What? More beer? This time another Hitachino variety I haven’t had yet, the XH. Labeled as matured in sake casks. Pours cloudy dark brown with extremely strong head. Sorry, I passed out before I could write a review so my thoughts are a bit cloudy on it. I blame the high 8%ABV. I didn’t really detect the cask flavors. I recall the sweet then sourness. It reminded me again of drunk juice malt liquors that I do not like. I can’t say I’m having a very good track record with the Hitachino’s, 2.5 out of 4 booze sleeping monkeys.
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
Catching up on a past brew here! Seasonal brew, pours with small head, very dark. Pretty strong roasted flavor, pretty effervescent feel on tongue, dry, lingering bitter from the roast. I like, but not an intensely complex beer. 5.3% ABV, not high. 3 out of 4 dark roast monkeys.
Now that’s a freaky way to wake up, civil defense sirens going off at 6AM, lieing in bed a bit disoriented trying to figure out if its test day, but thats a few days away. Turn the radio on and the siren is for real. A tsunami warning has been issued projected to arrive around 1100 Hawaii Time. No estimates on size issued, just that there is something significant expected, unlike the past little events that were almost unnoticeable. Our house is not in the innundation zones so we wont need to evacuate. We shall see what happens.
Flying out to Sapporo for snowboarding tomorrow. Will hit an onsen this weekend, then session Kokusai and wherever else all week and hit Niseko the weekend after. It was -20C and dumping snow in town a couple of weeks ago, but it has returned to just below freezing now. There might be some snow starting up at the beginning of next week, so I might luck out. I should have jinxed it by packing my park board.
Good night.
Discovered at Foodland Farms this Hitachino variety I haven’t seen elsewhere. Pours with a pretty good head, cloudy medium dark brown. Touch floral aroma and hint of spices but not strongly hoppy. There’s some sour in there, and a bit of lingering bitter. Reading the label tells of vanilla, corriander, orange peel, but this is no Hoegarten, which I just happened to have had one earlier. Though not offensive, it does not appeal to my tastes. High ABV of 9%. Not quite 3 out of 4 drunken monekys.
There is no better way to antangonize anything than to threaten it’s food, and us humans are no exception. So it was this Saturday evening at Windward Mall IHOP. I had heard rumours of bad service, but I had no idea until experiencing it first hand. This night after a Cruise night found us in need of some food, the IHOP was conveniently located, and pancakes sounded good. We thought there might be a wait, but stepping inside that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t that crowded inside. What we didn’t realize that this also seemed to apply to the staff, there aparently wasn’t enough staff. Or so we would like to hope. It took an hour, at least, from when seated to getting our food. Tell me it takes that long to make a bunch of pancakes, steak & eggs, omlette, and sausage. I actually didn’t have much to complain about the food, it was tasty, the steak was tender, eggs cooked properly, but it took ridiculously long. Five minutes longer and we would halve walked. 
Hana hou? I sure as heck hope not! And I am sure not going to give them another chance! 1 out of 4 raving mad hungry monkeys (Moe “I want some cake” anyone?) because the food was decent for what you expect from a place like this, but the delay was simply unacceptable.
Popped into the newly remodeled and opened Foodland Farms at Aina Haina. It’s kind of a mini “Whole Paycheck” market. They borrowed a lot of aspects with the areas of higher end products, deli, and prepared foods, but not quite as extensive. The beer selection is also pretty good with some items I haven’t seen elsewhere, but again is nowhere as extensive as Whole Foods. What I did spy was this Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. With a name like that I simply could not resist. Pours with a pretty strong head, simply popping the cap produced bubbles in the bottle neck. Color is a medium dark somewhat cloudy amber. Immediate floral aroma without even taking a sip. It is strongly hoppy, the bitter hits you from the begining, it’s no aftertaste here! I guess Bigfoot like drinking flowers? 
It demands to be drunk while eating something hearty and strongly flavored, I had it with a herbed roasted chicken and it worked well. I don’t know if I could handle drinking this by itself. Thankfully it doesn’t have the syrupy sweet that immediately turns me off, although I have to wonder how they achieved the butt kicking 9.6%ABV, and the label does say barleywine style. I only now coming off the buzz from that one bottle. I have a hard time rating this. I enjoyed it with my meal, perhaps the ABV helped, but I had a hard time finishing it after my food was done. I guess go with middle of the road 2 out of 4 bigmonkeys?
Dave tells me that the day after Valentine’s is Black Day in Korea. It supposed to be a day for singles, but I think its a total different meaning for the poor bloke we came across on the trail up St. Louis. Literally. Late this afternoon met up with Kevyn and Scat and shuttled up to the park. We were figuring on two runs, so cut to the right outside of mainline and took the nice little tight track. It was quite dry and conditions were getting a little sketchy, my back tire was getting quite skittish, but it was fun! We pop out in the middle of the jump zone, just before “Lawsuit”. Scat says something and then comes to a stop. I catch something white in my eye, then see it’s someone on the ground as I cruise by. I come to a stop as I hear the words “broken collar bone”. Uh oh. I see middle ageish caucasian dude is on the ground. I didn’t even realize that I had ridden between where his bike had stopped and where he landed. It’s a dually, he’s not set up for hardcore DH, he is with his young son. He’s quite coherent, knows what’s going on, and is quite calm. Which is good, for everyone, and I think really helps his young son, being all of seven years old. Continue reading ‘Black Day?’