This past weekend I made my way to Shizuoka with a friend from the mountains near me. Our plan was to rendevous with the infamous Chuwy and spend a few nights at The Taproom, and hopefully take in some great views of Fuji while visiting some the breweries that surround the mountain.
Of course, if the weather doesn't want to cooperate, you end up with views of Fuji that look like this:
For those of you who don't know, there are several breweries that almost make a perfect circle around Fuji. If you were to start at Gotemba Kogen Brewery, you could make your way to Fujiyama Beer, Fujizakura (Sylvans), Bayern Meister, and then end up at Baird's The Fishmarket Taproom in Numazu.
We made it to The Taproom on Friday night in time for some good beers and chats with some old friends. Early in the morning on Saturday, we headed to Gotemba Kogen and the wonderful onsen there.
After relaxing there, we went to Fujiyama Beer.
Fujiyama Beer is housed in a gigantic building. HUGE. It's a massive beer hall type building near the Radar Dome Museum of Fuji. Chuwy warned us that the beer might not be in tip-top form, but we had to stop and try it anyway.
Inside, we were greeted by an enormous room, pristine brewing equiptment, and several people working. There were only about 10 people in the entire place, and Chuwy said that is about par for the course. We sat down and ordered one of each style of brew: Pilsner, Weizen, and Weizenbock.
We were served the brews by a young waitress who quickly disappeared. It might have been a good thing, because I would have been embarrassed for her to have seen our reactions. This beer was about to change our day.
The Weizenbock was really really off. In fact, all of the beers had something wrong with them. I am convinced that their brewing equipment might have something wrong with it, and maybe they could get Fletch to take a look and see if it's a bad Fetzer Valve. The Weizenbock was the worst one, and had a distinct public pool taste to it.
We laughed as we drank the brews. We also ate some delicious fried potatos. Those were good, and redeemed the place just a tiny bit.
A nasty weizenbock and a delicious fried tater.All in all, this place is worth the visit just to check and see if the beers have improved. Don't order too many there, as good beer at the breweries before it (and after!) await!
2 comments:
So sad -- such great potential, such disappointing implementation.
Given your comments, I wouldn't blame the equipment. I'd blame poor cleaning and/or rinsing and/or sanitizing. Yeast management is also a distinct possibility. Whatever the problem is, I hope someone goes in there and figures it out -- bad craft beer hurts all craft brewers.
Been there 4 times in 4 years. 4 years ago - awful.
2 years ago - couldn't finish the beers.
1 year ago - realised the pilsner was the least nasty but still couldnt finish it.
This year - laughed silently to myself as DH ordered the weissen bock, the worst beer in Japan!
Awesome!
Got a great pic of his reaction - it'll be up online soon!
Really bad. All beers were way funky. Yeast plus line management.
I assume they don't pour many beers there and the staff are young (too young to drink) and inexperienced about beer and I have never seen anyone working in the brewery. i assume lines are never cleaned or that enough beer is poured from the lines early on to ensure fresh brews.
I've had friends complain about the stuff on several visits, beer experts telling them the stuff is horrid. Even the boss of the whole thing has no idea how bad his beer is - he told me the weissen bock was his favorite beer in Japan! Clueless.
I think nothing I will say to them will change a thing. It's been four years to my knowledge. This is a must try, just to say you've possibly had the worst beer in Japan.
This one is up there with Niigata Edinburgh, Doppo white chocolate ale and Virgo wine beer.
Post a Comment