Okay, Tokyo weekly craft beer report. The Watering Hole was a fairly classy bar in one of the richer neighbourhoods of inner-city Tokyo and this was reflected in the prices. It's the only place where I've had cause to complain about the annoyingly widespread Tokyo policy of charging significantly more in relative terms for a half than for a pint. In most places, the mark-up is small, but here, a half was about 75% of the price of a pint. Ridiculous. And hardly conducive to sampling different types of beer. For this reason alone, I won't be back to this place in the near future. The food was also unspectacular pub fare (by Japanese standards, which still puts in streets ahead of most pub food in the UK or Canada) and also relatively expensive. On the plus side, the atmosphere was lively, the customers were almost all Japanese and mostly women in their 20s and 30s, the staff were excellent, and my waitress was more than helpful and we ended up chatting whenever she got time between serving other customers. Interestingly, she doesn't drink here but rather at the Harajuku Taproom, where I was last week, or Popeye's, which is next on my list...
Anyway, the beer. This time I tried to avoid anything by Baird, and go for small Japanese breweries I hadn't yet sampled. As usual I started with something refreshing, in this case the Ume Sour Ale from
Osaka's Minoh Brewery, a company which has been winning all kinds of awards. Ume is a kind of sour plum generally pickled or turned into umeshu (plum wine). This beer was all ume. Bold, sour and almost like a Belgian lambic, it went down a treat.They have their own brew pub in Osaka, and if I ever have any reason to be in Osaka, I will definitely be visiting.
Next up I tried one of the two beers available through a hand-pump: the Hansode Porter,
made by the Kiso onsen (hot spring) hotel in Nagano. This was an excellent example of the type, with a dark roastiness up front, and an almost fruity aftertaste. I have to say though, and this may be heresy to some here, that I find hand-pumped beers tends to have a slightly flatter mouthfeel than I prefer.
Supposedly finally, I had the special 1st year anniversary session beer, the Mountain Breeze, made for the Watering Hole byYamanashi prefecture's
Outsider Brewing. It was perfectly pleasant, in fact it made me almost homesick for English best bitter, which is essentially what it was. But not as much of a breath of fresh air as the name would suggest.
Now, that was supposed to be it, but having got talking to the waitress, I decided to try a non-Japanese beer on the list that had been intriguing me - the
Boundary Bay Imperial Oatmeal Stout. I wish I hadn't. Not just because it was a beer too far, but because it really wasn't that good. After all these very well-mannered and balanced Japanese brews, to taste something so comparatively rude was a shock. The beer was certainly strong at 9%, but its aftertaste was just pure ethanol, like a bad vodka. Gack. Not pleasant at all. And the initial flavours were not that impressive either. I like my imperial stouts oily and this one didn't have that, nor did it have the almost chewy quality of a fine outmeal stout. It was, in the end, a rather unpleasant hybrid. I didn't finish it. Yes, you heard me. I left beer undrunk!
So, not my favourite night but still good - I think I have just been spoiled so far. I did ask about when the owner's own beer will finally be available - and possibly November or December, but maybe early next year, was the answer. I don't know what problems they are having. Anyway, this will be the only thing that will tempt me back, I think.
