In my previous blog, I wrote about Day One of my trip to Lexington, KY, to participate in a collaboration brew with my friends at Country Boy Brewing. Day Two was the collaboration itself. The whole idea came up back in December when DH made a trip to Japan for the first time after starting CBB. During his first jet-lagged night, he and his family made their way to Numazu to say hi, and during the visit, the idea of having me visit before the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington, DC, came up. A few beers later, DH said something like, “Hell, if you’re going to come all that way, we might as well put you to work.” And thus was born the idea of doing a Country Boy Brewing – Baird Brewing Collaboration (CBB–BB Collab).

In the months that followed, we exchanged emails back and forth. It quickly became clear that the collab brew would have to be some version of our Angry Boy Brown Ale — after all, the beer that turned DH on to craft beer was the pint of Angry Boy that he had at the Fishmarket Taproom several years ago. The Country Boy brown ale/porter hybrid is called Amos Moses, and combining their beer with Angry Boy seemed like the thing to do. So we came up with Angry Amos — a stronger angrier brown ale. And then to push the envelope a little more, why not age it in bourbon barrels! After all, this is Kentucky we’re talking about here!

At this point, Brewmaster Bryan piped in with a special request: if at all possible, let’s age Angry Amos in Maker’s Mark barrels. The initial response wasn’t very optimistic — Maker’s doesn’t release their barrels to the public, they send them all to Scotland to be reused there. Several days later, a simple message came from CBB: “DH says he thinks he can pull some Maker’s barrels.” Everyone at Baird Beer was smiling. DH had managed to charm some barrels out of the people at Maker’s!

So, we settled on a grain bill, and left the hopping for when I arrived. Here’s the recipe we brewed (for all you beer geeks out there), for each 10-barrel batch:

• 550 lbs Floor-Malted Maris Otter
• 100 lbs Munich 20
• 50 lbs Wheat malt
• 25 lbs Crystal 150
• 15 lbs Chocolate malt
• 10 lbs Aromatic
• 20 oz Columbus (first wort)
• 50 oz Cascade (20 min)
• 25 oz Chinook/Galaxy blend (10 min)
• 25 oz Chinook/Galaxy blend (5 min)
• 16 oz Apollo whole hops (knockout)
• 8 oz Millennium whole hops (knockout)
• CBB House Yeast, fermented at 68C/20F
• After fermentation, transfer to Maker’s Mark bourbon barrels and age . . . until ready.

When we arrived at the brewery on that cold Sunday morning, Head Brewer Evan had already gotten things ready and we were soon ready to mash in. Evan, being the strong young guy, did the heavy lifting while I lent a hand opening malt bags, setting them up on the brewer’s platform, and mixing the mash. All lots of fun — I love the smell of malt in the morning!

Then it was time to choose the hops and weigh them out. As I mentioned above, we largely decided the hops on the spot — a much different process than what we do at Baird, where every recipe is considered and decided in advance. But this made the collab brew even more interesting and exciting. Opening bags of hops that I’d never used before, giving them a good whiff and deciding if they’d be good in our brew or not was a lot of fun. In the end, we used a mixture of hops that regularly show up in Angry Boy and Amos Moses along with a few new and unusual ones. Like I said, lots of fun!

During the lauter/sparge, Evan and I compared notes about their brewhouse and brewing techniques vs what we do at Baird — fascinating stuff for me, a guy who has never brewed anywhere else other than Baird. And I loved that they were using first wort hopping, something that I always liked as a homebrewer and that we are increasingly using at Baird, especially in our hoppier beers.

Once the lauter was finished, it was spent grain time! Of course, being a professional, I volunteered to help dig the grains out of the lauter tun, but Evan, being a true gentleman, gently sent me away to the pub to get us some beers. By the time I was back, he seemed settled comfortably into the job, and I didn’t want to interrupt. So I took some photos, put DH to work and enjoyed the camaraderie of the CBB guys and the numerous other people who were hanging around.

Then it was time to christen the beer. This is a CBB tradition, where they pour a pint of the beer into the new batch as it’s boiling. Since they had a keg of Angry Boy on tap for the weekend, I poured myself a pint (which turned out to be the last one in the keg — great timing) and Evan poured himself a pint of Amos Moses. After sampling said pints, the rest went into the kettle, ensuring that the collaboration beer would have the beer gods watching over it.

Another CBB tradition, which unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of, took place at the end of the boil. Evan, like good brewers everywhere, took a sample, and once it had cooled down, commenced to getting a gravity reading to check the level of sugar (which in turn can be used to calculate the alcohol level of the beer and helps the brewer know when the beer is finished fermenting). As he did this, he shouted out, “Hey everyone, we’re doing science here!” Everyone in the brewery gathered around ooooh-ing and aaaah-ing over the magic of science while I just laughed my ass off. Country Boys indeed!

As I mentioned above, there were numerous people in the brewery: friends, family members, customers, bartenders, and even a couple of homeless people from the crack house down the road, I think. One customer heard what we were brewing, went into the pub, and came back with a glass of Angry Boy and a glass of Amos Moses. He mixed them into a pint glass, added a shot of bourbon, and declared that Angry Amos would be a major hit! Now that’s science I can really get behind. Another person hanging out in the brewery, who prefers to remain anonymous, grabbed one of the buckets of hops and dumped them into the kettle before anyone could stop him! Not that anyone tried, that’s just how they roll there at CBB.

Once the first batch was finished, DH insisted that I take a load off, so I hung out in the pub, talking to friends and strangers, and letting Evan take care of the second batch. Yep, do the math and you’ll see that we brewed 20 barrels of Angry Amos — and that’s a lot of Angry. Or Amos. While sipping on beers, large pickles appeared from somewhere, and empty kegs of Baird Beer started showing up in the brewery. It was almost like being home in Numazu, except I was surrounded by great old friends and having the time of my life!

The next morning, we woke up to drive through a late March snowstorm to Washington DC for the Craft Brewers Conference. Of course we stopped by the brewery to check on the fermentation and to fill up some growlers with CBB beer. I’m very happy to report that the collaboration beer was bubbling away like crazy. I only wish I could have stuck around for a couple weeks to see fermentation through and to work with the Maker’s Mark barrels. But I would have to leave that to Evan and the rest of the Country Boy Brewing people.

It was an eventful weekend, to be sure, and one that I will never forget — until I get old and the beer finally destroys my brain completely. Next up, I’ll write a bit about the transfer to the barrels and when we can expect to enjoy the release of Angry Amos, both in Kentucky and Japan! As our new buddy said on Saturday, “America! Japanese! Best of both worlds! Wooooh!”

Cheers,

Chris

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As I mentioned before, at the end of March several of the Baird Brewing Family made their way to Washington DC for the Craft Brewers Conference. However, before the conference we all had different plans. Brewmaster Bryan, Beer Manager Chris and The Carpenter went to visit and study the hop fields of North Carolina, and GM John visited family in DC, which just happens to be his hometown. But I had arguably the best experience, heading to Lexington, Kentucky, to see our old friends at Country Boy Brewing and participate in a Baird Brewing Country Boy Brewing collaboration brew.

