On the road again!

Hello, sorry again for the gap between submissions. Life as always has taken me to yet another new place with new beverages to try. This time I am going to be in the great state of Texas. Although not widely known for their craft beer scene, perhaps more so for BBQ and rodeos, Texas has had a few brews which I have enjoyed.

First I will start with Real Ale Brewing Company from Blanco Texas their Devil’s Backbone which is a Belgian style tripel was pretty solid. Although wheaty (for those following along know I’m not much of a fan of wheat beer) it had some good slightly fruity undertones and sat at a solid 8.1% ABV. 

Next is Saint Arnold Brewing Company, they are based in Houston and claim to be the oldest craft brewery in Texas. I tried their Spring Bock. I liked it, darkish amber color with a slightly malty taste and a hint of hops at the end. That said, I’m thinking I still prefer the Namahage Bock from Akita’s Aqulia Brauhaus.

While at a local restaurant here in Denton it was suggested to me to try Rahr & Sons Iron Thistle from Fort Worth Texas, which is a strong scotch ale style, similar in flavor to Founder’s Dirty Bastard. It has 8% ABV and a fairly sweet malty taste. Overall I really enjoyed it.

Following that we have Lakewood Lager from Lakewood Brewing Company in Garland Texas. I wasn't blown away by this one, I liked it, it had reasonable flavor. A decent blend of hops and malts, I’d say leaning towards bitter hops. Not bad, but I’ll definitely be trying something new before I revisit this one.

Another from Rahr & Sons is the Ugly Pug black lager. I really was drawn to this one because of the dog on the bottle, I really like the artwork. It is overall a good beer though, similar in taste to Guinness if I had to compare it to something, but in my opinion, much better.

Next I’ll mention two at once, the Revolver Brewing’s Sidewinder and Blood & Honey. Now, these two drinks tasted pretty damn similar. The sidewinder was a bit more of a pale ale taste, slightly more hops, but the Blood & Honey was almost the same. Lots of spices, they tasted almost like a seasonal pumpkin beer without the pumpkin. They were ok, just not what I was expecting. I’d be interested in checking out other stuff from this company, but likely not these again.

Now we have two IPAs from different parts of the country. First from Colorado there is Odell Brewing Company’s IPA which was quite good. As an IPA drinker I really enjoyed this one. It had a slightly piney scent and wasn't too bitter, very drinkable. Next is Boulevard Brewing Company’s Pop-up Session IPA, lower ABV for an IPA at 4.2, it was ok. I don’t think I’d get it again. The hoppy flavor was not too strong, it was very drinkable, but overall I feel when compared to other IPAs there are better options out there. The only thing I can say for it was that it came in an interesting 6 pack box. I hadn’t seen anything like that before.

Lastly we have Sierra Nevada’s Nooner pilsner and Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA. The Nooner pils wasn't bad. I could easily see myself drinking that on a weekend just hanging out with friends. It would be a perfect summer beer to have at a BBQ or party. I’ll definitely be looking for this again in the future. The 60 Minute is a great go to IPA, hoppy with a slight lemon taste, a noble beer overall. 

Thank you readers for taking the time to check out my most recent discoveries, hopefully there will be more to come before too long, Cheers!

Some beverages not so abroad...

Hello dear readers. Again sorry for the delay, I have some great drinks in store for you today.

 I recently moved to Pacific Grove California where I have had the chance to try a few of the somewhat local craft beers.  

I say somewhat, only because I’m not too knowledgeable about the geography of California but, what I have had so far isn’t too far from here.

First off I had a few beers from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company.  One of their big selling points is Organic Beer. Which, I’m not entirely sure I taste the difference to be honest.  It’s good, and the bottles are quite large. I got a mixed six pack of 1pint 8ounce bottles for around 12 dollars. Not too bad of a deal really.

