Imbibing in Tokyo

I’ve just returned from five super weeks in Tokyo. It’s a great place to do some drinking and the Japanese are pretty sensible about it too - as long as you don't do it and drive or make a complete nuisance of yourself. The regulations for craft beer production, taxation and wholesaling are all reasonable too. It sure makes me wish that India was more progressive about such things, including consumption, but I digress...

Most of the department stores in Tokyo have a decent selection of libations (and an incredible selection of food) in their basement. Sebiu in Ikeburko, Takashimaya in Shinjku and Tokyu in Shibuya are my favourites. Hasegawa Liquors also has a great sake bar / bottle shop in Tokyo station (behind the ticket gates). 

I always seem to drink a lot of Dassai sake when I’m in Japan. Even though this can be bought in the US and might not have the exotic cache of some of the high-end brands that are not exported, it’s really tasty and very well made. Certainly the best I’ve had when it comes to value-for-money. They also make several variants that are generally not available in the US. I've never seen their 49, 45 or sparkling Nigori (unfiltered) state-side. The number refers to the amount remaining of the rice after polishing. The inner core of the rice is where all the subtle flavor is. Removing the protein-rich outer layer makes for a more delicate, refined sake. Interestingly, Dassai has a very modern approach to sake-making and is the only smallish, craft sake brewery (kura) that I know of that uses a centrifuge to clarify. This year I discovered another sake I really like, Kojima-Sohonten's Toko from Yamagata. It's a Junmai (no additives) Ginjo (less than 60% polishing to the rice by law) and is also a Hiya-oroshi (special autumn-only release). It was a very reasonable ¥1365 too. I was told that this one is made with 100% Dewano-sato rice. I think I was lucky to get a bottle. When I went back for another a few days later, it was history. Speaking of history, this type of sake has a long one and goes back to the Edo period. Back then the finished product was stored in large wooden tanks that were used for fermentation and maturation, unlike the stainless steel and enameled tanks used today. It was also only pasteurized once unlike other types of sake. This tradition of single pasteurization continues in contemporary Hiya-oroshi's. Sake that is not pasteurized at all is also made. It’s called Nama-zake or just plain ole Nama and should be stored and consumed cold.

Some interesting facts about Sake; It's an old drink. The first mention of it in Japanese written history is from 712 AD during the Nara Period. Prior to 1960, it out-sold beer in Japan, but not anymore. And while the Japanese are drinking less of it, they are drinking more of the good/hi-grade stuff. The very best sake's (Daiginjo grade) are usually served cold. Sake is also the most complex alcoholic beverage (as measured with a gas chromatograph) which means it has more organic chemical components than other alcoholic beverages. This in-turn makes it more difficult to taste subtle differences, especially when compared to beer or wine. When sake is being made, the conversion from starch to sugar and fermentation happens simultaneously, unlike beer brewing - where one precedes the other. Sake brewers use/add the Aspergillus Oryzae mold (an unwanted pest in the Western world) to convert the rice starch to sugar, unlike beer brewers that have natural enzymes contained within our malted barley to do the task for us - provided we activate them with the correct temperature. Sake yeast (kobo) produces more alcohol than any of the other yeasts that humans use to ferment things. It can easily go to 20%, while beer yeast quits at about 10%. If you are looking for more alcohol than that, a still will be necessary. Some beer makers have used sake yeast - which is really just the same Saccharomyces Cerevisiae that we use in the beer world but selectively bred for special flavour characteristics and to produce more alcohol. I'd like to give a sake strain a go in Bangalore sometime but sadly we are not allowed to brew anything stronger than 8% so I will have to be careful if I do. Sake also ferments slower and colder than beer. It's then aged for several more months prior to filtering and bottling. John Gauntner provides a lot of great information about sake Here for those that want to know more. And Here is his list of the top izakaya (cozy sake pubs) in Tokyo.

If you like whiskey you must check out Hasegawa's two other shops in Tokyo station's Yaesu shopping mall. You'll most likely be able to buy a bottle of any single-malt that you're curious about here and maybe even get to taste it first!  One of the stores offers 10ml. samples for a very reasonable fee (most are ¥100-¥200). Bottles available for tasting have the price in red on the neck. It's a great way to taste things side by side for a little palette educating but note, there is a limit of two-at-a-time and I don't think they really want to run a bar here. The idea is more, try-before-you-buy. I had a few interesting tastings, Ardbeg Uigeadail vs. Ardbeg Galileo (better but too expensive), Lagavulin 16 vs. their 1995 Distillers Edition (better but not worth the extra ¥), Suntory Yamazaki 18 (my preference) vs. Suntory Hakushu 18 and lastly, Glenfarclas 21 vs. their 25 (both very good but I bought the 21). Kurashima san at Hasegawa was very helpful with my endeavor to bring a couple of choice bottles back to Bangalore. 

