These Bairds are growing on me

After a recent dousing of Baird propoganda from those Good Beer Country Boys, my thirst for Baird Beer was high.
The time was ripe to see if some Bairds would grow on me.
Those boys from Kentucky have a liking for these brews and for good reason. They have to be some of the best beers in Japan (if not anywhere!) at the moment.
They have about 20 of their beers on tap at the NakameguroTaproom and about half a dozen or so at the HQ, the wonderful Numazu Fishmarket Taproom.
I decided to go with their regular brews, and chose 5 that were for sale at a store near my home (lucky!).
I went with the Angry Boy brown ale (a lot of people love this brew), the Rising Sun pale ale (American pale ale - also well loved), Teikoku IPA (British/American IPA), the Shimaguni Stout (Irish dry stout) and the Kurofune porter.


Ready? Here we go!

Angry Boy Brown ale:

At first it tasted slightly off. It could have been something to do with the bottle or the fact that I poured most of the yeast sediment into the glass (something I sometimes do, as it improves the taste for certain beers - am I weird?). The alcohol is a tad over 6% and tasted like it. Still, very nice. It got better as I drank it.

7/10.

Rising Sun pale ale:

Quite a few people have this as their favourite. Personally, I do like this but I preferred the Celebration Ale, when they had it on tap. That stuff was awesome (as was their imperial pilsner)! Fruity and hoppy and full of life. Very good beer. I often include one of these in my sessions at the taproom, as a wake you up kind of brew. Something to enjoy and bring some sunshine, in between the serious brews. Not to put this beer down at all, it was also very good. But part of the beauty of these beers is that they are different.

Vivre la difference!

7-7.5/10


Teikoku IPA:I find this beer to be more serious and mature, as opposed to the younger and more energetic Rising Sun. Very nice beer. Always appreciated. Never turned away. Perhaps more English than Americna, but some may disagree there. Perhaps 'neither', may be the more accurate description. Again, not meaning to sound harsh. This is a very nice beer. Nothing wrong with it. Solid.
7/10

Shimaguni Stout:Lovely aroma on this baby. Mmmm...
Goes down a treat.
Nice stout which still retains that quintissential Baird taste - always in a good way.
Easy to put down, again and again. Nice, nice beer.
7.5/10

Last, but not least, the Kurofune Porter:I assume it is named after the black ships, famous for assisting in 'coercing' Japan to open trade negotiations with the US. Well, I'm sure Admiral Perry would've happily swigged away on this stuff for many a fine evening.
This is my favourite for tonight.
7.5-8/10

Nuts. I just drank it.
2 am and time to go beddybyes. If you've met me, you'll understand that I need all the beauty sleep I can get!
Aplogies for the crappy descriptions, but I was doing other stuff whilst drinking.
If you're curious, then why not just grab a bottle and taste test them yourself? Or pop down to the NakaMeguro Taproom and have a few pints, fresh from the tap?
Baird beer is on tap at the Taproom and a few other places around town. Check out which here.
Happy hunting.

Swallowing Dick's in Tokyo

I was in Yokohama, drinking Baeren bitter in the Craft Beer Bar, when I recieved word from a source, that a certain bar in Tokyo was serving Dick's!

I've never had Dick's before, so I was curious as to how it may taste.

Well, I just had to have my first experience of American Dick's in a Tokyo bar.
However, before I could get my mouth around the Dick's, I popped into a nice standing bar (Towers), not far from the bar with the Dick's on tap. I need to get all limbered up and ready for action.

In Towers, I enjoyed a nice half pint of 'cock&balls' morning coffee stout (with a nice, thick head full of cream). I only had a half serving of this, as I was saving myself for the Dick's, later on.
The coffee stout was very nice, maybe better than on tap at the Taproom, days earlier.

Now, I was ready to take on the Dick's.

The luxury of drinking Dick's doesn't come cheap. 1,400yen for large Dick's, 1000yen for medium Dick's and about 750 for small Dick's.

I'm not one to mess about, especially when it concerns Dick's, so I got me a large portion of Dick's.

I was worried if I'd bitten off more than I could chew.

But the Dick's were good. Fruity, zesty, cold, bitter, hoppy, slightly tangy creamy - all in all, a nice pair of Dick's.

Here you can see me trying to get my frend and I a pair of large, wet Dick's:


The Dick's were so good, that I managed to find room to squeeze in one more small one.I just couldn't resist giving the Dick's a lick.

