This Yebisu varietal is available year round, unlike the Kohaku and Silk seasonals, along with the standard Yebisu Premium lager and “The Hop” Pilsener. A dark lager, The Black pours slightly thicker than standard Yebisu or the Kohaku amber. The decoction seems to be slightly heavier, and as a result, the attenuation is lower which lends a slight sweetness – not quite a molasses sweetness as found in some darks, but more of a hint of kuromitsu or brown sugar. The color is very dark, even darker than coffee. The initial flavor is dominated by the smoky overtones of the dark roasted malt and the bitter of the hops, but the malt flavor comes forth in the middle followed by an even finish. There is no significant sweetness or floweryness from the hopping.  The head comes on strong at the outset, but disappears quickly. The carbonation didn’t seem particularly strong. Although I wouldn’t say this is my “go to beer” in the Yebisu lineup (that honor would go th the Kohaku and Silk in that order), it makes for a good change from the norm. Give one a try if you encounter the choice. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Yebisu Premium “The Black” Dark Lager’
Wow! This mass-produced beer encroaches on the flavor territory of many good Japanese jibiiru.  As the name “Kohaku” implies, this amber lager is distinct from its pale lager forbear. Released on 10 November 2010, this limited seasonal variety from Sapporo Beer’s more upscale division brings a warmer, richer malt flavor to the table. The pour, head, and mouthfeel is in line with what you get from the standard Yebisu, but there is a deeper flavor and less of the ethanol bite common to JDM production beers. This easily makes me twice as happy as regular Yebisu. If I can’t find any interesting jibiiru to bring back with me this time around, I’m seriously bringing some of this back! Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Yebisu Premium Kohaku Amber Lager’
I guess I’ll fill in the fourth offering from Saitama’s Coedo Brewery – the Shikkoku dark lager. The name uses the kanji for “laquer” and “black”, forming the compound “jet black”, and as is fitting to this name, this dunkel pours an almost opaque dark brown with a moderate but transient head. Although the head becomes filmy, the carbonation remains constant throughout the beer’s existence in the glass. This carbonation, along with the almost completely attenuated decoction gives this dark beer a dry bitterness with little detectable sweetness. The initial flavor is bitter from the noble hops combined with the smokiness from the darkly roasted malt. The two flavors dominate throughout, masking any cereal-malt flavor that may be there.  The aroma is actually rich and warm, belying the almost two-dimentional quality of the flavor. Don’t get me wrong here – I like this beer – it’s just not a very complex mouth experience. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Coedo Shikkoku’
The base at Sapporo Kokusai had been steadily shrinking from the 50cm on opening day with no resupply in sight, so instead of blowing cash to ride out there on the bus and risk injury on the concrete-hard refreeze, I decided to head for the hills in a different way – on foot. I loaded up my pack with foul weather gear in case the forecast rains did arrive, and headed intop the hills above Sapporo. As a warm-up, I went up and around Maruyama. The trailhead for this 3km loop is just down the road from the Maruyama Zoo. There were about a dozen other people out on the trail with me that morning, along with a bunch of crows that followed said people, waiting for them to drop potentially edible things. On the return to the trailhead along the stream that runs down alongside the zoo, I found an Ezorisu that was hoping for a handout. Making squirrel noises kept him hanging around, even if I didn’t give him anything. I’m not sure if MTB riding is prohibited, but the amount of wooden steps would make this about 30% portages. Continue reading ‘No Snow? No Bike? Hike!’