Here is another excellent Tokyo drinking guide for whiskey fans. 

I was very happy to learn that my old client, Minami-Shinshu Brewery in Nagano has fired up their Mars Distillery after a nineteen year slumber and is making whiskey again!

One place I always check-out when visiting Tokyo is Ebisu. Two big reasons, the Photography Museum is there and one can grab a couple of beers at Sapporo's old brewery site/museum afterwards. It's just a short walk away. There's not much to the museum and no brewing happens there anymore but there are some great old beer posters and company history on display and you're not likely to taste a better Sapporo from their extremely clean draft beer system. I'm partial to the Cream Stout myself. It's a little on the light side but very smooth and chocolatey. They do a tour (for a small fee) but it's more of a presentation on company history and a crash course in the Sapporo way to pour a beer. Years ago the tour was a little more interesting, one could don some virtual reality glasses and walk through/tour a virtual brewery. The best part was that you could crash into a fermenter, penetrate the steel tank wall and swim around with billions of yeast cells actively doing there thing (eating sugar & fermenting).

Sapporo's Old Ebisu Brewery

I wonder if these old wooden beer storage tanks at the Ebisu brewery were lined with pitch or something else. If not the beer would have probably had a very interesting character and been something of a challenge to keep microbiologically stable. There is a type of sake made today called Taru-zake that is aged in Cryptomeria wood. It sure has a very interesting and distinctive character that I'm quite fond of.

I was very happy to find myself down at Kokugikan (the sumo stadium) three times this trip and discovered that one can get a great bowl of Chanko in the basement for next to nothing. Chanko is a super-rich soup that is much favoured by the wrestlers and if you eat enough of it you will start to look like them! The recipe is provided by a different sumo stable or wrestler group and changes each basho (tournament). Another great thing about Kokugikan is that you can bring in your own libations without being treated like a suspected terrorist. There are no pat-downs, searches or alcohol seizures - which in this day and age, is very refreshing. Many of the seats even have bottle openers dangling off the arm. It's all very civilized. There are six basho's per year and each lasts two weeks. Three are in Tokyo and the others are in Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. Each of these alternate with Tokyo. The action starts on the second Sunday in January and every other month afterwards. It's great fun and is streamed live: Here, starting at 8 AM (Tokyo time) but the heavyweights (Makuuchi division) go from 3:45 to 6 PM.

I finally made it to Swan Lake Brewery's Pub Edo (a fine name) that opened since my last visit. It was good to see my old friends again and enjoy their excellent beers on-tap. The Belgian IPA was tasting particularly good. I was also lucky to be in town for the Japan Beer Times beer festival in Yokohama. 16 Japanese craft breweries poured 36 beers and one mead. A bunch of imported beers were also on offer. Fujizakurakougen’s Hefeweizen and Rauch were tasting quite good as were the Baird beers.

The Draft Beer System at Swan Lake's Pub Edo

Windmills Craftworks Update

A new batch of Porter is on-tap. It was fermented with a different yeast strain and is a bit drier than the last batch - which also happens to make the hop character stand out a little more. Ajay and I had it side by side with the last batch and we both thought it was an improvement. Winterfest is also on-tap. It's a big (17.8° plato) amber mouthful of malt and hops that packs quite a punch. A new shipment of malt has arrived from Germany and I brewed a batch of Hefeweizen with it yesterday. And remember, the quickest way to find out when something new is pouring at Craftworks is to follow @Bangabrew on Twitter. Kanpai...

Brewed "Winterfest" Today

Brewers have been making a special, extra-strong, year end celebratory or holiday beer for longer than anyone can remember. It's our little gift to friends and patrons. And today, I made just that - a big (17.8° plato) Amber Ale brewed with Maris Otter Pale malt from England, five different kinds of German specialty malt and plenty of Centennial & Cascade hops from the U.S. The mash tun was absolutely packed with grain. It should be quite a mouthful when it finishes fermenting! It's very similar to a beer I brewed many years ago in Seattle called Yulefest.