Dick's IPA 7-7.5/10.

p.s. has anyone tried this beer?Sounds dodgy to me.

Baird Lucky 7 Stout Week - in Chuwyspeak

From 16th to 23rd March, it's Lucky 7 Stout Week at the Nakameguro Taproom.

(1) Mama's Milk Stout

(2) Chocolate Malt Stout

(3) Great American Stout

(4) Midnight Oil Export Stout 2009

(5) Morning Coffee Stout 2009

(6) Dark Sky Imperial Stout 2009

(7) Barrel-Aged Dark Sky Imperial Stout 2008


I don't have much time until I go out myself and get blotto, so here's a brief description of each one, in the form of a photo and the drunken rantings sent from my mobile phone, as I tasted each one and drunkenly mailed my friends:

Chocolate Malt Stout:

Taproom. Chic malt stout nothing great. Wasn't sure wether to leave it for dessert but made right choice. Quite light. Light bodied. Nice strawy smell but feels flat and lifeless. Sweetish in the lightness and chic malted a fair boy but bitterness lasts on the Tongue. Not very nice 4/10.

Dare I try the morning coffee stout?
I usually hate coffee stouts, especially nests and the mimoh starbucks espresso stout. Urgh!!!!

Also, is Tim the only one who interpreted this e-mail based rorsharch test in the 'having sex with young boys' way, or are any more of my friends sick, twisted, perverted as fuck bastards?

Hah!

I shall now enter random words and see what the iPhone cones up with.

Ggrvfgjenvhgsfgjv. UHF. Gtg. By ggfsr ufdjg kjfguewjs he yech. F. Be DC db f hfvhv g du djvn v

I probably just called the brewer of Nogne's mother a c*nt.
Sent from my iPhone

Morning Coffee Stout:Good morning coffee stout. Sleep well?

It's not bad.
After I got over the initial shock of the coffee in my stout
and it began to warm up, it improved.
Still a bit of coffee but not badly done. More character to this than the choc malt. 7%alcoholyshit. Didn't realize. A 7% alc morning coffee would be a hell of a way to start the day (especially seeing as tomorrow morning is St.Paddies
and it would be fitting for an Irish coffee. ).
This baby almost, ALMOST stole my lucky charms. From an initial 5/10 to a very Riverdancing 6-6.5/10. Still something missing, bodywise.
Rather like myself.

Great American Stout:

What do you call the love child of an American IPA and an Irish stout?

Max!
Just kidding. You call it the Great American Stout. Rather like the bear republic big bear black bastard stout, it's the last thing it tastes like(for me, and my limited experience, anyhoos). But you tell yourself "it's called a stout, it looks like a stout, it walks like a stout, it quacks like a stout, but it tastes like..."
Like an American IPA's illegitimate half caste love child.
Madonna and Angelena Jolie aren't the only ones with their
curiosity aroused by this little black baby.
Interesting, yet at the same time confusing.
It has body - it almost FEELS heavier in the glass. Similar straw aroma as the choc malt. There are a few hops in here. Not as much as the thrash zone crossover, which is mental. Enough, easily enough to confuse the palette and perplex the very beer drinking soul.
Hmmm. ..
Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Very drinkable in a drunken way.
Still, saying that, it's really ducking strange to drink.
I must be quackers.
Great American Stout 6/10. Because it's nice yet weird
yet interesting yet something feels very, very wrong.

Barrel Aged Dark Sky Imperial Stout 08:

Shit. Got the wrong tim. Thought it was tim E.

I wouldn't attack ENGLISH Tim. I like that guy.

Hah!!

Now I've alienated 2 friends.

I should make a movie.

How to alienate friends and get drunk at the same time. Hey, foo fighters on the music system. Almost types poo fighters which would be more gum. Just had the barrel aged dark sky imperial stout no I'm drunk the yes I was right the first time imperialstpit stout. Aged a few months inwhisky casks and you can SMELL IT! did I bention you can SMELL IT?

Imagine how it tasted.

I'd much prefer an oaked arrogant bastard and I'm not overly fond of that.
The normal is much better.
Stiill the arrogant oaked son of a bitch bastarrrrrdo is a decent beer.

This, I don't know. It's luketjis afternoon, when I came downstairs (not physically) after updating my blog and poured myself done Rosie (tea for Americans and canadians) which had been stewing in the pot Whoa!!!! Flavour overload!!!! Otslikethe fkabot monster hit me across the fce with his flabour penis.

