The beers of New River: Boulevard Brewing's 80-Acre hoppy weat beer

Although I've seen them around craft shops and grocery stores for years, I've never had anything by Boulevard. I suppose this is mostly due to the price, they tend to be over $10 for a six pack and placed right next to excellent beers that are significantly cheaper. I got around this lately when my buddy Sims and I went to Food Lion and I saw they had a "build you're own six-pack" for something like $8. Of the beers available (I will be reviewing the others in the coming days), Boulevard 80-Acre was one of them. I jumped at the chance of getting this premium beer at such a discount, but had the self control to not fill the entire carton with them. I suppose It could also be caution, I've never had this one and I tend to hate wheat beers. The brewery that produced this is almost exactly as old as I am, having begun in 1988 and producing it's first beer in 1989.

The bottle has that 50's retro styling that was so popular in the early 90's. Honestly, it's still popular today. I suppose that's why they kept it. Anyways, the bottle reads "With roots in two of today's most popular brewing styles, 80-Acre Hoppy Wheat Beer is the result of careful cultivation by our brewers and cellarmen. Their efforts to craft a hybrid yielded a bumper crop of flavor; a delight fully distinctive ale with the aroma of an IPA and the refreshing taste of wheat beer". I hope by wheat flavor they mean cereal and not that rotten, putrid flavor I find in most German and Japanese wheat beers. Time to pop this sucker open and pour it into the super traditional Orion mug.

The nose from the bottle is a citrusy/hoppy one, a good omen wot-wot. It has a light yellow color, with a light bubbly head. Nose it certainly different from the mug, I just can't identify it. It's not a strong scent at all, but it's there and I don't know what it is. Oh thank the Lord for His providence, it's citrus and cereal and not rotten wheat. Little bit of an alcohol flavor, not a bite, but a flavor. Before this project I probably wouldn't have liked that, but having become accustomed to European styled beers I have learned to appreciate it. I've got it! This tastes just like orange sparkling cider. It has a little bit of a watery consistency, little acidity. Getting towards the bottom, I can see little white specks floating in it, I hope that's just yeast.
To wrap this up, Good beer? Yes. Great beer? Not really. I don't think this one commands the $10 a six pack price it asks. I've had much better beers for less. That being said, it's worth having and I would definitely have one of these again, but not at full price of course. I'm going to give this one my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA: Hacker-Pschorr Animator unfiltered doppelbock

I got this beer while on a battle sights tour a couple of weeks ago. We were stopped at camp Hansen for lunch, I had finished and decided to go browse the local seven day. Along with the usual beer fare common to PX's on Okinawa, I found four bottles of Hacker Animator. I realized these were probably the only ones left, so I bought two and brought them back to Futenma. This is one of Hacker-Pschorr's limited edition beers. And as the best before date is 06/15, I can only assume production has stopped. I hope this beer has not spoiled, that would be a travesty.

The bottle is the same as the other Hackers I've reviewed, aside from it having a red label and a picture of two rams butting heads. I'll be pouring it into one of my Hacker-Pschorr mugs, unfrosted. It makes a nice "pop" sound when opened. It has a deep, malty, somewhat barley nose from the bottle. The beer forms a frothy, creamy head. Nose from the mug is the same as from the bottle. Color is a reddish brown, it's very lively inside, enough to maintain a small head without an agitator. On first sip, raisins, raisins with an alcohol finish. This almost has more of a raisin flavor than Rosey Nosey. You would expect a beer with as high an alcohol content as this one (8.1%) to have more of a bite to it, but it's almost completely alkaline. This beer is full bodied to the point of being just a little bit syrupy, and it's flavor is a little overpowering.

