Real Ale at BEERS

Last night's monthly BEERS meeting presented members with a "real" treat in the form of two familiar craft beers served as real ale by gravity pour. The beers were accompanied by the brewer, Toshi Ishii from Ya-ho brewing in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. Toshi used to work at Stone Brewing in California. He gave us a talk about real ale and talked a little about the two beers. As an added "treat", the casks in which the beers were presented were oak pins (4.5 UK gallons) without any inner liner (more on this later).

Beer number one was Yona Yona, familiar to most if not all beer fans in Japan. An American pale ale style, it was dry hopped in the cask. With the absence of carbonation, the beer was beautifully smooth and the floral Cascade hop character was a delight as it danced upon a slightly sweet, malt stage.

Beer number two was Ya-ho's Tokyo Black Ale, a classic example of the porter style that was popular among London's working classes in the 19th century and from which stout evolved. The Tokyo Black had a slightly higher amount of carbonation than the Yona Yona, providing a slight carbonic tickle on the tongue, but it was still very much a real ale. Tokyo Black is a superb beer to drink as real ale. It is rich and smooth and roasty, but with very rounded corners and none of the burnt, dry flavor typical of stout. (A tip when buying Tokyo Black Ale in the can is to pour it a few minutes before drinking. Carefully stir with a spoon or swirl the glass to release excess CO2 and allow it to warm to around 12 degrees C. The resulting taste experience will be vastly superior to an over-chilled, fully-carbonated version). Bryan Harrel in Brews News #75 described it as: "Near black, opaque, dark tan short-lived head. Faint subdued aromas of dried fruit, sweet coffee and chocolate cake. Smooth mouthfeel with rich, dark malt flavors, but very little deep roast bitterness. A session ale for dark-beer lovers." He gave it four stars out of five. As real ale it gets an easy five, if not six!

Some questions during the presentation led to a lot of discussion about packaging craft beer in bottles versus cans, and whether there is any difference. The discussion seemed to lurch away from real ale and led me to ask Toshi what the benefit is of conditioning real ales in wood compared to the more common stainless steel casks that are common in the UK. And would any differences become more evident over time? The answer seemed to be that it was, er, too difficult to answer. So perhaps the benefit is mainly aesthetic and spiritual rather than for any tangible taste difference. Certainly oak casks are much more expensive and the beer in them is more difficult to maintain in good condition in the cellar, so if tangible taste benefits are so difficult to identify, then it is no wonder that Yona Yona is the only brewery in Japan with wooden casks, and that even in the UK there are only eight breweries with wooden casks. In short, it is for the purists, and even then, as Toshi intimated, reserved for special occasions like beer shows (and BEERS meetings!)

Rob Barrow, a craft beer expert from the UK, was also in attendance and shared some insights into the real ale scene (did somebody mention CAMRA) in the old dart. We heard about how CAMRA are very particular about what is and isn't considered kosher in the world of real ale. They frown upon cask breathers, a device that allows CO2 or a cellar mix (CO2 + N2) to replace drawn off beer in the cask and thus protect the remaining beer from oxidation. They are also agin sparklers, a little plastic device that is inserted into the pouring spout to inrease head formation by knocking CO2 out of solution (and flavour with it). The session was rounded out by some informal social mingling until the casks were all-too-soon emptied.

After the meeting, Tod, Jim and I popped into Towers near Tokyo station, a "hole-in-the-wall" bar that, in its own small way, champions craft beer. An ambition we should all hold. We tried a regular hand pumped "real ale" Yona Yona and found it quite insipid compared to its dry-hopped sibling we had just been drinking. After some lively banter with the other patrons (well, one in particular), we sauntered off into the night, satisfied with our evening of drinking good beer.