Hokkaido Craft Beer

I don't know why but Hokkaido craft beer is widely available around Japan. I guess it is the idea of Hokkaido as Japan's source of fresh & healthy food, especially Western food. 

This means many department stores have Hokkaido Fairs as do supermarkets. These events often include craft beer. This trend makes it fairly easy to stumble across small breweries from Hokkaido while going out and about shopping.

In this post I'll look at two of these breweries: Otaru Winery & Ishikari Banya.

First let's look at a few beers from Ishikari Banya which is located in a rural part of Hokkaido.

Ishikari Banya Gold Lager 5%

A brilliantly clear deep gold with a dense white head. The aroma is earthy green hop bitterness on a light bready Pilsner malt body - not my thing too earthy grolsch like.

Sharply carbonated on a med-light body with a crisp dry finish. The taste is much nicer than the aroma. Semi-sweet, a bit floral and quite bready. 

Overall, pretty good & it apparently won some prize in 2008 in the Pilsner category.

Ishikari Banya Red Ale 5%

This poured a surprisingly deep brown with a somewhat molasses looking color. It's got a rich malt forward aroma, plums/prunes, caramel fudge and some nuttiness.

Medium-light bodied with a scratchy carbonation. The taste is initially caramel with a bit of a hop bite, then fudge, sugar and a lingering brown sugar biscuit, cookie, molasses and some astringency. It's alright but the lager was nicer.

Otaru Winery is located in the picturesque town of Otaru about 30 minutes by train and it is also home to the beautiful canal house that is home to Otaru Beer that brew many nice quality german style beers. 

Weizen 5% 

A pale opaque gold with a semi-soapy head and a sweet sulfury eggy-cloves aroma. The taste is bready, candyish, cloves with a prickly carbonation. The aroma underwhelms but the taste satisfies.

Helles 5%

Served in my footed Pilsner glass it pours a nice looking light gold with a fizzy fast-dissipating white head of foam. The aroma is very bready & sweet with a flour like character to it. Light body with a bright crisp finish. The taste is really good - bready light malts, herbal noble hops. An amazingly clean tasting beer with clearly defined flavors. For a beer marked down to 360¥ where I wasn't expecting much it was a pleasant surprise.

Tuesday Tasting: Punk'in Drublic

From time to time I get my hands on a pair of beers that is just begging to be drunk side by side. This is one such pair:

Coronado made a pumpkin beer called Punk'in Drublic  which they then Barrel Aged. Both of these beauties made it to Japan where the regular retailed for 691 ¥ and the BA Variant went for a hefty 1944¥ for 375ml. Surprisingly, both are the same 8% ABV.

So this begs the question, is the barrel aging worth the premium price? Does it enhance the beer?

Let's start with the regular:

Coronado Punk'in Drublic 8%

Pouring a an orange-amber-brown that brings to mind a luscious barleywine.

The aroma is sweet pumpkin flesh, cinnamon & nutmeg - it smells very sweet and inviting.

Medium bodied with a slightly scratchy carbonation that announces to your tastebuds: beer is here.

The taste gives you a sweet hit that is reminiscent of molasses which I am guessing comes from the brown sugar & honey. Mixed in with that are cinnamon & nutmeg as well as nutty pumpkin flesh.

A solid all around pumpkin beer but I find the heat & ABV makes it a bit boozy. I preferred the Great Pumpkin as far as Imperial Pumpkin Ales go.

Coronado Collection Barrel-Aged Punk'in Drublic 8% 

It may be infinitesimally darker than the regular Punk'in Drublic but to my eye is virtually indistinguishable. It's the same orange-amber-brown. Nice looking. 

The aroma is oak, brandy & malt(or is that the honey/sugar?) sweetness. I don't get any of the pumpkin spicing you'd expect but I do get a plum-like character from the brandy. 

Medium bodied but the carbonation has smooth out somewhat making for a mildly more pleasant mouthfeel.

The taste remains boozy but it is complemented by oak, brandy, vanilla. That booziness fits a barrel-aged beer like a glove. After that you get sweetness, fruitiness and just hints of spicing in the finish. The barrel completely overpowered anything really pumpkin like.

It's a beautiful barrel-aged beer, very well balanced barrel character but it is a shame you don't really get anything pumpkin from it. 

As a beer I prefer the BA but as a pumpkin beer I prefer the regular Punk'in Drublic.

I'd buy the BA again but for a pumpkin beer is from Nagano Trading Co., Ltd I'd probably choose the New Belgium Pumpkick next time.

Breweries & Brewers in Paris

After Vietnam, I landed in Paris for a few days of exploration. My first stop was the Arc de Triomphe.

After that, I decided to walk down for a view of the Eiffel Tower to cement that "Yep, I am in France" feeling. While walking along Avenue Kléber I popped into Frog XVI. 

This is part of a chain that was in the first wave of craft beer in Paris. At this point they have a variety of locations in two styles:

1- The old style are large brewpubs with a sports bar vibe

2- The new style seem to be smaller burger & beer locations 

New style

I often stumbled across the new style pubs in tourist areas but didn't visit any of them.