Took me by suprise and stung my eyes.

Oakfanatics may like this.

Oakes arrogant bastard is better.
Lllll iPhone

I like sex with young boys.

p.s. I don't like sex with young boys...or any boys, for that matter.
Not that I know this from experience, just that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it and am now not thinking about if I'd like it or not. I'd prefer girls. I mean women. Not all women, but only a 'special person' who is in no way mentally challenged, unless they are metnally challengedm but we still love each other, which wouldn't be wrong. Unless she was not capable of realising the nature of a relationship or was a human cabbage.
Back to the stouts.


Mama's Milk Stout:Midnight oil large and mans milk stout half pint.
Uh, correctionmamas milk stout.
Not bad. First. Not mans milk. Foreign stout someone is getting tipsy. Shame on you. The barman is getting it on with 4 female customers. Batman
What ?

Foreign Export Stout:
The idiot who texted this nonsense:

And one last homage to the great one:

All hail the god of rock unt rrrrrrol?

I don't know. I liked the idea of Wodin and Thor and Tir and Freya. Even Loki.

If you managed to get any sense out of that, then you are a soberer man than I am.

Happy St.Patrick's Day.

Beer and guns go together like... ...beer and guns.

Seeing the good beer and country boys DH sporting twin M16s reminded me of shooting off the huge high calibre air rifles back home, when I was young.
Enormous guns, they were. Capable of ranges reaching about 100m or perhaps a little more, if it was a windy day. We used to shoot coins off pieces of string, by shooting the string. Good fun and no animals were hurt (although I couldn't say the same for the string - or the human shield of little kids we made to stand behind the string, so as to stop any stray pellets from injuring any animals.).
On the farm, we have a few shotguns and a .22 rifle, which has a range of a few miles (pointless where I live, as it's so hilly, you can't even see for a few miles, unless you go up on the top, and then it's best not to carry a gun, as the SAS and commandos train up there all the time (as it's so wild up there, the army use the area as a huge training ground).

Not long ago, I tried my hand at airsoft.
It's actually suprisingly good fun, until you get shot (which is needless to say). I kept getting shot in the arse, which really is no fun at all. Those things really do sting and I was left with several bumps on my forhead and skinnned knuckles.
Here's a montage of us in action, the one time I tried the sport out. Check out Rambo at the start. The guy filming it (we took turns) actually missed this idiot in the camofluaged blue balaclava (it was the only thing I had handy) starting things out by doing a Hollywood style sideways roll whilst shooting blindly with his borrowed submachine gun. Somehow, the bloody fool managed to kill the entire enemy team single handed. My back still hurts from that forward roll I did. Bloody idiot.

I apologise for my silly commentatry later on.
It was fun, though.

I know am the proud owner of an MP5A4 fully auto sub machine gun toaster oven fridge freezer air soft gun,plus another MP5 spring loaded rifle plus a cool H&K gas pistol and holster. Picked them up from an Iranian freind for a song. Sounds so cool and dodgy - buying guns from the Iranians!

I'm gonna have to go try them out some time. The boys sometimes go out at night to a remote park and shoot each other in the ass. Hang on...that sounds dodgy, too.
I meant with their big black guns. Their pistolas. Their manly weapons that shoot out their tiny balls at high velocity.

Well.

Perhaps the only thing that goes better with guns than beer has to be gorgeous girls!A man simply isn't a man unless he's shooting off his gun or smoking a pipe, naked from the wiast up and dousing himself with the glorious smell of Mandom!

Grrrr!!!!!!!!!

What goes better than beer and guns or guns and hot women or even beer and hot women?
Why, beer, guns AND hot women, of course!


Colt 45 - it works, everytime.

What does green smell like? - The new Suntory Malts!

Suntory Malt's Green AromaDoes it smell green?

I'm not really sure. The can says 50% more aroma hops.
Couldn't really smell much, as I think I'm catching a cold (or am I just being kind to Suntory?).

The bitterness is there. Left a bitter taste on my tongue. Not such a bad product, this one. Could drink a few cans, but only if the alternative was Yebisu silk or almost anything by Asahi.
Tastes a little light bodied but not so offensive as some I could mention.
Suntory sometimes comes out with some ballsy (at least by the big 4 standards) products.
this may be one of them.
Don't think it will replace the Suntory the Premium Malts as many standard big 4 Japanese beer drinkers' favourites.

Suntory Malt's green Aroma - 5.5/10