The beers of Iwakuni: Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale

I've had a bit of a hiatus from writing the blog as I've been moving to Iwakuni Japan. However I'm mostly settled in and can now resume my never ending quest to keep fewer than twelve beers in my room while also buying any beer that catches my eye and then writing about it. Iwakuni's 7 day doesn't keep quite the variety that inspired me to start this blog. Okinawa was quite the gem, now that I look back. It's no Ashville, or even Greenville for that matter, but if you wanted to know what the major breweries were cooking up around the world, Oki was a good place to find out. But anyways, this Hop Stoopid IPA is the first beer from Lagunitas of Petaluma California (originally from Lagunitas Cal.) that I have had on the blog and as usual I want to talk about the brewery that brewed the brew.

Lagunitas Brewing company was founded in 1993 by Tony Magee, who's book I'm reading right now. I won't give you the entire run down because it's 211 pages long, so I'll sum it up. He started off as a home brewer who decided he liked brewing enough to become a contract brewer making private label beers for local restaurants while also working his day job as a commercial printer. A little while latter he hired a guy to help him, and then it became several guys, and after a few years he completely left printing to brew full time. The brewery grew "tyrannically" in Magee's own words, making large quantities of money, but always being cash strapped as employees, suppliers, the landlord, and the bank always needed to be paid off before any of the profits showed up (such is the life of a brewer). Lagunitas currently operates 2 breweries, the "original" (Its been moved and upgraded several times), and a Chicago location that opened in 2012. They are opening a third brewery in Azusa CA, chosen for it's water quality and the fact that MillerCoors has a brewery there as well. While they were (and still are) one of the biggest craft brewers in the game, they cannot technically be called craft as they sold a 50% stake to Heineken last year. I don't know whether to call this a sell out or not, they didn't sell a controlling stake (although I don't know the exact details of the arrangement) and this seems like a smart business move as it will give them international distribution. At least they didn't sell out to the beer devil.

I bought a set of beer glasses recently, I had to leave all of my glassware back home so you may not be seeing the super traditional Orion mug for a while as having it mailed out to me is going to take a couple of weeks at least. It's a pretty basic set made for you're garden variety craft beers. I'm not really a fan of the tulip glass that came with it, it's almost a less extreme Scottish thistle glass than the Belgian "snifter with a lip" tulip glass I've become accustomed to. I'll probably have one of my tulips mailed to me from the States as well.Anyways, TO THE BEER!
The label claims to be 104 International Bitterness Units and is 8% Alcohol By Volume. It also has a little paragraph on the label that reads as such:

Don't judge me,I'm a busy man.

And, like all of their beers, has the Lagunitas dog.

Started life as a label graphic on a discontinued beer, but everybody liked it so much they made it the company logo.

The graphic on the green label is an old farmhouse which I remember reading about where it was, but I've completely forgotten and now cannot find the reference.

Nose from the bottle is piney resin with some maltyness. Pouring it, the head is thick and has quite a bit of staying power which I think can be attributed to how lively this beer is. It's like an orange-amber Jacuzzi in there. Nose from the glass is much the same as the bottle. On first sip, it is strikingly bitter and dry. Very grassy aftertaste, like eating a dandelion. On second sip that pine resin nose comes out in the flavor and the beer mellows out a bit with the same touch of maltyness. Mouthfeel is slightly acidic with no alcohol bite to speak of from the beers slightly over medium body. I'm surprised by how used to this beer I've quickly become. Admittedly I've been drinking a great deal of German and Japanese Pilsners and light lagers, quite different from my IPA and stout/porter heavy diet in the States, which may account for the initial shock I had at first sip. I may have only been here a short time already, but this is a much missed taste of home. I suppose its all for the best, if I had never left home I would have never embarked on this venture and would probably be one one of those sorry SOBs that only "likes" beer.

I recently purchased a decent turn table which is something I've never really had. I've either had those crappy Crosley ones I've gotten on sale (don't ever buy a Crosley, not even for the casual listener, their quality is terrible) or players that are well over fifty years old and are almost impossible to find replacement parts for. Although calling my new (at least, new to me) Audio-technica AP LP-60 decent is totally based on product reviews and I have no idea whether or not it's any good from a functional sense. It didn't come with speakers, but I swung by the base thrift shop and bought a second hand (or third, it's not like it came with a historical ledger) set of Logitech speakers which should suffice for now, we'll see when I actually get an LP in. Speaking of LPs, the one thing I want to come back from Japan with (other than exotic beers and a Showa era truck car) is an original Japanese copy of Cheap Trick at the Budokan. In my opinion, its one of the best rock concerts of all time.In fact, I'm switching my music over to that right now (at the moment I'm listening to 1000 mods, a excellent stoner rock band band, check 'em out.). ALL RIGHT TOKYO, (Japanese girls scream) ARE YOU READY!? (Japanese girls scream harder) WILL YOU WELCOME EPIC RECORDING ARTIST CHEAP TRICK! (the crowd looses it). I've had this concert memorized from the time I was a kid and I can sing every word. I went ahead and plugged in the new speakers, they work just fine.

After this beer warms up, the pine resin overpowers the malt flavor a little bit, as IPAs are want to do. overall I'm saddened by the fact that I'm out of this one (large bottle though it was). I am especially saddened by the fact that the PX is out of them. I can only assume that this was the last one on MCAS Iwakuni and thus it means that I must be traveling on now, there are too many beers that I've got to see. I realize that's taken from Lynyrd Skynyrd lyrics and not Cheap Trick, but that's how I feel about this beer. I give it my blurry seal of approval.