Good Beer Country Boys are First in the History of Beer!

For the first time, in the history of beer, a Kentucky Common has been brewed in Japan! This amazing feat of international acclaim happened last week between the 15 and 17 of October. Yes, many people of all nationalities have brewed beer of many different styles in the land of the rising sun, but Good Beer Country Boys believe that they are the first ever to successfully and faithfully (to historic documents of beer style) start the fermentation of a Kentucky Common sour-mash beer.

What is a Kentucky Common you ask? It is one of only two beer styles native to the great states of America. The other being the California Common, or Steam beer (Anchor Steam and Flying Dog Old Scratch being two delicious examples of). Unlike its San Fran, California counterpart, Kentucky Common is not commercially available. In fact, the only place I have tasted it was at the New Albaninan Brewing Company in New Albany, IN. They serve it as a summer seasonal. The Kentucky Common, or Common ale, as it was called a hundred years ago, was the working man`s beer because it was brewed locally in the Kentucky river towns and was cheaper than the imports. According to somewhere on the internet, 80% of the brew in Louisville circa 1913 was Kentucky Common. Being from Kentucky, Common beer used a corn sour mash (like bourbon) with rye wheat and barley. Good Beer Country Boys are joining the fight to bring this near extinct part of our heritage back to life!

To make a good beer, you have to first start with a name that beer must live up to. In honor of DH`s Georgetown apartment, this beer pre-brew was christened Hickey Bros. Kentucky Common (from here on shortened HBKC). The first step was to make a partial mash of pale malt, flaked corn, and flaked rye and sour it. Using a knife, I cut open the sack of pale malt and my right index finger almost to the bone. There was a 45 min lull in the pre-mash at this point where I bled profusely, went into semi-shock, broke out in cold sweat, ate some chocolate, and bandaged the wound. Miyuki (a Good Beer Japanese Girl) assisted with the bandaging and cooking of the mash as I was one good finger down. After the mash cooled, we added some active lacto bacillus (yogurt culture) and sealed it up for two days to sour.

Fast forward two days. DH takes his sweet time on slow trains from Toei and we start brewing the beer at 8 pm on a friday night. Everything is going as planned, the sour mash is drained, the black patent and crystal malts are added to the brew pot. The pale malt extract and nugget and cascade hops are thrown in. The boiling is over and the soon to be HBKC is sitting in cold water cooling down. We have an hour and a half to kill. GBJG Miyuki suggests we go to Karaoke. Let me pause right here to review Japanese Karaoke.

You go to a private room with your friends where they have a constantly updated library of songs, 3 times as many English songs as American karaoke ever thought about having. You order all you can drink beer, you shake tambourines, you shake maraccas, you sing Meatloaf`s I Would Do Anything for Love... You realize perfection.

Anyways, we go to Karaoke but not before swinging by 7-11 and picking up some Suntory Malts (best of the Big Boys as DH previously mentioned), some cokes, and 2 pints of Johnnie Walker Red (you can`t beat 299 yen a bottle). This was a bad choice. When we left Karaoke 2 hours later, the three of us were wasted. I, personally, had shattered a Coca Cola glass with the microphone (on accident, in the heat of the moment singing Andrew WK). We made it back to my apartment, dumped the beer in the fermentor, added cooled water, pitched the yeast (dry! too drunk to rehydrate), and passed out. The next morning I pulled a small piece of glass out of my arm. DH complained about that damn cat that pooped in his mouth again.

Regardless of all the historic significance of the Kentucky Common and the Good Beer Country Boys adding a chapter to Beer History by brewing it in Japan, I have got my fingers crossed that the finished product is drinkable. To make an omelet you gotta crack a few eggs. Speaking of eggs, not to put them all in one basket, we`re planning a fail proof pale ale brew as a back up plan to the HBKC. Gotta have something good to drink. Until the day that Good Beer Country Boys bottle the first ever Kentucky Common beer in Japan or other things worth talking about happen, this is Nate with a beer in his hand wishing there was one in the other.

P.S. Brewing anything over 1% alcohol in Japan is technically illegal. Don't try this at home. Ha.