The BeerCast

They say size matters - and to us Brits it certainly does with regard to beer. Those last couple of centimetres (inches if you’re old school; or fingers if you tend to peruse the spirit shelf now and again) can change the entire formula of the drink. CAMRA types will be keenly eying up the level, daring the bar staff to leave their pint a couple of sips short. Northerners will be looking for that thick creamy head we all apparently love, whilst Southerners will be hoping there’s no pesky sparkler dispensing that bubbly wastefulness. And those about to grapple with a round are hoping the surface tension holds until they can get all the pints back to their respective destinations.

But there’s another class of people out there - that never really get taken into consideration on websites and blogs about beer. What about those that like to leave a gap at the top of the pint for a dash of something else? I’m not talking about the students battering their braincells with a ‘depthcharge’ (or Poktanju for our Korean readers). I’m referring to shandy drinkers. Even the name has developed into urban slang for someone who’s a bit soft, the stigma of ordering something weakened, something diluted. But when you think about it, is there anything wrong with asking for a dash of fruity mixer to be included? I remember my (then new) girlfriend asking for a Kronenburg tops in a classic Edinburgh real ale pub - and we’re still together. Although when it’s Kronenburg you’re diluting, I say go for it.

Anyway, all this came up the other month when we were in a back street pub in Stirling and I overheard the conversation at the next table. A group of old soaks were discussing a mate of theirs who had developed a taste for - what has to be the most Scottish ‘thirst quencher’ I’ve ever heard of - Irn-Bru tops. So, of course, that got me thinking about how it could possibly taste. And there’s only one way to find out, of course. So I’ve been doing some digging and have come up with some mind-boggling recipes. Although they are all for another time, not for today. Instead, some actual imported bespoke Belgian ale - albeit one that resembles lager tops.

Mystic Citron Vert (3.8%) is an unfiltered Belgian blanche flavoured with added lime juice produced by the Brouwerij Haacht (also available in Cranberry and Cherry versions). Combining the “light tingling of the lime fruits with a pleasant sweetness”, it “ends in a deliciously refreshing aftertaste.” Well, we are fans of Belgian beer here on the BeerCast. It pours a hazy yellow with a vague greenish tinge, and the overwhelming taste is sugar. It’s colossally sweet, lemons and sugar - oddly I got more lemon than lime out of it. At under 4% there was never really going to be a beery-ness to it, and as expected it tastes like diluting juice, or maybe Lemsip. It might be nicer warm, actually.

Mystic Belgium

It’s a bit odd that me, the Twitter naysayer, nay the Twitter heretic! is doing the twitter posts.

Anyway i said last week (was it last week? maybe two weeks ago) that i would post back here with an update on how we were doing on Twitter.

Well, incremental progress i’d say, we started out with 0 followers (well that’s not entirely true Twitter do lob you some randoms just to make you feel loved) but scientifically, we started out with 0, and we now have… 6!

That’s a 600% increase in just two weeks, i’ve plotted this below.

The only way is up for The BeerCast on Twitter, in fact if we go up any more i’ll have to increase the scale on the graph, we’d be quite literally ‘off the scale’ with followers. So join us and help us push the Twitter Totaliser off the top and into the sky! (whereupon we’d employ the use of skyhooks).

PS: After thought, this post will appear on Twitter, and soon we’ll have a sidebar widget on this page that will show our twitter updates, surely this will set up and infinite loop into which the internet would disappear? Answers on a postcard.

Andy

Well there we are, it’s happened, the beercast is on twitter.

Now i’m as web 2.0 as the next man, not quite as much perhaps as beercast panellist Elliot Jay-2.0-Stocks but you can see from the top right there, the beercast has it’s fingers in most of the web’s 2.0′y pies.

I have to be honest though, i saw little point in twitter, and in fact i didn’t see it appealing to many folks outside it’s hardcore early-adopter web design base.

Although twitter has not released official statistics for the number of registered or active users it’s safe to say it’s in the several millions and recently seems to have captured the attention of mainstream press/politicians/public.

So, the beercast, never one to shy from the new frontier has dived (dove? diven?) into the whirling text pool of tweets and twits to further extend our multi-platform brand extension policy and synergise our drill-down leverage into maybe 2 or 3 more page hits per day.

What do you say? Are you with us! If so follow us @thebeercast and i’ll post back here in a week with an update on how we’re doing.

Andy

We’ve been considering for a while the idea of recording a podcast involving canned beer rather than bottled - although we’ve not managed one as yet. In late 2007 I was in Japan and picked up four cans of interesting-looking jibiru with a view to recording our first ever canned episode. But it always seemed to slip away and we’d be onto something else more exciting instead - including two bottled Japanese specials (BeerCast 7 and BeerCast 18). So the metalbound foursome remained in the back of my cupboard. Recently though I’ve been wondering what exactly they would taste like being so far out of date. Well, there’s only one way to find out I guess. I doubted any of the other panellists would have been up for this one, so this is a solo blog post rather than a podcast. Thankfully…

1. Suntory MALT’S (5.0%abv) 330ml can
Suntory, Katsura, Kyoto.
Best Before Date: April 2008

Suntory’s Katsura plant in greater Kyoto produce several of their mainstay beers, such as Suntory SUPER HOPS and Suntory MALT’S (sic). Being the largest alcohol producer in the country they must know a thing or two about the stuff. Mind you, according to their website they are also involved in “pharmaceuticals, restaurant operation, sports, music and film, resort development, publishing and information services.”

