do, but that hasn't happened since May 2018. So, I can't say I was too disappointed when I blindly pulled this from my cellar. Let's see how its drinking in Anno Domini MMXX.

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).

If there was ever a beer I 100% intentionally aged, it's this. I mean, to be absolutely fair, I've intentionally aged a lot of beers over the last handful of years. But a beer aged in hopes that it'd drink better than it did fresh? Yeah, this is the only one in that category.

Lottie's just a fixture of this bottle shots now.

Since we're still under a Stay at Home order here in Ohio (or, I guess now it's a Keep Ohio Safe order?), I'm still chugging along with my Tales from the (now dwindling) Cellar series. In light of that, today's entry is a special offering from MadTree's venerable Funk Series: Sequoia's Gift. Let's get into it.

Well, folks. We've officially made it through second winter. Last weekend it was 80°. Then, over the course of the days after that, it dipped back down into the 30°s. Now, it seems like we've settled into an agreeable average that lands somewhere in the 60°s. For now. This is Ohio, so that's likely to change.


Since we're still under Stay at Home orders from the governor (in fact, his office just extended this out until May first), I'm still breaking into my cellar for beer. Like last time, I selected my beer again--in a very similar fashion. I opened my cabinet, plunged my hand in, and stuck what I pulled out of it into my fridge. To my pleasant surprise it turned out to be Blue Owl's 2018 Ol' Wee Beastie. Let's get into it.

Today it's a balmy 79° here in my east-of-Cincinnati middle-of-nowhere. Michelle and I just got back from taking the puppy for a walk around the lake and I changed into a Hawaiian shirt--my go-to summer outfit--immediately afterward and am now sitting on my porch while working on this post. Sure, it's technically early-spring, but it's big summer vibes here. Who cares if the temperature's supposed to plummet next week?


Oh, yeah. That COVID-19 thing's still going around. This is still my tales from the cellar series. Yesterday, when I decided that I'd do a post today, Michelle was too busy working to throw a bottle into the fridge for me, so I did it myself. I reached into the cabinet--without looking--and grabbed a bottle. It wasn't until I opened the fridge today that I let myself see what it was: Madtree's 2017 vintage Levanto Oscuro, part of their Funk Series.

It seems like a ton of my posts recently fall into the same "long time coming" category. Part of me wants to apologize for that: When I slate a brew into the "A Beer You'll See Here Soon" spot, I really intend to get to it next or, at the very least, immediately after next.

Another part of me doesn't feel like I should apologize: If I don't get around to the beer in that spot for a while, who really cares? It just means that I've happened into some other cool brews to discuss.


But, here we are now. Finally. The day has come for me to talk about this beer I picked up in April. Let's crack into the can.

Man, I just can't get the timing right on this whole "Halloween post" thing. Last year, and the year before that, I was late. This year, because I work tomorrow night, life necessitates that I write this post early. But maybe there's some silver lining there. Maybe, if this beer's good, you can go out and find a bottle to drink while giving out candy long before trick-or-treaters show up at your door. That'll make the holiday more fun, right?


So, without further ado, let me introduce my final Spooky Beer of the Season: Jolly Pumpkin's La Parcela. I wrote about their Christmasy offering the day after Christmas last year, and I really enjoyed it. I'm excited to see what the brewery does to something as divisive as a pumpkin ale.

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.

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.