You Have a Giant Can

Beer #294 Asahi Super Dry / Asahi Breweries, Tokyo, Japan

Game day, so let's blog bright and early in the morning!  Do the Lions run their win streak to three games by kicking off Big Ten  play with a vicious beat down of Illinois?  Time will tell, of course.  After a hectic September with three home games, it's nice to spend a weekend not driving anywhere.  Go State.

Before we get there, it's time for a beer review.  Part of any sushi adventure requires proper beverages, and last night our friends called an audible from the usual wine and brought some dinner specific brews: Morimoto Soba Ale from Rogue (delicious!) and two cans of Asahi Super Dry - which is my beer for the day.  This rice lager from Japan pours a clear gold color with a white head, and is an easy drinking beer with notes of grain and a light sweetness from the rice.  You hitting Bluefin (or whatever other less awesome sushi places are out there) for dinner?  Throw some Asahi in to go along with your sake.  Do it.

Highlight of the night?  I mean, other than when the table next to us was occupied by a guy and the woman he was renting for the evening?  And also other than some truly amazing sushi?  The fact that Asahi comes in awesomely giant 33oz cans of beer.  Some may call a 33oz can of beer unnecessary, but I just call that being efficient.

Who doesn't like huge handful of a big ol' can?

As Asahi is the largest brewery in Japan, we're certainly pushing the envelope of our craft brew-only mission, but it's a new beer to us, comes from a rather faraway land, and isn't something you usually find.  My advice: Deal with it.

Seriously, deal with it.

Thing to Think About Today:
I'm stretching it here, but if it's a day to think about fish and the Pacific Ocean, I think I'm dropping in some Sublime and their supremely mellow Badfish.

Sublime was easily the soundtrack for the summer of 1997, which I spent in State College.  This was beyond a doubt the best summer of my life, as I worked a bit, but mostly hung out every day and night with my best friends in my favorite town on earth.  When they get around to building time machines, I'm setting the dial on mine back to May of 1997.  By the time I got into Sublime (thanks to Marci for that), their lead singer, Bradley Nowell, had already passed away of a drug overdose, thus abruptly ending their incredibly bright future as a group. But then a funny thing happened - people just keep listening to the limited number of albums Sublime had already put out, and their legend continued to grow.  I mean, how many times this summer - sixteen years after Nowell died - did you hear songs like Santeria, What I Got, or Wrong Way on the radio?  How I managed not to include Sublime in this space somewhere during a summer beer review is a mystery for the ages, but I'll make up for that now.  Let's all unwind, take a deep breath, close our eyes (only when done reading this, please), and spend some time on a peaceful Saturday morning dreaming of sunny days spent surrounded by your favorite friends.  You're welcome for the free smile I just brought to your face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmadSGJCzo8

"Lord knows I'm weak / won't somebody get me off of this reef?"

A Post With Many Things

Beer #179 Premium Lager / Sapporo Breweries Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

I think there are too many things happening to comment on today.  First, it's D-Day.

Daniel Simpson Day. No grade point average... all courses incomplete.

No, not that one.  The one to commemorate the Allied invasion at Normandy.  So thank you very much, veterans.  Also, the great American writer Ray Bradbury died today.  Author of books such as Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury was a master story-teller.  If you haven't read his work, you're missing out.  Apparently, it's also National Running Day, which I celebrated by trying a new route this morning, getting lost, and adding 2 extra miles I wasn't planning on running.  Like I said, busy day.

Tonight's beer on this busy day is the Premium Lager from Sapporo.  Very appropriate, as it was sushi night at our house.  No, not Bluefin (greatest sushi restaurant ever), but a fair substitute none the less.  This beer is a crystal clear gold in the glass, with a sweet aroma.  Very basic flavors of grain and sweetness, which seems to come from being brewed with rice.  I wouldn't drink this on a regular basis, but on sushi night it's fine.

Shiny! And probably from Canada.

For those who are curious, Sapporo was founded in 1876, many things happened over time, and then in 2006 they purchased Canadian brewer Sleeman.  Which means my Japanese beer was most likely brewed in Ontario.  Hey, what can you do.

