First you Pushu!! Then you Pita!! Then you Awa Awa!!

So, during my recent trip to Japan, we were visiting the gift shop at the Suntory Beer Brewery, when I saw this little thing:




BEER SMOOTHER II? What the heck is a BEER SMOOTHER?

Well, apparently it's a gadget that will ensure your canned beer is even smoother and tastier than if you pour it without it. The inside of the er.. spout is supposedly made with a special sort of clay that will make your beer even smoother. Ok, THIS I had to see.



So, being a sucker for this sort of thing, I decided to buy one back, just for the heck of it.

The one I got is apparently the Beer Smoother II. Makes me wonder what the first version of it was like...

Anyway, I only got around to trying it out when I got back (nope, didn't get to use it during the Great Japanese Beer Pyramid session). I was wondering what sort of beer I should use it on, when I figured that since Japanese beers tend to be mostly lagers anyway, I'll just try it on a lager.



Yeah, it kinda looks like some sex toy, doesn't it?

Anyway, off I went to get two cans of Cap X lagers (ok fine, it was Carlsberg Gold) to try the Beer Smoother on.

Now, I wasn't really sure how to use it at first, but the instructions in the back of the box had some nicely illustrated guides, so I decided to follow them:



So... following the instructions, I was supposed to PUSHU!! the tab on the can.

So, first you PUSHU!!



After that, I had to PITA!! the beer smoother on the can.

Now... PITA!!



And finally, with the glass tilted at an angle, I had to AWA AWA!! the beer into the glass.

AWA AWA!! WHEEE!



I only poured one of the beers using the device, since I also needed to compare the beer with. And suprisingly, the head WAS smoother, and the beer WAS slightly smoother than the one that didn't use the can. Not by much though, which makes me wonder why go through all the trouble of making such a device when the differences don't seem to be very significant.

Then I figured, maybe it's the beer... so I went out and got a can of Suntory The Premium Malt's (hey, I bought the thing from Suntory, makes sense to use their beer to test the thingy right?), and tried the same thing again. AAAAND... Well, maybe it's just me, but there really wasn't much significance between the one poured with the Beer Smoother and the one without.

In the end, I really didn't get the point of the Beer Smoother. Yes, it apparently makes the beer "smoother", but when it's just a lager, I don't really care about the "smoothness" of the beer. If it's smooth beer, it's a smooth beer, and I'm guessing that no Beer Smoother is going to make an Anchor or a Skol any smoother (or easier to drink).

Oh well, at least it was fun PUSHU-ing, PITA-ing and AWA-AWA-ing...

-----------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE (5/12/2012):

I decided to write about this in the regular column, so together with Fireangel, we tried it out again, just to be sure of the result. One glass of Suntory without the Beer Smoother, and one with. And what do you know, the difference WAS actually quite distinct. The one that was "smoothed" was well, smoother, and creamier. It didn't have as sharp a tang as the other one. Then we tried it with a Guinness FES, and though the taste didn't really differ much, the FOAM was excellent when the beer was pour through the Beer Smoother, almost Guinness Draught quality.

So there you have it, the Beer Smoother actually works!

16 Japanese beers & 1 Dried Sotong Predator.

Behold, the Great Japanese Beer Pyramid!



It started out with the three of us walking around aimlessly with around Kyoto wondering what to do. Then we stopped by a liquor store and saw this:



OOOOOH, SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRETTY BEER CANS.. CANNOT RESIST. MUST.. BUY....

So we bought a couple of different beers each to take back to the room to try. At first we only had about 7 beers. Then we ran out of beer, and decided to walk all the way out to the Lawson 24-hour store to get ANOTHER nine different beers. AAAND we finished everything that very night.




As you can see, most of the beers are from the big four of Japanese beer - Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory - though we did manage to get our hands on a few Kyoto craft beers though, so that was interesting.

We didn't try the ones we'd already had before, such as Suntory The Premium Malt's or Asahi Dry, but we tried to get as much variety as possible (though even that was hard, because most of the Japanese commercial beers tend to be lagers and pilsners, or Happoshu, which is a type of 'beer' that has less than 67% malt content.

We even had a run in with a dried sotong that looked like a Predator:



Anyway, what did we learn from this binge... er.. extensive tasting? First of all, most Japanese beers taste the same. The craft beers from Haneda Brewery were interesting, but not exactly distinctive. Secondly, it's hard to distinguish one lager from the other when you've already tried 10 others before it. Third: IF you want a beer with flavour.. don't drink a happoshu.