What They Say - “Made with 100% malt and 100% natural water, and bringing out the full fragrance of the finest quality aroma hops, MALT’S has been received huge acclaim from beer lovers.” [Official Website]

What it’s Like…
It pours very frothily at first but then totally loses the head (not surprisingly). There’s a couple of faint trails of carbonation rising, but it tastes very flat. Colour is slightly cloudy straw, vaguely urine-like quality, and it smells of damp hay that has lain too long in a stable. Tastewise, it’s like drinking a dead pint from a long-abandoned table at closing time. No discernable alcohol, and a long malty aftertaste. Or should that be a long MALT’Y aftertaste?

2. Ginga Kogen Weizen Beer (5.0%abv) 330ml can
Ginga Kogen Brewery, Sawauchi, Iwate Prefecture.
Best Before Date: November 2007

Ginga Kogen started in 1996, and the preparatory members visited the beer producers of Germany before building the brewery, drinking 80 kinds of beer in one week. Iwate apparently has a similar climate to Bavaria too, so you’d expect the odd wheatbeer to feature in their range. They named the brewery after the recurring galaxy themes of local poet Kenji Miyazawa, and are situated near the wonderfully named Oouu Mountains. One for Scrabble fans there.

What They Say - “Enjoy and taste live yeast. Refrigerated and delivered fresh from our brewery on the tablelands. The fruity aroma and rich flavour is original to Ginga Kogen.” [Official Website]

What it’s Like…
If there’s one thing that would be interesting 16 months after expiry date, it would be live yeast - this particular one is an unfiltered hefeweizen. It froths up spectacularly and was almost totally cloudy, I could hardly see my hand behind the glass. Looking like a stagnant pond (although thankfully not green), the small grey clumps of yeast slowly spiralled their way to the bottom through the dark golden suspension. Remarkably, it tastes like a regular wheatbeer - albeit slightly vinegary towards the end. It lingers quite a lot and isn’t that nice - but is that because it’s out of date or because it’s a wheatbeer?

3. Kirin Ichiban Shibori Stout (5.0%abv) 330ml can
Kirin, Yokohama.
Best Before Date: May 2008

Kirin - now owned by Mitsubishi - are another of Japan’s largest brewers. But they were actually founded by a Norwegian, Johan Martinius Thoresen, who opened Yokohama’s Spring Valley Brewery in 1869. Sadly he sold up when his wife died, but the concern was re-opened and by 1888 renamed Kirin after the half-horse half-dragon creature from Chinese mythology. Thoresen died in 1901, and Kirin employees still leave tins of beer at his grave. Despite the name, Ichiban Shibori Stout isn’t a stout - it’s a dark lager they first released in 2007.

What They Say - “Just taste Ichibanshibori Stout. The first wort gives a marvellously deep taste. The aroma of roasted malt and smooth creamy foam enrich your precious time.” [Official Website]

What it’s Like…
Well my time is precious, there’s no doubt about that - otherwise why would I be drinking expired tins of Japanese beer on a cold March night? This one looks like a slightly darker glass of Coca Cola and is impossible to see through. The smell is intriguingly of dark treacle, but the taste is a highly unpleasant burnt metallic coffee with hints of cigarettes. Massive coffee aftertaste. One to avoid, as I get the feeling it was probably like this when fresh from the brew copper.

4. Tokyo Black (5.0%abv) 330ml can
Yo-Ho Brewery, Nagano.
Best Before Date: January 2008

Yo-Ho are based in Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, and unlike the behemoths of Suntory and Kirin are one of Japan’s leading microbreweries. They produce a few beers, notably Yona Yona Real Ale - which I tried unsuccessfully to find on cask when I was over there - and their ‘chocolatey porter’, Tokyo Black. If nothing else, it has a fantastic label - a Sumo wrestler staring challengingly up at the moon, hiding behind a big grey cloud. Nagano is the only city in the world to have hosted events at both a summer and winter Olympic games, if you were wondering.

What They Say - “Tokyo Black is the second brand at Yo-Ho. A robust porter, well balanced between the malt and the hops. The complex chocolate and roast flavours of dark specialty malts are combined with a floral and slightly spiciness from Perle hops.” [Official Website]

What it’s Like…
This one looks like a proper porter straight away - with a lovely thick dark cream-coloured head, similar to opening a bottle of old-style Guinness. Not as strong as the Kirin, it has it’s own rather odd porter flavours. There’s an almost smoked cheese taste at first, which thankfully gives way to dark tangy malts and portery backgrounds. This one’s pretty interesting, and given it’s a year out of date, not at all bad.

Look out for a proper canned BeerCast sometime soon. If you’d like to suggest possible entrants - send us an email to thebeercast@googlemail.com…

We hope everybody in the beer blogosphere had a great Christmas, and managed to partake of some winter warmers in the ale department where possible. We’re all off on an extended BeerCast new year break in sunny Sweden, so have a great NYE and we will return very soon into 2009 with our 27th podcast - the much awaited BeerCast Beer of the Year Show. Stay tuned, and until we post again have a great break. As you can see from the photo, we’re already packed for our Swedish trip…