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!

With the new year comes a new drive for craft

Since I've been home (home meaning Japan) from my trip to Oregon, I've had a few chances to try craft beer, and except for a New Year's Eve marathon that went from Caldera to Asahi to hangover, I have avoided standard beers and instead looked for ways to branch out.

I have not been disappointed. My girlfriend's father, aware that I am a beer fan, stocked the fridge at their house ahead of my visit on New Year's day. It was a thoughtful effort, which included a nice variety, but craft beer was not represented.. I of course graciously accepted what was served, but the conversation inevitably led to what kind of beer I really like. I also shared a Caldera IPA which I had brought from Oregon. They liked it, despite its bitterness blowing everything else on the table out of the prefecture.

For my return visit on the second, the daughters of the family had been instructed to obtain some Yona Yona Ale. To add to this, I brought along a few bottles of Ise Kadoya as well. It was nice to pour everyone a sampling and decide which ones we liked best. Ise Kadoya's Pale and Brown proved popular. The seasonals were a bit too festive for my taste, but among them were a decent Blonde Ale and a just-barely-too-sweet Yuzu Ale.

On a following weekend trip to Nagoya, I popped in to a liquor shop in Sakae which sells Kinshachi Beer and picked up a few offerings. I liked the IPA but ended up giving the others away without trying them (there will be a next time). On the Nagoya trip, I also visited Keg for the first time. It was easy to find thanks to the Beer in Japan app, and I was pleased to start my session with a Shiga Kogen IPA. I had a few more offerings, all that I had not tried before, and enjoyed them all. My only regret was that I couldn't stay longer (there will, of course, be a next time).

More recently, a friend and I hit up Ise Kadoya's Biyagura for a 2-hour nomihoudai (available on the regular menu at under 2,000 yen). There were three seasonals on tap, including the aforementioned Blonde Ale, a "Nut's Brown Porter" (sic) and a ginger flavored beer. The Blonde is nice and I quite enjoyed the Nut's Brown, but the ginger was best kept in sampler size. Of course, after two hours, we were decently drunk and quite satisfied. The brown and pale are always there for you when last order comes around.

In all, I have mostly avoided the standard beers while trying a wider variety of craft than I had normally availed myself too. I hope I can keep it up. Perhaps it's time to branch out to a web order from Ezo?


(I'll add some pictures to this post later)

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.

The Japan Beer Times summer edition hits beer shelves everywhere

With summer comes the third issue of The Japan Beer Times, the bilingual (and free) quarterly magazine about craft beer in Japan.

I popped in to Ise Kadoya's Biyagura after work today to pick up a few copies. Ise Kadoya itself is featured in this issue, along with a brief eyes-on-the-ground report from myself on the Wednesday nomihoudai specials.

I just got done reading through the whole issue. It's great to see such a magazine exist, and it's also nice that content is presented in English and Japanese. Besides the Ise Kadoya feature, you'll find, among other things, a write-up on Helios of Okinawa.

The summer issue is not yet online, but perhaps your local craft brewpub has the hard copies in stock. Go for a drink, leave with a magazine.

Drink the culture

My father's visit to Japan has already included a lot of drinking. Here's a rundown:

Monday: Beer, wine and nihonshu with a colleague
Tuesday: Beer (not craft beer) with friends
Wednesday: Ise Kadoya's nomihoudai

So today, Thursday, we're taking it easy. We've decided not to drink. But that plan might change, as I collected a few beers as birthday presents and they're right there in the fridge.

But I could let those fridge beers linger there a little longer and re-charge, since the Great Japan Beer Festival in Osaka is just around the corner. My father and I, along with a friend, are hitting up the festival on Sunday. If anyone out there is going to be around, leave a comment and perhaps our paths will cross amid the taps.

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.