The Lord Bless Charlie Mopps!

While Nate and friends have been off work and gallivanting around this week, I have been slaving away. Today I have the last five classes of a twenty-three class week. Yikes. Lots of work make it hard to troll the net looking for beer news, and even harder to enjoy a few brews after work.
That all changes today cause Nate and friends are coming to Toei. After school I am meeting them for a tour of Moriyama-san's 300 year old sake brewery--then who knows what. The Chainsaw Art Festival (yes you read that right) kicks into full gear tomorrow, and we will be watching the mountain men from around the globe hack some logs into crazy animals. Fun fun!




I've been meaning to do a tribute to this guy for some time, and I admit I have been slacking. Today we slack no more friends....The Good Beer Country Boys are here to proclaim and celebrate a great man...a man who must have been a sultan or an admiral or a king, the man who's praises will be sung until the end of time....the man....who invented beer.

Charlie Mopps

In case you didn't know, Charlie Mopps* invented beer. His story is immortalized in an old Irish folks song that has many titles, but is commonly known as "Charlie Mopps" or "Beer, Beer, Beer". If you have never heard his story, you are missing out. The song tells about how Charlie made his great concoction, how all men enjoy it, and how we will sing his praises until the cows come home.

The song also calls for all beer drinkers and admirers of Charlie to stop at 11:00PM every night, and remember Charlie Mopps for five short seconds. So, the next time you are enjoying a pint or five with your buddies and you hear that clock strike 11...stop for 5 seconds and remember Charlie Mopps, the man who invented beer.

A quick "google" of Charlie Mopps brings up a myriad of images, but also directs one to "The Charlie Mopps Pub: The House that Beer Built." Let's go.





Hope your Friday goes well--remember to raise a pint to Charlie tonight...he's filled us up with cheer.

"Beer, Beer, Beer"

Beer, beer, beer, tiddly beer, beer, beer
A long time ago, way back in history
When all there was to drink was nothing but cups of tea
Along came a man by the name of Charlie Mopps
And he invented a wonderful drink and he made it out of hops

(Chorus)

He must have been an admiral, a sultan, or a king

And to his praises we shall always sing

Look what he has done for us, he's filled us up with cheer

Lord bless Charlie Mopps,

The man who invented beer beer beer, tiddley beer beer beer...

The Jury's Bar, the Clancy's Pub, the Hole in the Wall as well One thing you can be sure of, it's Charlie's beer they sell So come on all ye lucky lads at eleven O'clock ye stop For five short seconds, remember Charlie Mopps One, two, three, four, five

Chorus

A barrel of malt, A bushel of hops, you stir it around with a stick, The kind of lubrication to make your engine tick. Forty pints of wallop a day will keep away the quacks. It's only eight pence ha'penny and one and six in tax One, two, three, four, five

Chorus

The lord bless Charlie Mopps!

* Of course the rumor is that "Charlie Mopps" is a play on the words "Barley and Hops", two main ingredients in beer. This is false. Charlie Mopps was REAL.

Okadaya in Nagoya

On Wednesday Rob, Lance and I headed into the big city of Nagoya. We toured Asahi, and tried The Master. I'm not exactly sure what this beer is the Master of. Lance's review consisted of "It's not terrible. Perhaps it is the Master of media focus. And it did say 'Bater on the can."

Later we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and then street drank outside Spirits, the best bar in Sakae. However, Spirits is no longer the greatest liquor store in Nagoya. That distinction now belongs to Okadaya near Nagoya Station. With the help of Nagoya Gaijin Nick and a map I drew from the internet (we don't have no printers down in Tahara!) we found this liquor store and...amazing.
This is the Ji-Beer selection there: All seven Baird regular beers, All Hakusekikan, All Swan Lake's beers, All Minoh Beers including the W-IPA for 578 yen a bottle, All Nest beers including the Japan Classic Ale (never tried it before), Loco Beer including the Coconuts Porter (Lance drank it and was down). I think there were more but I was in such a heightened state of ectasy at the moment that the memory is a bit compromised. I also forgot to take any pictures. Here are a couple beers hanging out.

Rob drank a Minoh W-IPA and declared it "one of the best, if not the best IPA I've ever had. It had a good hoppy bitterness, but it didn't bite my tongue." We both agreed that a visual representation of the beer would be like doctor slapping a new born on the ass. Like the picture below.

Okadaya is the bomb! It is open from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm everyday but Sunday and the website is here.

"The Master" hits stores near you....

Don't forget to think of some good questions to ask Greg Koch, the CEO and co-founder of Stone Brewing--makers of great beers like Ruination IPA. Post your questions in the comments of yesterday's post.

Yesterday was also the start of another ground breaking, historic, sure to change the future of Japanese beer as we know it event. Asahi's "The Master" was released. What many don't know is that Asahi created a brand new style of beer for this brew. They are the first in the world to create the "bater" style of beer. Tee hee.

"The Master" hit sheves yesterday, and you can try to win some free cans here. We told you in a past post that Yamaguchi-san, the head brewer at Kinshachi, had already tried this-- and he said it tasted "neutral". But really, what did you expect?