I am so exited for the release of Fallout 4! I have been waiting for this game for years, and in two days I can finally play it! I've already gotten the game pre-downloaded, now I just have to wait for the 10th for it to be unlocked. I would like to take a moment and thank God for his gift to gamer kind: Steam. Steam made it so that it was no longer necessary to go to a physical store and purchase a game or go online to find a physical copy. You just buy it and download it, and when you're done with one, you can delete the local content and steam will still have it on you're profile that you own the game, so you can download it again if you ever wanted to revisit it. You can even upload you're save files and play you're saved game on another computer. Anyways, back to Fallout 4. The graphics are going to be beautiful, but graphics aren't a big selling point for me (most of the games I play a 8-bit). This game is bigger and has more content then any other single player game out there today, any other developer would be a fool to try to release anything within a month of this game coming out. It's an RPG, it's a shooter, and now with the new feature of being able to create and design settlements, it's a building game. Not to mention the music is going to be great! I'm certainly biased in that I'm a big fan of 50's and 60's music. When this game comes out, don't be surprised if you don't see or hear from me for a week or so.

Well, that's it. It's a good beer, don't get me wrong. But it's a little overpowering, in more ways than one. This ones just not for me.

the beers of FUTENMA: Delirium Red

I picked up this bottle and another one as a birthday gift to myself, I do hope I hope I like it. It's brewed by the Huyghe Brewery in Melle, Belgium. The current brewery was started in 1906, but there has been a brewery at that location since 1654. They started using the Delirium tag in 1938 and have adorned their bottles with pink elephants ever since.
The bottle has a nice speckled stoneware look to it, although you can see it's painted brown glass at the top, still pretty though. the label is silver with a pink elephant wearing a double cherry earring. The label says "DELIRIUM RED" "BELGIAN ALE" "Ale brewed and flavored with natural flavor and with stevia added". It's a 1 pint 9.4 fluid ounce bottle with 8% abv., ganna be a bit of a job finishing this. It's a pop quark styled bottle with a red metal retainer. Since my roommate isn't in, I'm going to go ahead and pop it.

It makes a good pop sound when it comes out, but it does not launch itself. It has a very fruity nose from the bottle. I've packed most of my glasses up, but the Rochefort is still out so I'm going to use that. It has a deep red color, burgundy really. It has a very cherry scent, just like cheerwine, or cherry pipe tobacco. This tastes more like cherry wine than it does beer. It's sweet, but not sickly sweet, kind of a tart cherry. I suppose it's a little refreshing to have a beer that doesn't have any hopps, but it just doesn't taste like beer without them. It's noticeably acidic, but not noticeably alcoholic, the acidity being the only thing to slow you down. It's got a very little amount of pink head in the center and around the rim, mainly thanks to the goblet's agitator. If there's any other flavors here, I can't taste them. It's straight cherry cobbler, or cherry pie.

So I've taken to eating raw Kale and Broccoli, they have anti-carcinogens and are generally good for you. Fresh Kale and fresh Broccoli taste quite similar, which is good as I was raised to like Broccoli (thanks Mom). Those who spend a great deal of time around me know my affinity for meats and other animal products. I have long maintained that eating plant's isn't entirely necessary, you can get everything you need from animals, but the reverse is not quite true. It is true that you can live without animal products, but not without a myriad of problems and a great deal of supplements. Although it should be mentioned, living without eating plants comes with it's own set of issues, but no short term ones that are more than a paltry nuance. In the long term it does have it's problems, but most of those are problems that are common with old age anyways, but made more likely with a exclusively carnivorous diet. I suppose my problem with veganism is the fact that they try to pass it off as a healthy lifestyle when it is not, it is a moral choice not to eat animals. There is not a vegan I know with whom this is not the case. Are they afraid that people will mock them for their position on not wanting to kill animals? I suppose this position can be admirable but I don't agree with the "health benefits" argument, just come out and say it, you don't believe in killing animals. I often bring up the study by Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson and his friend K. Anderson, who ate meat exclusively for a year and came out with no ill effects, Although it was found that you absolutely need a great deal of fat to be able to digest that meat. I find it strange that that is the only major study I can find of eating exclusively meat, and it was published in 1930. There are people who do eat only meat out there on the internet, but they are not exactly a conclusive study. You also have aboriginal people like the Inuit who live their whole lives almost entirely on animals, which is where Dr. Stefansson got the Idea for his study. I would like to try it sometime, but I would need access to a market that would sell me any part of the animal (brains, liver, tongue, anything and everything really) and have the spare cash to buy it all.
It's finished. It wasn't a great beer, but it was a very good drink. I would like to try more non hopp beers, they seem like a whole new level of beer. On a special occasion, I would defiantly say this is one to have. I give it my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA: Coedo Ruri Pils

This is the second Coedo I found, unfortunately Aeon didn't carry any more. The bottle looks just like the kyara, but blue. Not much to say, it's a pilsner and we'll see how it is. Let's pour it into the super traditional Orion mug.