Thing to Think About Today:
In honor of D-Day (yeah, the first one) let's see Mr. Danial Simpson Day, as Captain of the Deathmobile, and the rest of the Deltas in action at the Homecoming Parade.  Yes friends, it's time for Animal House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX71mALOPKs 

"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

Beer 179: Japan Night...Sapporo and Sushi

I give a lot of credit to those people out there who live on salad for lunch. I had a salad for lunch today and now I'm ready to eat someone's face off. Vegetables are bullshit. So are face-eating zombies.

I digress.

Tonight it is all Japan, all the time. Sushi. Sapporo.


In the glass, Sapporo looks like any other macro lager. It's a mass produced beer. It has a crystal clear straw color, thick white head...probably a lot like Budweiser but who drinks Bud out of a glass? Isn't that a strictly in the can beer?

Again I digress. It smells grain-y and generally like beer. The flavor is light, somewhat sweet. It is a Japanese rice lager - brewed with lots of rice. Based on beeradvocate.com's description, I think it hits the mark.

Is it winning any awards in my book? No. Is it fine on Sushi Night? Yes.

Cheers!

Gotta Say, Today Was a Good Day

Beer #117 Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale / Kiuchi Brewery, Naka-shi, Japan

Not a bad way to spend a day off - not only is it Marci's birthday (yay!), and not only was the weather great, but The Franklin Institute broke ground on their long awaited building expansion today!  Details are HERE, but it's going to be awesome, and my incredibly super talented wife organized the ground breaking ceremony.  Instead of gold shovels in the ground, the ceremony today involved robots, explosions, hydrogen, nitrogen, and enough confetti to make me glad I wasn't the one cleaning up the mess.  Good work, Marci - job well done!  Can't wait to see the party when the new building opens....

The remainder of the day was spent eating and drinking.  I wish I was exaggerating, that's all we ended up doing.  A ten course lunch at Amada (with sangria) was followed by afternoon drinks at The Boilermaker, a new bar at 11th and Walnut in Philly.  Yes, you can get a traditional boilermaker (a shot and a beer), although they have some more exotic combinations beyond the standard PBR & bottom shelf whiskey.  This bar isn't "officially" open yet; their grand opening happens next Wednesday if you're interested.  Great list of domestic craft beers on draft and by bottle.  Evening was closed out with dinner at Fellini's in Berwyn, which is clearly our favorite restaurant of all time.  Not a bad day, my friends.  Not bad at all.

One of the beers from today at The Boilermaker was the Red Rice Ale from Hitachino Nest, courtesy of the Kiuchi Brewery.  A Belgian strong pale ale.... from Japan?  Yep, believe it.  It poured an amber color with a barely there head.  Your nose picks up the aroma of malt, and when you drink it you get flavors of sweet malt, earthy grains, and a hint of bitterness.  Dry finish on this one.  In all, a very good beer well worth your time if you're in the market for a Belgian strong pale ale.

Marci has previously sampled this brewery, and her review can be found HERE.  For those of you on acid right now, I encourage you to check out this Hitachino Nest website.  And to all a good night.

Is that Sasquatch or today's beer? Damn camera phone.

Thing to Think About Today:
Look, if we're talking about a good day, let's all think about having A GOOD DAY.  You know what I'm talking about here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWfbGGZE07M

For those of you wondering, and I know you are - Ice Cube's "Good Day" has been mathematically proven to be January 20, 1992.  Unless, of course, it was actually November 30, 1988.  Was there a second shooter from the grassy knoll?  Hard to say.

Regardless, today was a good day.  Hopefully tomorrow, you won't need to use your AK.

Beer 92: Hitachino Nest XH and Spoiled Rotten Dachshunds

Sunday Funday.  Today would best be described as a life of leisure.  It started off at Classic Diner with an awesome breakfast.  If you live in this area and haven’t been there, go there immediately -- or as soon as they open because they make awesome breakfast.  I’m sure the rest of their food is delicious -- I’m just partial to the breakfast.

Next up was provisions as I’m in charge of food for the next two days.  Hello cereal, scrambled eggs and beer for dinner.  I have a fresh manicure and pedicure and it came with a hot stone massage for my feet/legs and a back rub.  Nice.  (And no, Gary, I didn’t have to sell the Mini to pay for it!)  So what better way to continue this leisurely Sunday, than with a Belgian strong dark ale from Japan.  What now?  Belgian ale from Japan?  Let’s see how this goes…

The Hitachino Nest XH poured a murky dark brown in my tulip glass.  It’s aged in oak barrels previously used to age sake.  I like sake.  We seem to be on the right path.  The XH smells very similar to a Flanders red ale and if you’ve paid any attention to my writing, you know that is a big plus in my book.

