Howdy, Chris here.

At Baird Brewing, we love when our friends and colleagues venture out and successfully establish a new pub or brewery — or even a new life — for themselves. In the past few months, there have been a few of these success stories that I’d like to share with you.

First of all, back in December our friend and brewery engineer extraordinaire Hori Teruya-san opened Goodbeer Faucets, a 40-tap craft beer pub in Shibuya, Tokyo. Congratulations! Manager Dede will be happy to pour you a pint or grab a bottle out of their fridge for you.

Tokyo, and really everywhere in Japan, needs more good pubs like this. And on March 8, former Nakameguro and Bashamichi Taproom Beer Manager Takahashi-san did his part by opening Beer Pub the Pint, near Shin-Maruko Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line in Kawasaki.

The Pint features ten taps for craft beer plus a Guinness tap, a Hoegaarden tap and one for premium Japanese industrial lager. And don’t forget the bottle collection as well. I was able to make it on opening day to welcome Takahashi-san to the world of craft beer pub-ery. Best of luck on your new adventure.

A couple days after Takahashi-san’s successful opening day, former Nakameguro Beer Manager and friend Marco McFarren, held his wedding ceremony at Nakameguro Taproom. We couldn’t be happier for Marco and Noriko — although like Marco’s parents said in a video message at the ceremony, we can’t help but think that Marco got the much better end of the deal (Mariko Noriko, what were you thinking!).

A couple of new breweries also opened up in the Tokyo/Yokohama area in March. Suzuki-san, formerly of Yokohama Brewing, started brewing at his new Bay Brewing facilities, and just down the road, Scott Brimmer, formerly of Sierra Nevada and Gotemba Kogen, opened Brimmer Brewing near Kuji Station on the Nambu Line in Kawasaki. I haven’t had the chance to visit either brewery yet, but on March 25, Bay Brewing held an opening party that was attended by almost 1200 people, featuring their own beers plus some from Brimmer Brewing. I was slaving away in our brewery that day, but Brewer Tetsuya joined the fun and seemed to have a pretty good time.

And finally, this just in — our friends (boy, we have lots of friends!) at DevilCraft Beer Pub and Pizzeria have applied for their brewing license! Hopefully everything will go smoothly and they’ll be brewing their own beers by the end of summer.

And speaking of friends, upon the closing of Loco Beer out in Chiba, Nittoh Koh-ichi-san and his wife Kamatani Momoya-san (former brewer at Loco) decided to take over the facilities and brew their own beers. I’ll have more information about this in a future blog, but they are hopeful that they can make the ownership transition smoothly and begin brewing by the end of summer as well.

It’s an exciting time to be in the craft beer world in Japan. Here’s to good beer being spread far and wide!

Cheers,

Chris

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Howdy, Chris here.

Another month, another record in our brewery: in 31 days, we did 33 brews, our busiest month so far. Two export orders went out in March (Australia and Canada), and we started brewing for yet another order from the Shelton Brothers in the US — ten pallets this time. And here I thought winter was supposed to be our slow season! Here’s a rundown of the beers we made, the ones you can look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

1st: BA-13.12 & BohAle-1.12 (sb) Thirteenth batch of Angry Boy Brown on the big system along with a small batch of Bohemian Ale, a nice lightish beer full of European hops.

2nd: PA-31.12 Thirty-first batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale.

3rd: NL-13.12 Thirteenth batch of Numazu Lager.

4th: BPils-2.12 (batch a) Our annual paean to summer, Cool Breeze Bohemian Pilsner. This is actually the second time we’ve brewed it during this brewing year, which means this year’s version will lager for longer and be even smoother and better.

5th: BPils-2.12 (batch b) The second half of our Cool Breeze double batch.

6th: P-8.12 & TirAle-4.12 (sb) Another double brew day, with the eighth batch of Kurofune Porter on the big system and the fourth batch of Tir nan-Og’s house ale on the small system.

7th: 4SBBA-1.12 & NSIPA-1.12 (sb) Damn, our third double brew day in seven days! This time we made a Belgian Blonde Ale on the big system using four different types of “S” hops: Sterling, Santiam, Saaz and Styrian Golding, while the small system was all about New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops in a nice brisk IPA.

8th: IIPA-21.12 Twenty-first batch of Suruga Bay Imperial IPA.

9th: VHA-5.12 (sb) & CIP While Tetsu brewed the fifth batch of Vivo’s House Ale (Ikebukuro Sunshine Pale Ale) on the small system, Shinya did a major cleaning of the big system, both with an alkaline caustic cleanser and a hot acid cleanser. That baby was shining when he got done!

10th & 11th: No yeast this weekend, so we “took it easy”, meaning packaging, transferring, labeling, cleaning, moving, etc.

12th: DS-8.12 Shimaguni Stout, eighth batch of the year.

13th: PatBier-2.12 & BA80S-7.12 (sb) Another double brew day. On the big system, a batch of Patersbier for Father’s Day. A light dry Belgian-accented ale, we did a small batch last year that was released only at Harajuku Taproom. It was so good we decided to make a big one. Then on the small system, we made Beer-no-Yokota’s house beer Brompton Ale for the seventh time this year.

14th: I-15.12 Teikoku IPA, fifteenth batch.

15th: NIPA-3.12 & BelRed-1.12 (sb) We fired up both systems again, with a big batch of Nide’s Monster-C IPA and a small batch of Brewer Shinya’s Belgian Red on the small system. The Belgian Red will be put on handpump.