Frog XVI had a friendly bartender who was happy to give me some small samples of the 6 brews they had on tap as well as a quick rundown on them. I think this was a benefit of visiting during the day. I doubt I'd have gotten such service on a busy night.

The beers were all fairly average but it made for a pleasant stop.

 A visit to the Eiffel Tower and a day of sightseeing followed interspersed with visits to beer spots:

Moustache Blanche

A La Biere Comme A La Biere

Cave a Bulles

Fine Mousse

Are all highly recommended, if you visit you'll have a great time.

Cave a Bulles

  

Moustache Blanche

A la Biere Comme A la Biere

Fine Mousse (bar)

The next day was Saturday so I headed out to visit the Deck & Donahue Brewery. When I got there I wasn't sure I was at the right place as it was a non-descript gray loading dock...

Deck & Donahue Brewery Entrance

At the brewery I met Mike Donahue who was on hand selling a selection of Deck & Donahue's beers. He was in the middle of handing out samples to customers but made time for us to chat about beer with him and other clients which was fun. It turns out he lived in Japan , Sapporo to be exact, for 5 years which was a funny coincidence to me. It is kind of amazing how many ex-Japan expats you find brewing beer around the world.

Seeing that many people were curious about how their beers were made he gave us a short brewery tour. He was a really friendly guy who often gave freebies to people stocking up on boxes of beer. The prices were great too with beers discounted for bulk buys - ex: 3 euros for one, 3 for 8 and 6 for 15 on 330ml. 

Mike giving a short tour

They've got a really solid range of beers, all tasted/smelled from good to great. Nothing really wowed me but for a brewery that is just a year old I think they’re doing really well and I expect they’ll wow me next time I'm around. All in all, it was a terrific brewery visit. I’m happy I made it out here.

growler station

Paname Brewing

I visited here after going to the really fun Trois 8/Demory Biergarten at the Marche de L'Ouen Flea Market. It was a nice walk through the less touristy parts of Paris that ended at a beautiful canal.

Paname Brewing has a beautiful canal side location with a great outdoor terrace from which to admire the zip line over the canal and other water madness. 

Friendly staff, no tasters but they were happy to hand out tiny samples of the 4 house beers currently on tap. Fantastic ambiance/location, good service but average beers. Great place to pass the time on a sunny Sunday on the terrace though... Most of this score is based on location/ambiance.

Pasteur Street Brewing

What do you do with a 9 hour layover in Ho Chi Minh City? Well, if you love beer as much as I do then you seek out local craft breweries to check out.

Thankfully, Pasteur Street Brewing was established less than a year ago in Saigon by a few US expats bringing the US Craft Gospel to Vietnam.

A short taxi ride from the airport brought me to Pasteur Street where #144 revealed a small round sign promising beer a cut above what you normally find brewed in Southeast Asia.

Pasteur Street

The signboard on Pasteur Street

Looking up I could see the bar but to get inside you need to head down a small alleyway.

go in the alleyway under the blue sign

In the alleyway, you'll see a black sign "Pasteur Street Brewing Company" hanging above you on the left and a staircase next to it. Head up the staircase until you see the door below. Wow, cool, they're members of the American Brewers Association. To me this was a sign these guys were taking their brewing seriously.

The door to Paradise?

the black sign

Having reached out to the brewery before my trip regarding whether my quick visit during my layover was feasible they kindly sent someone out to meet me: Ryan the Taproom Manager. He became my guide to learning about the brewery's history and about their beers.

During our ride into town he gave me some background on how the brewery. It all started with John Reid. He has been in Vietnam since 2008 running a variety of businesses. In 2014, he wanted to do his own thing and thought craft beer had a promising future so he went looking for someone to run the brewery.

At Upslope Brewing in Colorado, he found Alex Violette who came over and got to work creating recipes with indigenous ingredients. When I heard that I started to get even more excited to taste their beers - I love all things local.

Ryan the Taproom Manager

So with an experienced Vietnam-hand (John) and an experienced brewer (Alex) they got the ball rolling in December 2014. 

As their popularity increased Alex reached out to his childhood friend from Knoxville, Ryan. He had been running bars & kitchens in the US for years so he was the perfect guy to take charge of the taproom and create menus using his culinary experience to fuse flavors of the American South & Vietnam. Judging from what I ate, I think he's doing a damn good job.

Things went like gangbusters and now a short few months after opening their original location they've now got a variety of restaurants around Saigon as clients as well as plans to open a second location nearby and a larger brewery(going from 3.5 to 20 barrels) in the outskirts of town. 

the bar

the gospel of beer

A quick look around the taproom and it was time for some beers. Thankfully, they do tasting sets which are perfect for people like me who have a strong desire to try as many beers as possible but no time to sit back and explore the menu over the course of a whole night.

beautiful tasting set

Menu

Session Amber Ale 3.3%

It has a nice orange gold color with a solid head of head. A nice biscuity graham & honey aroma. Light bodied verging on thin which was no surprise considering the low ABV. The taste is of quite a bitter maltiness with biscuit and tangy honey. Tasty.