The story begins back around the time I took my new job at Baird Brewing. Two friends from Kentucky were working in the countryside of Aichi Prefecture, where they set out on a quest to seek out and drink as much good Japanese craft beer as they could. They wrote about their beer adventures in a blog called Good Beer and Country Boys. Of course, this brought them to Numazu, and DH and Nate became good friends overnight. Once their tour of duty in Japan was up, they headed back to Kentucky. Nate took a job brewing for Alltech’s Kentucky Ales while DH set about to learn the restaurant business. After a year or so, DH teamed up with Nate’s brother Evan and another friend Jeff to create Country Boy Brewing, which opened in Lexington in early February 2012. But I digress.

After a long bus ride through Tokyo, John and I flew out together from Narita Airport in the hinterlands of Chiba. Note to self: ALWAYS take a beer or two on the bus — a person gets mighty thirsty during the traffic delays that the bus inevitably runs into. But after checking in, we found a Sapporo Lion beer restaurant and made up for lost time. Several beers later, we looked at the time and decided we should make a dash for the security checkpoint. And for the first time in my 30+ years in Japan, I was rushed to the front of the line because our flight was in final boarding. (You know the routine, where the ground staff from United comes around holding a sign with the flight number of the plane that’s about to leave without you!) Soon after we sat down, the plane was pushed away from the gate and we were on our way.

Once in DC, I hobbled through one terminal, onto a train, and through another terminal to make it over to my connecting flight — damn those long flights really take a toll on my knees! Once in my terminal, I found a very bleak sight — not a single place serving beer anywhere! But never fear, my next flight was a short hop to Charlotte, NC, where I had enough time to reacquaint myself with an old friend, Sam Adams Boston Lager. At the airport bar, I shared a table with a nice gentleman, and we started talking about NASCAR — yep, I was definitely in country boy territory! Luckily, one of my guilty pleasures is watching NACSAR races, so I could talk somewhat cogently — unluckily the gentleman didn’t buy me a beer. Then it was off to Lexington, where Nate and Evan were waiting.

Evan’s first question: Do you want to go to the pub or are you too tired? Dumb question, Evan! Even if I had been totally wiped out by the flight, I wanted — no, I NEEDED to see their brewery. And it didn’t disappoint. Even at 11:00 PM, it was still rockin’. The people were interesting, the beer was great, and I was in heaven — admittedly, a blurry heaven, but heaven nonetheless. Two of my old high school friends were also due to make an appearance (one flying in from San Diego, one driving up from Tennessee), so we sat around, sipping on beers, catching up on old times and waiting. While waiting, I caught Nate doing what a good ole country boy does best — disrespecting craft beer. I mean come on, drinking directly out of the bottle! The shame!!! My evening ended with me passing out on Nate’s sofa, with both of my high school mates not having arrived yet. (They did eventually arrive, Bill after a major flight delay, at about 2:30 AM, and Tom the next morning because of working late.)

The next day, after a wonderful breakfast at DH’s house — complete with a tour of the amazing upstairs bar — Country Boy Brewing hosted a meet and greet in advance of the collaboration brew on Sunday. Three kegs of Baird Beer were on tap: Yabai Yabai Scotch Ale, Rising Sun Pale Ale and Angry Boy Brown Ale. While the party was going on, DH and I gave a little talk about the history of Baird and Country Boy — and the best part was that people, for some reason, kept giving me beers! I got to meet several people who had ties to Japan, and one amazing fan who kept shouting, at random times while DH and I were talking, “America! Japanese! Best of both worlds! Wooooh!” Indeed, that summed up the entire experience — good friends, good beers, America & Japan, best of both worlds. After the talk, we hung around for the rest of the day and night, gabbing to whoever wanted to gab, drinking fresh Country Boy Beers, and just having a great time.

Next up, the collaboration brew itself. But that’s going to have to wait till the next blog.

Cheers,

Chris

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Last month, Brewmaster Bryan, GM John, Beer Manager Chris, The Carpenter, Tir nan-Og Owner Yoshiko and I went to Washington, DC for the Craft Brewers Conference. On our last night in DC, we were invited to the home of a great friend of Baird Beer for what turned out to be the most amazing beer tasting we’ve ever been a part of.

The Bruce with Bryan

When we arrived, The Bruce welcomed us into his home bar, where he had an amazing collection of beer waiting for us. Before starting, he ran down the selections, which he had carefully ordered and grouped. Just seeing the bottles on the bar told us that we were in for the ride of our lives.

The Baird Gang Invades The Bruce’s Home Bar

The Bruce warmed us up with what he aptly named “The Appetizers”, a very nice array of beers on the lighter side:

• Cigar City Cucumber Saison
• Boon Geuze Mariage Parfait (2009)
• Logsdon Seizoen Bretta
• Anchorage Galaxy White IPA.

I didn’t expect to like the Cucumber Saison, but Cigar City made the combination work. All were lovely beers and, paired with an assortment of cheeses and crackers, a perfect way to start the evening.

We then moved on to three collaboration beers — again, not a stinker in the group:

• Dogfish Head/Samuel Adams Savor Flowers
• De Proef/Hair of the Dog Flanders Fred
• Allagash/Avery/Dogfish Head/Port/Russian River Isabelle Proximus (2006)

On a very personal note, I enjoyed reading the notes for the Savor Flowers, which contained the handwritten back-and-forth between Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione and Boston Beer’s Jim Koch as they worked out the details of the collaboration.

Things were already starting to get blurry at this point, but we fearlessly plowed ahead with a group of “Horizontals” (same brewery, different beers):

• Elevation Signal de Botrange (farmhouse ale in chardonnay barrels)
• Elevation Apis IV (quadruple with honey)
• Bruery 5 Golden Rings
• Bruery 4 Calling Birds

The Bruce had also cued up two more Bruery beers, 3 French Hens and 2 Turtle Doves, but we were quickly approaching our limit, so we moved on to two vertical tastings:

• Alaskan – Smoked Porter 2008 & 2003
• Sierra Nevada – Bigfoot Barleywine 2012 & 2006 & 2004

The difference in the two smoked porters was pronounced — both still excellent beers, but very different in their smokiness. The barleywines were also quite different, but at that point I stopped remembering what I was tasting — although I do have a vague recollection of discussing them with the group in a very coherent and cogent manner.

The Aftermath

At around 10:00, we all piled into taxis to take us back to DC, a memorable trip, no doubt, but one I have no recollection of. The next thing I remember was getting out of the taxi in front of the famous 9:30 Club, where we had tickets to see The Infamous Stringdusters (scroll down to March 29 to listen to the show). It was a great way to end a fantastic night.

