Chat with Dominique Friart from St-Feuillien at CBB

Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak with Dominique Friart the head of the St-Feuillien Brewery. When I first heard from Ai at Craft Beer Base (CBB) that the head of St-Feuillien would be at the bar for a talk I knew I had to try to meet her.

I started the evening with a quick visit to the Belgian Beer Weekend(look for a post about that soon) at the Umeda Sky Building to use up the last of my tokens before popping over to CBB for the St-Feuillien event.

To kick of the event I ordered a St-Feuillien Blond Ale which was a nice beer that poured a wonderful clear gold with a thick white head of foam – tasty!

While I was pouring my beer, the group from St-Feuillien showed up, Mme Friart with her husband and their translator. Everyone wanted to meet the head of such a famous brewery & I just focused on enjoying my beer & chatting in French with her husband who was a really nice guy. He's a journalist for a paper in Belgium and was accompanying her on a trip around Japan visiting Belgian events and places that distribute their beers. He told me I had to visit Belgium during their beer festival which was quite a big event. Someday...

pouring the St-Feuillien Trippel

Awhile later, I was able to grab a little time to chat with Mme Friart one on one and ask her a few questions. I asked her what she thought about the Japanese beer scene and she thought that while it is young she felt it was incredible how much it was growing & developing. She found the pace at which it is improving is impressive.

I then asked which of their beers she felt were the most accessible to people who don't know much about beer and she told me that their grisette (low ABV white & fruit beers) is doing really well in Japan and that the St-Feuillien Blond is also a great beer for people to try first. I started my night with it so I can totally agree with her!

I followed up by asking which of St-Feuillien's beers are more adventurous or interesting and she was very proud of the St-Feuillien Grand Cru as their top tier beer.

I actually tried the Grand Cru later that night and it is truly top of the line stuff. It had a great body, light carbonation and a sweet mildly sour taste. It's a beer with a light citrus & spice flavor and is really easy to drink

 

Since next weekend I am planning a tasting of the St-Feuillien Friendship Brews, I had to ask her about this collaboration between St-Feuillien & Green Flash. This collaboration produced two black saisons, one brewed at Green Flash in California and one at St-Feuillien in Belgium. They used the same recipe on different equipment which is what lead to the slightly different ABVs and taste due to different fermentation conditions. I'm really looking forward to trying them both out along with St-Feuillien's normal Saison as a kind of control.

Dominique Friart said that the collaboration came about when they were visiting the US and their distributor there introduced the two breweries. They got along well so they decided to make a beer together and the rest is history... 

I finished up by asking her if she was open to making a collaboration beer with a Japanese craft brewery and she said she was but that she didn't know any breweries in Japan that well and preferred to do one thing at a time. Then she let me know they had another Green Flash & St-Feuillien beer in the works... ...an IPA!

All in all it was a great night and now I have something nice to look forward to ^_^ Not many Belgian breweries make IPAs so I am quite curious to see what they come up with!

Dominique Friart with Tomoyo Kutsuna from Dotombori Beer

Craft Beer Live 2013 (Osaka - Namba Hatch)

Yesterday I went to Craft Beer Live 2013, this is a nice event that supports Kansai Breweries and is held at Namba Hatch by the river. This spot seems to be ground zero for beer events in Osaka with a few of them being held here including next September's World Craft Tasting organized by Ai from Craft Beer Base. I'm looking forward to checking that out...

The event featured 19 breweries from all over Kansai, including larger breweries like Minoh and tiny ones located in agricultural parks that are basically brewpubs (Ajiwai no Sato & Harverst Hill). I had a good time talking beer with Mick, Ajen, Maek, and meeting Duncan Brotherton from Gee Beer. Big thanks to Maek for bring delicious snacks!

I started the night with a Garnet Rouge from Konishi which was quite nice.


After that I had Minoh's Hoppy Pale Ale which was made for the event and while not hoppier than a regular pale ale was well made with a West Coast hop profile. The woman in the pale blue t-shirt is actually Kaori-san the current head of Minoh Beer.

