Winter 2013 -- West Coast -- Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles / 冬2013 -- 西海岸 --、ファイアーストーン ウォーカー ブリューイング, パソローバルズ

I grew up in San Luis Obispo, just over the grade to the south of Paso Robles. In those days, there were very few wineries in the area. They were mostly small, local operations run by Italian-American families. The main one that I remember was Rotta.

Now, of course, the large swaths of the Central Coast are overrun by grapes, and the wine and wine tour business is visible everywhere there. One of the earliest of these was Firestone Vineyards in Los Olivos, whose owner's son and son-in-law founded Firestone Walker Brewing Company. From the get-go, Firestone Walker's beers have won numerous awards, including World Beer Cup champion for mid-sized breweries in 2004, 2006 and 2010 -- for which there were surely many competitors.

 
The brewery is just off Highway 101 (Ramada Drive), a few miles south of Paso Robles proper. Their large taproom stand right in front of the brewery. It features a massive dining/bar area, with booths, large tables, and a wacky U-shaped bar with a funny revolving faux bottling line of blinking bottles passing overhead. The decor is sort of modern/industrial, with metal sheet ceilings, a slick cement floor, and aluminium "Diamond Plate" (that bright silver material used for fancy-dancy pickup truck storage boxes) halfway up the wooden walls.

They had 15 beers on tap, along with several local wines. The staff was knowledgeable about the beer they served and were fairly friendly, too -- but perhaps a tad too rushed, even though the place was not really all that crowded. I have read about poor service at this taproom. But our server was pretty good. However, another one sat right outside our window, chatting away on her cell phone for quite some time.

The food was good, too: we had tortilla soup, fish tacos, and jicama salad.

The beers on draught are in all great condition: fresh as can be and served at proper temperatures, and they are much much better than FW stuff in bottles. You can order flights of four generous samplers or individual beers, as you like. Anything from the Reserve series is definitely worth trying. I had a sampler flight of the following four: Pivo Pils, Taproom IPA, Walker's Reserve Robust Porter, and 2012 Double DBA.

They also have "Library" sales -- bottles of earlier vintages for consumption on premises only, this to prevent high-priced resales on eBay, etc.

 Wish I’d had more time here. I certainly do plan on going back.

Winter 2013 -- West Coast -- Los Angeles / 冬2013 - 西海岸 - ロサンゼルス

I spent about a week in Los Angeles last month. My primary purpose was not really beer hunting, but rather visiting movie-releated sites and catching up with an old friend. We managed to see the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, explore a wonderful Stanley Kubrick exhibition at LACMA, walk around Griffith Park, stroll among the shops on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and see some treasures (e.g., Ellesmere Chaucer) at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

That said, beer is never too far from my mind, and I did manage to get to a few stores and one brewery. Los Angeles seems to be regarded as a craft beer wasteland (with a few exceptions, such as Craftsman and The Bruery), expecially when compared to all the brewing activity just south, in San Diego. But here are some places that were definitely worth a look:

We stayed near LAX and went to the nearest Whole Foods Market on a few occasions

Whole Foods Market - Plaza El Segundo
This store has a good selection for a supermarket in Los Angeles, especially for micros and even not-so-micro craft beers. A small shelf of European (Brit/Ger/Belg) beers. It also features the biggest selection of Japanese craft brews I've seen anywhere in the US.

Hitachino Nest, Ise Kadoya, and more

There are two main sections for beer: both are near the back of the store, one on the right side and one on the left. Six-packs of recent releases are stacked here and there. One shelf with a limited number of singles. Prices are medium to somewhat high (My son tells me that he and his friends call Whole Foods, "Whole Paycheck."). This one does not have as good a beer selection as Bay Area or Portland Whole Foods stores, but it is quite good for LA.

Lone Hill Liquors
This is a medium-sized store in a small shopping center, and it is way out of town, in the suburb of Glendora Quite a drive to get there. And, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed.... but just a bit.

The store has long rows of coolers filled with a decent and balanced selection of world beers, with an emphasis on West Coast brews. Good selection of glassware, too. Very friendly and knowledgeable staff (not sure if it was Stan, the owner, or not). A very good place for the area, but maybe not really up to the level of its current RateBeer "World Class" rating. I think that perhaps locals and/or regular customers may get special orders and other rare things that are not out on view for the walk-in customer.


Ladyface Ale Companie Alehouse & Brasserie
Before leaving Japan, I checked around and found a "Best of LA" feature on the LA Weekly website, whch listed Ladyface Ale Companie as the "Best Brewery" for 2012.

