USA Summer 2012 -- South (Cigar City Brewing)

I visited the US this past summer. As always, I was on the trail of good beer, searching out locations I'd planned to visit and also discovering places I'd heard of from friends.

I spent a few days in Tampa, FL. Flew in from ATL and went directly to Cigar City Brewing, which is located in a smallish sort of industrial/business park about fifteen minutes by car from the airport.

Cigar City was the brew du jour, or rather du an, last year on RateBeer.com. Their seasonal brews, such as Hunahpu's Imperial Stout and Passion Fruit and Dragonfruit Berliner Weisse, are very highly sought after, and seven of their beers are currently in the RateBeer Top 50. None of these were available at the Tasting Room. However, there was more than enough to sample among the 24 taps, which included seven guest beers.

At 2pm., on a hot Wednesday afternoon there were only a few customers; but by 4pm it was getting noisy and crowded. The service was okay. One server was quite friendly, but later a few more came on, and they seemed rather uninterested in discussing and/or answering questions about the beers. I did, however, have a very informative chat with a packaging guy from the brewery next door who was taking a smoke break. There was only one single solitary menu sheet, but fortunately almost no one else wanted to see it. Also, a fairly strong scent of cleaning solution permeated the air, though I noticed it less as time passed.

 

Anyway, forget all that. This place is about great beer. Tasters of four were available for $6. I tried twelve and they were all good, some wonderful. Here are a few of the standouts:

Cubano-Style Espresso Brown Ale
Smells like freshly-ground roasted beans, with some maltiness. Copper-brown color. Flavors: good coffee again with some caramel. The coffee is well-integrated, tasty, and doesn’t become too harsh (it's not over-boiled), even though this is not easy to do in a light style. The most coffee-like coffee beer I’ve had.

Cherry Cordial Stout
Big nose of plums, grapes, and some tobacco. Deep dark fruit flavors, anise, and some yeast. On the edge of beer and something wilder. Might be a bit young. Would like to try this in a year or two.

Tocobaga Red Ale
Dark hop notes swimming through the reddish brown liquid, some overripe citrus fruit, and a hint of manure. Starts sweet, and then the bitterness creeps in to take over. Very sharp flavors are very well integrated. Rich and tasty.

finally, one of the more unusual brews was....

Cucumber Saison
Big cucumber aroma, also some burnt rubber, and it’s strangely good. The cucumber flavor mimics and/or complements the hopping. Lemon, pepper, grassy notes, too. Ends in a rather earthy fashion. Dry, crisp, and refreshing. One of the more unusual combinations of beer flavors, and it really works well. 

Also, if you are traveling through the Tampa Airport, you might visit the Cigar City Airport Pub, located on Concourse C (or, as they phrase it, Airside C). They stock four CCB regulars, one seasonal, and an airport exclusive, Tony Jannus Pale Ale. There is a tiny (1.5 barrel) brew system, and apparently this is the only brewpub in a US airport.

A Conversation with Bryan Baird

HERE  is an informative interview with Bryan Baird, of Baird Brewing, in which he discusses several topics:

• The Background: how he came to Japan and started Baird Beer, as well as the difficulties he encountered during the first few years. He also mentions his plans for expansion and building a new brewery. The key word here is persistence.

• The Beers: the characteristics of the regular line of Baird's beers. He also talks about the distinctive ukiyo-e inspired label designs. Not only how they reflect Japanese themes per se but also the story behind each beer and the experience of drinking it.

• The Aesthetics of Art & Beer: a quick overview of beer culture and history in Japan, and how it really began developing after deregulation of the industry in the 1990s. He goes into some detail on how his beers fit in with the Japanese aesthetics of nuance and simplicity.

Making Bad Beer Better: Part 2

Nearly two years ago, a friend told me of his technique for making bad beer taste better. I posted a brief description of it HERE (it involved beef jerky).