Next up was another beer made especially for the event, the Akashi & Dotombori Collaboration beer (also made for the event) called Beer Hero - a YPL which was a better than average lager.

My Dotombori Wheat Ale was the biggest disappointment of the fest for me, it just tasted kind of off and not so palatable. Too bad.

I had wanted to try the Blueberry beer from Soni Kougen Brewery down in Nara but by the time I got to it, it was sold out!













I followed that with Minoh's Peach Sour which was pretty good, the sweetness of the peach was balanced by a nice tart sour taste, really easy to drink.



My last beer of the night was Ajiwai no Sato's Smoked Beer which was a decent Rauch Beer. Smokey & easy to drink.

I also shared a bottle of my Honey  Lemon Weizen homebrew which was well received and my Ballast Point Sea Monster Imperial Stout. All in all a nice chill event which is reasonably priced (400 yen a glass).

I'll probably go to this event again...

http://www.tcbn.co.jp/beerfes/index.html

Places to go for craft beer in Seoul

I just got back from a trip to Seoul where I checked out several craft beer places as the beer scene there is starting to pick up. I'd just like to share my top three with you which are easy to visit as they are all located quite close to each other. 













You can start off at Itaewon station and go to Reilly's Taphouse. 

Reilly's is a  nice near place located right near Itaewon station on the 3rd floor. They bill themselves as a gastropub & I have heard good things about their food. I just had some of their onion rings which were great. 

 

Prices are a bit higher than average for Seoul but they have the best selection I saw in town with 20 taps of American, European (mostly German as is the case in Seoul) & local craft beer too. And it being Seoul the beer is still just 6000-8500 won for draft beers but bottles can get pricey (especially 22oz bombers).




The service was friendly but not so knowledgeable, most staff speak English & know beer but some don’t I had one waitress who had no idea what I was talking about when I tried to build my own sampler for 12000 won (choose any 4 beers on tap).  

The atmosphere was like a nice big open plan pub, a nice new addition to the Seoul bar scene open since December 2012.

 After you leave Reilly's go back towards Itaewon station and continue walking down the main drag until you hit the end and are near Noksapyeong. Head down the street a ways and you'll hit Craftworks.

This place is pretty nice. It has a west coast beach side vibe, like a cool bistro with a nice back & side patio. They have 8 regular beers plus 1 seasonal and their prices are pretty reasonable. I had the sampler set of their 8 regulars for about 9000 won. 

The service was good but not so knowledgeable about beer. A few things I really liked were they use proper glassware & have lots of beer gear making for great souvenirs. Buy a mug for 11000 won & you get a beer to fill it! They also have tshirts & their beer labels are great. These guys know that looking cool helps sell beer, something more Japanese breweries need to learn. Also, the names of their beers are great as they all reference Korean places. Making them a real Korean Brewery.

They have a really friendly owner too. It's  nice place for beer & a chat. 

I have heard that Craftworks sometimes gets a bit crowded. If that's the case, don't worry! just head down the road a bit and turn right on a small road nearby you'll find Magpie's.

This was probably my favorite places during my trip to Seoul. It is located near Noksapyeong station and has 3 beers on tap. All are nice and the prices are really reasonable (5000 won for the Copper Ale & Pale Ale, 6000 won for the Porter). 




Here from left to right are their Pale Ale, Porter and the Copper Ale which is a new addition to their line up.

Their posters & labels are quite cool- simple typography but striking, again Korea is beating most Japanese beer brands. They have growlers & the staff seemed to know their beer too. 










The atmosphere was bare concrete & wood which I like, very clean & simple. The main bar is open to the street which is cool and across the alleyway you have a basement bar which was surprisingly large. A great addition to the Seoul scene!

All in all the Seoul beer scene is starting to heat up. I look forward to going back and checking it out again soon!

Their delicious porter, my favorite Magpie beer.

They also opened a new basement bar across the alley from the main shop to provide more space for customers.

Reilly's Taphouse: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/reillys-taphouse-restaurant/414996188563056

Craftworks:

http://www.craftworkstaphouse.com/

Magpie Brewing:

http://magpiebrewing.com/

http://www.facebook.com/magpiebrewing