16th: No brewing today.

17th: NL-14.12 The fourteenth batch of Numazu Lager — we’ve been having a huge run on bottles recently, so we want to make sure we don’t run out, especially as the weather gets warmer and warmer.

18th: Another day off from brewing.

19th: AA-13.12 Red Rose Amber Ale, thirteenth batch of the brew year.

20th: SessAle-8.12 The eighth batch of Single-Take Session Ale.

21st: BBP-1.12 & CaraPale-1.12 (sb) A large batch of Baird Baltic Porter, brewed with our house lager yeast, and a small batch of Brewer Tetsuya’s latest creation, Caramel Pale Ale.

22nd: P-9.12 & IBA-2.12 (sb) The ninth batch of Kurofune Porter on the big system and the year’s second batch of Popeye’s Divine Vamp IBA on the small system.

23rd: PA-32.12 And yet another batch of Rising Sun Pale Ale, the thirty-second (and last) of this brew year.

24th: No brewing today.

25th: FB-2.12 (sb) Our new Fishmarket Bitter is proving to be popular, so we whipped up another batch on the small system today.

26th: AA-14.12 As I mentioned above, we got another big export order for the US, so we brewed another Red Rose Amber Ale today.

27th: BIIPA-1.12 We’re still not finished with our “same beer different yeast” series — today we brewed the Suruga Bay recipe but fermented with our Belgian yeast, resulting in Belgian Imperial IPA.

28th: CIP No brewing, just two batches to keg and bottle along with cleaning the big brewhouse.

29th: IIPA-22.12 (batch a) With summer coming, Suruga Bay orders are increasing, so we brewed the first half of a double batch today.

30th: IIPA-22.12 (batch b) & VL-1.12 (sb) The last double brew day of the current brewing year — the second half our our twenty-second batch of Suruga Bay Imperial IPA, plus a special beer for our friends at Craft Beer Base in Osaka.

31st: P-10.12 The month — and the brew year — ends with the tenth batch of Kurofune Porter.

What a year it was. Year 13 of Baird Brewing starts tomorrow, and it promises to be even better and more exciting. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Chris

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Howdy, Chris here.

A friend here in Japan was recently reported to the police by one of his neighbors for “suspicious smells” emanating from his apartment. The police, being obligated to investigate, sent a young patrolman to his place to check it out. The source of the noxious odors was quickly identified — it was not the byproduct of his bedroom closet meth manufacturing facilities, but rather seemed to be coming from his homebrewing setup out on his balcony. Now this isn’t just a simple burner, pot and plastic bucket operation, but a full-blown HERMS setup — think small professional system, like this (not his actual system, just used for illustration purposes):

The cop didn’t shut him down, but did give him a warning that he (a) shouldn’t be “cooking” with open flames on the balcony (he didn’t know that), and (b) can’t make beer at home if the alcohol content is over 1% (he did know that). Two weeks later, after some groveling to the neighbors in an attempt to placate the anonymous complainer, the same thing happened, only this time two senior patrolmen followed by two detectives paid a visit. After taking numerous pictures of his equipment (no, not THAT equipment!), he received another stern warning and a veiled threat to involve the tax authorities.

Now, I don’t bring this incident up to rail against the police for doing their job or to berate my friend for brewing on his balcony or even to get on my soapbox about nosy neighbors who call the police instead of just knocking on a door, but rather to say how stupid it is that homebrewing beer is illegal in Japan. And this got me thinking about other stupid beer laws — like back in my home county in Michigan, it used to be illegal to sell alcohol in stores on Sundays, yet you could go into a bar and get a mixed drink. Not a beer or glass of wine, mind you, just a mixed drink. Luckily that’s changed now so I can go back for a visit and not have to worry about finishing my stash of craft beers on Saturday night, facing a dry Sunday.

But anyway, I did a quick Internet search (and you know what they say, if you find it on the Internet, it HAS to be TRUE!) for dumb beers laws. Here are some of my favorites:

• In Tennessee, you aren’t allowed to buy beer over 6% in a beer store — for that you have to go to a “liquor store”.
• In Pennsylvania, “non-alcoholic” beer (less than 0.5% alcohol) can be sold at supermarkets, but you can’t buy it unless you’re of legal drinking age. A person under 21 can be arrested for drinking non-alcoholic beer, just the same as they were drinking real beer.
• In Michigan, people may not be drunk on trains.
• In Nebraska, it’s illegal for a bar owner to sell beer unless they are brewing a kettle of soup at the same time.
• In North Dakota, beer and pretzels can’t be served at the same time in a bar or restaurant.
• Also in North Dakota, it’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
• In Texas, it’s illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.
• It’s illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you’re sitting on a curb in St Louis.
• All take out beer sold in Indiana must be warm — no cold beer there!
• In you’re in Kentucky, don’t plan on sending a bottle of beer as a gift to a friend — you could be sent to jail for five years.
• Marty Nachel reports that in Maryland, beer writers must be certified as experts by the state to be eligible to receive product samples, and said writers can only get a maximum of three bottles per brand.

Hey, I’m a beer writer (of sorts) — and I’m certifiable, for sure. Where are my product samples???

Now hopefully some of these laws either aren’t real or have already been changed. And here’s to hoping that Japan sees the light some day and makes homebrewing legal — although I’m not holding my breath.

Cheers,

Chris

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