Nose from the bottle is malty, maybe even salty. It has allot of white fluffy head, with opaque orange color (I know I said that about the other one, but it's true for this one too, except for the head). from the mug, it has a much more barley nose but with that same salty scent. It's sour, not rotten sour, meant to be sour. Color turns to a cloudy golden when I hold it up to my desk light, maybe the orange color is just the wood from the furniture. Allot of the guys on Rate Beer say it has starchy qualities, on which I concur. I usually disregard most of what is said in peoples beer reviews, it tends to be hoity-toity nonsense, but sometimes other people have ways of explaining flavors and textures that I would not have thought of myself, and starchy is one of them. It his a medium bodied beer with little acidity. It's a little bit more hoppy than I would expect from a pilsner, it tastes like a regular lager.

I'm afraid work has taken up the majority of my time, I haven't been able to take in allot of culture, or read much for that mater. I still read the news every day, but I still find it a nightmare to find news stories that aren't boring, have a nauseatingly liberal or conservative slant, or are just opinion pieces. And when you go online and try and find anything that is truly unbiased, everything anyone suggests turns out to have some sort of extreme bias that the suggester doesn't notice (I suggest because they are of the same mind). So far, the only truly trustworthy sources I can find are Reuters and the Associated Press. Sometimes "The Independant" has some good stuff, but I'm still undecided about them. If you want local American news, Fox tends to be the only really good source. If you want national or international, you have to go with an international agency, like Reuters and the Associated Press. Although, I also find Vice news and Vox are good sources on YouTube. Unfortunately, Vice's documentaries tend to be a little slow in coming out and can have a very liberal slant in terms of opinion, although they usually treat everyone fairly and hear out all sides of an issue without demonizing one side because they don't totally agree. Vox has a goal of "explaining the news", an admiral goal to be sure. But while the focus is on giving the facts surrounding a story, it is the facts interpenetrated by someones opinion, and for the sake of simplicity, there generally is not a great deal of conflicting opinions.
This was an alright beer, pilsners aren't my thing, but I did enjoy drinking this one. I don't think I would seek it out again, but I would certainly get one if it were readily available.

the beers of FUTENMA: Coed Kyara India pale lager

My buddy Hilgar asked me to find beer from Coedo brewery for him as it's not imported into the States yet, so I did (It's coming in the mail Chris), but I also got some for myself. I can't say I've had an India pale lager before, so this is probably going to be interesting.
The bottle is nice, it has gold lettering on the front label that says "Beer Beautiful" "COEDO kyara India Pale Lager Super Premium Japanese Craft Beer" and then has the word beer in eight languages. Behind the gold lettering is a brown label with the letters from the brewery's name "coedo" arranged in an interesting design that continues in glass on the neck of the bottle ending in a golden "coedo" crimpcap. Now let's pour it into the super traditional Orion mug and see how it heads.

The nose from the bottle is citrusy with the aroma of hopps, but also has the distinct smell of malt with a little note of cereal. It is not a particularly lively beer, I can say with honesty that this one truly has no head.Color is a sort of brown orange. It is rather opaque, with a few bubbles shimmering to the top like minnows is a silty lake. Nose is like the bottle, but not as pronounced. This beer is like drinking grapefruit and hopp juice, there is not a great deal of carbonation. It's a medium body, not very acidic at all, but just a bite for mouthfeel. I can't tell if it's supposed to be like this or not. On one hand, it's Japanese and that's kind of how some of their beers are, more of a feature than a fault. On the other, it's been in my secretary since before I went to Korea, but considering how cold I keep the room (you get black mold if you go over 21°C, yes that's 69°F but its always in the mid-80's outside, so that feels very cold) it should have been OK for a while. Allot of the guys on Rate Beer say it's head quickly dissipates, so if it did degrade a little, it's not like it had a great deal of carbonation to begin with. 

