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Orion Brewery, Orion The Draft Chiba Cherry Blossom
As most of the northern hemisphere is still in the grips of winter, here in Okinawa spring has sprung. This past week my family and I traveled to the northern end of the island to see the cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms, also called sakura, are the flowers of any number of species of Prunus trees…
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Burns Night, January 25th, 2023, Robert Burns, Blended Scotch Whisky, Isle of Arran Distillers LTD.
Robert Burns was a writer and poet who was able to capture the heart and emotion of Scotland. As Scottish culture spreads across the world many looked to Burns’ writings to give them that link back to their homeland. Many of these expatriates celebrate their Scottish heritage by celebrating Robert Burns on his birthday of…
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Eleventh Beer of Christmas, Chatan Harbor Brewery, Lager
The Eleventh Beer of Christmas brings us back to Okinawa where we started. Chatan Harbor Brewery started in 2016 and is part of the Terrace Hotel Group in Okinawa. The brewery is located just north of American Village on the west side of the island of Okinawa. American Village is a shopping area just outside…
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Tenth Beer of Christmas, Kizakura Brewery, Kyoto Beer, Golden Ale
As we come to the end of the twelve beers of Christmas we return to the Kizakura Brewery. Like many beer breweries in Japan Kizakura has its foundation as a sake brewery. This beer is even more unique as it has been brewed with koji mold spores that are usually used to brew sake. Koji…
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Ninth Beer of Christmas, Echigo Brewery, Niigata Koshihikari
Today’s beer is made by the Echigo Brewery that I highlighted Flying IPA earlier in the beers of Christmas. This lager is a repackaging of the brewery’s regular line up beer Niigata Koshihikari. The art work on the can highlights the characters or mascots of the towns in Niigata. In the Japanese culture there is…
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Eighth Day of Christmas, Baren Brewery, Coral Island Sunset Lager
The Eighth Day of Christmas Beer celebrates the 10 year anniversary as Friendship Cities of Morioka and Uruma. The Baren Brewery is located in Iwate Prefecture where Morioka City is located. If Japan is viewed as a Dragon with Hokkaido being the head facing into the Pacific, Morioka is located in the dragon’s neck. Uruma…
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Fifth Day of Christmas, Kizakura Brewery, Kyoto Beer, Brown Ale.
Kizakura Brewery takes its name from a cherry tree variety that blooms later than others and has a yellow flower. This is different from other cherry blossoms which bloom white or light pink in the spring. Kizakura Brewery produces several lines of beverages. These are Lucky Brew, Kizakura Sake, Yuzu High-Ball, and Kyoto Beer. In…
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Third Day of Christmas, Echigo Beer Company, Flying IPA
Echigo Brewing Company titles itself as the “Oldest Brewing Company in Japan”. In 1994 Japan revised their licensing requirements to operate a brewery. Before that year a brewery was required to produce 60,000 mL to receive a license. After 1994 the requirement was lowered to 6,000 mL. Uehara Seichiro received his liscense to operate a…
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Second Day of Christmas, Yo-Ho Brewing Company, Yona Yona Ale
Yo-Ho Brewing company is located in Karuizawa Nagano, Japan. A relatively young brewery having been founded in 1996 Keiji Hoshino. His goal was to produce more of an American style craft beer instead of the German style beers that dominated the Japanese Market. Since then they have produced several fantastic beers that are very much…
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First Day of Christmas, Helios Brewery, Sheequarsar White Ale
The first beer of Christmas starts here in Okinawa Japan. The Southern most province of Japan. In 1961 when Okinawa was still a Military Protectorate following the Second World War, Tadashi Matsuda started the the Helios Distillery. Originally he sought to “Produce a Product Made of the Finest Locally Grown Ingredients”. This product was initially…
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Learn to Homebrew Day
Almost every-time I tell someone that I enjoy home-brewing they are at first fascinated with the idea of making your own alcohol then nearly everyone doubts themselves and tells me “but I could never do that”. The American Homebrew Association established November 5th as Learn to Homebrew Day. While the AHA provides a recipe that…
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London Beer Flood
