Our feature this week is Yebisu, a German pale lager based on the Dortmunder style. Originally established in 1887 as the Japan Beer Brewery Company, Yebisu took its name from the Japanese god of fishermen and luck, one of the seven Gods of Fortune. The brewery was initially located on a plot of farmland in […]
I raised the pale, cloudy beer to my lips, ready to try something new. The beer was a Berliner Weisse. Most of Germany’s famous brews hail from Bavaria in the south, but this beer was once the most popular alcoholic drink in Prussia. As the heavily carbonated wheat beer hit my tongue my lips puckered […]
This week’s featured beer is Spaten Oktoberfest, brewed by the Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu located in Munich, Bavaria, which has a long history without which the history of German beer would be incomplete. Oktoberfest beer is a malty, moderately hopped, gold to copper German lager. Although Spaten’s products bear the label Seit 1397 (Since 1397), that date refers […]
One thing the craft boom has given us beer drinkers is diversity, both of styles and methods. One option that is showing up more often around the world is “real ale.” What is real ale? How can a beer be more real than another beer? An ale is a beer fermented with ale yeast, a […]
This week’s feature is Wells Bombardier, an English pale ale bearing the title of a cannon-operating artilleryman in the British Army. The Charles Wells Family Brewery was originally founded in 1876 but exists today as the product of a 2006 merger with Young and Co.’s Brewery. Young’s Brewery was founded in 1831 upon the purchase […]
In anticipation of summer my compatriots and I decided to brew a Belgian Wit beer. With their light body and refreshing spicy flavors, witbier are perfect afternoon patio beers. We brewed last Saturday, doing a mini-mash with extract. This means that we “mashed” about half the grains, steeping them in hot water to break down […]
This week I’d like to take a look at another relatively uncommon ingredient used in brewing beer. Our feature this week is Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout, produced by the oldest brewery in the county of Yorkshire in northern England. Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery was founded in 1758 in the small market town of Tadcaster, and […]
In a perfect world there would always be a delicious craft beer close at hand. We don’t (yet) live in that world, especially in Japan. A friend and I did a blind taste test of Japanese macro-beers, to help in those moments when your only option is whatever is on sale at the local convenience […]
Although last week’s beer was also a wheat beer, this week’s comes from a brewery that played a vital role in the history of the modern weissbier (weizenbier). By the latter half of the 19th century, the style had fallen out of popularity in Germany and was at risk of vanishing completely, but it was […]
