That was fast! Just as I was hopping into car to move out of driveway, our maillady pulled up, gave a toot, parked, locked her front doors, and pulled a box out of the back of her truck. Could it be my parts already? The box looked smaller than I expected, but judging by how she moved, it had some heft. I’ll be darned, it was my order from Weir Performance! So what was in this box of goodies? Continue reading ‘KAAZ’
Author Archive for taro
Page 62 of 88
The third Coedo beer available here is this Kyara. Pours a medium light amber with a small head and moderate carbonation that lasts. My nose is still messed up, but some smell is returning. There’s an aroma I have a hard time placing, I think if I had to say, I’d say grainy. Initially there’s a bit of that malt liquory taste and tongue feel, but it fades quickly away. There’s some of that sweetness too, but its nicely moderated and balanced by the bitter. A nice beer, I just wish it didn’t command such a premium price.I’d give it a solid 3 out 4 monkeys.
A third variety recently available at Marukai, Japan brewery Coedos Ruri. Pours a clear gold, weak head that quickly dissappeared. Carbonation persists as opposed to their previous brew I had. I’m wondering if they suffer from ill handling in the supply chain. Notable hoppy note, fairly bitter and dry, persists for a bit, but quite drinkable. Looking into it, the Ruri is a pils, and I do see the style. As it warms up, there’s a little astringent and touch of sour on the sides of the tongue. Perhaps I’m developing a taste for pils? I find this Ruri pleasant and drinkable, and I had a Wernesgruner earlier with dinner too! But I’m not sure if I’d say its worth the premium price commanded at the store for it. One and a half bottles of these Ruri would pay for the sixer of Wernesgruner, and honestly I think the Wernesgruner has a more complex flavor. So I guess I’d give it three out of four hoppy monkeys, except value wise it looses out.  It’s good, but not good enough to make me want to seek it out at the cost in money and time to find it.
So whats the status of the AE86 Corolla? I’ve actually been driving it, kidney bouncingly it every day. Here’s the story behind that. Last I mentioned the AE86, I believe it was running and autocrossing. Was having rear end traction issues, so it was in my plan to work on the suspension. Debating piecing together a cut and weld kind of arrangement, but found a complete coilover system just released from Stance. The rear is not really a coilover, but is still adjustable. That was ordered, along with a complete Prothane polyurethane bushing kit. Suspension was taken apart, old bushings removed, cleaned up, 
and repainted with POR-15. That POR-15 is tenacious stuff, even taking a torch to a piece we needed to extract a metal bushing from didn’t mess up that paint much. The rickety mystery Chine hydraulic press once again came into use. Got the job done, but it doesn’t instill much confidence! The bushing replacement was pretty straighforward and easy. Only the rear panhard presented some challange as it had metal bushing/sleeve that needed to be extracted, and one side had a wasp waist single piece bushing that required the press, liberal lubrication, and some worrisome looks at how much the bushing was squishing and squirming jamming it into place. Continue reading ‘Auto Progress – AE86’
Pukad windscreen frame
OK, it’s been almost 4 months since I’ve posted anything about my cars, so I’ll write up on what I’ve done to them in that period. With the white FX16, I believe I last left off pulling the windscreen out after cracking it looking for the source of water leak. Following that, we stripped the frame down to metal and I went at with a whole assortment of fiber wheels, wire wheels, grinding wheels and took down what rust I found. Revealed a number of rust throughs, good to catch it now as most of them were not yet hugely major. It was actually a number of weeks and stretched out over months before I progressed with this. Inbetween was a combination of working on other car, bike riding, and lazyness.
Another new arrival at Marukai from a brewery I haven’t seen before, Coedo. I was debating whether to pick one of these up for sampling since I’ve been battling upper respiratory congestion that has wrecked havoc on my taste, but I couldn’t resist. Its name indcates its a red, they call it a lager, I see a little stick on label puts it at 7% ABV, pretty high. Its a medium dark redish brown, and pours with almost no head. It disturbs me a little how weak the carbonation is. As I feared, I can detect no aroma. This is probably not going to be a fair evaluation. Mouth feel is a bit syrupy and I can detect the sweetness. There actually isn’t an incredibly strong bitter. I’m going to have to reserve judgement, my taste really is screwed up, and I have to wonder if this bottle has suffered in transit. The packaging though is “Beer Beautiful”, nice labeling. Marukai has also brought in another variety, the Kyara. Woah, ok, the 7% is not a lie, I’m hitting a good buzz now, guess I should have taken it slower!
Stumbled across a new entry at Marukai, this Red Ale from Echigo. Pours a dark amber, with a moderate head. I can’t quite place the aroma, as I sit here sipping it, I can’t help thinking it reminds me of Japan. There’s just something in the smell, and its not a bad thing here. There’s a pretty strong bitter, but not too much floweryness. The bitter does linger for a bit, lending to the mouthfeel of crisp, dry and almost astringent, but not sour. There’s a little bit of roastyness, but not a pronounced smokyness. I keep coming back to the aroma, it intrigues me and ultimately makes this beer for me. I think this is the winner of the Echigo varieties I’ve had. 6% ABV.
I give this a solid 3 out of 4 bouquet sniffing monkeys.
Ok, yes, this is beer from the land that gave you Malk and melamine in the puppy food, instead of puppy food in the melamine. It’s been on the cooler shelves at Don Quixote for more than a month, so I figure if there was a problem with it might have been found by now. All kidding aside, I figure I have to see what it’s like. China isn’t really known for a deep history of beer brewing, but who knows, maybe a pocket of German worked its way into this. OK, I crack open the seal and immediately smell the skunky/muskyness. It’s that strong, I haven’t even poured it. It pours with a moderately weak head that quickly dissappears. If you pour aggresively you’ll get it agitated and it bubbles, but it doesn’t form much of a head. Leave it for a while and all signs of a head is gone. Color is moderate yellow/gold. Continue reading ‘Beer Is… Better than Malk? Yanjing Beer’
Pours a cloudy light amber. Thick. No, I’m not describing the mouthfeel, it literally pours thick, although the mouthfeel is likewise almost syrupy. This is one of SA’s Imperial series where they are pushing the envelope of the types of beer. This is the version of a spiced white wheat ale. The syrupyness is reflected in its sweetness, and the 10% buzz packin alcohol content. This sweetness also puts me off. I think I’ve stated in a number of my reviews that I don’t care for when a brew gets sweet and tasting like a drunk juice “malt liquor”. SA does recommend serving at a warmer range, and indeed it did seem to become more drinkable later as it warmed up. Of course that could also be because of that 10% ABV and empty stomach. And horrors, I squeezed a lemon wedge into mine. Honestly, for a spiced white, I’ll go with a Hoegartan.
Barely 2 out of 4 juiced up monkeys.
Catching up on a backlog of B.I.G. reviews here, I grabbed me a sixer of this domestic. Pours a clear light yellow with light head. I found the first sip to be quite pleasant. A nice grainy/nutty flavor. On subsequent tastes though, the flavor seems to get lost and was left with a clean pleasant drinking beer. If you rest the palate for a while and then come back for a sip you do get that flavor I found so nice again. Surprisingly, from a big name domestic, this gets a favorable nod from me, BUT it is priced at “craft” beer pricing. A couple bucks more I could get me a twelver of Speights which is just as nice drinking.
3 out of 4 “craft” monkeys.