In a couple of days I'm heading off to Japan for a holiday break. I'll be back in late January and I imagine that quite a few will get a taste of Winterfest before I do. I've done my best to head out with a bang so-to-speak and remember, the quickest way to find out when it goes on-tap is to follow @BangaBrew on Twitter.

Happy holidays and best wishes to all for the new year!

Hefeweizen No.2 is On-Tap

I transfered my second batch of Hefeweizen to the cellar today and it is pouring. It's softer, less acidic and more complex than the first batch. It's a definite improvement and goes down quite nicely. This is the best selling beer at Craftworks. I'll be brewing wheat beer number three on Wednesday and plan on making it a bit darker by adding some Crystal and Munich malt.

Beery Factoids
Hefeweizen is a wheat beer of South German origin. Hefe means yeast and weizen means wheat.
Hefeweizen is cloudy because it is always unfiltered, wheat has more protein than barley and some yeast may be present. All Hefeweizen's are ales and made with grist that is usually 60% malted wheat and 40% malted barley.
A special yeast is used to ferment this beer that produces distinctive clove, banana and phenol flavours. Hop flavor should not be present. Hefeweizen should also be a little more carbonated than most other beer. All this makes for a very refreshing drink that goes quite well with Indian food and suits our hot climate very well. Prost...

E.S.B is Pouring

Photo: Tarun the Talented

Our American Amber Ale is gone and has been replaced with a classic English Amber Ale - Extra Special Bitter. It's brewed with the best English floor-malted Maris Otter Pale Ale malt I could get my mitts on, a bit of Crystal & Chocolate malt, a dash of jaggery and finished exclusively with East Kent Golding hops.

Next brew is Golden Ale on Friday. And I'm hoping to get a couple of additional brews in before I head to Japan for the holidays.

I'm giving the Twitter thing a go, thinking that it might be a quicker way for folks to find out what new beers are on-tap at Windmills Craftworks. So have a look for BangaBrew and follow if that kind of thing is of interest. Cheers...

We are "Officially" Open!

That last license we were waiting for is here! So if you haven't been here yet, come on by, check the place out and help me drain the serving tanks. The next wave of beer is ready to refill them. Amber Ale is on special. Buy one, get one free! When it's gone, our first beer made exclusively with English malt and hops (E.S.B.) will go on-tap. Also, we have great live (jazz) music on Friday and Saturday nights.

Hours:           Sunday to Saturday, noon till 11:30 PM
Happy Hour:  Monday to Friday, noon till 7 PM. Buy one beer, get one free.
Telephone:    +91 080 2569 2012
Address:        331 Road No. 5B, EPIP Zone, Whitefield, Bangalore 560 048    
Directions / Map:  http://www.windmillscraftworks.com/contact.htm

Ghosts, Ghouls & Malt-Worms

We have an excellent selection of books in the Windmills pub and while browsing through a really great tome on Bauhaus art (which I'm quite fond of). I came across this Lyonel Feininger watercolor from 1922 titled "Little Ghosts, Good-Natured Ones". It reminded me that it's Halloween in the US. One of my favorite holidays.

Continuing with the creepy theme of this post, I'm really hoping that that very soon we won't be hearing much from these two ghouls!

Here I am at Toit (brewery) enjoying some stout with start-up consultant and all-around font of brewing knowledge, Phil Kelm (left) & head brewer, Matt Callaghan. They should have a special Halloween Pumpkin Ale on tap by now. I tasted it out of the fermenter last weekend and thought it was spot-on!

Three Old Malt-Worms

Beery Factoids

A Malt-worm is (1700's) slang for beer drinker.
Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass (Malt-worms are particularly susceptible).

Happy Halloween!

Beer Style Spotlight ~ Porter

Windmills Craftworks is probably brewing the only Porter in India and I'm thinking a little introduction and explanation of just what it is, and not, is in order. Porter is a dark ale much like Stout is but differs mainly in that the grain bill is usually more complex, there is a noticeable hop finish (unlike Stout) and it’s not opaque or completely black like a Stout generally is. Windmills Porter is made with Pale Ale Malt, Munich Malt, Crystal (Caramel) Malt, Chocolate Malt, Roasted (unmalted) Barley and Flaked Barley (also unmalted). The finishing hops are American Cascade and English East Kent Goldings. It's fermented with a classic London Ale yeast strain at 20ºC and has a starting gravity of 13.8º plato and an alcohol content that is about 5% by volume. It's a smooth roasty brew with hints of chocolate, toffee and nuts. It also has a subtle but spicy hop finish. It's completely veg and served unfiltered for extra flavour and nutrition.