Dragonfruit Gose 5.5% 

A lovely grapefruit pink with a big lactic fruity yoghurt aroma. Tart, lactic, fruit yoghurt with some chive sour cream notes. It made me want to have a baked potato. Delicious.

Passion fruit Wheat Ale 6%

Clear gold with a thick foamy white head and a fantastic passion fruit, prickly pear & light wheat aroma. A lively effervescent carbonation and a dry finish. Great dry finish, passion fruit & wheat crackers. Deliciously fruity. It's a wonderful use of a fruit that's easily overpowered. I loved it.

Saigon Saison 7.2%

A nice warm honey gold, with a great peppery wheaty spicy saison funk. Citrusy lemon, wheat & peppery spice with some sweet boozy heat. Tasty and my kind of saison. Lemongrass & black pepper went into it with a fairly dry finish. 

Jasmine IPA 6.5% 

Jasmine IPA is their flagship beer, most popular and possibly best balanced according to Ryan. A brilliantly clear copper gold. The nose is terrific - floral jasmine, citrus and light biscuity malts. It's got a nice & soft round carbonation on a medium body. Great flavor of citrusy hops, some jasmine with a semi-dry finish. Great stuff 

Sapodilla Strong Ale 6.3% 

A reddish brown made with brown sugar and the sapodilla fruit. Great malty aroma, malty sweet, sugared plums - reminiscent of a barleywine. Medium bodied with a zesty carbonation. Nice malty flavor, raisin, some hoppy citrus, a bit of heat, caramel and just yum.

Unfortunately, the Durian Beer I'd heard about on Facebook was out as the last keg had kicked the night before.

Everything I had from Pasteur was solid and well worth trying, all clean tasting beers, many innovative works in progress and a few dialed in excellent examples of craft beer(Jasmine IPA and Passionfruit Wheat). These guys make a great variety of stuff that could easily sell anywhere. It's no wonder they're doing so well in Vietnam.

By this point I was getting hungry so I decided to order some food. I started with their prawn wraps as I felt it'd be a nice Vietnamese influenced dish. It went great with the recommended pairing of the Passionfruit Wheat.

The Nashville Hot Chicken Nuggets were spicy little bombs, too much for me but the rich creamy dill sauce calmed things down. The recommended pairing, the Jasmine IPA, highlighted the heat & was very nice but I preferred it with the Sapodilla Strong Ale whose maltiness blunted its fiery heat. 

Pasteur Street Brewing in a nutshell:

"The best place for good flavorful beer in Vietnam, Period. Located in a central area of HCMC their central location is home to a long narrow bar serving up US style craft beer made using local ingredients like durian, passionfruit, sapodilla, etc. A must visit in Saigon, they’re opening up a production brewery outside of town and a second larger taproom nearby. The food was good and they do growlers. I can't wait to go back."

merch

 I left Pasteur Street Brewing but still had time to kill before my flight so I headed out to explore the neighborhood a bit. I enjoyed the setting sun while heading to a nearby brewpub that is representative of what you find in Vietnam - i.e. a Czech/German style brewpub.

Nguyen Du Brauhof

The Entrance

I found Nguyen Du Brauhof just a 5 minute walk from Pasteur Street Brewery easily enough and was impressed by the beautiful courtyard terrace covered in greenery.  

I headed inside in search of beer where I discovered they had 3 taps of Adlerbrau: a weizen, a helles and a dark lager.

Unfortunately, the weizen was out so I ordered the other two for a reasonable 31,000 dong per 200ml glass. That's roughly 170 JPY or 1.40$ USD. Service was efficient and as most people preferred sitting outside I had the whole bar to myself.

The Atmospheric Outdoor Terrace

Nguyen Du Brauhof Adlerbräu Vang

The helles was an opaque gold with a thick foamy white head. It had a clean grainy sweet aroma with a med-light body. The taste matched the nose: grainy sweet light malts and maybe hints of banana bread? It was quite a clean & refreshing beer. Solid. 

Nguyen Du Brauhof Adlerbräu Den (Black)

This dark lager pours a deep reddish brown which was lighter than I was expecting with a thin light beige head. The aroma is sweet malty caramel with some fudge accents. It was light bodied and had a slickly smooth mouthfeel. The taste was caramel but it was a bit weird - nothing seemed overly off but I got an odd vibe from it. Bitter caramel malts, sweet, rough and with a syrupy aftertaste. Not for me.

A summary of Nyugen du Brauhof: 

"This place has a great terrace and lovely tropical vibe. Very atmospheric. I sat at the 1st floor bar and got served within 5 minutes. The beers were so so but it’s a nice looking place near Pasteur Street Brewing. Worth a stop if nearby."

The quiet inside bar

After that, I decided it was time to leave so I headed down to the main road to catch a cab. As I was getting into the taxi, I discovered I was in front of Gammer Beer - a Vietnamese brewpub chain. I was tempted to go and check it out but I restrained myself and headed to the airport. That was a shame as was a great looking place! It was what looked like a massive colonial mansion with a huge two-level terrace shaded by trees. I'll definitely drop by the next time I visit Pasteur Street Brewing.