You got some Tough Questions?????

So, after I announced that Greg Koch, the CEO and co-founder of Stone Brewing, would be stopping in to do an interview with us, I got some comments from the Tokyo boys about asking Greg some tough questions. Seems like the brew crew up there wants to see Greg answer some "tough questions" and not the same fluff that he always gets asked.

I emailed Greg and told him that in addition to the questions I wanted him to answer, that there were some folks here who wanted to put him on the hot seat for a bit. I tried to get him to answer, "What is the meaning of life?" and "Can God make a rock so big that He can't lift it?" and he didn't bite. Maybe I should ask him about lonely trees in the woods?

What Greg did suggest was awesome.

Greg wants to know what you want to ask. A live blog would be a great way to do this, but considering the fact that he is super busy and that we are on opposite sides of the world, it might not be possible. So, we are going to do the next best thing.
In the comments below, you can leave your questions for Greg to answer. He is all about staying in touch with the beer lovers who make brewing possible, and he aims to please. So, fire away. I can't promise you that he will answer all of your inquiries, but give it a shot. Ask some tough, meaty questions that will force him to think. I'm going to give this until Friday, so you've got three days to think of your doozies. After Friday, I'll send the best ones to Greg.

You asked for some tough questions for Greg--now you got it.



Fire away in the comments below.

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

Keeping with the theme of the upcoming interview with Stone co-founder and CEO, Greg Koch-- I thought I'd take a bit of time to talk about their new anniversary brew, Stone 13th Anniversary Ale. Stone is billing this as the "hoppiest beer we've ever brewed." Think about some of the greats hop-monsters out there that Stone makes or has made--and this is saying something. This beast gets a whopping 4.5 POUNDS of hops PER BARREL. Many brewers don't use that much per batch.

Here's a bit from the Stone blog about the beer:

When Steve and Greg gave the green light, Mitch, Tom, and John took the reins of the recipe. The beer went through three iterations before they dialed it in, finally deciding on Chinook hops for bittering and a 50/50 blend of Centennial and Simcoe hops for dry hopping. The careful blend of hops, combined with pale malt, various crystal malts, amber malts, and just a touch of chocolate malt, resulted in a rather tasty 7% abv red ale—but it just wasn’t quite worthy of a Stone Anniversary Ale yet. “It had a nice hop character,” said Mitch, “but it didn’t have that extra something that I thought the beer needed.” After tasting it, Greg even asked Mitch “It’s going to be bigger, right?” To which Mitch replied “Yeah, it’s going to be bigger.” The solution was to bump up the hopping and alcohol a bit, and the result was a very big, very Stone 9.5% abv Ale. As if that wasn’t enough, the brew crew decided to dry-hop it again just prior to filtering and packaging.

That's a lot of hopping.

Of course this leads to the question, Will there ever be enough hops? Will beers ever get too hoppy? Can these super hopped beers continue to be balanced? Of course, "stonch" British beer lovers (nice jab huh?) will say that US beers are hopped too much and these massive hop additions cover up poorly made beer. While I think some Brits are struggling to hold on to a style of beer that the world is moving away from---could they be in the least bit----dare I say---on to something?

Sapporo, pig flu, and earthquakes

I bought Sapporo's Beisen at a 7-11 while Miyuki and I were biking around Toyohashi. They threw in some caramel malt to give it color, but not enough to make it taste different from any other light lager. Blah. Here is a picture of the can half-crumpled in a bike basket.

My friends Lance and Rob are here visiting from Kentucky. I already took Mon, Thurs, and Fri off this week. They were planning on coming to school with me on Tues and Thurs. I just got a call from my boss at the board of education. He told me that the principal of the school is so worried about the pig flu, that he doesn't want my friends or myself coming. They are giving me two special days off that don't count against my vacation. How badass is that?

And finally, did everyone just feel that magnitude 3 earthquake? I heard that it came from Shizuoka-ken. Baird Beer, ya'll ok up there?

6AM and I'm already busy???

Welcome back to the work week. I have a crazy busy day today and won't be able to post much... Thanks for everyone's take on the Hibiya Octoberfest (in the comments) and it seems like the event wasn't as good this year as it has been in years past. Of course, on the bright side that means things can always get better!

Nate's buddies arrived last night and I'm pumped for them to come and chill in the mountains this weekend.

I went to the Horaisen brewery yesterday and drank some great sake. Great Sake.

Started off the weekend with an Aooni IPA last Friday....not near as good as I remembered it or was expecting. You feel the same?

Friends from THE HOMELAND arrive...

Just got this text from Nate that said:

"Look at these lost sumbitches!"



Welcome to Japan Lance and Rob!

Upcoming Interview with GREG KOCH!!!!!!

OK, so I said I would tell you what the big news was yesterday. I got caught up around town, talking to Moriyama-san at his sake factory, enjoying the sun, and drinking a few ichiban shiboris.

