Strong Scotch: Ise Kadoya's Highland Ale

Allow me to introduce Ise Kadoya's Highland Ale, a sort-of strong Scotch Ale that boasts 40 IBU and 7 percent alcohol. This seasonal, brewed by Masaya Sakakibara (part of the brewing/buying team), offers a sweet punch with caramel malts, backed up by a bitter finish via magnum hops. Although I'd say this ale veers on the sweeter side of the pallet, it's a pleasant and powerful drink.

Brewer Sakakibara was most recently behind last year's Rye Zen. His newest offering is a much bolder choice that is among the taps at his weekends-only craft beer bar near Ise Station. That bar, called Twelve, is open Saturdays and occasionally Fridays. Follow him on Twitter for info on his bar. Feel free to contact me for directions or other info on beer in Ise. 

Read about the Highland Ale (in Japanese) at Ise Kadoya's website here.

When I picked up the bottle today (900 yen) the staff reminded me of Biyagura's half-price beer days, which seem to fall twice a month on weekdays. The next one is February 28th. Check their homepage for updates each month, and you might catch a nice deal if you happen to be in town.

(I also picked up the newest Japan Beer Times, half of which I've already read online but it's so nice to have a print edition.) 

Further, they always offer a two-hour all-you-can-drink for less than 2,000 yen on the regular menu.

Has anyone tried the Highland Ale out at the beer bars?

Enjoy!

Craft beer at my local Circle K

It has not been the best night in terms of random luck -- my iPhone had died and the craft beer bar was closed when we arrived after yakiniku -- but the silver lining is that I found craft beer cans at yet another Circle K in town. It seems the word is spreading. It's now up to three Circle K's here in Ise that are selling Yona Yona Ale and Ginga Kogen American Pale Ale. My post dead-phone stop into the Circle K nearest to my place turned out positive indeed.

My iPhone, meanwhile, is still looking very much dead.

But back to that American Pale Ale. Beer lovers know that the "American" in American Pale Ale refers to the style of pale ale -- in this case, a bitter type pale ale. I brought a few over to a poker game the other night and got some interesting reactions from the international crowd. But indeed it was the Americans who assumed American meant "watery" in this case. They seemed to think a Japanese brewer was trying to reproduce that ever-so-American Budweiser sensibility.

Between hands, I tried to explain that this was a Japanese craft brewer and that this beer was a special thing to find here in Ise. The Yona Yona was easier to sell, since its name and label make it stand out a bit, but even among American citizens craft beer is poorly understood.

I'll have to try harder to spread the word. Maybe I should have shared?

Free Style Beer Garden Twelve - Ise's new craft beer bar

A quick look at the new craft beer bar in Ise, featuring photos taken on my cell phone (forgot my real camera at home). 

The bar, which used to be the owners' living room, is in this nondescript building near Iseshi Station. They still live upstairs.

Sakakibara-san, who still has his day job with Ise Kadoya as a buyer and brewer, stands behind the bar. He's a nice guy and a beer lover who thinks Japanese brewers need to step up their game. 

Above the bar, you can still see the remains of the wall that used to belong to the bathroom. 

  

The menu features a variety of beers from around Japan and the world. Prices are good for craft, with a featured IPA from Brewdog coming in at 600 yen for a glass. 

The beer from Brewdog comes in what I describe as plastic orbs, which are housed inside the casing shown in the second shot.

Here's a Hardcore IPA from brewdog. I like the Punk a bit better.

There are eight beers on tap, but Sakakibara-san hopes to make the 12 in the bar's name come true one day.

Ise Kadoya "Biyagura" suspends its Beer Day special

The news came from Midori, a hard-drinking hair dresser who has been a frequent participant at Ise Kadoya's all-you-can-drink specials. September, she said, would be the last month featuring the special until Spring (or, perhaps the last one ever ... more below).

Every since I arrived in Ise, a little more than three years ago, this special has been running. Two Wednesday's a month, the brewpub would bring in about three guest beers from microbreweries all over Japan, complementing the slate of beers made in-house, including some interesting seasonal offerings. (The roster was always rounded out with a two mass-market offerings to appease stubborn drinkers who think they know what they like.)

The result was a colorful, half-sheet of paper, describing 10 beers available that night. For 60 minutes, you were free to drink as much as you could for only 1,000 yen (until a recent price jump -- more on that below). If you didn't get enough, a second hour comes for just 900 yen.

The offerings weren't always good. Let's face it -- raft beer among the prefectures is a hit-and-miss game. But with three guest beers each time, there's was almost always something to like. But in the event of a strikeout, you could always rely on Ise Kadoya's own fabulous staple brews: The Brown Ale, Stout, Pale Ale and Shinto Beer. In all, it was a great deal, guaranteed to provide you with good beer.

The first sign that something was amiss came two months ago, when the price went from 1,000 yen for the first hour to 1,500 yen. Although this price hike made sense to me, I feared the deeper meaning -- the special was losing money. Sure enough, a few weeks ago the Japanese website announced the special's "vacation."

What's to blame? Or who? An easy potential target can be found in the mirror. I would usually eat dinner at home and then head to the pub for the nomihoudai a bit later. A few other friends would do the same, so we didn't order food while we drank quite a lot of beer. Did customers like us hurt the bottom line? Seems like it could easily be a factor.

But what else? Has it recently, for whatever reason, become more expensive to purchase and order the guest beer for delivery? I truly have no idea on this one.

Perhaps, also, the special still IS making money ... but barely ... making it an easy target to get the ax.

Whatever the case, it appears that they're going to use the time after this week's final installment to ponder what can be done, if anything, to make the special workable. While the original announcement said the break would last until spring, a more recent post on the Japanese site says something along the lines of "this COULD be the last one ever!"