The pack I had contained an Amber Ale, which was a good standalone beer, not too strong, very mild hoppy flavor with 5% ABV, A good very drinkable beverage. It was probably my favorite of the three.

The second was an Organic IPA, another which wasn’t bad. Quite hoppy, as to be expected, good finish fairly bitter, 7% ABV.  

The last was called The Peoples Porter. Apparently it is brewed with coffee and vanilla, both of which had very subtle hints. I was drinking it cold, though I’m under the impression it might have been better at room temperature. 5% ABV a hearty reasonably full bodied drink.

A few of the others I’ve had recently include a selection from the Speakeasy Ales and Lagers from San Francisco: The Prohibition Ale, Big Daddy IPA, and Tallulah IPA.

Prohibition Ale was pretty good. I had “Prohibition Style” ale before and I was not impressed. I believe the one I did not like was Batch 19 (a sneaky Coors beer in disguise).  This one however was much better. Fairly bold taste, slight caramel flavoring, a nice rich color. Not bad overall, very tasty. 

Big Daddy IPA was pretty standard as IPA’s go. Not amazing, drinkable, but I preferred the Prohibition Ale instead.

The last of the ones I tried from them was Tallulah Extra Pale Ale, an interesting drink, starts with a slightly fruity note then leaves off with the hoppy slightly dry finish, very flavorful, a pretty interesting drink if you like pale ales.

From English Ales Brewing Company I had Dragon Slayer IPA and 1066 Pale Ale. Both of which were good.

The Dragon Slayer was very dark; not such a high ABV only 5.2% but it had a lot of flavor. I had it with dinner one night; it was amazing with a roast beef sandwich.

The 1066 pale ale was definitely what it said, a standard pale ale, light taste, reasonably hoppy 6% ABV. I’m looking forward to trying more of their brews soon.

The last drink of this update is Alley Cat amber ale from Lost Coast Brewing Company.  At 5.5% ABV it is quite drinkable. Lots of flavor, good color and a reasonable price for a six pack, something like 8 dollars. It has a slight caramel taste to it with a mild hops aftertaste.  Another company I look forward to sampling more beverages from.

As a whole it has been fairly eventful. I recently met another beer enthusiast locally, we plan on making a trip soon to get to a few of these breweries.  I’m very excited for the new beverages to try on the west coast. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Drinks of summer ahoy!

Hello readers. Thanks for checking in! Again, sorry for the lack of updates. I have been very busy the last few months and I have had some good drinks I would like to share. So let's get to it.

Trying an "Africa pale ale".

First off I would like to mention the Akita Craft Beer Festival. It was a fun way to sample some of Japan's micro breweries. Allegedly there were around 70 different companies represented. Several I had heard of before, including Akita's own Tazawako and Aquila breweries.

I sampled about eight or so different beers. I enjoyed the setup, however I thought it was a bit expensive. Something like four 200ml drinks for 1000 yen. I also purchased a small drinking glass to remember the occasion.

As a whole, the beer festival was fun. Though not as nice as the Michigan Beer Festival in Ypsilanti. In my opinion the Akita one has some growing to do.

I would guess there was around 200 people on Sunday, when I went. I understand that the first day had more beer, which was rotated every few hours, and a lot more people. As a whole though the day was perfect for drinking, and my friends and I had a good time.

Displayed left is a shot of some drinks I have recently tried. I might not have a super accurate description of all of them though, I need to start taking notes.  We will start on the left and go right.  The furthest most can is Yona Yona ale.  It is from a microbrewery in Japan. I don't remember where exactly, but I do remember having one of their beers on tap at the festival. Not bad. The second is Brekle's brown ale from Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. The bottle had a brief account of the brewery's history. Over all it was not my favorite brown ale. It was not as flavorful as I would have liked.
The third is a "seasonal" from Asahi, it tastes a little better then normal Asahi and has 6% alcohol. for the price, I suppose it's not too bad, something like 180 yen. The third is Chimay a very strong triple ale something like 8% or more. It had a full rich flavor too. The last of note is the dark Yebisu. Pretty much a dark stout by one of the better large beer companies in Japan.