In an early evening night in October Mrs. Banfield was having tea with her two young daughters. The Banfield family was one of several poor Irish immigrant families that crammed into poorly constructed buildings along New Street. Living on the edge of poverty in London, England. Without warning a fifteen foot wave of English Porter…
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Homebrew Legalization Day, United States, 14 October
I generally stay far away from politics, but today is an exception. Forty-four years ago today President James (Jimmy) Earl Carter Jr. signed the Federal Transportation Bill H.R. 1337. A transportation bill may seem like a strange thing for a beer enthusiast to be happy about, but there was an amendment in that bill that…
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Mid-term Break from Learning About Beer to Enjoy Some Beers
This is mid-term week for Auburn Brewing Science Masters Program. I am up to my eyeballs in yeast cell biology, contamination test, and calculations for mass and energy. After a few days of studying I needed a break. I decided to try a Comparison Tasting for the Certified Cicerone Exam that I am also studying…
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Japan Beer Travels: Cooper Ale’s
When traveling I always seek out breweries and bottle-shops to get a good local feeling of the area. On a recent trip to Tokyo I took a slight tweak to this plan. I found a beer bar that had several beers that are hard or impossible to find in Okinawa. Cooper Ale’s is in the…
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Wet Hop Beer
Right now (September-October) on hop farms around the world, farmers are picking this years crop of hops. The hummulous lupus is a bine where hops grow on the female plants. Hops grow best between the 38º and 51º parallel. The shortening days combined with the cooler evenings cause the hop cones to develop and ripen.…
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Lessons Learned: Check your math.
The childhood question has been answered of “when will I ever use math?”. There is a surprising amount of math involved in brewing. From conversion of gallons to barrels, to changing units of measurement for heat, energy, and pressure. All of these involve mathematical equations and require a high level of attention to ensure the…
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Dry Hopped Zwickl, Collaboration between Bitburger (Germany) and Deschutes (US) Breweries, Kellerbier, 4.9%ABV.
A collaboration beer is the result of two breweries working together to produce a single beer. This is seen as an opportunity for breweries to expand their fan base by tapping into the customers of the partnered brewery. This beer is one of those collaborations. Bitburger from Germany and Deschutes from Bend Oregon, USA. This…
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Lessons Re-learned: Mt. Fuji Edition.
This past weekend I hiked Mt Fuji in pouring rain, heavy cloud cover and temperatures between 45-50ºF. Touring the misery of that hike I re-learned several important life lessons. None of these are earth shattering or new to me. Like brain synapses being reinforced when you remember people places and things I feel the same…
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The Arnolds/Arnufs of Beer: St Arnold of Metz, Soissons, and Oudenaarde.
Beer and saints have long associated history.
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The Saké Handbook, John Gauntner, 2002
John Gauntner’s book Saké Handbook was one of several books I read while studying for the International Kikisake-shi Certification. Of the three books, I felt that this one was the best book for someone who is brand new to enjoying saké. The book is broken into three parts. The first part covers the history, manufacturing…
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National Bourbon Day, 14 June 2022: Blanton’s, Blanton’s Black Special Reserve, Blanton’s Japan
By definition all Bourbons are whiskey but not all whiskies are bourbon. This is because of the definition of Bourbon from Title 27 of the US Code of Federal Regulations. Title 27 states that Bourbon must be made with at least 51% corn, made in America, placed in new charred oak container, distilled at 160º…
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World Whisky Day, 21 May 2022, AO World Whisky, Suntory
World Whisky Day was started 11 years ago by Blair Bowman. Blair is a whisky consultant who contributes monthly to Scottish Field Magazine and has written the Pocket Guide to Whisky: featuring the Whisky Tube Map. According to him “World Whisky Day is an annual, global day of whisky, which invites everyone to try a…
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Star Wars Day; Kirishima Beer, Stout, Kirishima Shuzo Co.
