Craft is Art: WEEK 229--2024 Tokyo Beer Trip

Went to Tokyo mid October basically just chilling & of course to meet up with beer geek friends living there--as well visiting a few old & new craft beer places--and for a change did a few recommended speciality coffee places too--but will just stick to beer on this one.

#Apart from what's written for the newspaper will also be mentioning places not included in the column--as well links for places written last year#

十月中去了趟東京，大致上和之前几次相似，走走看看见见认识的啤迷朋友，自然要去几家新旧craft beer专卖吧，也少不了跟朋友的瓶子分享会，要说有什么不一样的话则是这次多了精品/手冲咖啡探索，算是个跟啤酒无关但也有些关联的行程。

这期先聊聊在東京新旧专卖吧喝到的一些酒，当中有日本在地酿坊作品，当然也有欧美酿坊进口选择。

#文末会把专栏没写新去的酒吧约略提一下-也把去年写的链接附上#

While private bottle sharing sessions are always something to look forward to--visiting bars to see what's on tap or available in fridges is also part of the fun--this piece is about a few beers encountered at bars during the trip :-

Amakusa Sonar Beer- Highway Queen & Oni-Ike Sour

Was pleasantly surprised by this brewery from Kumamoto last year with their play of fruited sours--again this time they have different fruited sours on tap as well in cans.

Highway Queen was a smoothie style sour which actually taste more sweet than sour but in a nice way--pack full of guava-pink grapefruits-tangerine & strawberry--this was a palate pleasing easy sipper. Oni-Ike sour was another one which was also thick body-milk shake like fruited sour beer with raspberry-strawberry & Sicily red tomatoes--this one is a "rougher" version with obvious "fruits peels/particles" in the mouth feel--if swee sour fruits shake is something you like then this one is quite nice.

去年在東京喝到有惊喜，来自熊本的日本酿坊再一次有很不错的“果泥啤酒”作品，是配合三軒茶屋一家专卖吧三周年纪念而作，加入大量水果包括番石榴粉红葡萄柚柑橘草莓等等，单看酒体色泽厚度就完全是奶昔果泥类型啤酒，口感甜中带轻度回酸，虽然酒款类型是smoothie sour却是可以大口轻松喝的“甜品类”作品。另一款也是为了東京一家“老字号”专卖吧12周年纪而酿的“天草鬼池”果泥酸啤作品则是用了草莓覆盆子和西西里红番茄一起酿造，酒体明显更浑厚，也有一些果皮果肉带来的颗粒口感，虽然两者相比的话会感觉后者稍微欠缺整体均衡感，不过还是水平之作，喜欢甜味带点水果酸香的接受度会高。

Uchu + One Drop-Wassgood

Many of you would have known Uchu mainly for their hazy ipa--this time in Tokyo i did sampled a few of their hazy ipa but this collab brew with a brewery from outskirt of Sydney--a fruited sour with blueberry-black currant-strawberry-coconut cream & vanialla was the one which really stood out for my palate.

来自山梨县的宇宙酿造以印度淡啤(ipa)特别是类果汁款式（hazy/neipa)为啤迷所知，这次在東京也有机会喝到好几款ipa作品，不过这款跟澳洲悉尼周边地区小酿坊One Drop合酿的水果奶昔果泥啤酒是让人喝了感觉愉悦的讨喜之作，用蓝莓黑加仑子草莓加入椰浆和香草，是让人喝过啤酒泵版本後想买罐装版回来分享的一款。

Bierstadt Lagerhaus-Slow Pour Pils & Helles

It's interesting to know that in the States when many breweries are into the bolder/hazy brews game--this one is so very into German traditional brews--Personally been wanting to try thier brew for quite the longest time ever since hearing about these seemingly very straight forward simple brews--so it was a pleasant surprise to have both in Tokyo--both on tap & from the cans. Conclusion--when lager & pilsner can be this good it made me wish to have a cartoon of them at home every now & then.

可以这么说，在以大手大脚投放啤酒花或水果食材香料酿造印度淡啤或果泥啤酒/果酸啤酒或大黑啤的美国craft beer界中，这家遵循德国传统方式以酿造浅啤及拉格风格作品并以强调麦芽和啤酒花均衡/纯粹风味为乐的丹佛州酿坊是个异数，在众多口感风味强烈不同类型作品中，他们的作品基本就像是一股清流，喝过两款作品後不得不说这样水平的“淡味啤酒”真好喝。

或许会有人觉得这么平平无奇的啤酒风格不是满大街都有吗？事实是喝过这家作品就会知道越是听起来简单的作品要做到顶级水平还真没有说起来那么简单。

Baghaven-Ruud Peesch & Burning Sun- Saison Provision 2023

Went to this place with the interesting name of Sour Swamp not far from Chitose Funabashi station to meet Neil-my "everytime in Tokyo will meet for some beers" blogger friend. In fact we first went to Caliqours new branch bar nearby then to Sour Swamp--had quite a few there and those 2 mentioned above stood out.