On a separate note I have located one of my favorite Japanese beers in a local store, the Aooni beer which I had thought to be seasonal. Apparently not. At any rate, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!
Cheers!

The Drinks of "Golden Week"

Hello again dear readers. I have had a very busy last few weeks. Leaving me with some good stuff to write about.  First off two weeks ago was "Golden Week", for those who don't know, Golden Week is a week in Japan where many holidays happen to fall. Meaning a lot of the populace takes the time to vacation with their families and relax. Or in the case of Akita. Drink. So as you all can imagine I've done my fair share over the last few weeks. First off I will mention some drinks I did not get the chance to photograph, though I have reviewed them before.

My girlfriend and I were in a park over Golden Week and met up with some local Akita folk. They kindly invited us over to their drinking area and gave us as much as we could drink. Very kind people. I had a can of Kirin, Asahi Dry Black, and a few shots of sake and some shochu.  Shochu is a drink I had not had before, it is made from sweet potatoes. Very different then sake and much stronger.  I purchased a bottle of it recently and hope to review it in the near future.

The next day we returned to the park and met up with some of my co-workers. With them I had a few bottles of Heartland ale (reviewed earlier, and presumably brewed by Kirin). As well as the Namahage bock, which remains one of my favorite Japanese beers to date.

Later on in the week I went on a mini-vacation with my girlfriend to lake Tazawako. There is at least one brewery located near the lake.

One beer I had with dinner our first night at the hotel was Tazawako Breweries Dark Lager. It was as the name implies. A dark lager, not too bad, fairly smooth, though I might add not great with fish. It might have been better with a hamburger rather then sushi. Overall a good drink though, but as all other drinks are, it was about 500 yen. Still pricey.

The next day during our travels I acquired two more beers. The first I was gifted, from a nice American who was an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher), from another prefecture. He said he would give it to me and all I had to do was share the knowledge of the beer.

It says Rauel I'm not sure what else it says, the only other thing I could tell was it has a 7.5% alcohol content. The highest I've seen in Japan yet. The other I bought solely on the picture on the label, it features the red Namahage. Besides the red demon. I couldn't  read anything else on it but "beer". So over the last few days I tried both. As it is, I really enjoyed the Rauel beer. It was a very hoppy IPA. I enjoy IPAs a lot and I was glad to find one in Japan, even if it did just randomly find its way to me. Thanks to the Californian dude who shared with me. *Cheers*  As for the other beer, It had 5% alcohol content like most other beer I've seen here. It was an amber ale with a slightly wheaty taste. Not so bad, but not worth 550 yen.  I would easily pay 550 yen for the Rauel beer though. I guess it's just whatever your preference is.

While we were out at the lake we went to a restaurant which brewed their own beer. The establishment was called Orae, it seemed a little too fancy for my liking. Everything was very overpriced, including the beer. It was good. But not amazing, and it smelled really bad. It was a slightly wheaty taste. Sadly I'm not too fond of wheat beer.

One of my largest pet peeves in Japan, as far as beer goes is how it is presented. The picture at right shows my beer. I had not taken any drinks from it, yet there is nearly 2.5 inches of head on the top. In my experience I like to see less than an inch. Apparently the people here think it is good looking to get a bunch of foam on top of your beer. This is definitely the case at most restaurants, you pay 500 yen for a drink and 1/3rd of it is head. Not good looking in my book. End rant here.  Overall the trip out to the lake and golden week was great. I purchased some shochu before we left and I hope to write about it soon.

