Tuesday Tasting - IPAs

Hey everyone, so last week I was up in Tokyo for a few days to check out beer bars & also attend the first Japan Brewers Cup in Yokohama. I had a great time and was also able to pick up tons of beers. Which left me with a slight problem... ...my beer cellar is full. This is a good problem to have but as temperatures will start rising soon I decided I  needed to start drinking down my stockpile in a hurry.

That's why this Tuesday Tasting features 3 beers!

I started off in the afternoon with a Lucky Bucket IPA I picked up from the AQ Bevolution stand at the festival in Yokohama.

It's 6.3% ABV and pours a nice orange color with a decent head and a floral aroma I could smell at arms length! I got hints of mango and grapefruit/citrus, definitely some kind of tropical fruit. The flavor is quite bitter but pleasant with a fruit hoppiness first followed by a more piney finish. Pretty nice. It is a really solid IPA, give it a try!

When I got home I decided to focus on two Black IPAs or Cascadian Dark Ales I had. The first one I popped open was my Alaskan Black IPA which I picked up from Yamaichi via Rakuten.

It's 6.4% and pours a dark brown/black with a light thin tan head. The aroma is floral & citrusy. Wow, very nice! Floral hop at first, a mid mouth malt caramel/chocolate and ends on a clean crisp hop bitterness. It is really interesting to see how they merged the two style so well. You can definitely feel this is a true marriage between a dark malty beer and a hop IPA. Excellently balanced, really well made. It was quite easy to drink too! This second Black IPA I found that I really like. the first I found was Mikkeller's Sort Gul, overall this style has been a bit disappointing to me. This beer was really good though!











The third beer for this Tuesday Tasting is Demo a Black IPA from Magic Hat. I picked this up for a great price at Antenna America in Yokohama and decided to give it a shot.

I think the Demo poured slightly darker with a better head than Alaskan's Black IPA. It's 6% ABV and has a nice malty chocolate aroma but barely any hoppiness. The taste is slightly sour at first, mostly malt with not much hop bitterness. This black IPA focuses too much on the malt & doesn't have enough bitterness I think... As it warmed up I came to  like this beer more but it tasted like a fairly normal dark lager, stout or porter.

Overall, I find that a Black IPA is a style that seems really hard to do well. They either wind up tasting like a normal IPA that just happens to be black or like a normal dark beer that isn't particularly hoppy. Finding the right balance between the two seems to be tough. In my mind, a Black IPA has a malty sweet body, hoppy aroma and a taste that marries the two.

So to rank these 3 beers I'd go:

1. Alaskan Black IPA - a very nice example of the style
2. Lucky Bucket IPA - a really nice refreshing IPA
3. Demo Black IPA - a good beer but not what I want from a Black IPA

All in all a nice Tuesday Tasting!

Craft Beer Base's IPA Event

Last Wednesday Craft Beer Base near the Umeda Sky Building hosted an IPA event where they had tons of IPAs available on tap and in bottles at special prices(200 yen off if you were drinking at CBB). I planned on popping by to try the almost impossible to find in Japan Burton Baton from Dogfish Head early in the day before it ran out but as it was raining the whole time I never left!

I started off with a Citra Single Hop IPA (420 yen take out price) from De Molen as I wanted to compare it to the Mikkeller Citra Single Hop IPA. I preferred the De Molen one which seemed to have a fuller body. One thing that really blew me away with this beer was that the head of foam was so long lasting that it was still there by the time I finished my beer!




I was actually quite surprised when I got there as the place was pretty full for 1:30pm in the afternoon. Usually, when I go there during the day it is quite peaceful & quiet. This time there were a good dozen people drinking like crazy!

 Everyone was having a good time drinking IPAs so I ordered a Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild which I had been meaning to try for awhile. It had a funky piney aroma but a smooth spicy malt flavor followed by a spicy fruity bitterness. A very mellow IPA packing an 8.8% ABV.


 By this point I realized I couldn't keep going at the same pace as I was waiting to meet friends around 5pm I decided to slow down and grab a bite to eat. Thankfully, CBB had put a burger on their menu for the event. Actually, I have no idea why it isn't a standard part of their menu as it was fantastic! I would gladly pay 750 yen again to eat it, one of the best burgers I'd had in awhile. It really hit the spot~!







Seriously, what a great looking burger~!

By this time, the bar was getting busier and busier.




 

It was time for another beer. I decided to grab a Mikkeller Black IPA, Sort Gul. This was the first Black IPA I liked as here the malts came first. Usually, Black IPAs taste like normal IPAs but happen to be black. I think it is really tough to achieve a nice balance. I thought it was really good but to be honest it was probably not hoppy enough to properly evoke an IPA taste. I didn't mind as I enjoyed it.

Finally, my friends started to show up and we had a great time catching up and talking about our hobby: beer!

 The party was getting in full effect!

The conversation was flowing and it was time for another beer. I decided to try the Green Flash West Coast IPA as I had heard good things and it lived up to the hype as a very solid IPA.

 I then followed it up with a California Sunshine IPA and my first Scuttlebutt beer the Gale Force IPA!

 All in all it was a fantastic event! Now all I need to do is persuade Ai to add the burger to CBB's regular menu...

Tingara Kyoto's Ichijoji Brewery's Pub

 Hey everyone, last Thursday I had business up in northern Kyoto so I decided to stop in for lunch at the very nice Tingara brewpub! It is run by Kyoto's Ichijoji Brewery who specialize in fruit beers and always seem to be trying new things. Their small brewery is in the same building right next door. It's a great place that focuses on okinawan food and of course great beer!