If they do, how could they make it work? I have some ideas of my own:

Jack the Price
The original 1,000-yen hour was pretty crazy. I wouldn't have flinched the first time if I had found a 2,000 yen price tag. And I won't flinch next spring if they bring back the special with a new price/time structure. How about 2,000 yen (or more?) for 90 minutes? Sometimes an hour feels rushed if it's busy at the bar. And sometimes two hours is a bit much. Maybe 3,000 90 minutes, plus 1,000 for an extra 60? Basically, crunch the numbers and try it out. It just might work.

Map to Mini-Stop
Instead of offering Suntory's The Premium Malts and an Ebisu, point the stubborn types to the convenience store, where they can drink as much Standard Swill as they'd like. An award-winning brewery is no place for beer you can get ANYWHERE ELSE. Practically, this would cut back on customers who just come for a cheap hour of Premium Malts. Idealistically, it would force weary friends of beer-lovers to actually try something new. Or am I way off here?


Well, my ideas have run out for the moment. But surely there are more.

Whatever the case, I hope the special comes back. Being in rural Mie means that I don't have easy access to a wide variety of Japanese craft beers. This event has let me, and others, try all kinds of stuff, be it Baird, Shiga Kogen, or any myriad small breweries all over Japan.


Notes:
-Any visitors to Ise-shi should certainly pop in to Biyagura, just a 20-minute walk or a 5-minute cab ride from Ise-she station. A 2-hour all-you-can-drink, for less than 2,000 yen, remains on the regular menu. Biyagura is closed Wednesdays, except for the soon-t0-be-suspended beer nights. Try the famous mochi across the street ... from the same company, it's history is much longer than the beer's.

-I will try to snag an interview with somebody at Ise Kadoya about the suspended beer nights. Stay tuned for that.

Price Check

I just called and confirmed our (large looking) group reservation for the Ise Kadoya nomihoudai next week, and learned that they've upped the one-hour price to 1,500 yen. Still a very good deal, and it also appears that a second hour is still only 900 yen. I'll try to confirm that next week when I slide into hour two with a hour-drunk-confidence that I'll be fine at work on Thursday.

So to be clear, it's 1,500 yen for one hour of unlimited drinking, choosing from Ise Kadoya's four main offerings, plus a rotating roster of guest beers from around Japan. Can't beat this deal.

Ise Kadoya's nomihoudai night

If it seems like I write about Ise Kadoya a lot -- more than any other topic so far -- that's because their brewpub is a one minute walk from my front door.

This company represents my first contact with Japanese craft beer. And thankfully, twice a month, they bring in guest beers that share space on a special all-you-can-drink menu.

First, to appease wary locals afraid to try new things, the menu always features Suntory's The Premium Malts and an Ebisu. Other staples are Ise Kadoya's four main brews: Shinto Beer, Brown Ale, Stout, and Pale Ale. Occasionally, as with last night, one spot is given to an Ise Kadoya seasonal. This month it has been their Imperial Wheat Ale, which is a bit too light and sweet for my taste.

That leaves three slots for guest beers.

I usually start with a glass of the most suspicious entry. Last night this was a Grapefruit Ale from Chiba's Harvest Moon. Nothing to sing about here. The tasting notes point out that it is "easy to drink," code for "beer for people who don't like beer." Let's move along.

Next, from what the sheet lists as a company called Preston Ale, came a very nice pale ale. While good, it didn't stand up to a side-by-side battle with Ise Kadoya's new pale ale, which had a fuller flavor and more bitterness.

The third guest beer did not disappoint. We were able to gleam that it came from Nagano, but we couldn't read the kanji listing the company name. I asked at the bar, and upon hearing Shiga Kogen I was excited. The entry was their Wheat Ale, which we decided was smooth and bitter. Listed as an American style ale, it brought back feelings of nostalgia for the taps back in Portland.

And with that, the special beer menu is complete. With any remaining nomihoudai time, you can head back to the bar to grab a glass or two of your favorites. I had a Shiga Kogen Wheat Ale and an Ise Kadoya (new) Pale Ale to round out the evening.

A month will pass before the next round of Ise Kadoya events. If you ever find yourself in Ise on the second or third Wednesday of any given month, hit me up -- or simply show up at Biyagura -- and let's have a few drinks.

Cloudy Recollection

Rainy season has begun, announced here in Mie by a steady cloud cover since Sunday and then confirmed by the official, seemingly unnecessary, declaration by the government weather bureau.

I'm sure some brewers have already thought of the idea of a "Rainy Season Ale" or something along those lines, but regardless of names, the muggy, wet weeks to come will certainly be aided by a few good beers.

On Wednesday, at Ise Kadoya's nomihoudai night, I sampled a few beers from around Japan. Unfortunately I sampled a few too many and left without the menu which has details about the guest beers. But I do recall that there was a decent brown ale from Tochigi on the guest list.

The event returns this week, but I am not sure now if I will make it. If I do I will shoot for a more documentary approach (in contrast to last week's marathon two-hour get-fuzzy-based approach).

Meanwhile, the next several weeks will see trips to Kyoto/Osaka and perhaps even Tokyo. I hope to include some beer stops while traveling around and will include any findings here. Recommendations are welcome, but I'll also surely tap the Beer in Japan iPhone app.

In the last several months, I have hit the bars a bit too much and I have been feeling it in the wallet. I am officially going on a bar hiatus, with and important exception: bars serving craft beer are acceptable. It's a mixed blessing that such bars are hard to come by down here in rural Mie. But hopefully with some savings recouped from taking it easy on the regular stuff, I can travel and try out some good stuff.

More to come, hopefully this weekend, as I aim for my first trip out of Mie since April.