I'm really quite a stout hearted guy

Back on the booze.
This time most of the boys I'll be spending my evening with tonight will be bold, black and ball busting flavorsome.
At least that's what I hope (in theory, rather than reality - I don't really want to bust my balls by drinking beer and I'm going on a tangent again, dammit)

Right.

Tonight's big bad black ball busters are:

• From Japan, Kirin's new Ichibanshibori stout.
• From the Northwestern US, Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte (as opposed to black butt - haven't had one of those in my mouth for, oh, I don't know how long...never).
• Another Oregon beer, Bridgeport Stout.
• Yet another Oregon beer, Rogue Beer's Shakespeare Stout (imported via Hokkaido and relabelled as Brown Bear Beer).
• From the very North of North America, Alaskan beer's Alaskan Stout.
• Finally, from Ireland (imported to Japan or brewed under liscence here by Sapporro - not sure which), Guinness Stout.

Let the boozing begin...

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First up was Kirin Ichibanshibori stout:

Tastes more like a German dunkel than a stout.
Not very creamy. A little watery. Highly roasted aromas and tastes. The malt has been well roasted and malts and caramel flavors dominate this. Also has a sweet caramel tinge. I mentioned caramle again (and just again). I thought to avoide silly repitition, maybe I could name it the 'c word', but then talking about beers using "I thought this beer tasted a lot of 'the c word' and that flavor dominated. Perhaps I should have rinsed my mouth out from my last session to get rid of the taste of 'the c word'. No, that wouldn't work either.
Still, not a bad beer.

Appearance: 6 (out of 10) (nice and dark but head goes fast and seems watery. Again, I think 'dunkle')
Bitterness: 5 (not bitter, jsut roasted bitterness from the malts(?)).
Maltiness: 6-7 (quite malty and sweet. Caramel malty with a hint of nuts (teehee!).
Strength of flavor: 5-6. Not so intense. Goes down easy (anyway, enuff about yo momma).
Aroma: 6 (nice pleasing, unassuming, unthreatening, inviting and other such silly words come to mind)

Overall impression: 6

Not a bad beer at all. One of the better mass produced beers available here in Japan by the big companies. This, Heartland and perhaps the new hoppy premium beer from Kirin are their best.


Right then, who wants to be next?

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Time for some Americano birra!


I am going to put my lips around the inviting rim of a black butte and drink until the butte runs dry.
That was quite a nice butte (that company must work out).
Poured with a nice yeast sediment (I often like to pour the yeast into the glass though most people say you shouldn't do that). Good beer.
Not too heavy but nice. Nice.
Again not overly bitter. Chocolatey. Smooth.
Sweet. Not very creamy.

Appearance: 7 (nice and dark with lovely bubbly head on top )
Bitterness: 6 (not too bitter, chocolate malts keep the malty taste evident).
Maltiness: 7 (quite malty and not too sweet. Chocolate malty but not creamy.
Strength of flavor: 7 Tastes like a respectable real beer. This company is serious about they're beer and it tastes like it. Quality in a black butte. What more can you ask for? (maybe less butte jokes?).
Aroma: 7 (very nice. Relaxes you - no connection to the alcohol (5%)).

Overall impression: 7

I would like to drink this on tap and I may well buy it again. A beer that many people can drink and enjoy this. Not an alienating beer, in the sense that it doesn't only attract a certain style of drinker. Not quite an Arrogant Bastard (Stone brewing), more a nice guy.

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Next I went British and Fuller's London Porter:

Another good beer. Velvety. Smooth. Dark. Rasted malty taste. Good stuff.
Appearance: 8 (dark, nice bottle design. God head which fades fast, however)
Bitterness: 6 (not very bitter, retains the malty taste ).
Maltiness: 7 (malty and not very sweet. Chocolate y and slightly creamy, with tastes of nuts and caramels suggesting themselves.
Strength of flavor: 7 Tastes gooood. however, something is missing. tastes almost like a little brother of a truly great beer. A bit more body or depth of flavor and this baby would be an out and out winner. Still, though, the style of this beer is a London Porter and not a stout. Although, the London porter beers were the forerunners of the stouts. A very good beer.
Aroma: 6 (nice, but nothing really stands out. But that's ok.
This beer is not designed to be particularly aromatic. 5.5% alc).

Verdict: 7.5.

I like this beer. I recommend it, even if it's the only porter you'll drink.
It's good to drink a bit of history.

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Next, the Irish wonderbeer, Guinness stout.

Probably the most famous stout, perhaps due to marketing and availability than through merit.
But then we're talking guinness from a can.
The 'real thing' is undoubtedly much better.
I can't compare this with a pint poured slowly in the home country.
This one smells great, looks great but tastewise, dissappoints.
Bland taste. Tinny, almost.

Appearance: 8 (lovely dark ebony color. Nice creamy head which stays the whole time.)
Bitterness: 5 (not a real bitter beer. the creamy taste makes sure of that. although not sweet either.).
Maltiness: 6(very smooth. tooo creamy, really. Tastes almost artificial.)
Strength of flavor: 5 (Needs more. Not enough flavor.Tastes like something is missing or the beers been watered down. Still, not bad but not what I'd hoped for. doesn't do the name justice.)
Aroma: 7 (They got the smell down good. I think htat may be artificially done. The ehad seeems unnatural.
Perhaps the ntirogen helps with that. A very creamy, smooth smell with what I incredulously associate with a hint of rasted almonds (?)).