All of us at Baird Beer give our heartfelt thanks to The Bruce. Although it will be impossible to repay his hospitality in full, we plan to treat him to a (hopefully) wonderful beer tasting next time he comes to Japan.

Oh, and you may be wondering why I’ve been referring to him as The Bruce — well, it was something that came up as a joke while we were tasting the beers at his home bar, but now we’re planning on making it a reality: Once our new brewery is up and running, we plan to implement an expanding array of vintage beer and barrel-aged projects which we will call The Bruce Series. Once again, thanks for everything!

Cheers,

Chris

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In March, a lot of new hops arrived in the brewery — some new ones, some old favorites. And with May Hop Madness month coming soon, we get busy using the new hops with a series of single-hop beers along with variations on some past seasonals. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the brew activity for March.

3/1: HJA-7.13 (sb) & NL-12.13 (c-batch) The month started out with a double brew day: Harajuku Taproom’s house ale on the small system, and a final big batch of Numazu Lager on the big system that we added to the two small batches that we brewed at the end of last month.

3/2: VHA-5.13 (sb) & ImpPA-1.13 The second day of the month saw another double brew day — I feel kind of lucky since I have Fridays and Saturdays off and didn’t have to join in the rush to get everything done ;-) On the small system, we did another batch of Vivo’s house ale. And then on the big system, we did this year’s version of Hop Havoc Imperial Pale Ale. We’ll be sure to double dry hop this one!

3/3 No brewing today.

3/4: VHAA-1.13 (sb) & DaiPA-1.13 Vivo’s anniversary is coming up, and they asked us for a special batch to celebrate. Our pleasure! And then we got busy processing our DaiDai fruit (a very sour orange) for a special beer that we sent to Australia for a competition and festival. Don’t worry, though, we saved some for you beer lovers in Japan.

3/5: DS-11.13 The year’s eleventh batch of Shimaguni Stout.

3/6: SessAle-11.13 Our stock of Single-Take Session Ale was getting low, so we brewed another batch today.

3/7: SoAceHop-1.13 (sb) & ImpPA-2.13 I mentioned about getting some new hops in. Today, we fired up the small system for the first single-hop brew, Sorachi Ace hops. And because the brewery smelled so good last time we made the Hop Havoc, we decided to do it again.

3/8: SanHop-1.13 (sb) This year’s second single-hop beer was made using all Santiam hops.

3/9: I-23.13 Batch #23 of Teikoku IPA.

3/10: AA-16.13 Red Rose Amber Ale #16.

3/11 No brew today, so another chance to teach a new brewer the cleaning routine, this time Brewer Shohei.

3/12: NBHop-1.13 (sb) & PA-33.13 Another single-hop beer, this time using all Northern Brewer. And on the big system, another batch of Rising Sun Pale.

3/13 Another no-brew day.

3/14: SessAle-12.13 We got a big order for Single-Take Session starting in April, so we’ll be making this a lot in the coming months. We got started today with the twelfth batch of the year.

3/15: GCasHop-1.13 (sb) & IIPA-29.13 This week, another new hop came in — German Cascade. They smelled wonderful in the bag and even better ones they hit the boil in our fourth single-hop beer. Then we brewed another Suruga Bay on the big system.

3/16: WCasPA-1.13 (sb, a-batch) With the addition of German Cascade, we now have three countries’s Cascade hops in stock, US, New Zealand and Germany. Why not use them in a single brew to celebrate this great hop variety! We started with a small batch to build up our new pitch of our house Scottish Ale yeast.

3/17: AmCasHop-1.13 (sb) & WCasHop-1.13 (b-batch) Continuing our theme of single-hop beers, this time we opened up the bag of American Cascades for a small batch. With the World Cascade Pale Ale fermenting strongly, we added a big batch to it. The more hops we have, the happier we are!

3/18: P-10.13 Our Kurofune Porter was the final of our regular beers to reach ten batches for the year.

3/19: NZCasHop-1.13 (sb) & WA-15.13 The final piece of the Cascade puzzle, New Zealand Cascade, got used in today’s small batch. And then I had the worst brew day since the nightmare called the 50% rye debacle while brewing a batch of Wheat King. Luckily the beers are more robust than I am, and it turned out fine.

3/20: IIPA-30.13 (a- & b-batch) I took the early shift while Brewer Shohei took the late shift in today’s double batch of Suruga Bay Imperial IPA.

3/21: SessAle-13.13 Like I mentioned above, we’ll need more Session Ale from next month, so another batch got brewed today.

3/22: NT5-1.13 (sb) It’s hard to believe that Nakameguro Taproom will celebrate its fifth anniversary this year. Today we brewed their anniversary ale — I guess you can call it a Wheat IPA, if you really have to put a label on it. I just call it great.

3/23: PA-34.13 As part of our never-ending quest to keep Rising Sun in stock, we brewed another batch today. This made 34 for the brew year.

3/24: NL-13.13 (sb, a-batch) & P-11.13 [and Angry Amos] We’re not satisfied with the way our lager yeast is going (flavor is fine, fermentation time is too slow), so we got a new pitch. Today we made the first small batch to get that yeast up and running. Then on the big system, we brewed the 11th batch of Kurofune Porter. And finally, at Country Boy Brewing in Lexington, KY, I brewed a collaboration beer with our friends there — a combination of our Angry Boy Brown and their Amos Moses Brown/Porter, which will be aged in Makers Mark bourbon barrels. [drool]

3/25 Another day of cleaning the brewhouse, but no brewing.

3/26: NL-13.13 (sb, b-batch) Even though the new lager yeast is fermenting well, we decided to add another small batch to really get that stuff excited before we subject it to a large batch.

3/27: NL-13.13 (c-batch) Today was that large batch, giving us a total of a one-and-a-half batch of Numazu Lager. This one is hard to keep in stock as well, but now with two fermenters full of lager, we should be able to catch up.

3/28: B-Pils-1.13 Every year we brew Cool Breeze Bohemian Pilsner. Today was that day.

3/29: BA-19.13 (a- & b-batch) Another double-shift brew day, this time Angry Boy. Personally I’m glad I was in the States so the other guys could take care of it.

3/30: BelPA-1.13 “Let’s give our Belgian yeast a break from fermenting Single-Take Session Ale, let’s brew a Belgian Pale Ale for May Hop Madness.” At least that’s how I imagine the conversation went.

3/31: I-24.13 Today was the end of our brew year, and we finished up with a batch of Teikoku IPA #24.

Starting in April, we begin our fourteenth brew year! The thirteenth year was huge for us, lots of beer went out the door and lots of new people made it through the doors of the brewery. We will continue to grow this year — of course, the biggest growth will be when we open our new brewery, now scheduled for early December. Exciting — and nervous — times here at Baird Brewing. Please join us on our ride.