This week is Golden Week in Japan. This is a series of holidays that all fall within a weeks time. They are Showa Day, Constitutional Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children’s Day. Because of the close proximity of these holidays this is the big travel and holiday time for many in the country. Today, May…
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Helios Brewery, Santa Beer, Christmas Beer, 7% ABV
As spring approaches here in Japan cleaning our house has taken center stage as we say goodbye to winter. As I was cleaning the refrigerator I found a beer hiding in the back behind the well expired left overs that were starting to take on the features of a misguided science experiment. During Christmas I…
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Beer & Book Review: Craft Beer in Japan, English, Mark Meli, 2013
Unlike many of the books on my shelf I can tell you exactly where I was when I bought this book and I even had a chance encounter with the author, although at a separate location and time. I met the author Mark at Koyoto Brewing Company. He was one of the few westerners at…
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Chapter 5: Palate Trips from Beer Pairing; The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros, Julia Herz and Gwen Conley
Since the beginning of the year I have read and written reviews for about a dozen beer books. In many of these books are recipes and exercises the reader can utilize to reinforce lessons taught in the book. Last week I wrote a review of Beer Parings by Julia Herz and Gwen Conley, now I…
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Asahi Super “Dry” Recipe Change
Asahi has been the best selling beer in Japan for years up until 2020 when another Japanese Brewery, Kirin, overtook them. Historically the preponderance of sales of Asahi come from draft form in bars. This has obviously been greatly impacted by the recent public health restrictions imposed by Japan for COVID-19. In an effort to…
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Tepatche: Refreshment from food scraps
With gas prices rising and the feeling that everything is becoming more expensive, more people are looking to maximizing their resources. One of these is to utilize every part of of the products you purchase from the grocery store. Starting with COVID closures our family began to get a home delivery box of fruits and…
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Beer & Book Review: Home Brewing Without Failures, H. E. Bravery
The book is written by Harold Edwin (more commonly H.E.) Bravery. After a good bit of digging I would not be surprised if this is a pen name for Noel Whitcomb. I make this assumption based on the forward written by Mr. Whitcomb in another Bravery brewing books, Home Wine Making Without Failures. In that…
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The Premium Malt’s, Premium Pilsner, Suntory
From the information page on Suntory website, “Suntory Group is a global leader in consumer packaged goods, producing and distributing a uniquely diverse portfolio of beverages, premium spirits, beer and wine, and wellness products throughout the world.” In plain speak I would say that Suntory produces a wide varieties of beverages that span from Japanese…
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Robert Burns Night, Lagavulin 11 Year, Nick Offerman Edition
On this day 263 years ago Robert Burns was born in Scotland. He would go on to put to word what many Scots thought of their homeland and be remembered as the poet of Scotland. As the diaspora has spread across the globe they have taken this day to celebrate the man and their heritage.…
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Beer & Book Review: Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, Maureen Ogle, 2006
The news of Monster Energy Drink buying CANarchy has fanned once again the craft beer purist complaint that another brewery has sold out to the man and gone against its core foundation. This same argument has been made when Bell Brewery was sold to Lion a subsidiary of Kirin Brewing and Goose Island was sold…
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Head to Head to Head with Japanese Whiskys.
We have recently discovered that Flaviar ships to Japan if you have a local address. Flaviar is an alcohol subscription service where once a quarter you receive a pre-selected three sampler tasters and a full sized bottle of your choosing. We began this when the world shut down in 2020 and we wanted to continue…
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Hefe-Weizen, Ginga Kogen Beer
With a name that translates into “The Plateau of the Galaxy”, Ginga Kogen started in 1996 with a goal to brew authentic weizen beers. Weizen are beers brewed with at least 50% wheat grain as part of their list of grains used and can also be called wit or white beers. The brewery is located…
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Beers & Book Review: The Brewers Companion, Randy Mosher, (c) 1993, 1995, 2000
Prior to moving to Japan I collected a solid library’s worth of old and new beer books. The thought was that it would be harder to get brewing books overseas, but I still wanted to learn. I plan to read through them all and provide my thoughts about the book, what I liked, disliked, and…
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Twelve Drummers Drumming. Fukizakura Heights Beer, Rauch
Traditionally the Yule log was burned through the Christmas season. It seems only fitting that we end with this holiday tradition. On the last day of Christmas the Yule log would be completely burnt and this season would come to an end. To mark this occasion we finish with a distinctly unique style of beer. …
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Eleven Pipers Piping. Sierra Nevada Brewing, Barrel Aged Narwal
Ken Grossman the founder of Sierra Nevada began his brewery in 1980. In a time where small breweries were few and far between Ken took an unique approach to build his brew house. Taking up-cycled dairy equipment he developed a pale ale beer that was much bitter than any of the light lagers that existed…
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Ten Lords a-Leaping, Cliff Beer, For Whom the Bell Tolls
If you have not heard of this brewery you have probably not been to the island of Okinawa, Japan. Cliff Beer began in 2019 and is run out of what is best described as a converted home in a densely residential neighborhood. To get to the brewery you have to travel down what appears to…
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Nine Ladies Dancing, Yamaguchi Craft Beer, Hagi Yuzu Ale
The Yamaguchi Beer Company was founded in 1997. Their claim of distinction from other breweries in Japan is their limestone filtered water and horizontal fermentation tanks. This is different from what you see in most breweries that use the more common vertical conical tanks. While these do take up more floor space in the brewery,…
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Eight Maids a-Milking. New Years Day, Lucky Tiger, Lucky Brew, Kizakura Co.