 

 They have a great lunch set, 800 yen gets you a nice meal. 1000 yen gets you the meal plus a 240ml beer of your choice from the 4 taps on offer. I always go for the 1500 yen lunch set with a tasting set of all 4 beers! You can also order the tasting set on it's own for 800 yen, each beer is about 115ml in the set.

As you can see it is a really nice looking place. The food is pretty good too. Here are some lunches I had there.

 1500 set lunch featuring an old ale, pumpkin ale,  peach ale & ginger ale. I really loved their pumpkin ale, not pumpkin pie just nice rich pumpkin flavor!

 1500 yen set lunch of a fish curry-delicious!

My tasting set featuring a coffee stout, blonde ale, ginger ale & melon ale.

 As you can see the coffee stout was a collaboration with green eyes coffee. I am not a coffee drinker but that stout really grew on me!









All in all a great brewpub in Kyoto but I may be biased as Ichijoji Brewery is my favorite local brewery. When I visited this week, I realized that the ceiling has been made to have the same curve of a starry night as Ichijoji's logo, cool!

If you need directions in English check out ratebeer's page on this brewpub here. You can also see more photos and my review in my facebook album for Tingara.

Tuesday Tasting : Mikkeller's Orange Yuzu Glad I said Porter

Every Tuesday I review a new beer for my page on facebook and have decided to post that on my blog too.  This week I decided to try Mikkeller's Orange Yuzu Glad I said Porter.

It was a  bottle from Asahiya. It poured a nice dark brown with a brownish-white head of quickly dissipating foam. Right off the bat the aroma was one of citrus  over a malty coffee base. With the first sip there was a sweet-tangy yuzu/citrus taste followed by a roast coffee sweet porter base. It was fantastic with a mikan (tangerine) which brought out the citrus flavor. It was even better with some chocolate which made some smokey flavors come out which was very nice. I also tried it with this odd Meiji Orange Bitter & Chili Pepper Choco Sticks. This was the worst of the three pairings where the flavor was way too strong and overpowered the beer, it did highlight the smokiness & gave it a bit of a bacony flavor but for the most part the beer was buried by it. It went very well with mikans & chocolate though. All in all an excellent beer, well-balanced but with hidden depths. Definitely worth trying again. 4 out of 5.

Craft Beer House Molto

A few weeks ago I had to work in the Hankyu Grand building in Umeda so I decided to take the opportunity to check out Craft Beer House Molto. This craft beer place is located on the 31st floor which gives you a fantastic view of Umeda facing towards JR Umeda Station. They have about 6 tables seating around 20 people and then a long bar facing the window for another dozen people or so. During the day there's no table charge (lunch service from 1130-3pm last order at 2pm) but at night(5-1130pm last order at 11) if you want to sit down you have to pay 300 yen. They now have a standing bar area at the entrance (no view) where you can avoid the table charge & get some free nuts to eat too!

So, if you want to check out the interior go during the day to avoid the charge but honestly 300 yen isn't so bad. The standing bar is a great idea making it reasonable to pop in for a quick drink after work. Which is what I did! I had lunch with my wife, went to work then stopped by for a beer before heading home. The staff were friendly and had ok beer knowledge. The selection was all Japanese craft but had decent variety with the menu broken up into lager, weizen, ale, IPA & black styles. Prices are pretty standard with 650 yen for 240ml and 1100 yen for 453ml.

But for 1300 yen you can get a tasting set of three 140ml beers which isn't a bad deal.

They also have 3 levels of nomihodai. The A nomihodai just gets you cocktails & heartland for 1500 yen, for 2500 yen B nomihodai adds 3 craft beers and C nomihodai gives you access to all 24 craft beers for 3500 yen.






Lunch has 3 choices: a beer curry at 900 yen, a 1200 yen lunch set or a 1500 yen craft beer & otsumami (tapas) set. The food looked great and tasted quite nice, I think it is a great place for lunch.

All in all a good addition to the Osaka beer scene and a great places for a date!

Sankt Gallen's Chocolate beers at Kyoto's Yodobashi Camera

Last Sunday after work I decided to go to Kyoto's Yodobashi Camera Global Kitchen since I saw a few weeks ago that they had a special Valentine's Day beer from Kizakura Kappa Country. Since I always like to support local breweries I thought I'd pick one up.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out they now had some more Japanese craft beers! Namely, they are carrying all three of Sankt Gallen's chocolate beers.

They are only available for a limited time so hurry up and go pick yours up! I have to say I am impressed with Sankt Gallen as they have done a really nice job boosting their distribution for these beers. It is great since the more people see interesting beers the more the craft industry grows.

So here you can see from right to left:

KizaKura's Chocolate Beer 7%
Sankt Gallen's Sweet Vanilla Stout 6.4%
Sankt Gallen's Orange Chocolate Stout 6.5%
Sankt Gallen's Imperial Chocolate Stout 8.5%

That night I tried the Sweet Vanilla Stout. I'd had it before on draft and really liked it. In a bottle straight from the fridge it started off with too much of a vanilla flavor, it was kind of overpowering. After it warmed up though the flavors blended and it became quite nice. It is a nice mild flavored stout, good roast caramel/chocolate notes with a sweet vanilla aftertaste.

These beers seem worth checking out!

Young people are choosing craft beer...

If you'd like to learn about the beer scene in Kansai, Japan, like my facebook page to receive updates about events, bars and other beer related things. 

http://www.facebook.com/Kansai.Beer.Lovers

Craft beer is becoming increasingly the beer of choice for young people. Here's an inforgraphic explaining how beer drinking habits are changing.

How Millennials Are Changing Everything: beer infographic