It’s winter time, and while you may hear lots of talk about imperial coffee stouts and bourbon barrel-aged barley wines being good winter warmers, I still prefer to reach for a slightly aged Belgian dark ale when it’s cold outside. Ok, so maybe I am old-school, but for a full-flavored, complex dark beer, I still…

(T.Y. Harbor x Ise Kadoya collab NE IPA) This issue we take up a beer that has exploded in popularity all over the craft beer world, from the East Coast of the US to the West, up in Scandinavia, and now in Japan. Variously called Northeast IPA, Hazy IPA, or NE-IPA, this is not really…

There is a broad range of golden-colored beers made in Belgium (and copied all over the world), which includes a variety of style names or appellations that can be confusing at first glance. We see Trappist Singles, Abbey Tripels, Saisons and Strong Golden Ales. When we sample such beers, however, it is often quite difficult…

Rye is a cereal grain that has been used in beer for centuries, though less so than barley or wheat. It is again getting popular in craft brewing around the world. Rye is closely related to barley, but grows better in poor soils, and can also withstand drought and freezing temperatures, making it an ideal…

This issue, I want to discuss a stylistic group not very well known in Japan. It is a group of unfiltered, bottom-fermented lagers coming primarily from Franconia, the area around Bamberg in southern Germany, although also found more widely throughout Bavaria and Austria. As a category it describes the method of storing and serving the…