It's not actually in LA but rather in Agoura Hills, out in the San Fernando Valley. So we stopped in on our way north on Highway 101. This was on Superbowl Sunday at around noon, and there were only three other people in the place. In fact, the bartender said that they would be closing at 3pm, since business had been so poor on the Superbowl days in each of the previous two years.

Ladyface has been open only three years (as of January 20). The decor is a mix of SW country-western/industrial. Large panel illustrations of their Art Nouveau-inspired beer labels are prominent on the walls. It has seating for maybe 180 people, 12 at the bar, as well as tables outside. Big fermenting tanks dominate the space along one wall.

There were 15 taps, with some guest selections. They have growler sales (I bought a growler of the excellent Chesbro IPA to take to friends up north) and also guest bottle sales -- but no Ladyface bottle sales. I had samplers of three brews, two of which were great and one which wasn’t. If I lived anywhere nearby, I’d probably be a regular, since there doesn’t seem to be much else for craft beer in the SanFernando Valley. I wish I'd had more time to explore more of their beers. Next time.

Note: Here is a link to a lengthy interview, in Japanese, with Ladyface founder, Cyrena Nouzille, on the Beer Study Group website: Ladyface Ale Companie　CyrenaNouzilleさん　インタビューその①

And here is another link to an article on the L.A. Weekly Blogs site: LadyfaceAle Companie Celebrates 3 Years as a Top L.A. Brewery

Ah, Portland!

..... and this is is not a bottle shop or a beer specialty store, but simply a supermarket....

Year-End Pub Crawl

Went out for a year-end tour of the town on December 29th with Lefty. We got to three places, including two new ones for me.

Lezzet Craft Beer & Food Experience Bar
This is a nicely designed new place in Tennoji. It's clean, well-lighted, and fairly quiet, with 80s music low on the sound system. The staff were pleasant and seemed to know their beer well. They had 14 taps, all Japanese micros. Very interesting and tastefully created tsumami dishes. The menu includes items that are more upscale than at many pubs: pumpkin terrine, fish carpaccio, and spicy beer curry. Drink prices were a bit higher than normal. And there we had...

Fujizakura Heights Fest Weizen
Big fruity nose: banana and some spice. Very pretty hazy copper color, with a thick creamy head. Heavy banana initial with some tart pruney notes; in mid the sweetness rises and takes over; very smooth finish. Medium-thick body. Very good. But served too cold -- had to let it warm up a bit to get the aromas.

Sankt Gallen Un Angel Wheat Wine
Unusual fresh ume (plum) juice aroma, tsukemono (pickles), and a persistent heavy phenolic aroma. Nice copper color, no head. Rotten oranges, some zest in initial; bittering kicks in; final has a long bitter trail. Thin-medium body. Maybe too fresh. Would like to try this one in a year or so; the pub manager has another keg which she said she’ll hold for aging. The phenolic character is a bit distracting; can’t detect the wheat at all. Interesting stuff, but it needs to age a bit. More of a young, dirty devil at this point than an angel. 

Then we headed off to meet up with Jack at

World Beer & Cafe Qbrick
Seven or eight years in business, and this is still the best craft beer place in Osaka. The tap list isn’t overwhelming, but generally has many of the best that Japan offers. They also have Guinness, Sapporo Edelpils, and Hoegaarden on tap for those who want something regular. Very large (200+) and varied bottle selection, too. Prices are normal; most brews are offered in three glass sizes. Friendly crowds and good service. A 10-minute walk from Yodoyabashi Station, this is the place to visit when you are in Osaka. Here we imbibed...

Ise Kadoya Citra Ale
Minimal hop and metallic aroma. Hazy light honey color. Mild hop initial; more metallic notes in mid, along with some good balance of sweet and bitter; final is smooth, with a tiny increase in hopping. Thin body. Wish they’d used a bit more Citra in this. It's okay.

 Ise Kadoya Urumura Kaki (Oyster) Stout
Light coffee aroma. Pitch black with creamy tan head. Coffee initial; some metallic notes in mid palate; chocolate and coffee blend smoothly in the final. Medium body. Very mild stuff with some good chocolate character. But, overall, not much.

Finally, we moved on to

Yellow Ape Craft
A fairly small bar. 30 taps, all Japanese micros, and 16 we open on the night we went. Good menu of solid pub grub: salads, pizza, fritters, etc. Friendly atmosphere, good pours, and very fast service, too.  Unfortunately, the bar is right over the cooking area, so it can get quite warm and the cooking smells tend to interfere with the beer experience. I wanted to ask why they choose that name, but forgot after we got into...  