Cheers,

Chris

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At the end of March, many of the Baird crew went to the States. Bryan, The Carpenter and Beer Manager Chris went to North Carolina to check out some hop farms; I went to Lexington, Kentucky, for a collaboration brew at our friends’ brewery Country Boy Brewing; and John headed to Washington, DC for some family R & R. We all met a few days later for the Craft Brewers Conference in DC. Hopefully I’ll find the time to write about some of these things in the next week or two. But in the meantime, here’s a rundown of the beers we brewed back in February — March brews are coming soon, never fear.

2/1: CBCAle-1.13 (sb) & BA-17.13 It’s a new month, so why not start it out with a double brew day? Big system = Angry Boy Brown Ale #17. And then we brewed Copenhagen Beer Celebration Ale on the small system — we wanted something “Japanese”, so we used a blend of spicy hops and freshly-grated wasabi. Then in the conditioning tank, we blended some more wasabi with green tea. The result is something uniquely Japanese. If you’re in Copenhagen for the Beer Celebration, let me know how it was.

2/2: SessAle-10.13 (sb, a-batch) We got a new pitch of our Belgian Wit strain this week, so today we started the process of building it up by brewing a small batch of Single-Take Session Ale.

2/3: SessAle-10.13 (sb, b-batch) & DS-10.13 Building up the Belgian yeast continued on the small system. We also brewed a large batch of Shimaguni Stout, tenth batch this year.

2/4: SessAle-10.13 (sb, c-batch) The best way to get a healthy fermentation with the first generation of our Belgian yeast is to feed it slowly and continuously over several days, so today saw another small batch of Session Ale added to the first two.

2/5: SessAle-10.13 (sb, d-batch) & IIPA-25.13 The last small batch of Session Ale, giving us a total of around 950 liters, the same as if we had been able to brew a single large batch. Plus we brewed the 25th batch of Suruga Bay Imperial IPA.

2/6 No brewing!

2/7: DwangoAA-1.13 Last year we brewed a special small batch of beer for Dwango Aoshima, an information technology company, that they served during a trade show at Makuhari Messe. Well, they sold those 12 kegs plus a whole bunch more at the show, so this year they asked us to make a couple of large batches for them. Today was the first, a nice hoppy American Amber Ale. This year’s show is in April (I think) — details later, but it might be worth attending just so you can try this wonderful beer.

2/8: NideStout-2.13 (sb) & IIPA-26.13 We brewed the next batch of Goodbeer Faucets’ handpump stout on the small system today, and yet another batch of Suruga Bay on the big.

2/9: BA80S-5.13 (sb) & ASS-1.13 On the small system, Beer no Yokota’s 5th batch of their house beer, Brompton Ale; on the big system, our annual American Style Stout, which was recently released as part of our March Stout Month.

2/10: FB-3.13 (sb) & AA-15.13 We brewed another house ale on the small system today, this time Fishmarket Bitter. And then the big system pumped out the year’s fifteenth batch of Red Rose Amber Ale.

2/11 & 2/12 Two consecutive days off from brewing. Whatever you do, don’t tell the boss! Of course we did take advantage of the break to do a thorough cleaning of the big brewhouse.

2/13: NIPA-1.13 Nide ordered another batch of Monster C IPA, but wanted a few changes. The result is a wonderfully smooth IPA, achieved by pushing all the hops either to the beginning of the lauter (called first wort hopping, in case you’re curious) or in the whirlpool.

2/14: PA-31.13 Rising Sun Pale Ale, 31st time this brew year.

2/15 Another no-brew day.

2/16: BA-18.13 Angry Boy Brown Ale for the 18th time this year.

2/17 And yet another “day off”, making it four days without brewing in the past seven.

2/18: IIPA-27.13 Suruga Bay is such a fun beer to make. And lucky that, since we have to make a lot of it!

2/19: I-22.13 This was the first time we brewed Teikoku IPA this month, but the 22nd time overall this year.

2/20: ShoFirst-1.13 (sb) We had an open slot in the brew schedule today, so I asked the new guy, Brewer Shohei to come up with something interesting. Look for this to be released during May Hop Madness Month.

2/21: MBJSGA-1.13 (sb, a-batch) Our Belgian yeast is notably finicky, especially in the first generation or two — it just doesn’t like to settle out nicely so we can reuse it. So today we made a small batch of Mini-Bureiko Jikan Strong Golden Ale — which will be released as Pawa-Hara (Power Harassment) Ale in a few months.

2/22: MBJSGA-1.13 (sb, b-batch) & PA-32.13 We added another small batch of Pawa-Hara to yesterday’s (again to build up the yeast health slowly and steadily), while on the big system we made another batch of Rising Sun.

2/23: MBJSGA-1.13 (c-batch) And today we topped off the tank of Pawa-Hara with a large batch of the same. The yeast was rockin’ the next morning.

2/24: IIPA-28.13 This was the fourth time this month we brewed a batch of Suruga Bay. Drink up, Japan.

2/25 & 26 Another rare two-day break from brewing, so of course we did another CIP (clean in place) on the big brewhouse. This time, I worked with Brewer Hiromu, who was just starting to learn brewing on the big system. Believe it or not, cleaning is the best way to learn the buttons and valves and get to know your equipment — or at least that’s what I told him.

2/27: NL-12.13 (sb, a-batch) & DwangoStout-1.13 More new yeast in the house. This time we are building up our lager yeast by starting out with a small batch. Meanwhile, we got busy brewing Dwango’s second special batch on the big system, this time a nice rich stout.

2/28: NL-12.13 (sb, b-batch) & WA-14.13 The babying of the Numazu Lager yeast continued on the small system, while we brewed the year’s 14th batch of Wheat King Ale over on the big system.

February was kind of strange in that we had seven days where we didn’t brew, yet we still managed to crank out thirty brews. That’s thirty brews in 21 days. Part of this came down to yeast — when yeast isn’t available, we can’t brew — and part of it was an intentional slowdown while we waited for empty kegs to come back. Yes, we are having another keg crisis here at Baird Brewing. Last summer we had a stockpile of probably 300-400 kegs; in January and February, that surplus dwindled to zero. We used kegs almost as soon as they came back — rarely did a keg sit around for more than two days before we filled it back up again. That prompted the boss to order more kegs, but they won’t be here for a few months. Ah, another bit of stress never hurt anyone, right. ARGH!

Cheers,

Chris

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Once again I find myself hopelessly behind. March, the month of rich dark stout beers here at Baird Brewing, is already upon us, and several of our special stouts have already been released — shame on me for not letting you now what’s on the way! Still, better late than never, here is a rundown of our January brew days.

1/1 Ah January 1st, the only day of the year that the brewery is closed. All brewers enjoyed a well-deserved day of recovery.

1/2: DS-2.13 The first brew of the new calendar year was a Shimaguni Stout, our 9th batch of the brewing year. (You might also notice that I was off that day — yes, I enjoyed two well-deserved days of recovery.)