On a final note, my girlfriend and I attended a small sake festival near where we live. I got tickets for 5 drinks and a complimentary sake cup for 1,800 yen ~20 dollars. Not so bad when comparing the prices to everything else around here.  So I tried several locally brewed sakes all of which were very good. Though I learned I don't like dry sake. Good to know. Anyway, thanks for reading all *Cheers!*

A recent expansion of beer knowledge

Again it has been some time dear readers since my last update. I have been busy with my new job, which is going quite well. I have had plenty of time to drink a few new beers. However I have been too lazy to write about them. Well now I will remedy that!

Heartland (Left) and
Brooklyn Lager (Right)

The first two I had some time ago, so I would like to sample them again, but as it is I will talk about what I remember of them. 

The Heartland Beer (green bottle) features a lush tree and a small saying imprinted on the bottle. From what I remember the beer was a simple lager. Nothing amazing, but a good go-to beer. Very smooth and drinkable.

The Second in the picture is Brooklyn Lager "Pre-Prohibition" style. It had a slightly red taste to it, mildly malty. quite good, but fairly expensive from what I recall. It was brewed by the Brooklyn Brewery in Utica N.Y.  Here is a link to their website. I would be curious to try some more beverages from them. This one was quite good.

My next three are slightly more recent. Pictured on the left is Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale from England. It was a very dark ale with slight hints of a caramel or toffee taste. Not bad at all. Sitting at 6% alcohol content it had a good kick to it too.  The middle drink is the new Asahi Super Dry Black. I really like it actually. It has a darker color and is more malty in taste then the normal Asahi Super Dry. With a similar alcohol content and price, this might be my new go-to as it is in every continence store and super market. It would be too heavy to play pong or a normal drinking game with, though a good beer none the less.

The third beer in the picture is Yebisu The Hops. Apparently it's a hoppier version of then normal Yebisu, which I liked quite a lot. The hoppy version is just that, a little more hoppy. Not much more and the alcohol content was about the same too. It was good, but I would just as soon stick with the normal Yebisu.

The last two were VERY different in taste. The Organic Beer was pretty good. A smooth lager, easy to drink, nothing extremely special... Simple and tasty.  The second beer Gugutto-Nama-Kuro was possibly one of the most awful drinks I've had in a long time. it was about 68 yen a can (super cheap). The 5.3% alcohol content was the main selling point of this drink. I'm under the impression their are two drinks sold by this company "Value Fighter" and I have no inclination to try the other one.  It tasted flat when I opened the can, it was awful. To be completely honest though I got the beer as kind of a joke from a co-worker. With the understanding that if he bought it, I would drink it and write about it. Well here it is. At any rate, this post will certainly not be my last. I still have plenty of brews to try. Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Sorry for the delay dear readers!

It has been a mildly busy week, I have had several new drinks. Some were delicious, others less noteworthy. At any rate I'll jump right to it.

As I mentioned last week, I went to an import liquor store called Yamaya. I reviewed two of the three beverages I picked up there. The third, and probably best of the lot is called Yebisu. It has a very crisp somewhat light taste, though not a light beer. It would be easy to drink a larger quantity of this beer, and generally the price permits it too.

The next two beers were Barrel Lager Beer, and Suntory "The Premium Malt". With the former being somewhat better. The lager beer was somewhat dull in taste and nothing really great to write about. The Suntory beverage was somewhat better. Though not much different then a regular Suntory beer.

The fourth beverage in the picture above is a bottle of Fentiman's Victorian Lemonade.  Why is there lemonade in the beer blog? Well apparently it is alcoholic, though ever so slightly. I bought it, thinking it sounded familiar. Indeed I had heard about it before on The Colbert Report. It was pretty good overall. Lemonade with a little bit of a bite. Not bad.

The last and most delicious beverage on the list I acquired unexpectedly. While going out to dinner with my girlfriend and one of her friends, the gentleman who was treating us to dinner bought a bottle of local sake. We each had a sip of the sake and it was by far the best I've ever had, it was called Shimizu-no-mai. The particular kind we had was called Pure Dawn. It was super smooth, I couldn't taste the alcohol at all, and being around 15% that says something of the amazing quality of the sake. I'm curious to see how others line up with this local drink.