Anyways....on to the news!!!!!! We've been blessed in the past to do some interviews with some great brewers. Our first ever interview was with James Watt of Brewdog, and from there we've been lucky to interview master brewers from Minoh, Ginga Kogen, Kinshachi, Gotemba Kogen (Scott Brimmer!) and of course Brian Baird and Chris Poel from Baird Beer--as well as others.

But now, we are pumped to announce that Greg Koch, CEO and co-founder of Stone Brewing Co. is going to be a doing an interview with us soon. For those of you who know, Greg is a big wig in the US craft beer scene, and was the Keynote speaker at this years 2009 Craft Brewer's Conference. Greg is a big fan of beer sites like Ratebeer and Beer Advocate, and always has shown love to the beer bloggers...we're stoked that he's agreed to talk about his beer in Japan, the jibeer scene here, and what the future holds for Stone.

Here's an old but good interview he did with the Ratebeer folks.

Greg was also the driving force and main narrator in the hugely popular "I am a Craft Brewer" video. Just to get you excited about Greg's upcoming interview, here's the video again:

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Beer Poetry

A beer lost

Oh woe!
My beer is where?
I reached for my glass
and I grabbed air.


Oh woe!
Where is my beer?
Hey you!
Is that my f**kin' beer?


May 2009

Moku Moku at Nagoya Station

Moku Moku has a big ole farm out in Mie-ken that grows all sorts of organic food to supply their many restaurants with. They also have a brewery. With their vegetables they are smart, with their beer they are not.
Miyuki and I went to the Moku Moku organic all-u-can-eat buffet for lunch. It cost 1800 yen each for about an hour and a half. Not bad. It was really really good food.

I wanted to drink Moku Moku's beer. They had two of them on tap and all six in bottles. They are not included in the price. If I wanted their oh-so-precious beer to grace my lips I was gonna have to pay 525 yen a bottle or 640 yen for 400 ml draft. Not only that, but this is a limited offer. I can only pay for and imbibe their beer during the allotted 90 minutes I have at the buffet. What bullshit!

Think about that. Though they have all their beer in bottles, you cannot purchase it to take away from the restaurant. You have to drink it during the very limited time you have to eat their food. They do not sell beer in their gift shop (where they sell everything else made at their farm) and, as staff informed us, there is nowhere in Nagoya to buy their beer. WTF is wrong with Moku Moku?

Maybe, in the future, Miyuki and I will visit their farm in Mie and finally drink some of their beer. For now, however, Moku Moku needs to pull its head out of its ass and realize how much more beer they could be selling. Stupid.

Friday Pictures

*********Check back Saturday for the announcement of a HUGE upcoming interview that you won't want to miss!!!!!***********

Some pics and stories to get you through until the 5 o'clock hour....



Last weekend's fun in Nagoya was a great time, but pricey. 'Cause of that, my tail will be staying in the hills this weekend and trying to enjoy the warm mountain weather. I plan on hitting up the local sake brewery to see what Moriyama-san has brewing up, and maybe taking a dip in the river...sound exciting?

Last weekend's brewery tour of the Kirin factory in Nagoya was long overdue. The tours are free, and I've said before that if I lived near I would take them every Saturday morning. The Kirin tour isn't as good as Asahi's, cause at Asahi's you get 15 minutes of all you can drink, and at Kirin you get two free beer tickets. I won't complain though...too much.



Nate told you about Max's bar...the expensive place with small beers--but a pretty good atmosphere. The W IPA was small, hot and full of head--but still tasted pretty good.

If you got this beer at your local bar back home, what would you say to the bartender???



Also, in these tough economic times, we would all do well to take a lesson from a great Kentuckian, Ernest P. Worrell:

Hibiya Oktoberfest May 22nd-31st!!!

I apologize friends...I have been busier than a bee this week and I haven't been able to get up as many articles as I would have liked. Let's jump into it on a brisk Friday morning in the hills....

If you are in the Tokyo area, get to Oktoberfest 2009 in Hibiya. At the site you can check the dates for the other parties around the island culminating with the REAL Oktoberfest in Yokohama in October. This weekends festivites start today and run until the 31st of May.





Here is a list of what will be on tap this week:

		ERDINGER Weissbier

		ERDEINGER Weissbier DUNKEL

		Bitburber Premium Beer

		Kostritzer Schwarzbier

		Franziskaner Hefe Weisbier Gold

		Spaten Optimator 7.2%

		Spaten Muncher Hell 7.2%

		Spaten Premium Bock 6.5%
Fujizakura's Brews!!!

		Weizen

		Octoberfest Marzen

Dunkel Weizen

If I was going, I'd be all over Fujizakura's brews and that Spaten Optimator!!!!

Also, if you haven't already heard or read in the comments, the Minoh Beer Festival has been canceled due to the Pig Flu....dammit! Never fear though! The word on the street is that it is back on for June 27th and 28th!!!


Be back soon, with news of an upcoming interview....that IS THE BIGGEST ONE WE HAVE EVER DONE, AND ONE THAT YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS!!!!!!