It's June 21st, the first full day of Summer 2021. We've reached what I call "hella hot" as of Saturday. If you've been around the blog for a while, you might know what that means. 

Bell's released Mango Oberon last summer. I drank it on one of those hella hot early-July days and loved it. You can believe I was ecstatic when Tropical Oberon was announced in late May. I knew I had to try it. And, now that summer's officially begun and the days are heating up, I figure the time's come at last. So throw on some shades and pull up a city pop playlist on YouTube: It's Tropical Oberon Time.

Bell's' Oberon is a summer constant. I have some when the air turns hot each year. Usually, I pick up a sixer or two and a mini-keg (I plow through the latter over the course of a week). Sure, it drops in March but I don't want an Oberon until it's hella hot out. The world needs the heat to make the beer special.

No Lottie today--she's busy sleeping off a big weekend.

Well, now we have today. It's 95° and, until moments ago, sunny. An Oberon would be especially nice today, sure, but I'm doing one better. See, on July 6th, Bell's announced that a mango variant of their ultra-popular summertime wheat ale was being bottled. To my utter delight, I found it stocked at a local grocery store last week. I'm happy to pop into it amid today's rumbling thunder and break it down for you.

It's somehow suddenly the longest day of the year. Summer's returned with it's oppressive heat that the mild breeze is doing little to remedy. The bees are busy buzzing about the flowers before my porch. Really feels like February was last week, right?


I've got a little something special today. An unplanned post. See, I was strolling through the beer section of my local grocery store earlier this week and saw that they only had one sixer of Anderson Valley's Summer Solstice left. I'd kicked around buying it when I first started seeing it in May, but never took the plunge. But, since I knew that the summer solstice was coming up (as of right now, when I'm typing this, it's officially 2.5 hours away). So, I figured, why not?

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.

Summer seems to be winding down (meaning that autumn seasonal posts on the blog are right around the corner) but we technically still have over a month until the season ends. That leaves plenty of time for cookouts, lawnmowing, beach bumming, and simply hanging around outside, enjoying the warmth and the lively nature.


In light of all of this, today I'm writing about a beer that seems like it will be decidedly summery. This is the first post in some time that I'm going into blindly, but the label alone gives me a good feeling about it. And that fact that it's from Dogfish Head. Today's beer: Dragons & YumYums.

What's your dream? No, seriously. Given the subject of today's post this is not only a truly terrible pun (although it is so I'll own that), it's also a legitimate question. See, for as long as I've been going to MadTree, I've known about Dreamsicle. It's their kölsch that tastes like an orange creamsicle. I remember the first time I had it--it was on my very first trip to their old taproom. I was blown away. That first sip was as good as this beer ever got and it hasn't wavered in quality since.

Dreamsicle has long been a staple of MadTree. And, for as long as it's been on draft, fans of the brewery have been clamoring to get it canned. You could say it was a dream of theirs.

Then, lo!, in April of last year MadTree posted this image on their social media pages. Cincinnati beer drinkers went wild. Finally, they'd be able to take this magic elixir home to sit on and share with friends and loved ones when they visited or when they were visited.

But, all too late, people noticed the exact date of that Dreamsicle post. April 1st. It was all an elaborate joke. Some people laughed it off. Some people got angry.

MadTree, however, delivers on their promises. Nearly a year and five months after the joke, cans of Dreamsicle were officially released. They came out last Thursday. I drove straight to the brewery after I got off work to nab a sixer. I came home and drank three cans that night (each can clocks in at 4.7% ABV so put those judging eyes away). I gave one to my roommate. I'm about to crack into the fifth can. I'll try to hold onto the last one of those six as long as I'm able.


So, as you can probably tell by now, today's beer is Dreamsicle. I've had it before. It's good. Now, let's get down to the brass tacks.

I thought that July would be hotter than this. Don't get me wrong. It's hot in Cincinnati. Like, it's regularly in the 80s. But today I went on a beer run at around 2 o'clock and it was only 76 degrees.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm not complaining at all. Kinder weather gives me a chance to sit outside and drink a beer without either a) sweating through all of my clothing or b) bundling up so that I have to pull a scarf from my face every time I want to take a swig.


For a summer day, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find something better than this. Weather like this is perfect because it lets me pair (what I hope is) a perfect summer beer with it: Braxton's Buzz.

It's back! Well, it's been back for about a month now. But that doesn't matter to me or this post. And, I know, I know. Last year I said I wasn't going to write a post for Shade. And, last year I meant it. But, I as soon as MadTree announced the triumphant return of their gose-styled ale, my go-to summer brew (which was sometime in January or February, I think), I knew that I'd be breaking my word and writing a blog post about it. Things can change in a year, right?


