Baird Brewing Shimaguni Stout

And so we came to the final exchange in our increasingly acrimonious relationship with the Baird crew: the Stout.

Now a stout typically refers to quite a heavy dark beer or porter, usually among the strongest brews a brewery puts out. But this clocked in at 4.5%, well below the 6.0% of any of their other beers. Befuddled and by this stage somewhat resigned to our fate we poured out.

(sadly no photo for this one, borrowing one from their official website to illustrate the cool artworks better)

This stout has a quite dark coffee coloured head which was pleasing to see. The nose was also far better than the porter, though still put me in mind of homebrew guinness. This brew proved less fizzy than the porter (though still oddly aerated), a relief. And flavour wise it was not too bad either, though a little watery perhaps due to the light alcoholic content. I didn't come across any of the smoky flavour promised on the label, but nevertheless, a fair effort to finish. I'm giving it 4.0, with Nic giving it 5.0 of 10.

Baird Brewing Kurofune Porter

Baird, Baird, Baird.

As keen craft beer buffs and frequent travelers to Japan, my associates and I are on your side. We would like to see Japan evolve beyond the 'easy drinking' image of throwaway lagers and build a new beer scene above and beyond. But you're losing us, Baird, really you are.

The Kurofune Porter, at 6% in common with the Brown Ale and IPA, and complete with another top label depicting a smirking General MacArthur, put me in mind of a dark beer invasion ready to change the minds of the lager-reliant Japanese populace.

Why then is is so damn fizzy? A porter is typically near flat on pouring, but as we tried this beer through a range of temperatures the key characteristic was the insane amount of aeration. It put me in mind of an even fizzier version of the similarly disappointing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, almost cola-like in nature. After some time waiting for this to settle Nic had the bright idea of giving it a gentle shake to see if he could eliminate some fizz. One shake later, the room was covered in froth as if a brave meringue soldier had leapt on a live grenade.

And I haven't even got to the pervasive sour smell and initial taste of the beer either. Once you conquer all that, there is a porter in there somewhere. But any desire to drink it was long gone. A disappointing 2.0 / 10 from each taster.

Baird Brewing Teikoku IPA

It was all going so well for Baird after their promising effort with the Brown Ale. Then this happened.

The bottle claims a spicy floral aroma, backed up with the sweet Maris Otter malt. My nose claims a very similar (ie slightly offputting) scent in line with the Brown Ale. Then it was on to the taste buds who did not enjoy this beer at all.

The almost anonymous hops and lack of bitterness left us wondering what about this beer if anything made it an IPA for a start. It's one dimensional and sweet in a poorly prepared home brew sort of way.

Overall, a heavy, torpid struggle. I'm giving this 1.5, with Nic giving 2.0 out of 10.

I'm prepared to accept a little bit of degradation here given the small batch bottle brewed nature + the roundabout route to arrive several thousand kilometres away in Perth (the way Nic insisted it smelled / tasted of mint perhaps backs this up?) but there's little to recommend this.

Baird Brewing Angry Boy Brown Ale

And so we came to the first of our four beers from Baird Brewing Company, all the way from Shizuoka.

The bottle art on these beers is off the hook.. top work indeed. Though my overall expectations weren't that high given pretty mixed past experience with both Japanese beers, and with brown ales.

The Japanese description on the bottle suggested this beer was 'hiding an angry edge' and that it was best for days when you were a little angry yourself. We certainly found the nose on it made us a bit angry.. not the best entry to a beer. Head also dissipated quite quickly though this is perhaps permissable given the distance travelled to get to us.

The beer itself however was convivial if anything. I didn't feel enraged in the slightest by anything other than the misleading packaging. In fact, the conversation I had with this drop encouraged me to relax, think a moment, breath, count to 10, and not sweat the small stuff. I felt calmed. Quite a mellow characteristic throughout, tailing to a buttered toast like finish. No caramel / toffee here: pleasing.

It's a one-note sort of beer but pleasant enough to deserve a 7.0 and my interest to try it again as the best brown ale I've had to date (this is a limited field). Nic called a 6.0 and a reasonably auspicious start to Baird.