Super Bowl Monday

Get your pints and pigskin Super Bowl Monday at Shibuya’s The Aldgate.  Their doors will open around 7:45 a.m. in time for kickoff.  I’m pretty excited for this because the only other places I’ve heard open to the public serve less than stellar beer.   Beer will be flowing but the kitchen won’t be open.  I’ve been told your an bring your own eats, though.

If you are a New Orleans Saints fan, an Indianapolis Colts fan, an American football fan, a sports fan in general, or just someone who likes a fresh pint of beer to start their day, The Aldgate is the place to be Monday morning.

Join me for a pint?

Dinner

Caprese, sushi, Asahi’s The Master.

Brewday: ESP(?) ESB

I don’t really have enough time left in Japan to brew, ferment, condition, and drink five gallons of homebrew- or do i?  With that thought weighing heavily on my mind I pulled out the brew kettle one last time and put together an ESB that I’ve been looking forward to for some time.  You see, I’ve heard my UK friends wax poetic, online beer geeks write words of affection, and random strangers exclaim that Timothy Taylor’s Landlord is one of the best bitters out there.

Weighing the grains

I love a good bitter.  They tend to be very easy to drink, generally you don’t need a Webster’s size vocabulary to explain why you enjoy it, and they don’t tend to wear down your tastebuds after just one pint.  I can buy in to that.

I picked up a copy of Camra’s Brew Your Own British Real Ale book a while back and was very happy to see a recipe for the Landlord.  Sadly, when I sat down to really give it a good once over I couldn’t shake the feeling that their recipe just wasn’t going to cut it.  No, I’ve never had the beer and no, I’m not a brewmaster- but it just looked, well, boring.  I know that a second ago I said bitter’s are easy drinking and not palate killers but I had already made up my mind that it wasn’t going to work out.  I pulled out another of my brew books and looked up a nice looking ESB recipe.  Combining the two I came up with what looked on paper like a refreshing, low alcohol, easy swigging, ESB.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb US Crystal 10 malt
• .25 lb Special Roast malt
• .06 lb Pale Chocolate malt
• 5 lb Light DME
• 1 oz UK Golding hops
• 1.5 oz Slovenian Styrian Goldings hops
• 1 vial White Labs WLP002 – English Ale yeast

Sparge Water, Brew kettle, My Kinda Cider

A pretty straight forward brew day, really.  Steep the grains in a gallon of water, add one and a half gallons of water to bring volume up to 2.5 gallons.  90 minute boil with all but half an ounce of the Styrian Goldings being added for the entire duration.  The rest of the Styrians are added 10 minutes from the end.  The only thing I really did different this time was to split the DME into two different additions.  I had some problems with my hops getting covered up in a couple brews I’ve done and decided to try this new method and hopefully increase their utilization.  The first three pounds of

Racking to the secondary

DME went in right at the beginning of the boil, same time as the first hop addition.  The remaining two pounds bided its time until about 10 minutes from the end when in it went.  All went well and I was able to get the wort down to a nice pitching temperature in about 45 minutes.  I missed the OG, though.  Hoped for a 1.044 and ended up with a 1.037.  I’m pretty certain I just added too much water to the carboy, though.  Rookie mistake as I should have taken a couple readings as I was filling.  That’s life.

When I racked it to the secondary a week later to get it off the trub (something I rarely do, but thought a good idea this time) my hydrometer read 1.012, which is actually two points lower than my target.  Helps things out a bit.  The sample tasted nice, but, obviously, real young yet.  Nice hop profile and some malts.  I’m looking for the hops to reign themselves in a little over the next couple of weeks, though.  It’s sitting at 3.3% abv., which will make for a definite session beer- perfect since I need to go through five gallons in such a short time.  Can’t wait to carb and keg this ESB early next week.  I need a taste!

That’s it for my days of Ji-Homebrewing.  I’ve put the kettle and my primary fermenter in to hibernation and won’t be put to work again until I get settled in Philadelphia.  A bit sad- but the future (going all grain) looks bright.

StarSan escaping the carboy

On a side note: My Kinda Cider is a great brewday companion.  The more it ages the better it gets.  I can’t get enough.