1/3: AppAle-1.13 (a-batch and b-batch) Lots of apples in the brewery, so we did a double batch of Apple Ale. Twenty kilos of apples at the end of the boil and 20 in the whirlpool. For each batch. That’s a lot of apples to process in one day! Then to top things off, we added another 15 kilos to each conditioning tank. Wonderfully appley.

1/4: WA-12.13 Wheat King Ale, twelfth batch of the year.

1/5: PA-26.13 The first of five batches of Rising Sun Pale Ale that we brewed this month.

1/6: BA-15.13 Angry Boy Brown Ale, fifteenth batch this brew year. (Remember, our brew year runs April through March.)

1/7: IIPA-21.13 & AldIPA-2.13 (sb) A big-and-small brew day. Suruga Bay Imperial IPA on the big system; Aldgate “Jack the Ripper” IPA on the small system.

1/8: New Year’s Party (& CIP) Although today is our annual New Year’s Party for all full-time Taproom and brewery staff, the brewers still had to go in to check beers and clean up our big brewhouse. Once 10:30 rolled around, though, we were on our way to the site of our new brewery for a picnic followed by a nice day at a nearby onsen (hot springs).

1/9: CS-1.13 (a-batch) If it’s January, it must be Morning Coffee Stout brewing time. Today was part one of a double batch.

1/10: CS-1.13 (b-batch) & BashaAle-5.13 (sb) Part two of Coffee Stout and Bashamichi handpump Smoked Brown Ale for the fifth time this year.

1/11: I-19.13 Teikoku IPA for the nineteenth time.

1/12: IIPA-22.13 Suruga Bay yet again, twenty-second time during our 13th brewing year.

1/13: PA-27.13 Rising Sun #27.

1/14: AA-13.13 Red Rose Amber for the first time in 2013, thirteenth time in brew year #13.

1/15: MunAle-1.13 (sb) Brewer Shinya had an idea for a small batch. “I want to feature Munich malt and some nice mellow hops.” Done!

1/16: BSS-1.13 & MS-1.13 With stout month coming in March, it’s time to get cracking, so today we did another split shift brew day, with Black Smoke Stout up first and Mama’s Milk Stout following that. Mmmmm.

1/17: PA-28.13 Rising Sun #28. At this pace, we may hit forty batches during this brew year!

1/18: BA-16.13 Angry Boy for the 16th time.

1/19: AA-14.13 & BasilBA-1.13 (sb) 14th batch of Red Rose Amber Ale on the big system; Basil Brown Ale, with fresh-grown basil from Beer Manager Chris’s home garden, on the small.

1/20: I-20.13 Teikoku IPA turns twenty — now old enough to drink itself.

1/21: P-9.13 & HSS-1.13 (sb) We love brewing Kurofune Porter. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. On the small system, Brewer Hiromu had to deal with the habanero peppers for brewing the Habanero Smoked Stout, another beer to be released during Stout Month.

1/22: PA-29.13 (a-batch & b-batch) Hey, didn’t we just brew Rising Sun? What to say, we need more, double batch no less.

1/23: IIPA-23.13 Hey, didn’t we just brew a Suruga Bay? What to say, we need more.

1/24: NB-4.13 (sb) Nakameguro’s handpump Bitter, fourth time this year.

1/25: WA-13.13 & KellPils-1.13 (a-batch, sb) One brewer labored over another big batch of Wheat Kine Ale, #13, while another got our new pitch of lager yeast going with a small batch of a German-style Keller Pils.

1/26: IIPA-24.13 & KellPils-1.13 (b-batch, sb) Suruga Bay Imperial IPA for the second time this week on the big system. Meanwhile, on the small system we brewed up another batch of Keller Pils to keep the new yeast growing and healthy.

1/27: KellPils-1.13 (c-batch, sb) Yet another small batch of Keller Pils — that should provide enough sugars for that yeast to eat. And since the big system was experiencing brewing-withdrawal, we decided to do a nice cleaning.

1/28: HopBurst-1.13 (sb) We had yeast, so why not brew something interesting. This is a nice golden-colored ale with modest bitterness but wonderful hop flavor and aroma, featuring Nelson Sauvin, Cascade, Wakatu and Hersbrucker. This beer became our contribution to the Masaji Beer Project, a tribute to Minoh Beer’s president Masaji Ohshita. Rest in Peace Shacho!

1/29: ISRA-1.13 This is our annual Luck of the Irish Red Ale, to be released on St Patrick’s day, in the heart of March Stout Month.

1/30: PA-30.13 Life begins at 30, or at least our Rising Sun thinks so.

1/31: I-21.13 The month finishes up with another batch of Teikoku IPA.

January was the busiest month ever (yet again breaking our brewing record), with 37 batches hitting the fermenters. Luckily we welcomed another member to our brewery team this month. Shohei Taguchi, formerly of Yaho Brewing in Karuizawa, Nagano, joined us and immediately made an impact with his knowledge and professionalism. Our team is now up to seven, including Brewmaster Bryan. As we move forward towards opening our new brewery — target opening is October this year — this team will play an integral part in ensuring that we continue to make wonderful beers during the transition. I’ve said it before, it’s going to be a hell of an exciting ride!

Cheers,

Chris

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It seems like collaboration brews are taking the craft beer world by storm, especially in the US. Over the past several years, we’ve seen a growing number of This Brewery & That Brewery Collaboration XYZ Ales, and it doesn’t appear that the phenomenon slowing down at all. Is this just a passing phase that will disappear as quickly as it appeared? Or will collaboration beers continue to be popular?

I don’t really have an answer for that, but in Japan, as usual, the craft beer scene is just starting to see some collaborations. Last year, we did a Stone-Baird-Ishii collaboration Green Tea IPA (blogged about here, here and here), and the year before that, we had Luc Lafontaine, at the time the head brewer at Dieu du Ciel in Montreal, collaborate on a brew with yamamomo fruit.

And then in December 2012, we had a visit from Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, head brewer at Mikkeller out of Denmark to do a collaboration brew. Mikkel’s visit started with a Meet the Brewer event at Bashamichi Taproom, where he talked about the history of his brewery and introduced the three special Mikkeller beers that were on tap.

Mikkel at Bashamichi Taproom

The next day, he headed down to Numazu with his entourage to participate in a special collaboration brew day. Brewmaster Bryan had concocted a recipe incorporating three base malts (floor-malted Maris Otter, pilsner and unmalted wheat), three different sugars (candi sugar, white sugar and red/light brown sugar) and four different fruits (Aoshima mikan, hassaku, yuzu and kabosu) with a complex four-step mashing schedule (35C, 52C, 62C and 72C). Hops were focused on the fruity side as well, with healthy doses of Summit, Nelson Sauvin, Cascade, Motueka and New Zealand Cascade. Finally, we topped it all off by fermenting with our Belgian Wit yeast. And, just for good measure, we later “dry fruited” with home-grown lemons in the conditioning tank.