Minoh Yuzu White Ale
Great estery apple and banana aroma. Cloudy pear juice color. Light fruity initial (pears and peaches); mid gains some tang and sweetness, along with mild wheat notes; goes out very smoothly. Thin-medium body. Yuzu is present but not very strong. Very gentle, lovely stuff. They’ve gotten better at making this one.

Sankt Gallen Sweet Vanilla Stout
Pitch black, thin solid tan head. Boiled coffee in initial (but not boiled to the point of unpleasant harshness); mid palate sweetens nicely; smooth chocolate and coffee finish. Medium body. Labelled as a "fruit" beer on the pub menu. Vanilla is pleasant and minimal.

Shonan Biscuit Weizen
Good clean banana aroma with some frutier yeast. Dirty, hazy dark yellow. Deep banana and spice flavors in iniital; a bit muddy and dirty in mid; final has strong fruit and then settles out smoothly. Medium body. Good frutiness and solid mouthfeel. 

New Brews from the Japanese Majors / 日本の大手企業からの新しいビール

Over the years, all of the Japanese majors brewing companies (Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, and Suntory) have occasionally created very limited-edition beers, but these always seemed to disappear within weeks. Late last year, they began marketing new brews which, although not really of the same quality as those of the nation's craft brewers, are more-or-less tasty.

Asahi put out a very decent Asahi The Extra (6.5%, strong pale lager/imperial pils), which has a heavy fruity malty nose with some apparent alcohol. Very malty for the style, with a sweet and caramelly mid palate and a mild tongue-coating hop alongside some alcohol warmth in the finish.

Suntory followed with their similar Fukami no Zeitaku (6.5%, strong pale lager/imperial pils. This one has a gentle but distinctive Hallertauer hop aroma. The initial flavor is grassy, but quite sweet, with a soft and mildly hoppy mid palate, and a slightly sour/bitter finish. It quite smooth and balanced, and the elevated alcohol level is not really noticeable.

The best of the bunch was Kirin's Grand Kirin (6%, premium lager), with its pronounced hop aroma (perhaps dry hopping?) backed by big grassy malt. The beer has very good bittering with a considerable malt base. It's well balanced, with a bit of a sweet finish. At first it seemed as if this beer would disappear within a few weeks, however word is that it will remain on the shelves.

These beers are found most often (or only, in the case of Gran Kirin) at Japanese 7-11 convenience stores.

7-11, which is Japan's largest retailer, is also getting into the act, two efforts in which the company's name and logo appears on the label along with those of the brewing companies.  

Sapporo 100% Malt  has a grassy aroma with a bit of cardboard. Hay and sweetness malt in initial, with a mildly-hopped mid and a tinge of sourness, and a fairly sweet finish. Thin-medium body. Not really dry, as the labelling claims. Crisp. Sweet notes are dominant. A pretty regular all-malt.

 On the other hand, Suntory the Brew (5%, pale lager) is a pretty regular daisan (low-malt beer), with a mild aroma of rancid butter and wet cardboard. It has a very innocuous and light malty initial flavor, while the mid palate gains in harshness (from the fortifying spirits and maybe the hopping), and the finish disappears quickly. Pretty bad.

So far, the major Japanese beer companies don't seem to be interested in acquiring any of the rising craft beer breweries in Japan. I wonder how long it will be before these behemoths notice what their big cousins are doing around the world. Last year, Lion Nathan, the Kirin-owned beverage & food company, bought out Little World Beverages in Australia and Emerson's in New Zealand. In the U.S., MillerCoors bought part of Terrapin Beer Company and Anheuser-Busch acquired Goose Island Brewing. It certainly wouldn't be hard to understand if small, struggling craft brewing companies accepted offers that might allow them to stay in business. As long as the bean counters stay out of the brew room....

Japanese Craft Beer Breweries on Twitter / ツイッターで日本のクラフトビール醸造所

In early November the 生ビールブログ (Draft Beer Blog) took a look how many people were Facebook fans of (or "Like") various Japanese breweries. Have a look HERE:

So, I decided to see how Twitter is being used by the craft beer industry in Japan. Or more specifically, I wanted to see how many “Followers” craft beer breweries currently have.

Although Facebook by far the larger of the two social networks, Twitter is growing faster. Twitter is also the quickest way to find out what’s happening, in politics, business, and probably in beer as well. It’s for real-time conversations, not what happened yesterday, last week, or when you were in high school.

Some breweries have Facebook pages as promotional tools but do not yet have Twitter accounts. Below are the ones I could find.