Overall impression: 5.5

Very easily drinkable.
A nice beer. However, not the worlds best - at least not in this form.
Still,it's great that you can find this, almost anywhere you go in the world. Something to fall back on and something to drink as a session beer (if it wasnt so damn expensive on tap) and not worry about killing yourself. You will fill your stomach with heavy creaminess before that happens. Don't mean to slag off this good beer (it's better on tap), but it just pales in comparison with the others.
Sorry, Guinness.
A real pint in Ireland would be a different matter, I'm sure.

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Next up, an American Bridgeport Stout:

From Oregon (sounding familiar? A veritable paradise of good beer - I gotsta get me there someday.)

This baby is smooth and very very nice.
6%alcohol. It smells it.
Rich, earthy texture and taste. Bitter and nutty.
a very nice brew.

Appearance: 6 (the head is light but thats okay.)
Bitterness: 6.5 (a littel more bitter than the others).
Maltiness: 6(malty nutty taste)
Strength of flavor: 7 (Good flavorsome beer. roasted malts, nutty, smoked wood? ever so slightly.)
Aroma: 7 (nice, earthy smell. an evening smell. Good aroma.).

Overall impression: 7.

A recommended drink. Bridgeport is a good company and makes fine beers.

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Gong to the far North now, it's Alaskan Oatmeal Stout:

,,I had high hopes for this baby. Unfortunately, it didn't come through.
Some random comments that came to mind: flat head. watery. strange carbonation. too cold? syrupy, caramel malts? roast caramel hazelnuts?
black sugar? liquorice but not sickly sweet. bitter sweet roast malt beer. not bitter. malt and roast tied in. beef in gravy.

Appearance: 5 (no head. looked dead)
Bitterness: 6.5 (a little bitter).
Maltiness: 6 (malty nutty, liquorice caramel taste)
Strength of flavor: 5.5 (bit weak. Watery, gravy like flavor. Also a weird cabonation. both flat and too much carbontation at the same time(?).)
Aroma: 6 (not bad..).

Overall impression: 5.5.
A bit dissapointing, but then it's among some pretty impressive company.
Not as bad as it's peers tonight seem to imply. Still a nice beer.

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Agh, scheisse!!!!

I went and opened the wrong bottle. What a stupid thing to say. As long as it's beer you open, there is no wrong bottle.
Well, this time, instead of a stout (Rogue Shakespeare Stout), I accidentally opened a bottle of Rogue Brutal Bitter. For soem strange reason, I heard the Japanese chief of Rogue beer in this country decided to change the labels on all the ebers and even rename them. Genius. I was being sarcastic.
Probably done of rthe same reason that as far as I know, only in Japan do they change the titles of foreign movies that are shown ehre.
I think the Schwarzennegger movie Raw Deal was relabelled Gorilla. The Japanese audience needed a simpler title, in order for them to understand teh movie. WTF? How, the, h*ll does GORILLA simplify the movie? Perhaps they doubted Mr.Schwarzenneggar's acting skills? They've done this on so many movies that it's hard to have a conversation on that topic with Japanese people. You think you have different tastes, then later realsie you both like the same movies. If they changed the title into Japanese, perhaps I could understand that.
But no, they still use a stupid English name. Ridiculous. Well, there's my rant over.

The new name for Brutal bitter in Japan is Namara Nigai Biru. more or less a bitter beer. This is a translation, so its not so bad. But why do they ened to do that? It's all a conspiracy, just to confuse me and make me switch from stouts to highly hopped ales. The swines. They pulled it off. What next? Putting chinese knaji cahracters on teh toilet signs, instead of English or a descriptive picture? Cos that worked on me too. Twice. Very embarrassing. No one believed me. Theoretically, there was a 50/50 chance of me striding into the gents.
Who would have known I was to get it wrong, both times?

Back to the booze (amidst sounda of 'boos')...

Rogue Brutal Bitter:

Nice stuff. Like I said, it's a bottle of beer (and a good one at that), so it can't truly be classified as a 'mistake'. Damn, this baby is bitter!!!! More so than my ex (meeowww!!!! Hissssssss!!).
nice stuff.
bitterness value out of ten: 8.5/10.
Great bitter aftertaste. I think the bitter taste comes from adding hops in the second stage, after the main fermentation.These add to the smell and overall bitterness, although the first stage is responsible for the flavor. Have I got everything mixed up again?
Uh..underwear goes on the INSIDE, right?
...psssst... ...I'm not gonna be the one who tells Superman that.
A semi opaque tan brew. Nicely carbonated.
Almost everything these guys brew is lovely.
Their latest (Rogue Brewer?) one I sampled in a good Shibuya real ale bar and it was glooooorious!!

Hope I get the next one right.
This beer is so flavorsome (7.5 to 8/10) that it's kinda jolted my senses a little bit. Hope I can re-adjust back to the stouts smoothly.

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The final beer for tonight:
Rogue Brewing's Shakespeare Stout
Really good beer and possibly my favorite.
Dark, nutty, roasted malts, caramel, depth of flavor.
Very good.

Verdict 8to8.5/10.

Now I'm off to bed and sleepy land.
Got a busy day planned later on today.
Aah, 4am.Fantastic.