Anyway readers, that's all for now. Cheers!

More oddities for the collection.

Over the last two days I had as many new beverages. The first was called Sirakami Sansui. This one, like some of the others, had a paper ribbon around the neck of the bottle. Unfortunately the only part of the ribbon I could make out was the number 12. 12th place? Who's to say...

Note the interesting tab cap on the Full Moon.

It tasted like a dark lager. With a somewhat more caramel taste then Labatt Blue or Molson. Not terrible, as I enjoy both of those drinks back home.  Though to note there was a website on the side of the bottle as well as an Email. Something I had not yet encountered. anywhere as far as I can remember. This seems to be the drink of a brewery/restaurant chain. Though as I can't read much on the web site, it will be a mystery for now.

The second beer I had was called Full Moon Beer. Finally! Something with a label I can easily read and understand. On the background of the label, there was a vague description about how the beverage has a more "Full bodied taste, after maturing a complete lunar cycle." Quite interesting I thought, so why not try it?

It had a somewhat sharp and hoppy start followed by a almost sweet and honey-like aftertaste. Very different. I can't say I can compare it to anything. Once I poured it, I was relieved to see the dark golden color. I had been worried it might be similar to Blue Moon. Of which, I'm not a huge fan. There's two more interesting beverages to add to the list. We shall see what the next week brings.

The next experience

The other day my girlfriend came home with a new beer from the same market I got the Bock from. Though to my dismay I couldn't read any of the label this time. Nothing. So I went to pouring it, hoping for the best, expecting...

Well, I expected it not to be terrible, as there was a paper label around the neck of the bottle declaring it had won some kind of award. Anyway, it was a golden brown color when poured and had a slightly wheaty taste. I'm not the biggest fan of wheat beer though so I did not enjoy it as much as others would I'm sure.  Though as far as wheat beer goes, it wasn't awful.

This brings me to my next discovery. Asahi Blue. Basically a less flavorful version of the Asahi "Dry" which I really liked. At 4% alcohol the Asahi Blue is very easy to drink. Noting the large 0 on the side of the can, it might be a light beer. Though it's still better then most light beers I have had to be fair.

Also I have had my first encounter with Japanese sake. It was much better than any I have had in the US. I don't have much to compare it to. Though this region of Japan does produce sake, I'm not sure if it is a local concoction.  I will attempt to acquire some soon though so I have a base line. I like to sample local food and drink when I can, to better appreciate the area.

At any rate it has been an interesting experience thus far. Thanks for reading. Until next time. Cheers!

First encounters of the frothy kind

Looked interesting. Why not?

Bad pic, but I got this from a vending machine!

I've been here for a few days now. So suffice to say I've had a few different beers. The first one was Ashai Super "Dry". Not too bad, I've had it before in the United States. The only difference was I got it out of a vending machine. This is cool. I've never seen anything like that.

I also had a glass of Kirin at a local restaurant. To be fair I actually liked the Ashai more.
Then yesterday I discovered a bottle featuring the red and blue demons who are rumored to live in the mountains near Akita city. The only part of the bottle I can read says "Namahage Bock".  I generally like a good bock, so I tried it.  I was not disappointed. Though the price tag was fairly high (around 550 yen) It was definitely worth it. It had a dark somewhat malty taste. It was similar to Bell's Best Brown Ale. By far the best beer I have had yet. There was a whole section with single bottles for sale at the local super market. I hope to try most of them in time. Anyway, that's all for now. Peace.

What is this about?

I have been given the opportunity to travel to Akita Japan for a few months. So I'm planning on trying the local food and especially brews to see how they differ from the many drinks at home. 

I plan on focusing on beer primarily. Being as it is one of my favorite beverages, I hope to be able to give an accurate description of how they taste and compare to some of Michigan's beers.

If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me. And feel free to comment. Thanks!