 
Didn’t really think about it until the alternator konked out after yesterdays rally-cross, but man, I’ve got a pile of alternators! Didn’t especially want to deal with this, but it’s the daily driver and it should be a quick fix. The hardest part is working it through spaces like a 3D puzzle in order to pull it out of the engine bay. It still spins ok, but on closer inspection I see bits of some beige plastic/bakelite stuff, that can’t be good. I dig out three other alternators from my shelf of parts. The mounts match, but the plug placement is different, no big deal, the wires reach. In fact I think 3 out of four alternators say that the broken one is the “wrong” one. Continue reading ‘Alternator Lifestyle’
Sam Adams seasonal, and I’m buying it in season! Hm, dunno what happened with this second bottle from the six pack, poured with weak head that quickly dissappeared, first bottle had bit more of a head. The taste is still pretty good, but as I write this, the carbonation has all but died. Medium dark amber, but no strong smoky aroma or flavor, a fair amount of bitter middle. Nice malt and the adjunct spices I find to be a nice addition, although I say this with impeded sinus once again. I would drink this again (this is my second tonight 🙂 3 out of 4 spicy monkeys.
Damn Chine tires. So today was the second SCCA Hawaii Rally Cross. Still using the daily driver FX16, the other is not ready yet. It was another blazing ewa day out at Kalealoa, no surprise there, though in the shade the air was cooler. Looks like the track people packed down the oval track area a bit, it was a little firmer and not quite as rough, but eventually it did become rutted in areas. Enough that on my final run, this proudly designed in Taiwan tire debeaded. Silly me, when I went to Sears and asked for cheap tires and they pulled up these Nankang tires, I asked if they were Korean and the sales guy replied affirmative. I didn’t notice until last night when I was hurriedly changing out to the wheels that these were instead “Taiwan Design” Made in China tires. Actually some were marked Made In Taiwan, but one had the Taiwan Design thing going. Damn it, they tricked me! Fortunately airing it with compressor reseated it and I even went for a couple fun runs. And on the drive home they felt just as crappy as on the ride out. Did I rant yet on how crappy these tires drive on the road? Does Taiwan Design mean wiggle like a wet noodle? Continue reading ‘“Taiwan Design”’
Man, it took until after nine at night to get everything cleaned up after this Sunday’s ride. The weather looked fine for a ride earlier in the day, but as ride time approached, a wall of grey clouds came rolling over the Windward side, drawn by the weak trades. Stronger trades would have moved the rain-dumping clouds through faster, leaving the trails slightly dampened at most, but the slowly passing clouds were given the chance to fully saturate the ground. When I arrived, Waikupanaha at the trailhead was dry, but within seconds, the downpouring that I had gone through along Kalani’ana’ole caught up. Continue reading ‘Mud Slog’
JB Weld It” is the tag line on the packaging. Well, I don’t have much choice since the part is discontinued from Toyota, and is specific to the FWD 4AGE so harder to find at junkyard. So time to test out the this metal filled epoxy that is JB Weld. I got the stick putty form instead of the classic liquid stuff, since I was going to be creating a lot of missing flange instead of just filling some cracks or holes. 
The specs shows its not quite as strong as the liquid, but hopefully it’ll be strong enough. Cut off a piece of the ‘tootsie roll’ and mushed it up good, then squished it onto the cleaned fitting and molded it into rough shape. Let it set up for day and half and here it is. I then took the Dremel to it and shaped it. So far it looks pretty good. Hopefully when I put it all together it holds! Continue reading ‘“Don’t Scrap It-‘
These appeared on the Mil-Spec Monkey site over a couple of months, but Ckucke was putting a group order together and waiting for something to come back into stock, so I didn’t get my hands on one until now. A MOLLE-compatible trauma shear sheath is one of those things that a pile of people need and is painfully easy to design and build, but for some reason nobody had made up until this one came out. I was going to have Tactical Tailor make me a standalone shear sheath like the one that is built into the top of their First Responder Bag if I ever got around to emailing them a custom project, but since the Mil-Spec Monkey one came out, I don’t have to! Yay! On arrival, I saw a paper tag behind the MOLLE webbing, so I yanked it out. It was a Tactical Tailor build tag complete with TT part number – I really got what I had dreamed of. Continue reading ‘Mil-Spec Monkey Shear Pouch’