I arrived in the brewery early to get the long mash started. When Mikkel arrived at around 9:00, he got busy cutting up the fruit. With assistance from Brewery Shinya and Brewer Hiromu, the fruit zesting, chopping and juicing was finished in record time. Since I was still in the middle of the extended mash, we toured the brewery, checking out any ingredients he wasn’t familiar with, tasting the various fruits and juices and talking about brewing beer in Japan. For me, this was the best part of the collaboration, talking turkey with a fellow brewer while waiting for the mash enzymes to do their thing. We finished up the mash and then turned to the lauter and hops.

Right around the time Mikkel dove in to weigh out the hops for the brew, General Manager John got to the brewery, and since it was 11:00, he suggested that we all go to the Taproom to sample some beers. Of course, by “we” he meant “they”, and I was left to finish the brew with my capable assistants. I heard later that they all went to check out our new brewery site, then spent the early afternoon in an onsen followed by a tour of a nearby sake brewery. And right around the time I finished the brew day and headed to Taproom for a long overdue pint, Bryan, Mikkel and company showed up for their own pints. I reported on the brew day and we all had a great time.

We are releasing the Baird-Mikkeller Fruitful Life Citrus Ale at the end of this month at a special event at Nakameguro Taproom in Tokyo.

European Beer Night at the Nakameguro Taproom (Thursday, Feb. 28):

Most beer enthusiasts have tasted, or at least heard of, the idiosyncratic beers of Danish “gypsy” brewer Mikkeller. In Japan, the Mikkeller beers are imported by our good friends at Whisk-e who smartly facilitated a collaboration brewing between Mikkeller and Baird during a recent visit to Japan by Mikkel himself. The fruit of this collaboration will be unveiled during a special European Beer Night celebration at our Nakameguro Taproom on Thursday, February 28.

In addition to the Baird-Mikkeller collaboration beer (more details of which will be unveiled in an upcoming bulletin), we will be featuring five other European beers selected and imported with loving care by the Whisk-e team. A special stamp card with punches for all six beers will be available for purchase, with beer goods prizes awarded to those who complete the card that evening. Chef Joon is, even as I write, busy concocting a special European-themed food menu for the event. Mark your calendars — you won’t want to miss this.

In March, I will be visiting our friends at Country Boy Brewing in Lexington, Kentucky, for another collaboration brew. This one will combine our Angry Boy Brown Ale with Country Boy’s Amos Moses — Angry Moses! — that will be aged in Maker’s Mark Whisky barrels! To say I’m excited is a huge understatement. This is going to be epic! We will work on getting some kegs to Japan when it’s released later this year. In the meantime, enjoy Fruitful Life Citrus Ale and keep collaborating.

Cheers,

Chris

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Well, here it is, already February, and I just noticed that I never wrote about December’s brews. In fact, I took the whole month of January off — yeah, right! Every month we get busier, and that’s a good thing, except when it comes to writing blogs. But I’m hoping that this month, I’ll be able to find more time and energy to post some updates about what’s going on at Baird Brewing. In the meantime, have a look at the beers we brewed in December and dream of giving them a try in the coming weeks.

12/1: WanCupP-1.13 (sb) We started the month off by inviting a guest brewer, Daisuke Tanabe, to brew his award-winning Porter on our small system with Brewer Shinya. It was a fantastic brew day. We will release this wonderful beer at our Homebrewer Appreciation Party at Nakameguro Taproom on Sunday, February 10, 2:00-5:00 PM. Hope you can make it out.

12/2: DS-8.13 8th batch of Shimaguni Stout.

12/3: SessAle-8.13 8th batch of Single-Take Session Ale.

12/4 & 5: YA-1.13 A funny thing happened on the way back to Numazu after picking The Carpenter’s yuzu trees clean. Brewmaster Bryan and The Carpenter passed by a field with tons of yuzu just going to waste. Not being ones to pass up a golden opportunity, they stopped and asked the elderly farmer if they could take some of the fruit. The result was more yuzu than we’ve ever had. So we did what every brewery would do — made a double batch of Temple Garden Yuzu Ale. The brewery smelled heavenly, as usual when working with yuzu.

12/6: WA-11.13 11th batch of Wheat King Ale.

12/7: PA-24.13 & BA80S-4.13 (sb) Our first double-brew day of the month. 24th batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale on the big system. And the year’s 4th batch of Beer-no-Yokota’s Brompton Ale on the small system.

12/8: P-7.13 & CBML-1.13 (sb) Another double-brew day. 7th batch of Kurofune Porter on the big system, while the small system saw action brewing the first Craft Beer Market Lager (we had previously done an ale for them).

12/9: NL-11.13 11th batch of Numazu Lager.

12/10: MCA-1.13 Today was a special day, with a guest brewer all the way from Denmark. We brewed a batch of Mikkeller Collaboration Beer, officially called Fruitful Life Citrus Ale. The beer used two base malts, unmalted wheat, three kinds of sugar and four kinds of citrus fruit — and for good measure, we added another citrus fruit to the conditioning tank. It was a long brew day, made tolerable by the fantastic smells in the brewhouse all day.

12/11: YA-2.13 Remember all those yuzu I mentioned above? Well we had enough left to make yet another big batch of Temple Garden Yuzu Ale! Yea!

12/12: IIPA-19.13 (a-batch) We were getting a bit behind in our Suruga Bay Imperial IPA brewing, so we decided to do a double batch today and tomorrow, the 19th of the year.

12/13: IIPA-19.13 (b-batch) & RSBIPA-2.13 (sb) The second half of Suruga Bay on the big system, and the 2nd batch of Royal Scotsman’s Black IPA on the small system.

12/14: I-16.13 Teikoku IPA for the 16th time this brew year.

12/15 & 16: SS-1.13 We brewed a double batch of our ode to the real brains behind Baird Brewing, Saison Sayuri.

12/17: BSBR-1.13 What to do when you have lager yeast ready? Brew up something really special, of course. This is a Bamberg-style Bock Rauchbier, nice and smokey.

12/18: BA-14.13 (a & b batches) We’re getting better at these double-shift brew days. This time it was the 14th batch of Angry Boy Brown Ale.

12/19: AA-12.13 12th batch of Red Rose Amber Ale.

12/20: SessAle-9.13 9th batch of Single-Take Session Ale.

12/21: I-17.13 17th batch of Teikoku IPA.

12/22: HJA-6.13 (sb) 6th batch of Harajuku Taproom’s house real ale.

12/23 No brewing for the first time this month, so we took the opportunity to give the big brewhouse a good cleaning.

12/24: IIPA-20.13 (a-batch & b-batch) Another double batch of Suruga Bay Imperial IPA, another double-shift brew day.

12/25: BJSGA-1.13 (a-batch & b-batch) It’s Christmas Day and we’re brewing up a double batch of Bureiko Jikan Strong Golden Ale, our annual gift to Japanese salarymen who need the opportunity to tell their bosses exactly what they think.