The Association of Brewers Beer Style Guideline for Robust Porter is as follows:

Original Gravity 1.045 -1.060 (11 - 14.7º Plato) {Sugar level or liquid density before fermentation}

Apparent Extract / Final Gravity 1.008 -1.016 (2 - 4º Plato)

Alcohol by Weight 4.0 - 5.2% (5.0 - 6.5% by Volume)

Bitterness (IBU) 25 - 40

Color SRM 30+ (60+ EBC)

There are some variants within the style such as the lighter/softer Brown Porter and the stronger Imperial and Baltic Porter's. Much the same as there is quite a variation in the types of Stout brewed around the world. Interestingly, many Baltic versions and quite a few historic American Porters, including Yuengling - from Americas oldest brewery - are brewed with lager yeast!

           

History

Folklore but not much hard fact has is that the style originates in London of the 1720's and was not a single beer but rather a pub-blend of three different light and dark ales. This mix was popular and often requested by the porters around Victoria Station. At that time the beer was called "Entire". A few years later a brewer named Harwood purposefully made a beer that contained all or the "Entire" qualities of the popular blend. It's a little uncertain if Harwood's name caught on or if the drink took the name of it's chief proponent. I'd bet on the latter. In either case, Porter was born. When it was brewed as such, it was one of the few beers that had any significant aging at the brewery before release to the pub trade. By many accounts the beer had a secondary fermentation with brettanomyces (wild) yeast - the “British fungus” that was discovered (isolated) in an English beer at the Carlsberg brewery in Denmark - and was a blend of young and old (vatted) beer. This would certainly make it drier and "gamier" than contemporary versions of the style. Early London Porters were strong beers by modern standards. One report from the 1770's lists a Porter as having an original gravity of 1.071° (17.75° plato) and an alcohol content of 6.6% by volume.

Dr Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia, published in 1830 mentions "acerbity" when describing the beer. Could this be the brett character or was it the flavour of the sour, vatted beer that was blended back in? The Cyclopaedia goes on to say, "About the beginning of the eighteenth century a malt liquor called entire butt was much in use; and afterwards a variety called brown stout. These were heavy, strong drinks; and about the middle of the eighteenth century they began to give place to a liquor the brewing of which was then much improved and in great request amongst the street porters of London; hence it obtained the name of porter. In some years after, it became one of the necessaries of life and has continued so ever since. The manufacture of porter has been subject to all the changes which the capricious taste of the public could devise. At first it was requisite that it should have a heavy taste, and a blackish colour; but this kind being reported to be unwholesome, and apt to occasion dyspeptic symptoms, it was conceived that to give it age was the remedy: but the liquor being not strong, age was sure to produce sourness in a slight degree, or hardness, as this is technically called. The secret of inducing sudden old age on an infant brewing of porter was soon found out; and the method of making best old London porter in a fortnight, was to mix porter that had become sour, in a certain quantity, with fresh drink. At length the publicans were let into the secret, and they were furnished by the brewer with two separate hogsheads, one of sour, and the other of fresh drink. Finally, so notorious was this practice, and so bare-faced the imposture, that in all public-houses hydraulic engines were fitted up, through the pipes of which, by the combination of two or three pumps, drink of any age required could be brought out of the cellar ready made. At present the public taste has undergone a new revolution, and nothing but a full, sound, fresh, dark-coloured porter will be relished."

By the end of the 18th century Porter brewers in London like Truman, Meux, Whitbread & Barclay found themselves buying or making ever larger tanks to mature the beer and get that “aged” flavour - the largest on record being 25 feet tall with a 20,000 barrel capacity - that is, until one calamitous day in October of 1814, when corroded hoops on a large wooden tank at Henry Meux's Horse Shoe brewery caused a rupture and sudden release of about 7,600 barrels (over 1.2 million liters) of Porter around Tottenham Court Road. The black torrent caused severe damage to the brewery, killed eight people and ended the trend of building ever larger tanks! Interestingly, the Horse Shoe Brewery only produced Porter through most the 1800's. It was a true specialist. The large London Porter breweries pioneered many technological advances in brewing such as the use of the thermometers (aprox. 1760) and the hydrometer [sugar meter] (1770). I couldn't imagine making beer without either of these measuring devices and especially when getting a new brewery up and running.

Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery, London

The very first European-style beers to arrive in India were most likely bottled Porters from London or Liverpool in the late 1700's. Later these dark beers would be shipped in "Hogshead" casks (250 liters) from England. The long journey aboard clipper ships typically took between three and five months. The ships departed between late November and early February and arrived in India between March and May to miss the monsoon season. The long (warm) journey caused much of the beer to go flat and sour in the ships hold. This led brewers and shippers to experiment with creative packaging and blending techniques. They even tried brewing on-board in effort to extend the beers stability and thus quality upon arrival. Despite the losses, they persisted in shipping because high demand and low shipping costs could result in huge profits (the rate for shipping beer from London to Bombay roughly equaled that of London to Edinburgh) and while India was self-sufficient in most things, beer was not one of those things. It was one of the few British commodities in demand because it was not made locally. Also, the valuable shipments of silks and spices returning from India more than covered the beers outbound journey.

After 1860 the popularity of Porter and the “aged” taste began to wane in England and the beer became increasingly "mild" - weaker and less hoppy. In the final decades of the century, many breweries discontinued their Porter altogether. Increased taxation on beers with higher alcohol content in England was one reason for the decline. Grain shortages and restrictions on beer strength during World War I was another. Later, the ever increasing popularity of pale lagers would be the nail in Porter's English coffin. The deadly slumber would last until 1978 when Yorkshire brewer Timothy Taylor would revive the style.

   


Porter was also brewed in the "new world". I've read that it was first commercially brewed by Robert Hare of Philadelphia in 1776 and was popular with none other than George Washington who declared that he would only drink Porter brewed in America. Early American Porters differed from English variants by the use of adjuncts. The unreliability of grain supplies and crop failures forced early American brewers to frequently use corn, molasses, pumpkins, squash and even peas in addition to malted barley. Sometimes in quantities that were not exactly beneficial to the beers character. Other than the prohibition years (1919-1933), Porter never really died in America like it did in England. Breweries like Narragansett in Rhode Island and Yuengling, Stegmaier, Neuweiler and Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania were the torch bearers that kept the style alive during the dark days of industrialization and brewery consolidation that followed prohibition. The style saw a revival in the 1970's at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco and later in the 80's at Sierra Nevada Brewing with the advent and popularization of craft-brewing. I've made a Porter at nearly every brewery start-up I've worked on and I’d be lying if I said it was not a style dear to my heart. Those I’m most proud of are from Seattle's Big Time Brewing, Japan's Swan Lake Brewery and of course Windmills Craftworks here in Bangalore. Here are some award winning Porters from the most prestigious and professional beer competition. They would certainly be worth seeking out:

2012 World Beer Cup ~ Robust Porter Winners (68 entries)

Gold: Pier Rat Porter, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA. USA
Silver: Pro-Am Porter, Wormtown Brewery, Worcester, MA. USA
Bronze: Chocolate Porter, Kumazawa Brewing Co., Chigasaki, Japan

2010 World Beer Cup ~ Robust Porter Winners (64 entries)
Gold: Pier Rat Porter, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA. USA
Silver: Founders Porter, Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI. USA
Bronze: Russian River Porter, Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA. USA

2008 World Beer Cup ~ Robust Porter Winners (49 entries)
Gold: People's Porter, Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC. USA
Silver: Porter, Nøgne Ø, Grimstad, Norway
Bronze: Swan Lake Porter, Hyokoyashikinomori Brewery, Niigata, Japan

Beery Factoids ~ Brown and dark beers pre-date pale beers. Darker kilned or roasted malt makes darker beer. Pale malts only came on the brewing scene in in Derbyshire, England in the early 1640's with the advent of coke-fired kilns to dry the wet, newly malted grain. Coke is just coal heated in the absence of oxygen so that unwanted gases (that would taint the malt), especially hydrogen sulphide, are absent. Earlier kilns used wood as fuel and the malt that came from them was darker (and smokier). In Scotland peat is still burned in some malt kilns, especially around Islay. This is why the whiskey from this area is quite smoky. In the German town of Bamberg a smoked beer called Rauchbier is produced by burning beechwood in the malt kiln. It just so happens that one of Windmills malt suppliers is in Bamberg. This should make it easy to guess one of our future, special seasonal beers. Cheers...