Anyway, here's what we drank that night, based on what I managed to tag on my Untappd account:


1) Kyoto Kolsch
(Haneda Sake Brewery)
Style: Kölsch
Tasting Notes: Craft beer brewed in Kyoto. Other than the hint of sake rice in the nose, it's light and otherwise unremarkable.

2) Winter Limited Edition
(Kirin Brewery Company)
Style: Pilsner
Tasting Notes: MEH

3) Yebisu Premium
(Sapporo Breweries)
Style: Dortmunder / Export Lager
Tasting Notes: Ngeh. Ordinary. Prefer Suntory Premium Malt's.

4) ICHIBAN 2012 Hop Harvest
(Kirin Brewery Company)
Style: Pilsner
Tasting Notes: Pretty good for a pilsner. Good malty hoppy notes. A 2012 limited edition.

5) Asahi Off
(Asahi Breweries)
Style: Pale Lager
Tasting Notes: Not bad. Slightly more flavour than the normal Asahi Dry. Nothing "off" about it, heh heh.


6) Hokkaido Premium
(Sapporo Breweries)
Style: Happoshu
Tasting: Premium my foot. Sure, it's got slightly more flavor than the usual happoshu, but it's still almost tasteless.

7) Kohaku Yebisu
(Sapporo Breweries)
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
Tasting Notes: This was interesting. A nice departure from the usual Yebisu, and an ALE for a change.

8) Suntory Rich Malt
(Suntory)
Style: Japanese Rice Lager
Tasting Notes: Not bad actually. Hint of rice, and nice distinctive flavor, for a lager.

9) Asahi Style Free
(Asahi Breweries)
Style: Happoshu
Tasting Notes: Er... light and bland


10) The Winter's Tale
(Sapporo Breweries)
Style: Pilsner
Tasting Notes: I think it's a 25 Year Anniversary limited edition or something. Not bad. It's still a lager, but with some nice flavors.

11) Clear Asahi
(Asahi Breweries)
Style: Pale Lager
Tasting Notes: It's like Asahi Dry, but Lite. Which is like saying it has NO TASTE AT ALL.

12) Syuzan Kaido Weizen
(Haneda Sake Brewery)
Style: Kölsch
Tasting Notes: Craft beer from Kyoto. Pretty decent. Good bite, nice malty nose.

13) Asahi Super Dry Dry Black
(Asahi Breweries)
Style: Black Lager
Tasting Notes: No nose at all, hardly any taste. Like Asahi Dry but with more body. Very unlike the Asahi Black I had before.

14) Kyoto Amber Ale
(Haneda Sake Brewery)
Style: English Brown Ale
Tasting Notes: Kyoto-brewed craft beer.. Decent hoppy nose, but a bit flat taste-wise.

15) Tanrei Green Label
(Kirin Brewery Company)
Style: Happoshu
Tasting Notes: Light. And er... nothing else

16) Nodogoshi Nama
(Kirin Brewery Company)
Style: Happoshu
Tasting Notes: It's a happoshu, so there really isn't much to shout about in terms of the taste.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Other than the 16 beers above, I later tried another two beers, just for the heck of it:

17) Asahi Direct Shot 
(Asahi Breweries)
Style: Happoshu
Tasting notes: I think the name says it all. It's just a direct shot of alcohol (5% only though), with hardly any taste.

18) Hitachino Nest Ancient Nipponia
(Kiuchi Brewery)
Style: Golden Ale
Tasting notes: At 6.5%ABV, this was the strongest beer I had throughout the trip, would you believe it. the rest were like 5.5% or less, WTF. Anyway, this is supposedly brewed with two traditional Japanese ingredients: the ancient Japanese Kaneko Golden barley, and Sorachi Ace, a hop that used to be from Japan. It was surprisingly light, but there was a nice hoppy, yeasty nose to it. Not much of a body, but a nice, crisp if a bit strange tasting beer.

10 Reasons Why All Beer Lovers Should Go For The Better Beer Festival!

1) BECAUSE EVERYONE DESERVES BETTER BEER! 
And Taps Beer Bar is probably the only place in town that is making the effort to buck the boring commercial beer trend and bring in AWESOME, BETTER beers. They deserve all the support they can get!

2) MORE THAN SEVENTY BEERS TO TRY! 
There will be over 70, yes SEVENTY, different craft brews from Singapore, Australia, England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Japan, USA, Belgium and Germany.

4) CHEAP AWESOME BEERS ON TAP! 
ALL the beers on tap at Taps will be going at RM15 a glass, which means you'll be getting AWESOME BEERS from BrewDog, Mikkeller, Nogne, Thornbridge, Harviestoun and Orkney for almost HALF THE NORMAL PRICE.