Clearing the Cellar

I don’t want to chance a broken bottle during my upcoming move so I decided to get to drinking my cellared beers- all of them.  For the most part this is good news.  I put away some real tasty beers and now have a reason to drink all of them in a relatively short time.  The downside is that I had planned on holding on to a few of them- like the Thomas Hardy’s- for a while longer.  I was planning on opening this in about five years but I’d much rather drink it a little young than lose it to a careless moving company.

Oh, it’s good.

Finally catching up with the new year

I hope everyone’s 2010 is off to a great start.  Mine couldn’t have begun any better: Waking up in Maui with my girlfriend- and then having her ask if we can go to Maui Brewpub for our first meal of the year.  It seems like this might just be a good year.

There has been some noticeable change in the beer world since I last posted.  Two of my favorite reads have gone dark.  Hopjuice.com and Jeff’s Beer Blog (formerly Stonch’s Beer Blog) decided to call it quits.  I enjoyed both blogs and their commentary will be missed- I just hope someone steps up and takes their place properly.  I know I’m not up to the task so I’ll leave that to others.  In keeping with the ending of things let me also mention that Drie Fonteinen has stopped brewing- but they are still blending.  I’m curious to find out exactly what that will mean for those of us who enjoyed their brews but it looks like we’ll still be able to get some masterfully blended lambics.

While I didn’t make any beer related resolutions this year (or any resolutions at all for that matter) I do have a few things in mind that I’d like to do.  First- post more.  With my sea time at it’s close I should have more time to post.  I also hope to include more photos and much more homebrewing related articles.  The biggest change will undoubtedly be my upcoming move.  Yes, the rumors are true (Are there rumors?  Am I that important?  No, I’m not)- I will be moving to Philadelphia near the middle of 2010.  A short two moth layover in the Capital area of America will precede my arrival to Phily, but I’ll get there.  That means fewer Japan related posts but since I still have some fingers in the world out here I’ll try to update with at least some interesting news every now and then.  Philadelphia will become my local, though.  Japan has treated me very well over the past three years and I’m sorry to leave her behind.  But, it’s time to move on to new adventures.  I don’t know what I’ll do without Thrash Zone, though.

I should have some new posts coming up so don’t give up on me just yet.

Last JiBeer of the Year

Preston IPA is great when on, but they are very inconsistent

Before taking off for a warm and relaxing vacation for the new year I headed up to Tokyo for some shopping an, surprise, surprise, eventually made my way to the bar.  My original plan was to have a couple pints and a nice dinner at The Aldgate before heading back to home.

Isekadoya Pale Ale. Always a good choice.

Preston Stout- easy drinking and quite tasty

Thanks to the wifi on my iPod Touch I found my friends were at Ushitora’s “finish the kegs” event and leaped off the train just before it was about to pull out of the station.  Had some great beer with a couple good friends that last night drinking in Tokyo in 2009.

Super Vintage aged on Raisins - Fantastic

Iwate Kura Pale Ale - Solid pale ale

Sankt Gallen Apple Cinnamon Ale - Great seasonal

Hope everyone has a great new year.  I know I will, on some beach in Hawaii!

Hakusekikan Hurricane aged on Raisins. Best beer of the night

Merry Christmas

Swan Lake IPA at Cat & Cask Tavern

Hope the holiday season treats you well.

Putting the kegs to use- finally

Getting the Cider off the trub

Some time ago I made the plunge and bought myself a full on kegging system.  Two five gallon cornies, dual regulator, CO2 bottle, the works.  Had I done the proper research I would have found out that U.S. and Japanese fittings don’t mate; sigh.  The kegs have been staring at me ever since, laughing that evil laugh of theirs.  I put a stop to all that laughing this evening by filling one of those kegs up with five gallons of cider-ish beverage.

I found a mini-CO2 regulator that can attach to my kegs and is used mainly for picnics or serving kegged beer away from a normal bar setup but works perfectly in my current situation.  I carbonate the beer using DME then hook up the CO2 and tap to the keg and push it out that way.  Wonderful.

Going for clarity but probably an unneeded step

I absolutely HATE bottling.  Using the mini-kegs was a step in the right direction but I still had four to clean, sanitize, and fill.  Using corney kegs means I clean, sanitize, and fill just once.  I’m so happy I might cry.  Bottling is no longer a headach and it also speeds up my next least favorite thing in the homebrew world: cleaning.

