Monday, July 6, 2009

what's not to like?

Friday night involved hoping on a bullet train to Tokyo to meet Tim and his mates for a special beer tasting. After having a Whiskey barrel Iwate Kura IPA at Bulldog, we went and found a very urban, chic environment (ie under the train tracks) to try Mikkeller Beer Geek Weasel (made with civet coffee - most expensive in the World) and Deschutes the Abyss (aged in French Oak and Bourbon Barrels).

Two huge, black 11% Imperial Stouts they were both sublime, as we watched (and cajouled) the nightlife walking by. The winner for me was the Abyss (9/10), just because of the huge complexity, though the weasel (8.5/10) was no slouch. Anyone that knows me knows I love a big, black imperial - so I was very happy. Company was good too. Cheers for sharing Tim! Back on the train for last trains to Yokohama, then home. PHEW safe!

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Which brings us to Saturday. I decided to head to Motomachi to buy some shoes (a steal at 6000 yen down from 16000 yen), before walking through Chinatown and along Yasmashita pier to the Red Brick Warehouses for the Y150 celabrations. If you don't already know, it is 150 years since the Black Ships of Commodore Perry shimmied their way in to Yokohama, opening up trade with the outside world for the first time in centuries (except for with the dutch I believe). Here is a replica of said ships.

 

Anyway, enough with the history lesson. They have an exposition type event at the port, which I wanted to see. First problem was the entrance fee - 2400 yen! Over thirty Australian dollars. Next it was all in Japanese and finally it was a waste of time. The exhibits were bland and lifeless. There was an Anime especially made for the event, though it was all in Japanese and the quality of the anmation wasn't that great. The big robot spider thingy from Paris was interesting, but only a few hundred yen interesting. Get where I'm going with this?? 

Anyway Toyota had a pavillion which amounted to the World's biggest TV showing a ten minute movie on Japan and lots of advertising for it's green awareness cars. Woo hoo. Finally there was a big 20m in Diameter balloon that displayed images at night, which wasn't as fascinating as it sounded. All in all I felt done. Royally. Well the best I can offer is to warn others not to waste their money, particularly as the Spider can be seen from a nearby pedestrian overpass anyway. Oh for shame Yokohama. It wasn't crowded and you could see why. The number one rule of business is to get repeat custom, but there is no chance with the shite on display. Ahem, moving on.

In fairness, my day did get a lot better. I decided to head to Yokohama Brewery (which I had never visited!) where I met up with Chris 'chief running mouth talkalota' Chuwy. We had a really good pint (600mls actually) of Green Fresh, their big unfiltered IPA. Then it was a quick, gassy dash (I drunk my beer too quickly) to craft beer bar to meet up with Homebrewjapan and his missus. A real affable chap, he bought some of the brews he had been perfecting recently, as witnessed on his blog. But not before I got a pint of Shiga Kogen IPA in, from my favourite brewer. 

We made our way down the pier, which was lovely and cool in the evening, with a lovely sea breeze. Very romantic if I weren't with a welsh talking machine and a couple. Homebrewjapan then whipped out the big guns (oh my!). We tried his great homebrew and I must say he shows great potential. For a full run down see here, for HBJ's write up, and here for Chris' two pints worth. I thought his pilsner and hitachino nest IPA were the pick of the bunch, but there were no bad beers. I think they might have suffered from carbonation issues, but that was explained by homebrew. Apparently forced carbonation was used over traditional methods (that's what I was going to say, but he explainrd before I had the chance ;P).

Chuwy then whipped out his big gun...luckily it was a bottle of HaandBryggeriet dark force (8/10) and not his long suffering willy. It was delicious. A big, black wheat (?!) imperial stout. Boozy and long. Cheers Chris, it was a nice surprise. We then made a run to Yokohama for a Thrash, but for some reason it was closed (We would find out later Koichi had a cold). So we made our way to cheers. Haven't been there for ages, as this focus is on Belgian beers, which I haven't been a fan of recently and it is a little costly, compared to Thrash.

We ordered four glasses of St. Bernardus 12, which is a great beer, though just a bit too sweet for me on the night. Great as it was, it was time to down it quickly and dash for the station for the last train again. Whew thanks Chris and Homebrewjapan for a pleasant evening, after a lackluster day. Let's do it again before I leave!

(Above two photos: My second hometown. Always in my heart.)

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