5) LEARN MORE ABOUT BEERS!
Sick of commercial beers? Too many events serving the same old beers OVER AND OVER AGAIN? Then this is the best time to come and try out some NEW, TASTY craft beers that you won't get ANYWHERE ELSE in KL.

6) CHEAP WEIHENSTEPHANER!
There's also going to be Weihenstephaner wheat beer going for RM10 a glass. Why pay more for a boring glass of Hoegaarden or Paulaner elsewhere when you have Weihenstephaner?

7) HITACHINO NEST JAPANESE CRAFT BEER!
This little owl beer is one of the most easy drinking yet unique beer brands I've tried, and they'll be at the fest!

8) LIVE MUSIC AND FUN!
There will be live music from 4pm onwards, as well as talks, beer tasting, beer auctions and lucky draws. And trust me, some of the acts who will be performing are REALLY GOOD.

9) NEW BEERS!
Besides Hitachino, the other new beers available at the festival are: Jungle Beer (Singapore), Red Dot Beer (Singapore), St Bernadus (Belgium) and Het Anker (Belgium).

10) NO CRAZY EXPENSIVE ENTRY FEES!
Entry is a RM5 donation to Taps' partner charity, the Kiwanis Down Syndrome Foundation. The donation witll entitle you to one free beer taster.

10) COME FOR THE BEER, STAY FOR THE COMPANY!
A bunch of us are already planning to camped out there for the most part of the day. I'll probably be there at about 2pm onwards, so just come over and say hi!

------------------------------------------------

The Better Beer Festival 2012:

Date: 29 September 2012 (Saturday)
Time: Doors open at 12pm
Venue: Taps Beer Bar, One Residency, 1 Jalan Nagasari, Off Changkat Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2110-1560
Email: info@tapsbeerbar.my
Facebook: facebook.com/TapsBeerBar

Beers will be available for purchase from RM15 upwards. Food and other beverages will also be available. Tokens can be purchased in RM50 lots. A minimum purchase of RM100 is required for credit card transactions. Taps Beer Bar will also be launching their membership program on that day.

they'll also be selling this cool beer glasses at the festival for RM20 each! Limited quantities only though...

Beer Of The Week: AOOOOONI! The Green Ghost Toast!

Whenever I go to Singapore, I always try to make it for a beer or two at Jibiru Japanese Craft Beer Bar at Somerset 313. It's one of my favorite drinking spots in Singapore, nice cozy little outlet, with some really great beers.



The last time I went there, I was happy to see a few new beers from the Yoho Brewing company, which also makes the excellent Yona Yona Ale. The new ones were Tokyo Black (nothing to do with the Black Tokyo Horizon), the Sun Sun Organic Beer, and my favorite, the Indo No Aooni IPA.



Damn, I LOVE that packaging. Yoho has always had nice cans, but this one is just awesome. The name means "Green Ghost" (I think, at least that's what those characters mean in Chinese), 7%ABV, and is apparently a "Full-bodied IPA with a generous floral hop aroma".



They've got the description of the aroma right. The nose is a wonderfully hoppy yet sweet, floral scent, and is probably one of the best-smelling beers I've had in a while. The colour is a nice, slightly ruby red,  amber-ish straw color too.



I have to say, this has just overtaken the Yona Yona as my favorite beer from Yoho. It's got a perfect balance of hops and sweet maltiness, and the bitterness comes through just right, meaning it doesn't hit you in the face as soon as you sip it, unlike many IPAs. It's also surprisingly easy to drink considering it's 7%ABV, and I polished off mine in no time at all. EXCELLENT.

Beer Rating: 8.5 out of 10



BTW, I'm not sure if Aooni will be at the Better Beer Festival this Saturday at Taps Beer Bar, but one beer brand from Jibiru will DEFINITELY be there - Hitachino Nest! Hopefully they'll have the AWESOME Espresso Stout, but even if they don't, Hitachino Nest still makes some GREAT beers. So head over to the Better Beer Festival to check it out!

Beer of The Week: Now THAT'S Hardcore

Hmmm... been awhile since I've done a Beer of the Week post. Not that I haven't tried many beers, in fact, I've tried TOO MANY beers that I don't know which one to write on! :-p



Anyway, one of my favorite beers at what is my current NUMBER ONE BEER BAR - Taps Beer Bar - is actually the awesome BrewDog Hardcore IPA. It comes in the bottle, and they usually have it on tap as well. While I prefer it a lot more on tap, the bottle one packs one heck of a punch as well.



