Where the hell is Numazu you say?

Met up with the Japanese beer blog fashionista for several pints down the original baird taproom in Numazu. Chuwy, Capa, Nate and DH and of course TimE downed a few as well as made quite a mess shelling peanuts. Bloggers, Ratebeerians and Tweeters alike drank their ambrosia and immersed themselves in increasing hazy and innuendo centered conversation. Head brewer Chris came down later and joined us for a few too. Top guy. Things started to get a bit hazy, but not before Nate poped out some of his IPA and Imperial Stout homebrew (great job on both!) and Tim pulled out a bottle of Barrel aged Imperial Porter from Full Sail. Like Wow! Cheers gents. 

More drinking and fun and games in to the night, last trains home and through a series of fortunate events caught the last train on my local line (don't ask me how - I couldn't tell you). Special thanks to Chuwy for making sure I got the right train! 

Now Numazu wouldn't be my first choice for a trip again (Much more commercial than I expected) but it was good to get all these beer heads together at a decent brewery. I'm not going to lie and say Baird is my favourite brewer, but they make some decent beer. Now if only they turned decent into great. Maybe Chris is the guy to do it...A good weekend trip, even if it taxed the old wallet a bit!

From memory I had the Numazu Lager, Shimuguni Stout (surprise of the day!), Rainy Season black ale (disappointment of the day), Red Rose Amber, DIPA, Morning Coffee Stout (Fantastic - highly recommended) and Tekioku(?) IPA. Not too bad....

Like Beer?

Went to Tanakaya before work today ( nearly late!). Here's my haul..

Dark Horizon 2nd ed.

Fantome Saison

Lagunitas Imperial Stout

St. Bernadus 12

Haviestoun ola Dubh 12 yr.

Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

Lion Imperial Lager

Samichlaus

and for a possible future trade...

Sankt Gallen Barleywine

Daisen G Barleywine

Hakusekikan Brown and Dual Porter

Shiga Kogen wheat wine and IPA (x2)

Yona Yona (x2)

I'm a very happy chap right now...

Real Ale? Can i have more please sir...?

Well the Tokyo real ale festival is in the books and a nice event It was. Running between 1 and 5 on a Sunday afternoon is certainly a bit strange, but everyone was well mannered and had a good time. Winners for me on the day were the Baird Barley wine, Sankt Gallen imperial chocolate stout and the Tokyo black. The Baird Barley wine (8/10) was big and bold with lots of sweet fruits permeating though the mix. The other two were brews I've tried more than a few times before and were well represented in cask form. My good friend Aiko enjoyed the Tokyo Black the most, so I really think this represents the quality of the brew. She enjoys beer, but as a more casual drinker she tended to enjoy the more mild beers, so it was an all round winner.

The Shiga Kogen was a little disappointing for me as it was a collaboration with Nogne 0 from Norway. Called 'Not so Mild ale' it was a simple mild bitter that fell in to the normal Shiga profile, but didn't present anything special. Oh well collaborations generally aren't the best anyway, just look at the Stone, Ale Smith, Mikkeller collaboration recently....

The event was reasonably well organised, although the popular beers ran out after about an hour and a half and by about the third hour pretty much everything was gone. Hitachino Nest Japanese classic ale ran out just as I was the the third person in line to try it. It had been sitting there in a shochu cask and I couldn't help but pine for it. Oh well.

The best part of the day was perhaps meeting up with other beer lovers. I saw Koichi the owner of Thrash Zone and a lot of rate beer regulars. It was particularly nice to meet Mark (aka Kyotolefty) and the Jolly one. Thanks for the three philosophers beer generously shared by Mark! Great to meet you mate! Also met Nate and his lovely girlfriend, who does the blog 'Good Beer and Country Boys'. Seemed like a nice chap. Keep up the good work with the blog!

Well now I'm back to work and still dreaming about those loverly loverly brews! Onwards to the next festival!!

More Baird Beer

Had the Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout (8.5/10) last Weekend on tap. A flavourful, burnt raisin molasses infused bomb. The only down side might be the *slightly* thin body. Still top notch and the best IRS I've had brewed in Japan.

Their Brewmaster Nightmare Rye Ale was also very tasty (7/10) but this one definately did suffer from a lack of body, especially since I had a Hot Rod Rye from Bear Republic earlier in the evening. Still Baird are doing well and If they keep improving will one day be the premier ji biru company.

My one piece of advice is for them to concentrate less on pumping out the seasonals so often and concentrate and tinker with the few that do impress such as the two above. They tend to be quite hit and miss with their seasonals IMHO. Just my two yen worth...