Pat's Pints

Japan’s ancient capital, Kyoto, is rightfully on the itinerary of most foreigners who visit Japan. The city is steeped in history, religion, and traditional Japanese culture. It was the spiritual and sometimes political center of Japan from the 8th century, when Emperor Kammu moved the capital from Nara to Kyoto, until the 19th century when the young Emperor Meiji left for Edo (now Tokyo).

With a population of 2.8 million, Osaka is Japan’s third largest city and effectively the nation’s second largest urban center. A visit to Osaka affords you the opportunity to drink craft beer in a former public bath/onsen (Kamigata Beer), in a skyscraper 31 floors above ground level (Craft Beer House Molto!!), on a tugboat (Beer Stand Marca), and myriad other places.

I’m currently in the middle of a 3 month stay in Japan. It’s an incredible opportunity, so I’ve doing my best to explore all that Japan has to offer. Naturally that includes checking out local breweries and other beery spots of interest when the opportunity presents itself. In my last post I made some general observations about the beer scene in Japan.

If I asked you to describe Japanese beer what would your response be? Many people would mention something about crisp, dry lagers, as exemplified by beers like Asahi Super Dry. You wouldn’t be wrong, Asahi Super Dry is the most popular beer in Japan. It relies on the additions of rice and corn and a proprietary strain of yeast to produce a highly attenuated beer that drinks crisp and finishes with a clean, dry finish.

This episode is going to be a fun one as we host three repeat guests, Dan Eaton, Madeleine Bogard, and Chris Mercehill as contestants for a bizarre beer gameshow! Our hosts Pat and Mark alternate rounds, each with their own challenge. Pat’s game, Wait Wait… Don’t Beer Me! has our contestants scratching their heads to figure out which of three extremely unusual beers is the real one. Next, they take their chances with Mark in a game we call ReinheitsgeWHAT?

There was a time when Belgian-style beers were widely brewed in America, but these days the yeast-forward, elegant beers of Belgium seem to be relegated to a small niche of the American market. You can still find Trappist ales in better beer stores, but try searching for American-brewed interpretations of those styles is a challenging exercise.

Pizza and beer is the perfect pairing. Both beer and the crust are products of yeast fermentation. The crisp bitterness of the beer cuts through the fattiness of the cheese. The herbal and spicy hop notes pair nicely with the Italian herbs in the sauce, and the spritzy carbonation scrubs it all away, resetting your palate for the next slice. In the world of pizzas, Columbus-style pizza is arguably the perfect pie to pair with a beer.

No one has written more extensively and authoritatively on craft beer in the Buckeye state than Rick Armon. A journalist by trade, Rick has published two books on the beers of Ohio – Ohio Breweries in 2011 and 50 Must Try Beers of Ohio in 2017 – in addition to his influential Ohio Beer Blog that covered Ohio beer and breweries throughout the teens.

Nothing is more British than enjoying a glass of creamy cask ale, dispensed from a beer engine, in a cozy wood paneled pub, but good luck finding that experience once you leave the British Isles. Here in Central Ohio finding a traditional cask ale is as rare as finding a hen’s tooth, and this episode is our way of suggesting that maybe it doesn’t need to be so difficult.

It’s a clear, crisp mid-December afternoon. I’m driving from Columbus to Athens with my wife Laurinda and our friends Ralph and Lucy Wolfe. We’re on our way to a special event being held this evening at Little Fish Brewing Company. They’ve opened a limited number of spaces for people to observe the first stage of brewing of a spontaneously fermented beer. Not many breweries attempt to brew beer using this old-world approach, and for good reason.