Japanese Craft Beer Breweries -- Twitter “Follower” numbers on 11/22/2012:

Yona Yona Ale 6,445

Sankt Gallen 5,060

Minoh 3,457

Aqula 3,194

Kiuchi 2,543

Baeren 2,115

Fujizakura Heights Beer 2,023

Swan Lake 1,879

Kamakura Beer 1,878

Gargery 1,726

Gotemba Kogen Beer 1,686

COED0 1,419

Bay Brewing Yokohama 1,384

Yokohama Brewery 1,378

Otaru Beer 1,170

Taisetsu Ji Beer 1,094

Tazawako Beer 1,094

Banya Beer 1,066

Ise Kadoya 1,061

Nagisa 984

Baird Brewing 814

Kisoji Beer 710

Zakkoku Beer 592

Echigo 420

Kagua 410

Nippon Beer 406

Brimmer 257

Ichioji Brewery 301

North Island Beer 216

Rokko Beer 200

Matsue / Beer Hearun 196

Ginga Kogen 44

Hakusekikan Beer 10

Nagahama Roman Beer 4

Notice that the top spot is occupied by Yona Yona, the beer -- not Yo-Ho, the company which makes it. It is one of the most widely available of craft beers in Japan, certainly much more so than the other brews they produce. Near the bottom is Hakusekikan, a very interesting and experimental brewer, but one which went out of business at the end of August this year.

Also, several popular craft beer makers are not listed. Perhaps they are busier brewing beer than promoting it. But I imagine it won't be long before they too are tweeting and gaining followers.

Sampling Session -- November 3, 2012

Last weekend, we had a beer sampling session and then attended Tadg’s Bar & AQ Bevolution Epic Brewing Co. & Gyoza Party in Kyoto. AQ Bevolution is one of the newer beer distributors bringing great U.S. craft beer to Japan.

First, some of the sampling highlights:

Weyerbacher Insanity  --  4 (out of 5)

This one was a 2010 vintage bottle. Big sweet oak nose. Clear dark brown with a thin touch of foam. Very smooth sweet initial flavors, with a lot of heavy oak in mid palate. Some bourbon emerged near the end. Great mouth feel. Lovely stuff.

Mikkeller/To Øl Walk On Water  --  3.8

Big sweetness and grapefruit in the nose. At first, the alcohol is like a hard slap. Golden blond color. Slightly sour, and then it becomes very sweet. Strong fruit notes: peaches, oranges, prunes. A heavy-hitting beer, full of flavors.

St. Bernardus Prior 8  --  3.7

2005 vintage. Smooth, rich fruit aroma -- prunes, raisins, dates -- and dark sugar. Watery brown color. Very mild fruity initial; the alcohol becomes noticeable in mid palate; flavors smoothly slip away in final. Perhaps it has lost a bit of its flavor over the seven years, but it has also mellowed very nicely.

Deschutes Conflux No. 1 – Collage  --  3.5

The is a collaboration beer, which is a blend of Deschutes’ The Dissident and The Stoic, and Hair of the Dog’s Fred and Adam. Sharp phenolic nose, some vinegar, a slight chemical note, too. Clear dark brown brandy-like color. The distinctive characteristics of each of the four brews are mellowed out into a kind of sweet beer soup. The oak comes out clearly in the finish. I do like this, but would really prefer to drink the four beers by themselves, as individual experiences.

Thanks to Albert of AQ Bevolution, we had a chance to sample several brews from Utah's Epic Brewing Co., both bottled or on tap, including the following:

Epic Brainless Belgian-Style Golden Ale  --  4

Fruity nose (peach, berries), with light hopping. Clear medium dark straw color. Beautiful peach flavor in initial; this strengthens in mid palate; in the finish, it all levels out and glides down to a pleasant sweetness. Lip-smacking stuff.

Epic Hopulent IPA  --  3.8

Great stinky hop aroma. Cloudy orange color. Hops dominate the initial; a mild sweet fruitiness emerges in mid palate; final leaves strong tracks of hop bitterness. Very good.

Epic / DC Brau Fermentation Without Representation  --  3.6 

Epic’s first collaboration brew. Good coffee nose, with pumpkin and spice. Very spicy initial flavor; mid palate has some chocolate notes; the finish lets the chocolate develop a bit more. I hate pumpkin pie, but I like this.

 

Epic Brainless on Peaches  --  3.5

Mild yeastiness and very fresh fruity nose. Pretty hazy orangeish color. Mild initial; the peaches are not apparent until the finish. Very pleasant stuff.

AQ Bevolution

http://www.aqbevolution.com/