Recently he sent me a link to a hilarious article on the Gizmodo site, in which a half-crazed beer lover tries to improve the flavor of Coors Light. Not once, not twice, but in the spirit of science and beer love -- six different ways. Have a look at it HERE. Note: he doesn't call it "bad beer," but uses a much harsher phrase, one you are more likely to hear from craft beer geeks.

Osaka's "Beer Belly" in The New York Times

The June 7, 2012 online edition of The NY Times has a travel feature on interesting things to do in Osaka. The writer, Ingrid K. Williams, takes us on a tour of twelve popular tourist spots in and around the city. One of the last stops is the Higobashi branch of Beer Belly. Have a look: 36 Hours in Osaka, Japan.

CRAFT BEER LIVE 2012 in なんば

Craft Beer Live in Namba was held on May 26-27, a beautiful sunny weekend, at the Minato Riverplace in Namba. Seventeen breweries from the Kansai region set up stalls (five from Kyoto Prefecture, four from Osaka, four from Hyogo, two from Shiga, and one each from Nara and Wakayama) in the large plaza area. Several of these are quite small and their brews are rarely seen, even in Kyoto or Osaka. Kyoto's Ichijoji Brewery brought out around ten or eleven different styles.

It was definitely much more crowded than last year. We arrived only a half hour after the event started, and it was already getting a bit uncomfortable.

There were already long lines for the food stalls --  set up by some of the regions better beer bars, such as Qbrick and eni-bru.

 

The festival opened with a rousing kanpai, led by Oshita-san of Minoh Beer.

And then we made the rounds. Here are a few highlights:

Minoh Brown Ale
A special brew produced for this event. Pleasant chocolate aroma with some coffee. Muddy brown with a thin tan head. A mid-palate burst of some floral & fruity flavors. Great, smooth aftertaste. Maybe a bit off for the style, but a tasty beer.

Minoh W-IPA
Medium-strength hop kick in the nose. Very thick, cloudy, with a 3/4-inch head. Deep, dark flavors with a long bitter finish. Rather thick and sticky. Not the beer it once was, but it is certainly better has it has been, or "good for lately," in the words of a fellow drinker.

Tango Meister
Honey and some lemon in the nose. Big (one-inch) head with strange little carbonation globules floating up, like tiny frogs’ eggs. Mild flavors of honey and lemon. Heavy body, in spite of the rice that is included.

Akashi Merikan Beer
One of the better and true-to style pils made in Japan. Clean aroma and grassy hops. Well-made.

Ichijoji Cinnamon Ale
Strong cinnamon aroma, candyish. Light orange-brown, no head. Slightly medicinal flavors, which flatten out in the final, leaving a coating of cinnamon on the tongue. Dryish and sticky, with light-medium body. Not really my thing at all, but I’ll allow a few extra points for the novelty aspect.

Later in the day, we moved off to a quiet area to sample a couple of special bottles that we had brought with us:

Hair of the Dog Matt

and

Founders Nemesis 2009



.... and finally, we headed off to finish the day at the area's newest craft beer bar: Craft Beer Works Kamikaze.

地ビール祭京都 / Kyoto Craft Beer Festival 2012

The third annual Craft Beer Festa Kyoto was held on a beautiful sunny Sunday in mid-March. The location was the same as last year, the Sanjo Association Shopping Arcade, but attendance (one estimate was 5,000) seemed to be way up over last year's event.

This year this beer booths were spread out along a stretch of the shopping arcade, instead of being mostly concentrated in the small park at the center. That park area was reserved for the four Kyoto-based breweries, food stalls, and a small music stage. And, instead of being shuttered up for the day, many arcade shops joined in the fun, selling a wide range of food.

The event map/guide listed 28 breweries, but I counted only 24. No matter. There were more than last year, and better ones, too. Two new breweries in Japan also showed up: Brimmer Brewing and Outsider Brewing. The guide also contained short informative bilingual description of the beers available.