Youtube has brought me to some great music again. I had heard many of the songs of Nancy Sinatra before, but I never knew her name. Looking her up, She is like the look and sound of the 60's. Think of anything pop culture related during that decade, Nancy Sinatra embodies it. 

Well, out of beer. I would really like to have this beer again, but fresher this time. I didn't really get the lager part, but its a pretty good India pale. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA: Yo-Ho Aooni IPA

I picked this one up at the Aeon grocerie store, along with some others I will be reviewing later. The only English on the can is AOONI india pale ale, and then on the side there is the brewery's website in English characters. I haven't had a good IPA in a while, so I'm looking forward to this one.

I like the Jack-o-lantern face on the can, with the clouds surrounding in the dead of night. It's a very fun can.Japanese cans all have what I assume are braille on the top, next to the captive pop tab. The other can I have from this brewery is also aesthetically pleasing, but I'm saving that one for a Wednesday, when I do the review you'll understand. So pop, nose, head, we've done this about forty times, you get the drill.

The beer exploded into life as soon as I opened the can and I could smell it immediately, a good omen wot wot. From the can, it has a floral, citrusy nose with some pine. But lets pour it into the super traditional Orion mug and see that head. It has a small, but stable head, and deep brownish orange color. It has a strong hoppy nose from the mug, I can't get enough of it, this is a fantastic smelling beer. This is a very hoppy beer, maybe a little too hoppy for anyone who is not an IPA aficionado. I realize I could have said connoisseur in that regard, but if you love IPA's, you know it goes beyond that. The taste starts out as overwhelming hopps, but subsides to grapefruity citrus and then pine to finish it off. It reminds me of Modus Hoperandi by Ska brewing (one of the finest IPA's you will find), if you need an American comparison.

My Father and I have been discussing Hymns on Facebook. We concur with each other that a great deal of modern Hymns ain't very good (I'm so glad everyone got off that "ain't isn't a word trip" it is a word, it's called a colloquialism). The problem with most of them isn't that the music is sappy, which most of them are in my opinion, it's that they lack spiritual depth. You look back to what I like to call "country hymns", simple hymns made for simple people, they don't have complicated lyrics like you're European hymns, but in very few words they convey very strong messages. Where as (as my father pointed out) you have the song "I am a friend of God" which has very few words and conveys nothing. I still maintain that Gospel is the only genre on Christian music that is still relevant when it comes to music or lyrics. Aside from a few notable exemptions, contemporary is just lack luster, desperate and empty. It's a shame you can't get a great deal of good Christian country songs, but that's a rant for another day and a larger beer. Just let me say that I hate the song "word of God speak", it's full of words and they're all stupid.

Overall, an good IPA. There ain't a great deal of them in Japan, but if you're stuck out here, look for this one out in town, you won't be disappointed. I officially give this beer my blurry seal of approval.

the beers of FUTENMA: Orion Mugi Shokunin

Today I finally try some Happoshu, which was created to skirt Japanese tax laws on beer by brewing a beer with less than 67% malt so it would not technically classify as beer. It's basically the Japanese equivalent of malt liqueur. The one I have is the Orion Mugi Shokunin, which states "the harmony of Hops & Barley Orion Mugi Shokunin is brewed from selected barley for a smooth, satisfyig taste Happoshu for true brew lovers". Notice, at no point do they say beer. I'm going to get out the super traditional Orion mug and see how it heads.

From the can, it has a cereal nose and not much else. It certainly looks like beer. It has a light, frothy head and golden color. The cereal nose persists. It has a very barley taste and watery body. It's pretty much Orion southern star, but with a little bit less flavor, which isn't always a bad thing. It's a little bit malty, I suppose. If crystal light made a light beer flavor packet for you to put into a 20 oz. bottle of water, the result would be much like this. It goes down easy, kind of acidic, but otherwise easy. I've already finished it, kind of disappointing.
Usually I wrap this up at the end with some thoughts, but this beer was so mundane that I have nothing more to say.