12/26: ExSpAm-1.13 (sb) We were getting a little low on handpump beers, so we came up with this, an Extra Special Amber. Lots of aromatic fruity hops in this one — we didn’t even need to dry hop it!

12/27: P-8.13 8th batch of Kurofune Porter.

12/28: I-18.13 18th batch of Teikoku IPA.

12/29 Another day off from brewing.

12/30: PA-25.13 (a-batch & b-batch) This was our last brew of 2012, another double-shift batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale.

12/31 The year finished with a ton of work, but no brewing. Happy New Year everyone!

Besides the brewing, in December we welcomed the 5th member of our brewing team, Takumi Murase. Apprentice Takumi joined us from Harajuku Taproom and quickly caught on. By the end of the month, we was confidently cleaning tanks, labeling, kegging and bottling, and doing more dirty jobs than he ever imagined. It’s going to be a pleasure watching him grow and become an integral part of the team.

Cheers,

Chris

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As I’ve mentioned before, every year we invite an amateur brewer to brew a batch of his or her award-winning recipe on our small system. This year we sponsored the Brown and Robust Porter category. At the judging back in July, the top porter received a score of 37; to receive a gold in the category required at least 38 points, so no gold was awarded. (Maybe the judges were a little too fussy in their judging?)

Our initial decision was that we would not have a guest brewer this year, but the silver medal winner, Daisuke Tanabe, brought our Tokyo Taproom manager a bottle of his porter and argued that we never said we would brew only gold medal beers, only that we would invite the top porter brewer to Numazu. Not only was he was right, his beer was fantastic! So, on the first day of this month, Tanabe-san made the trip down to Numazu to join Brewer Shinya for a brew day.

Rather than give a report on what happened during the brew (which is a bit difficult for me since December 1 was my day off — which also explains why there aren’t any pictures of him in the brewery), I thought it might be interesting to show how his small-batch homebrew recipe was adapted for brewing on our professional system.

First, let’s take a look at the recipe as Tanabe-san originally brewed it.

Robust Porter (OG = 15.67P/1.064; FG = 3.82P/1.015; IBU = 24; ABV = 6.2%; SRM = 32; batch size = 14 liters/3.75 gallons)

Fermentables

• 91.7% (weight) Asahi Ale Malt
• 3.8% Dingemans Special B
• 1.3% Weyermann Roasted Wheat
• 1.3% Briess Black Patent
• 1.9% Muntons Chocolate Malt

Hops

• 10 grams/0.35 oz Nugget pellets (11.0% alpha) for 75 minutes [22.4 IBU]
• 7 g/0.23 oz Tettnanger pellets (5.2%) for 1 min [0.3 IBU]
• 7 g/0.23 oz Chinook whole (13.9%) for 1 min [0.7 IBU]
• 7 g/0.23 oz Aurora pellets (7.0%) for 1 min [0.4 IBU]

Proceedure

• Mash at 65C/149F for 90 min, mash out at 78C/172F
• Add Irish Moss for 15 min
• Dry hop with 13 g/0.46 oz Nelson Sauvin hops for one week
• Prime with 5.5 g/l (0.75 oz/gallon) candy sugar and bottle

The first thing we needed to do is to decide on appropriate substitutions based on the ingredients we have available to us.

• Asahi Ale malt: We use English pale malt, specifically Crisp Maris Otter (floor malted), which is an excellent malt for nearly all ales.
• Dingemans Special B: This malt is not readily available in Japan, but Weyermann CaraAroma is a close substitution.
• Weyermann Roasted Wheat: No problem, we use this in many of our beers.
• Briess Black Patent: This was also easy to replace with Crisp Black malt, which we regularly use.
• Muntons Chocolate Malt: Again, we use a similar malt from Crisp, which we love for its rich flavor.
• Aurora hops: These hops were a mystery to us, but a bit of research suggested that they are similar in aroma to Styrian Golding. And since these are added at the end of the boil, aroma is what we were after, so we went with this substitution.

The next adjustment necessary was for brewhouse efficiency. Tanabe-san reported a brewhouse efficiency of 71%; we get 92% on our  system. Also, Tanabe’s malt percentages were based on weight, not on the percent of fermentable extract that each malt contributes. But beyond that, pro systems gets more flavor and color out of specialty malts, so just scaling up linearly will result in way too much contribution from the CaraAroma, Black, Roasted and Chocolate grains. For those reasons, we adjusted the specialty malts down.

And finally there’s the matter of adjusting for hop alpha acids and for the higher kettle extraction we get on our system. This includes the dry hopping rate. Merely scaling up Tanabe-san’s weight of Nelson Sauvin dry hops gave us 200 g/7.05 oz of dry hops for a 200 l/53 gal batch. In our experience, that is too low to extract a good hop aroma. So after some discussion, we decided to go with our minimum dry hopping rate, which is 150g/hl (0.20 oz/gal), or the equivalent of 21 g/0.75 oz for Tanabe-san’s original recipe volume.

Taking all this into consideration, here’s the recipe that we ended up brewing on the first of December.

Robust Porter (OG = 15.94P/1.065; FG = 3.46P/1.014; IBU = 24; ABV = 6.6%; SRM = 40; batch size = 214 liters/56.5 gallons)

Fermentables (based on the ratio of fermentable extract from each malt type)

• 94% Crisp Floor-Malted Pale Malt
• 3% Weyermann CaraAroma
• 1% Weyermann Roasted Wheat
• 1% Crisp Black Malt
• 1% Crisp Chocolate Malt

Hops

• 110 grams/3.9 oz Nugget whole (13.0% alpha) for 75 minutes [23.5 IBU]
• 71 g/2.5 oz each Tettnanger, Chinook, Styrian Golding whole (5.4% average alpha) for 1 min [0.5 IBU]

Proceedure

• Mash at 65C/149F for 60 min (our small system does not allow for a mash out step)
• Add Irish Moss for 20 min
• Dry hop with 300 g/10.5 oz Nelson Sauvin hops for five days (we find that five days dry hopping is enough for most ales)
• Prime with 2.5 g/l (0.33 oz/gallon) candy sugar and keg (our beers are partially carbonated in the fermenter and conditioning tank, so 2.5 g/l gives us a very nice level of carbonation)

Tanabe-san’s beer ended up nice and rich with a subtle roastiness and hoppiness, just as we expected.

Once the beer was in the fermenter, we asked Tanabe-san to decide on a name and a release date. We also asked him to choose some of his favorite pubs to participate in this very limited release (only 10 kegs). Here’s what he came up with.

