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.

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.

Are we seriously at the second Christmas beer of 2020? Yep, strange as that is. This year's really sprinted right passed my ability to comprehend the flow of time.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, on June 1st, Urban Artifact held its First Annual Missing Linck Day. I, luckily, had the day off so at around thee o'cock Michelle and I left our house in order to make it to the taproom in time for its release.


Michelle had never been to a release before. Good for her but only okay for me, it wasn't like a typical can release. Instead, it was a mellow affair with no line and no bottleshare. That's fine, for an afternoon release I wasn't expecting the whole nine yards.

I'm happy to say that the release was a good time. But, this post isn't about that. This post is about the beer itself, a seemingly miraculous work wrought by the crafty minds backing Urban Artifact. This post is about a golden ale named Missing Linck.

It's odd to me that this is only the second Urban Artifact post to grace the blog. I'm a big fan of the brewery and their take on sours (especially their own addition to the beer style canon: the Midwest Fruit Tart). I was a huge fan of their Milkman (I rang 2018 in with it), but it seems like I'm the only fan that beer had--it's since become a sad punchline in the Cincinnati beer scene.

Can't even take a beer picture without the kitten ruining it.

Today, I'm reviewing something special. No, it's not a Midwest Fruit Tart, although I promise I'll get to one eventually. Instead, we have latest release in the brewery's Epicurean line: the retail-only Salted Rye Gose.

Urban Artifact is one of those breweries that I've wanted to write about for a long time but about which have never found the opportune moment for a post. Ever since I discovered their beer at the 2015 Ohio Brew Week (in Athens, of course), I've been steadily, but not overwhelmingly, enjoying their beers. As one of my friends put so plainly three years ago--I've liked every single one of their offerings.