tokyo food file

happy new beer — celebrating 10 years of Baird beers

Yes, a good few pints were sunk yesterday on the first day of the Baird Beer 10th anniversary celebrations at the Fishmarket Taproom in Numazu.

Wait a minute, didn't we celebrate the 10th anniversary back in the summer? Indeed we did, but that was held to mark Bryan and Sayuri's actual opening of the Taproom. This latest excuse for us to make the trip down the coast was to celebrate 10 years of Baird Brewing (their license took longer to come through, it seems).

There was a great crowd, both locals and folks like us from further afield. And there were — of course — some lovely beers to mark the occasion.

Our two favorites — based on the number of times we went back for more — were the commemorative Ten Ale, an Imperial red ale (on the right below); and the rich, cask-conditioned (for 6 months) Berry Big Brown Ale, which was beautifully complex, only hinting at all the strawberries that went into it last summer. (that's the brew in the goblets, below and also above).

What else was there? Two Baird standbys — Fisherman’s Wheat Ale (the handsome pint on the left in the top photo); and Kurofune Porter — but both of them brewed to the original recipes — and both were very fine, I thought. Plus the excellent Hatsujozo 2011 Imperial Pale Lager (ABV 7.3%).

And there was some great pub grub, including the Marinaded Octopus (top) and chuka-fu deep-fried eggplant with a very tasty meaty miso sauce on the side (below).

Bryan led a brewery tour which was eye-opening for those of us who remember the original brewing room, little more than a closet, down underneath the Taproom.

  

Obviously this was a time to pause, look back and celebrate. But there's plenty to look forward to as well for Bryan and Sayuri — and the rest of us. 

Later this month, the newest Taproom will be opening in Yokohama. More will be revealed very soon, so stay tuned!

Baird beer anniversary bash

We chugged down the coast yesterday to the Numazu Fishmarket Taproom, to help celebrate the 10th anniverary of the excellent Baird brewery. It's been a decade now since Bryan and Sayuri set up shop on the waterfront and they've done a brilliant job, producing an outstanding range of craft beers while keeping their business shipshape and growing steadily.

There was a great turn-out, including quite a few folk from Tokyo and Yokohama; a tasty yakitori barbecue; live music and some very fine special brews. Here are a few random and increasingly blurry photos.

We had a fun time... And we're looking forward to plenty more fine Baird beers in the next 10 years. Congratulations Bryan and Sayuri — and cheers!.

In case you haven't visited the Fishmarket Taproom yet, this is the view from the window out over the port and looking down the East coast of the Izu Peninsula.

Harajuku Taproom beer snacks

 

The nanbanzuke (aji) were tasty, and so were the zucchini kushiyaki. But this was the standout of the snacks this evening at the Harajuku Taproom. They were called 'chicken and blue cheese spring rolls' but were actually more like thin 'cigars'. Highly tasty.

Of course the real stars of the show were the beers — the Taproom Bitter and the Porter — plus a few others we didn't note down (and now they're vanished from memory along with the blurred photos).  

If you missed it last summer, here was the initial report... Not much left to add, really.

Map here...

Tuesday taste trip — another Great Burger...

In amongst the fashion ateliers, design studios and hairdressing salons off Cat Street in Harajuku, the immodestly named The Great Burger manages to live up to its name -- in terms of the flavor, if not actual floor area.

The decor is retro Americana. The soundtrack is truckstop C&W (think Roger Miller crooning King of the Road). And the food is downhome diner delicious. Another plus is the excellent selection of beers, ranging from Anchor Steam to their own-name jibiiru microbrewed up in Ibaragi. Definitely worth a detour (as a certain red guide might say).

What to have? The waitress recommended the Bacon Cheese Burger. I opted instead for the Gorgonzola Burger...

It was oozing cheese, gooey, molten...  The Great Burger lives up to its name.

Quality burgers demand beer with character. I ordered up a bottle of their own custom-microbrewed jibiiru (from Ibaraki they said, so probably brewed at the Hitachino Nest brewery).

Another primo Tuesday evening snack...

Here's the map link...