The hydrometer reads about 1.011 FG but I can only guess at the abv because I didn’t take an original gravity reading.  I’m not overly concerned with alcohol percentage, anyhow.  As long as it’s in there and it tastes fine then I’m good to go.  Maybe down the road when I get more proficient with my skills I’ll care more but for now it’s a second tier concern.  The hydro sample tasted nice, too.  Apples, tart but not overly so, light sweetness, too.  I can’t wait to sample the carbed and aged version.  I think a couple weeks of aging will really aid the cider and tone down that green taste.

Oh, how I love homebrewing!

One point zero one one and tasting fine

I got the recipe from homebrewtalk.com and have been eagerly awaiting a taste.  The time for tasting is closing in now that it is carbonating.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb Crystal 120L
• 1 oz Carapils
• 4 Gallons apple juice (No preservatives is recommended)
• 1 gallon water
• 2 lbs of DME ( I used 1 lb. amber and 1 lb. light DME)
• 0.5 oz Crystal Hops (any low alpha acid hop will work.  Stick around the 6-8% range)
• 1 packet nottingham dry yeast (Safale 05 will work just fine)

Who's laughing now, Keg?

To brew:

1. Steep the 120L and carapils in 3/4 gallons of water at 155F for 30 minutes
2. Sparge with 1/4 gallons 170F water.  Discard grains.
3. Add 2lbs DME and bring to a boil.
4. Add crystal hops when boiling starts and boil for 30 minutes
5. Cool the wort to 70F or so.  If you don’t care about clarity you can do this by adding the four gallons of apple juice but the heat of the wort will haze up the cider.
6. Aerate wort and add to carboy
7. Add hydrated yeast
8. Ferment for two weeks then bottle or keg

There you have it.  Pretty easy day.  I doubt I’ll have the patience to wait two weeks to take a sample.  I’ll most likely dive in to this bad boy this weekend.

Pub Review: Dry Dock

With a half a day’s work behind me, and a full 24 hours of freedom before returning to the office, I decided it was high time I get back into mid-week boozing.  And what better way to get into mid-week boozing than to start on a Monday?  I headed up to Tokyo with no real bar in mind and no wifi connection to look up the Boozelist, so decided to return to an old favorite.

You'll get used to the rumbling of the trains

Dry Dock is a neat little bar tucked under the JR tracks in Shimbashi.  I remember the first time I heard of the place and saw a photo I knew I would love it.  It’s tiny, it serves good beer, and it’s located under the tracks.  A perfect boozer if you ask me.  This place really is small, though.  You enter the building and immediately head downstairs into the bar itself.

See what I mean? Tiny.

Standing room only, and only room for about 12 to stand.  The first time I was there was in the middle of a crowded summer evening and my friends and I could barely move.  It was glorious.  Luckily, Monday evening, and the chill of fall settling in, kept most people away this time.  A small group of salary men occupied one end and I the other- though we were still rubbing shoulders.  Once they left I basically had the place to myself and pulled out my trusty camera to snap a photo or two.  The beers are always in good condition and the taps rotate enough to keep the interest level up.  The night I was there two brews from Coronado Brewing Co., a couple Tsumida beers, Chimay White, and a couple others were all pouring well.  I had the two from Coronado- Idiot IPA and Orange Avenue.

Coronado Orange Ave

Both were a bit cold, but warmed up nicely and showed there depth.  Upstairs there is seating for another 8-10, but again, it’s small.  I didn’t have the food but it all smelled and looked fantastic.  I wouldn’t recommend it if you are looking for a full course meal, but they had solid looking appetizers and some mid sized dinner portions.  The staff is knowledgeable and friendly- and they pour a nice pint, too.  If you find yourself in the Ginza area I definitely recommend Dry Dock.  Good beer with good atmosphere.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  ”I thought this guy was a man of action, how can that be true if he left after only two beers?”  Well, it’s true, I am a man of action.  Therefore, after those two lovely beers I headed over to The Aldgate and met up with Chuwy for a few pints there.  My first was a pint of Sankt Gallen’s amarillo dry hoped amber ale (the last one).  It was nice, though I could have used more spice to liven it up a little.

On the Web: Dry Dock

Too Good for Words

Do you ever pull out a bottle with the intention of writing a review/description/love letter about (if you do that…)?  Only to push the pen and notepad away, lean back, and just enjoy the fuck out of it instead?  That’s what I’m about to do with this one.  Hang on, this is gonna take a while.

Westmalle Tripel from 2006

Superb.