The beer has a fresh, refreshing, grassy nose, and compared to the other BrewDog IPA available here - the rather light Punk IPA - this is a MONSTER of a beer, containing 9% ABV, and a GREAT hoppy, citrusy taste that ends with a nice, long hoppy finish. One of the better beers to go with Taps' beef rendang or satay pizzas, IMHO.

Definitely one of the better IPAs I've ever tried.



BTW, Taps will be organising the BETTER BEER FESTIVAL next Sunday (29/9) at their outlet, and besides their usual beers (which already number over 60), they've also invited over Hitachino Nest Japanese craft beers, and Singapore's upstart craft brewers Jungle Beer! Head on over HERE for more information:

To Arthur At Sid's!

Yup, if you only go for ONE Arthur's Day party this year, then go for the one at Sid's Pub TTDI this Sunday, the bar with the best Guinness in town!



The party starts at 12 noon, all the way until 8pm (or until they run out of Guinness, which will probably NEVER happen), with the black stuff going at RM10 NETT a glass.

Seeya there!

20 Reasons to go for Brewfest 2012

1) Over 50 different beers to try! I was there yesterday from 2pm to 1130pm, and even I only managed to get up to 31 different beers, and this was with my "Don't drink the same beer twice all day" rule (Of course I didn't finish ENTIRE BOTTLES, just tasting samples, but still...)

2) BREWFEST is MAlaysia's FIRST EVER Malaysia’s 1st International Beer Festival. MUST SUPPORT!

3) It's cozy and easy to get to. The Brewfest is happening at Publika @ Solaris Dutams/Mont Kiara, which is reasonably easy to get to, and parking is not too tough either.

4) It starts at 5.30pm, and goes on until late at night, TODAY and TOMORROW. Which means lots of time to TRY ALL THE BEERS!

5) All the beers are sold at cost price. For instance, at Taps, a Mikkeller or an Orkney would set you back about RM30++ at least. At Brewfest, they're selling them at RM15-20 EACH. Now THAT'S a steal.

6) OK, there's a RM68 entry fee that includes two beers. But  the number of awesome and different beers available AND the price they're being sold at makes the entry fee WORTH EVERY PENNY.

7) Taps Beer Bar is one of the most awesome beer places in KL right now, with almost 60 different beers on tap and in bottle. They've brought about 40 of those beers along with them to Brewfest, and are selling those at cost price, so this is an AWESOME chance to check out all those beers!

8) THIS AWESOME HOT DOG. One of the best I've ever tasted!

9) Hitachino Nest! I love Jibiru in Singapore, and the guys from that place have brought up some of their awesome Hitachino Nest Japanese Craft beers for Brewfest. The Yona Yona and Espresso Stout is especially awesome!

10) Douglas Lim stand-up comedy. His shows can be patchy, but after a few beers, hey, he might get funnier. The show we attended last night was pretty funny. :D

11) Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast - thick, rich, chocolaty, coffee-y and awesome.

12) For the lovers of lighter beers, there's Warsteiner, Tsingtao, Suntory, Konig Ludwig and even some Singha available as well!

13) Besides the hot dogs, the food is decent as well - there's a stall selling deep fried chicken skin, salmon skin and chicken soft bones. and another that has some great pork ribs too!

14) A festival like this is WAY overdue. We need beer events like this to help educate drinkers that beer is not just about the commercial lagers and the big boys. There is SO MUCH MORE To beer than just Tiger, Carlsberg or Guinness.

15) No Overtime crap shit piss Starker beer.

16) There's a good variety of beers there, not just lagers, but some great stouts, ales, fruit beers, and even a bit of cider here and there. There's evern a DIM SUM BEER. There are Trappist ales, abbey ales, crazy ales and all sorts of ales. TRY THEM ALL!

17) DO try to be more experimental with your beers. Don't be afraid to try something new, because that's what beer festivals are all about - expanding your horizons and finding out more about beer.

18) Be careful though, some of these beers are REALLY STRONG. There are quite a number of 8% and 9% beers, including the Hitachino Nest XH (an awesome stout, BTW)

19) If you are trying new stuff, try to talk to the guys behind the counter to see what to try. Guys like Alvin from Taps and Charlie from Hitachino are more than willing to explain their beers and give you some recommendations.

20) FIFTY DIFFERENT BEERS TO TRY! COME ON, THAT SHOULD BE THE ONLY REASON TO GO FOR BREWFEST!



(Some of the photos here were taken from Suanie's post about Brewfest, which you can read HERE!)