According to the lunar calendar, 2022 will ring in the year of the tiger. This is the fourth year that Lucky Brews have produced an ale that celebrates the lunar year. Previous Lucky Brews have been Lucky Cat, Dog and Chicken to commemorate the previous lunar years. Each year had a different style of beer…
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Seven Swans a-Swimming, New Years Eve, Hürlimann Brewery, Samichlaus
The old man figure on the bottle depicts Santa which gives the beer its name. It could however depict father time to ring out the old year. The depiction of an old man signifies the end of another year and is normally accompanied by a tiny baby to signify the new year. Samichlaus is brewed…
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Six Geese a-Laying. Lion Brewery, Lion Stout
The brewery that would eventually be known as Lion Brewery was started in 1849 and holds the distinction of being the oldest brewery in Sri Lanka. I was first introduced to this beer the last time I lived in Japan. My wife and I were searching for something different than the regular light lager of…
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Five Golden Rings. Orval
Orval began their long history in 1070 when monks arrived in the area. Over the years wars and political upheaval has caused the abbey to close several times. The modern version of the abbey began in 1926 when the de Harenne family gave the Cistercian Order the ruin buildings of Orval and the adjacent land…
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Three French Hens, Helios Brewery, Conductor’s Porter
In 1985 Chris Van Allsburg wrote and illustrated the book The Polar Express. The book tells of a train that brought children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to visit Santa and possibly receive the first gift of Christmas. In honor of the train conductor, famously played by Tom Hanks, today’s Christmas beer is…
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Twelfth Beer of Christmas, Nanto Brewery Okinawa Sango Beer, Saison.
The final Beer of Christmas finishes off at a brewery in an Okinawa amusment park. Okinawa World is a registered tangible cultural property of Japan. This facility has a glass factory, reptile exhibit, cave and brewery. The Nanto Brewery uses water from this limestone cave to brew its beer. In addition to beer the brewery…
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Seventh Day of Christmas, Yo-Ho Brewing Company, Tokyo Black, Porter
The seventh day of christmas beers takes us back to a previous brewery. Yo-Ho Brewing has produced an English Porter that is just as much to style as the earlier Yona Yona Pale Ale. Earthy bitter hop aroma on the nose. Spicy hop aroma with a slight pine resinous scent. Really the smell if you…
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Sixth Day of Christmas, Coedo Brewery, Shikkoku, Black Lager
This Beer of Christmas has its roots in a produce company which started in 1975. Kyodoshoji Corp was looking for ways to reduce waste the company looked to make “low malt beer” from excess produce. In 1996 the company received their happoshu license which allowed them to make alcohol with little or no malt. In…
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Fourth Day of Christmas, Karuizawa Brewery, The Karuizawa Beer, Clear
The Karuizawa Brewery takes its name from Karuizawa Japan. This mountainous region in Nagano Prefecture has long been a summer retreat area for the Japanese to escape the summer heat. Situated at the base of Mount Asame the cool temperatures have welcomed those that are trying to escape the summer heat. In 2011 the brewery…
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Luke Pernotto 