Now this is where we find ourselves. Me, sitting the bed in my scorching hot bedroom; an opened, koozied can of Shade on the nightstand beside me; and you reading this on your computer or smart device or whatever, presumably you also have an open can of Shade near you. Well, at least, I hope that you do. Because I will say this now, before this post gets any further. Shade is good. And you owe it to yourself (no matter what you've done to deserve it) to track it down and drink it.

You know what I've been getting into recently? IPAs. No, I'm serious! I recently completed my yearly playthrough of Link's Awakening and selected a Rye IPA to be my go-to playthrough beer. Okay, you're right. I didn't choose it merely because it was an IPA. I chose it because it had a flying whale on the can (the ultimate goal of Link's Awakening is to--spoilers--wake up a flying whale, so the can fit the game).

Regardless of my motives for drinking that beer, I enjoyed it. Especially that last can. I found myself identifying flavors other than hops. I looked at it not as a bitter beer, but as something more akin to a winter warmer--something complex with individual nuances to be unearthed.

I decided I'd better take my newfound appreciation for this adored style and apply it to another brew before I lose it (hey, it's happened before. Last summer, to be precise). That brew is Jackie O's New Growth, a spruce tip-infused IPA that, shocker, I also nabbed because of the can, which showcases a cool Godzilla-esque monster destroying an evergreen forest.

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.

Believe it or not summer seems to be winding down here in Cincinnati. After a good three months of incredibly, unbearably hot days the mornings finally have a chill to them.

I take all of this as a very good sign. Summer can pack its bags and leave. Autumn is the best season, and has the best beers (some of which have already hit the market and have taken refuge in my fridge, where I've picked them off one by one).


In all my rush to enjoy fall and its brews to the fullest, I let something fall behind. Luckily I realized it a few weeks ago and plan to correct my mistake today. With this post, I'm discussing my absolute favorite summer seasonal: Woodchuck's Summer Time.

Not too long ago Bell's Brewery, Inc. (hailing from That State Up North) got into some hot water with Innovation Brewing (of South Carolina). From what I gathered Bell's didn't like Innovation's name (Bell's had a bumper sticker that said "innovation" (or something of the sort) years and years ago. Anyway, I had heard that lawyers were involved. And then, like magic, I heard nothing else about it. I'm sure a quick google search would turn up more info, but I don't really care.

As far as this all concerns me is as follows: I boycotted Bell's for a bit. But, eventually, I decided that I like their beer too much to care about something of which I'm only really half sure (I've had different people involved tell me different things).


What this means is that today I'm able to sit here with a clean conscience and enjoy the bottle of Oberon before me.

I'm excited for this post--I've wanted to write about MadTree for a long time. For the sake of airing my biases I'll say this now, at the start of the post: I love MadTree. In fact, I literally returned from their taproom less that twenty minutes ago. Why was I there? Well, they're doing a special release day for Shade, a gose inspired by a collab they did with Listermann Brewing Company (the place where I purchase my homebrew supplies).

How was Shade, you ask? Well, since I'm not planning on doing an actual review of the brew I'll tell you. It's good, and only 4.6% ABV. If you want to know more about what I think of the gose (legitimately just the barest bones) click here to see my quick Untappd review. To see my "blog" score of the stuff, multiply my Untappd score of it by two. (If you really want to see more about the beer, apart from what I think, click the linked "Shade" in the first paragraph.)


I'm not here to talk about Shade, though. I'm here to talk about MadTree Brewing Company's summer seasonal, Sol Drifter.

It's been hot here in the 513. Really hot. And my apartment is on the top two floors of my building. And we don't have central air. And this whole place doesn't seem to be insulated at all. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to what the summer will bring to my living situation.

What I am excited this for this summer are the seasonal brews. If you follow me on Instagram, Untappd, or Swig you should know that I've already been drinking some of them. However, I wanted save the one I'm drinking this evening for the purpose of posting. So now, without further ado, let's get into Sam Adams' Porch Rocker.

This isn't the first time I've had this beer. Last weekend a friend of mine came to visit. I took him on a trip to my favorite local beer store to buy enough brews to get us through the weekend. He saw this on a shelf and read that it's inspired by Spanish popsicles and had to try it. I figured "why not?"

Neither of us knew what a guayaba was but, judging solely by the color of the beer, we thought it might by watermelon-esque. If not that we assumed it'd be sweet and refreshing, at least. Boy, were we wrong. While my buddy disliked it heartily, I found it intriguing but unappealing.

If you'll harken back to a few months ago you'll remember that my very first beer review post on John Likes Beer was for a brew offered by Rivertown Brewing Company, specifically their Pumpkin Ale. You may also remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it (I rated it at 8.5/10 and Purrl gave it a whopping 9 hiffs). Today I'm discussing my second beer from them: their Blueberry Lager.