Come Party With The Thirsty Blogger & Beerbeer!

Heads up, all your alkies and drunks, two of the best alcohol blogs out there are having a JOINT anniversary celebration this Thursday, at S'Mores Bar & Restaurant. Drinks are courtesy of Guinness Anchor Bhd. (And maybe some cider courtesy of Baad Apples.)!

Seeya there!


Date: 3 May 2012 (Thursday)
Time: 6pm till late

Venue: S’MoreS Bar+ Restaurant + Chilled Out
Unit G2, Ground Floor, The Sphere
Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur

Get Thirsty This Sunday!

Drink up folks, Beerbeer.org's Thirsty Sunday is BACK!

As usual, it's gonna be at bakita in Changkat Bukit Bintang, from 2.30pm to 7pm, this Sunday (yes, on April Fool's Day, but this ain't no joke. You don't joke about beer, ok?)

It's gonna be RM5 & RM10 for beers and cider like Kronenbourg Blanc, Carlsberg, Blackthorne, and there's gonna be TODDY ON DRAUGHT as well. Yes, TODDY. On TAP. Now THAT'S gonna be worth going for!

Here're the details of the event!

Seeya there!

Beer Of The Week: Red MacGregor, Not Ewan Great

The best part about Taps Beer Bar is they have so many beers on tap and by the bottle that you can go there every day to try a different each day for a whole month, and you still wouldn't be able to finish trying all the beers. I dropped by there after the St. Patrick's and grabbed the Oakney Red MacGregor Ruby Ale, which apparently had been selling quite well at Taps.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of the more disappointing beers I've had there so far. Pouring a nice ruby red, has the slightest of aromas, slight hints of lychee and little bit of rust to be honest. Heck, I had to sniff so hard to get a whiff of the nose that I nearly got beer up MY nose.

It fares slightly better on the palate though. There're some biscuity, hoppy, malty notes, but not much else. It's a little thin though, almost reminds me of the piss-like Lite beers I tried in US; but with a little bit more flavor to it.

I'm not sure whether it's just my bottle or it's the beer, but I found this to be quite disappointing, considering how highly rated it is on RateBeer. I found it a bit too weak for my liking, and struggled a little to identify the flavours and the nose. And frankly, any beer that reminds me of the crap piss American Lite beers was always going to fare poorly with me...

Oh well, good thing there are so many other beers to try at Taps hehe....

Beer Of The Week: Kajigga Kajigga Shiga Kogen!

Today's Beer Of The Week is the other Japanese IPA I bought from Jibiru in Singapore - Shiga Kogen IPA.

Brewed by Tamamura-Honten, a brewery in Yamanouchi, this is a lot closer to the IPAs I am more familiar with, especially compared to the previous Japanese IPA I tried - the Kinshachi IPA. It IS slightly lighter than the Kinshachi though, being only 6% ABV, but somehow it tastes a lot richer. I definitely prefer this over the Kinshachi though.

It's got a wonderfully hoppy nose, with a slight hint of citrus. Nice, medium bodied mouth-feel, with a sharp tang of bitterness, and again, slight citrus notes. Surprisingly refreshing for such a bitter-tasting beer, it also has a nice, dry slightly lychee but bitter finish that is not too long but not too short either.

Beer Of The Week: India Pale Ale from Japan. Er... right.

Today's beer of the week is one of two IPAs I bought at Jibiru in Somerset 313 in Singapore. Jibiru is currently one of my favorite beer joints in Singapore - it's convenient to get to via MRT, and it's got a great selection of Japanese craft beers. It even stocks one of the best ciders I've ever tasted - the Coldstream Cider from Australia!

Anyway, on my last trip to Singapore, I brought home two bottles of Japanese IPAs to try at home. The first of these is the Kinshachi India Pale Ale (7% ABV), from the Morita Kinshachi Brewery in Japan.

In case you are not familiar with IPA, it stands for India Pale Ale. No, it wasn't made in India, the beer originated from England, and apparently got the name from being called "pale ale made for India". In the US, many craft breweries have taken to making their own IPAs, and their style of IPAs are generally quite hoppy and bitter, with a very high IBU.

So, on to the Kinshachi IPA. This was not as bitter as some of the American IPAs I've tried, this is nevertheless still a nice decent offering in that style. It doesn't have much of a nose, but on the palate it tastes slightly bitter, but with a subtle tangy sweetness to it. It's even got a little bit of a bubblegum aftertaste that I quite like. Hmmm, I think I might get another bottle back the next time I go to Jibiru...