The taste is summed up best by imagining that a Flanders red ale made babies with a brown ale.  It isn’t predominantly hop or malt forward.  I’m not getting any sake influence but there is an oak thing happening.  There is also fruit thing happening - not quite lemon - that lends a bit of tartness and some spice.  It didn’t pour with a big foamy head but it drinks with a lot of carbonation.  That’s kind of decreasing my oodles of satisfaction.  I’d like for it to be smoother.  I also think my refrigerator is entirely too cold.

At about midway through the glass, the XH is beginning to give me more wine-like characteristics.  And every once in awhile I swear I taste bleu cheese.

The XH supposedly means extra high alcohol content.   I wouldn’t quite call 8% ABV high, but what do I know.  Maybe the rules are different in Japan and I’m too lazy to research it.  Remember…I’m leisuring today.

I would drink this again if I encountered it.  I’m also a big fan of the Hitachino Nest white ale.  I haven’t had one in what feels like ages.  It is always available at Teresa’s Next Door and I’ve been keeping it in my back pocket in case I’m running low on new breweries to sample later this year.  I’m glad I gave up my review of the white ale for the XH.

From what I remember, the white ale has a lot spice - clove and ginger.  It’s also nice and citrusy.  Lots of malt and drinks easy.  It would be a great summertime beer.

And on that note, I leave you with this image of two of my spoiled rotten dachshunds.  Yes, they get to lay in their bed out on the deck.

Cheers!  It’s only going to get better this week!

p.s.  As I was getting all the links for this post, I made the Japan-earthquake connection.  Photos of the damage around the brewery are here.  And photos of the brewery are here.  Mother Nature scares the shit out of me.

Beer 58: Angry Boy Brown Ale or Angry Marci Roof Expensive

Today started with a surprise visit by our roofers.  Oh, I knew I was getting a new roof.  I just didn’t know today was the day!  Imagine my delight as I’m prancing around trying to get ready for work having to deal with three crazed dachshunds and five strange men standing in my backyard.  I’m sure it goes without saying that, of course, I’m still in a TOWEL at the start of this debacle.

Then I come home to this mess.

I suppose when the place looks like this, that chair could not have been meant for the trash pickup!

I’m writing this post at 6:13 p.m. and they are still going strong.  I’ll admit my new roof is beautiful but, as all things beautiful, it comes with a price.  I’m spending enough on this damn house this week to…I don’t even want to think about what I could have done with the money.  Between fixing the hole in the siding, this new roof, ultimately new siding…let’s just say when I find out I need to have all the plywood replaced and it costs $1,500, it’s like it’s not even real money anymore.

This!  (shakes tiny fists of fury) This makes me sad because the Coach wallet I’ve had my eye on for almost a year went on sale today for $65 off.  Guess who isn’t getting a fun new wallet? A plum patent leather wallet?  Patent leather is like crack for me.  DEPRESSIONHURTSDOTCOM!!!

But I digress.  I’m not sure what I expected to happen during the installation of a new roof, but so far this one makes me want to drink.  (I’m going to pretend that I don’t hear a chainsaw…)

Oh, and by the way, the new roof and siding are really going to make the lack of landscaping, falling down retaining wall and driveway look even shittier.  Ramen noodles for dinner.  Momma needs more spending cash!

***

Tonight we drink Angry Boy brown ale.

It comes to us from Baird Brewing Company in Japan!  The tulip glass gets a night off for a change.  It poured cloudy with slightly red highlights in a brown ale (go figure!).  It had a thick tan head that took its time slowly fizzing away.  It smelled of sweetness and raisins.

Why do I keep finding beer that smells / tastes like raisins???  I don’t like raisins!

The taste started sweet and earthy.  Then came the raisins.  (Seriously?  Why does it sound like a horror movie outside?)  It finished with a modest hop bite.  It drank silky smooth.  Overall I would say it’s good beer.

p.s.  It was a very powerful leaf blower…not a chainsaw!