In spite of the crowds, it was a very pleasant event. Only problem was a shortage of places to pee. There was one small toilet in the park, at times with fairly long lines. Eventually, some desperate folks discovered a restroom on the second floor of a supermarket in the arcade, and soon thereafter a steady stream of imbibers was winding up and down the stairs. First time I'd seen people carrying glasses of beer in a supermarket.....

Some standout brews of the day:

Outsider Brewing Innkeeper Bitter Lager

Strong grassy nose, with some hoppiness. Clear as a bell. Great initial bite of flavor, lingers a bit with a fairly distinctive Pils character. Nicely done by one of Japan’s newest brewing outfits.

Baird Suruga Bay Imperial IPA

Astounding citrusy, grapefruit aromas. A dusky orange beauty. Malty, thick, with a long piney aftertaste. Such a pleasure to drink.

Daisen G Beer White Nelson Sauvin

Stinky, barn floor aromas, wheaty notes as well. Packs a lemony and grapefruit punch, with a sharply bitter aftertaste. The wheat and Nelson Sauvin hops complement each other well.

Fujizakura Kougen Rauch Beer

Aroma is purely smoke, with a touch of sweet malt. Flavors are smoke and more smoke with some solid malt underneath. A real treat. It just won a gold medal in the smoke beer category at the World Beer Cup 2012.

Harvestmoon Schwarz

Near pitch black with a strong chocolate roast malt aroma. Rather heavy flavors for a schwarz. (maybe more like a porter). A pretty well-made black beer.

Shiga Kogen Indian Summer Saison

Sharp, stinky barnyard nose with a load of great hopping. Sweet and sour with a big mid-palate explosion of yeast and hops at the back of the throat. Very light body for all this flavor. I’ve never had a bad beer from this brewery. 

Many thanks to Chris H. and his helpful, yellow-shirted staff of volunteers. They made it all work.

Japanese Breweries at the 2012 World Beer Cup

The 9^th bi-annual World Beer Cup ended last Saturday (May 5) in San Diego. It was the largest competition ever held, with a total of 3,921 beers entered by 799 breweries from 54 nations and 45 U.S. states. The judges awarded 284 prizes in 95 categories. Whew! A lot of numbers and a lotta beers.

The largest category, and the one with the largest growth over the previous event, was American-Style India Pale Ale (with 150 entries), followed by Imperial India Pale Ale (with 93). The smallest was German-Style Sour Ale with only 11 beers entered.

Twenty-one Japanese brewers participated, bringing a total of 96 beers to the competition. They were the following: AJI (Minoh), Aqula, Asahi, Baird, Chateau Kamiya, Coedo, Fujizakura Kogen, Ise Kadoya, Kinshachi, Kiuchi, Konishi, Kumazawa, Moku-Moku, Nanto, Rokko, Sankt Gallen, Swan Lake, Tamamura Honten (Shiga Kogen), Warabiza, Yo-Ho, and Yokohama.

And how did they fare? Four breweries were awarded medals:

Gold: Minoh Beer Yuzu White Ale (Fruit Wheat Beer)

Gold: Fujizakura Kogen Beer Rauch (Smoke Beer)

Silver: Swan Lake Beer Amber Swan Ale (American-Style Amber/Red Ale)

Bronze: Kumazawa Chocolate Porter (Robust Porter)

Over the years, Hitachino Nest has been a standout brewer in this competition, with six medals, as has Nasu Kohgen, with a total of five. Swan Lake Beer’s Amber Swan Ale has won three times, and their Porter has picked up four medals. Fujizakura’s sublime Rauch and Rauch Bock have been awarded bronze and silver medals in the past, and this year the Rauch took the gold medal in the Smoke Beer category. Yet perhaps no brewery has done better than Baird Brewing did in 2010, with three gold medals in three diverse categories. 

Congratulations to all the brewers. Look for those award-winning brews at your favorite craft beer bar.