• Name: Purple Mountain Nelson Porter (Purple Mountain is the historical name for the area where he lives)
• Release Date: Sunday, February 10. Our annual Homebrewers Appreciation Party will run from 2:00-5:00 PM.
• Location: Nakameguro Taproom
• Additional Pubs: Popeye (Ryogoku, Tokyo); Watering Hole (Yoyogi, Tokyo); Bamboo (Shinjuku, Tokyo); Devil Craft (Kanda, Tokyo);  and Finlaggan (Tsukuba, Ibaraki) [Note: Release date at these additional pubs will be the week following the Nakameguro event.]

Hopefully I’ll be able to attend the opening at Nakameguro Taproom along with another Baird brewer, which will be a kind of Homebrewer Appreciation Party. Further details will be announced in the near future here as well as on Google+ and Twitter. I hope to see many of you there!

Cheers,

Chris

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As I mentioned last month, we started out this month with an actual day off from brewing — but that “downtime” didn’t last very long. The rest of the month was filled with more brewing than ever — 37 brews during November. We also saw yet another double brew day on the big system, which went a lot more smoothly this time — and that’s necessary as this is going to happen more and more as we struggle to keep up with demand. With a new Apprentice Brewer this month and another experienced brewer joining us next month, we will have the manpower to get a lot more beer brewed, more beer transferred and packaged, more beer labeled and moved, and more beer sold. Now all we need are more tanks, more refrigeration, more time. It has been a great year, and next year will be even better as we race toward the opening of our new brewery. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s look at what November brews we did.

11/1 Day off — which means we did absolutely nothing. Yeah, right!

11/2: IIPA-15.13 (a-batch & b-batch) Our second two-batches-in-the-same-day brewday saw our 15th batch of Suruga Bay hit the fermenter. One brewer started at 6:00, the next started at around 2:00. Once we get used to this, it’ll be a beautiful thing.

11/3: DS-7.13 Shimaguni Stout, 7th batch.

11/4: I-14.13 Teikoku IPA, 14th batch.

11/5: HJA-5.13 (sb) We fired up the small system for the first time this month, making the year’s 5th batch of Harajuku Ale, which is a strong pale ale.

11/6: PA-21.13 I’m surprised that it took six days to make our first batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale of the month — 21st batch of the year.

11/7: UFIA-2.13 (sb) Today we made another small batch, this time UshiTora’s First Impact Ale for the second time since April.

11/8: WA-10.13 Wheat King Ale was very popular during summer, and that newly-gained popularity is continuing as the weather turns cooler. The year’s tenth batch today.

11/9: IIPA-16.13 & NideStout-1.13 (sb) Ho hum, another batch of Suruga Bay on the big system. But on the small system, the inaugural batch of Goodbeer Faucets’ new smoked stout, to be served on handpump.

11/10: AA-11.13 The 11th batch of Red Rose Amber Ale on the big system.

11/11: NB-3.13 (sb) Nakameguro Bitter (a best bitter) on the small system.

11/12: SessAle-7.13 (a-batch, sb) Since the beginning of the week, we have been building up a new pitch of our Belgian yeast. Today it was time to get that yeast into a small batch of Single-Take Session Ale.

11/13: NCL-2.13 & SessAle-7.13 (b-batch, sb) On the small system, we continued building up our Belgian yeast slowly by adding another small batch to yesterday’s Session Ale brew. And then on the big system, we brewed up a Nide Cream Lager for only the second time this year.

11/14: NL-9.13 & SessAle-7.13 (c-batch, sb) The Session Ale was going to so well, we decided to add another small batch to it today. And the big system saw action with the 9th batch of Numazu Lager for the year.

11/15: SessAle-7.13 (d-batch, sb) Today, we finished up our Session brew with the fourth small batch. Interestingly, each of our four brewers took part — Tetsuya, Shinya, Hiromu and I all manned the small system to make this beer, and that makes it extra special!

11/16: I-15.13 Teikoku IPA on the big system yet again.

11/17 & 18: MA-1.13 (a & b batches) Our annual ode to the mikan fruit, The Carpenter’s Mikan Ale was brewed over two days. We had enough mikan to do a double batch, and luckily most of the fruit was zested and juiced on my day off!

11/19: PA-22.13 Another batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale.

11/20: TirAle-3.13 (sb) For the third time this year, we brewed Tirnanog’s House Ale. And since we weren’t using the big brewhouse today, we gave it a good cleaning.

11/21: TeutAle-1.13 We have quite a few German hops in our freezer, so what can we do? Brew with them! Teutonic Ale is a nice hoppy golden-colored ale that features five German hops: Magnum, Tradition, Spalter, Tettnanger and Hersbrucker.

11/22: NZIPA-1.13 (a-batch, sb) Following on the heels of the German hops, we also noticed we had four New Zealand hops just begging to be used, so we brewed a small batch of Kiwi IPA. Why a small batch? Because we are getting a new pitch of our Scottish Ale yeast going. But, never fear…

11/23: NZIPA-1.13 (b-batch) …we added a large batch into yesterday’s small batch to make sure there’s lots of this for your drinking pleasure. Oh, and the four hops are: Nelson Sauvin, NZ Cascade, Wakatu and Motueka.

11/24: IIPA-17.13 & BT2BIPA-1.13 (sb) The 17th batch of Suruga Bay on the big system. The small system saw action making Bashamichi Taproom’s 2nd Anniversary Ale, a nice hoppy Black IPA. Fantastic!

11/25: SBWA-1.13 Today our Belgian yeast was ready to reuse, so we whipped up a Strong Belgian Wheat Ale, which will be called our Winter Wit. Nice and fruity and smoooooooth.

11/26: NL-10.13 And today our Lager yeast was ready, so we brewed the year’s tenth batch of Numazu Lager.

11/27: P-6.13 & IPA-1.13 (sb) Our Kurofune Porter is not our best seller, but there is a loyal core of beer lovers who drink nothing but this beer. For them, we brewed the 6th batch for this brew year. And then on the small system, Popeye’s Diving Vamp India Black Ale for the first time this year.

11/28: TGSB-1.13 With more Lager yeast ready to reuse, we brewed a traditional German-style bock for the first time in four or five years (before I joined Baird Brewing).

11/29: IIPA-18.13 For the fifth time this month, the big brewhouse saw a batch of Suruga Bay pass through its piping. That makes almost 5000 liters this month, and we’re still not able to keep it in stock. When that new 6000-liter brewhouse is installed next autumn, maybe then we’ll be able to keep all you hopheads happy!

11/30: PA-23.13 & VHA-4.13 (sb) We ended last month the same as October, with a batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale. But just to make things a bit interesting, we also brewed the 4th batch of Vivo’s house ale on our small system.

You may notice that our seasonal brewing has tapered off a little recently, and it’s especially noticeable this month. That’s an unfortunate consequence of being at 125+% capacity. We are still managing to sneak in a few one-off seasonals in addition to our annual releases, and we will continue to do so over the next nine months or so. So don’t worry, beer fans, there will be plenty to keep you happy through this year and well into next.

Cheers,

Chris

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