跟每次都会见面喝酒聊天的常住東京英国人啤酒博主朋友约在这家位于千歳船橋站附近小巷弄中名为<酸沼>(Sour Swamp)，选酒以酸啤和农村风格作品为主的小酒吧，纯以酸啤或有时会被误以为只有蔬果风味的农场风味啤酒为主要卖点的酒吧在亚洲并不多见，要谢谢朋友提议得以知道一家有意思的酒吧。

在这喝了几款不同作品，最有印象是已绝版的Baghaven桃子红酒桶陈版酸啤，以及英国农场风格酿坊使用三种不同酵母的橡木桶陈作品。

Insight Cellar-Glimmering Grave & Sunstead White Peach & Maturation:Bocoy

Insight Cellar is a new brewery/blendery--but to those who know it's actually the "reincarnation" of Copenhagen based Baghaven--the sour beer brand once associated with Mikkeller but now fully operated by the man who used to call Baghaven his home ground.

Found 5 of their bottles at Mikkeller bar Shibuya--where glass pour is being served--picked 3 out of the 5 with different fruits aged in wine barrel as well sherry barrel respectively--it was a nice way of sampling some new bottles from them.

这是一家新酿坊，但懂的啤迷都知道这是之前为Mikkeller旗下酸啤品牌Baghaven担当首席酿酒师的自立门户新品牌，简单说就是现已绝版Baghaven酸啤系列的变身，新品牌酿造的主要还是桶陈酸啤风格啤酒。这次在東京涉谷“米吧”适逢有5款作品以小杯方式提供品饮机会，选了三款试味，分别是Glimmering Grave, Sunstead:White Peach以及Macuracion:Bocoy，其中，第一款以杏子和油桃通过葡萄酒旧桶浸泡提味并以不同年份酸啤混成，第二款则以白桃浸泡于白葡萄酒桶中并混以不同年份啤酒而成，第三款是通过旧雪梨酒桶陈放提味并和另一桶较“年轻”版本酒勾兑而成。三款当然都因为酿造手法差异各有不同风味表现，对喜欢酸啤啤迷来说，都是不错的水准之作。

Side Note/还有。。。

beers mentioned above were some of what i have encountered while bar hopping in & around Tokyo--there were more which was not mentioned in the newspaper column due to limited space--here's a quick note on craft beer places( as for few more beers not written in the column--well just let them remain in the photo folder)

这次东京行基本还是去回几家之前一直去的专卖吧--间中或由于啤迷朋友建议或因为顺道所以去了以下三家之前没去过。

Chirose Funabashi Station千歲船橋站

Sour Swamp（酸沼）

One of the new places i went during this trip was this small bar focusing on sour/saison--6 taps & bottles from fridges--its quite a cozy place located inside the alley not far from the station. If these style of beer are your "cup of tea" then its worth coming over for a few beers.

每次去东京一定会见面啤迷朋友建议下去的，位于车站不远巷子内，气氛是轻松的，因为专注酸啤/农场风格啤酒的专卖吧并不多见所以在朋友建议的三个地方中选了从来没到过的这一区。

Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station清澄白河

Folkways taproom

Not close to the station but close to Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo--housed in a ground floor unit of residential apartment opposite side of the Museum--this is a small taproom with brewing equipments behind bar area--had basically all of thier brews on tap for the day with quite nice bar food--it's a place worth checking out if you are around the area.

之前就听东京啤迷朋友提及过这家，这次既然到了清澄白河美术馆，就因利乘便去了位于美术馆正对面住宅区内一栋公寓楼下的酿坊品饮室。地方不大-ON TAP有8个选择-当天基本喝完这家的作品-基本是轻松易喝型啤酒-小吃很不错有点意外惊喜。

Kamakura Station镰倉站

Btaps

Was on way back after playing tourist in Kamakura & stumbled upon this craft beer place located very close to the station--was in need of a place to rest the tired legs & eat drink a bit before boarding the train back to Tokyo so went in knowing fully well the tap list is not really the geeky type--place was rather big but chill--food was quite good for a beer bar. ( this time did not go back to either Yorocco taproom or Beach Muffin at Zhusi--for pervious write up do click the link below )