Be jealous....

I was in Tokyo yesterday to pick up a passport (long story!!) and decided to stop by Tanakaya in Mejiro. The place is the sh@t!! Always great, even if the prices are not always. Yesterday they had World Wide Stout (18%) and 120 IPA (21%), Avery Metistophiles (?!), Dark Horizon by Nogne and Black Flag Imperial Stout, which I got a recommendation about, not to mention hundreds more. 

I was there to pick up some Takashi Imperial Stout by my favourite Japanese brewer. Tamamura Honten, who make Shiga Kogen Beer. Takashi is the head brewer and If you read way back I visited these guys way back in December. They only brew this once a year so I picked up a four pack. Already drunk one, which was sensational (9/10). Here's the review.

Tamamura honten done good here. A reasonably full bodied stout with a strong dark nose. A pitch black pour with a taste of chocolate oils and berries, that just gets better as it warms. Lingers in the mouth. Quite hoppy for the style. Too bad its only brewed once a year...p.s its up to 10% this year.

The find of the day however, as you can see in the photo, was a bottle of Piny the Elder by Russian River! I have never seen Russian River in Japan, so before you could say "Holy cow Batman how did you fit that in there?", I grabbed this little beauty. If you don't know it's a Double IPA (or WIPA as they say over here - geddit?!). It has some majorly good press on ratebeer, so I'll defo do a review when I pop it. Sorry to those in Japan who want a bottle, I think I snapped the last one up...it didn't even have one of those little postings most beers have, just a price tag. But don't feel bummed - Tanakaya still has a kick ass bunch of beers for all tastes! Prost!