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.

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.

Two things: 1) You really didn't think I'd let the entire month of January slip away without providing a proper post, did you? 2) Did I really go through all of 2022 without discussing a single MadTree beer on the blog?

Good for all of us, then, that I have a remedy for both those things. Here in the bleak, chilly late days of January, I'm turning to a MadTree classic to officially ring in 2023 for John Likes Beer. That's right, I'm drinking an aged bottle of Coffee & Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Aged Axis Mundi (Axis Mundi henceforth).

This is it--the culmination of my COVID-19-induced Tales from the Cellar series. I'm now working from my office more often than I'm not. In July I'll be back there full hours. The pandemic's still with us, and likely will be for some time, but (I really hope) we can manage it. If not, I guess I'll be back with More Tales from the Cellar. For now, though, I'm taking time to ease back into life in the safest way I'm able while also replenishing my dwindled beer reserves.


But, today's post isn't a beer. No, this is the first and only Tales for the Cellar entry to feature a cider. I have no idea how old this bottle is, but I can tell you that I've had it in my possession since December 2018. We were visiting family in Michigan for the holidays then and I convinced my dad to swing us by South Haven's McIntosh Apple Orchards' Wine Cellar to sample some of their wares. I came back with two bottles of cider: a dry and a semi-dry. I drank the semi-dry with my father-in-law some time back and, well, now the dry's what's left.

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.

It's a warm, windy, overcast day here in podunk east-of-Cincinnati, Ohio. I've got Brian Fallon's new effort, Local Honey, pumping through my speakers. It's a honey-slow kind of day. As such, today's pull from my cellar wasn't random like the rest of this series' posts have been. No, it was definitely intentional.

Guest appearance by Lottie

Last February, when I was visiting friends in Austin, Texas, I got the chance to go to Jester King's farm. It was great and I got some bottles to bring home (you couldn't get JK in Ohio then). One of those bottles housed today's beer: Bière de Miel, a farmhouse ale brewed with honey. Let's see how it's drinking.

Happy Easter! It's a weird one, what with Ohio still being under Stay at Home orders and all. That's okay, though. I hid some candy for Michelle this morning and I've been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake something crazy. Oh, and I'm still doing my Tales from the Cellar series.


Today we're throwing it back to how the series started. Michelle picked this bottle for me. It's a special one (I found it last January for $12!): Dogfish Head's Chateau Jiahu, one of the brewery's ancient ales, and one that hasn't been brewed since 2015.

When's the last time you washed your hands? Been an hour? Go take care of that then come back. It's okay. This post can wait.

Go on.

Okay, now that that's done, we're good. Today's the second in my COVID-19 Pandemic Tales from the Cellar series. For each of these, Michelle's selecting a beer from my cellar for me to review. Today, I discovered she's a big fan of how Warped Wing's bottles looks, because she picked one of their beers again. This is something that I'm 100% not complaining about; I love me some Warped Wing. So, here we go: A 2017 bottle of Warped Wing's Coyoacán.

Well, friends. We've been COVID-19'd here in Ohio. Just over an hour ago (at the time of this writing), our governor issued a Stay at Home order. This means that, while you can still actually leave the house to get food, shop, and exercise, heavy restrictions are in place. Effectively, businesses across the state will be closed as of midnight tomorrow.


Fortunately for you, I have a cellar stocked with beer. For all my corona-time posts, I'll be breaking into that cellar and presenting my thoughts on those beers to you. Well, okay, I won't be breaking into the cellar--Michelle'll be doing that. For each of these posts, she'll grab a random beer from my collection for me. Today's beer is from my favorite Dayton, OH brewery: Warped Wing's Grape Creek Must.