Sierra Nevada is the brewery that probably gets most craft brewers hooked on the idea of American Pale Ale; there is no end to the pale imitators and delightful, almost flawless copies. Their India Pale Ale, the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, will with any luck spawn another round of duplication. Pours amber, the aroma… Continue reading Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
Tag: Beer
Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
Kona Brewing Company calls this a “Hawaiian-style” pale ale rather than an American pale ale, the only differentiator being that Hawaiian style pale ales must display an active volcano on the label. This lava-filled terroir holds no influence over the beer itself. I don’t imagine that any of the ingredients grow anywhere near the island,… Continue reading Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
Asahi Style Free: Happoshu and Beer of the Third Kind
It is a strange quirk of history and economics that a nation’s taxation regimes change the beer that each country drinks. In the US, beer needs to contain at least 25% malted barley and so mass market brewers push the lower limit using rice, corn or anything else that can contain sugars and is cheaper… Continue reading Asahi Style Free: Happoshu and Beer of the Third Kind
Beer and Chocolate: Sapporo x Royce Chocolat Brewery Bitter
This limited release from Sapporo and apostrophe’d Japanese confectioner Royce’ is a strange Belgian nightmare; multiple vices backsliding into a brown can of depravity. Hops bitterness and cacao bitterness are perfect partners, malty and chocolate-y sublime and congruent combinations. Beer and chocolate works together. But these two really don’t. The pour is black with a… Continue reading Beer and Chocolate: Sapporo x Royce Chocolat Brewery Bitter
Eating Japanese food like a complete jackass
Katsu kari don at Narita International Airport. I cobbled together the last few yen on my Suica transit card and a fistful of hundred yen coins to buy the above breaded pork cutlet in sweet and acidic curry gravy, washed down with a bland as a mountain stream lager. I could have taken a parting… Continue reading Eating Japanese food like a complete jackass
Asahi Strong Off
I’ve noticed that one of the first beers that I drink in any country is the one whose advertisement I see first. The ads for Asahi Strong Off on the subway platforms around Tokyo depicts your average businessman with an expression on his face of either drunken jubilation or gaping in a rictus of groin-tearing… Continue reading Asahi Strong Off
Maybe people aren’t drinking it because it tastes like shit
There’s a short article over at The Age mapping the decline of the big Australian beers as a failure of their marketing. Their reason for the fall from grace of VB and Carlton: Image is also one of the reasons why there has been strong growth in mainstream craft beers such as James Squire, Little… Continue reading Maybe people aren’t drinking it because it tastes like shit
Epic Armageddon IPA
If you were going to split beer enthusiasts into two broad churches, one would worship the malt and yeast characters in beers made by actual monks; the other would worship hops and flee to the New World, or more specifically, Portland, Oregon. As for the site of Armageddon, neither party would have picked New Zealand,… Continue reading Epic Armageddon IPA