日本・日本語: We’re trying, Jennifer
These days, most of my Japanese immersion is through email. I live in Outlook, in between lines of communication, trying to make requests, manage expectations, and bring events to life. I enjoy it. It’s fulfilling to be communicating.
Work is so busy, however, that it’s sometimes difficult to take a step back and enjoy the language itself for all its pleasures. But there are words that are so enjoyable that they shake me from my stupor.
There was a lot of wrangling involved with a recent event, including how to use Zoom for simultaneous interpretation and consecutive interpretation at the same time, for an English-speaking participant and a Japanese-speaking audience.
I was a little concerned with getting things right, but one of my Japanese colleagues noted that we were still finding our way:
初めてのプログラムなので、手探りではありますが、楽しみにしております (Hajimete no puroguramu na no de, tesaguri de wa arimasu ga, tanoshimi ni shite orimasu)
I’ve paraphrased this sentence so that I’m not taking my colleague’s language in its entirety, but that critical word was there in his message: 手探り (tesaguri).
The word is what it looks like: hand + search = fumble, grope about. It can be used literally or metaphorically as above where it means feeling one’s way through something, attempting something without knowing exactly how to do it.
An English version of that sentence might look like this:
This is the first time we’re doing this, so we’re still figuring things out, but I’m looking forward to it.
The は is doing a lot of work here. であります is basically です, and 手探りですが would be a perfectly good way to use this phrase. So why the は? The は shows additional consideration and recognition that might not be present otherwise. And a confidence. Despite the uncertainty, we’re looking forward to the event. Something like “We’re still figuring things out” vs “WHILE we’re still figuring things out.
Now that I try, it’s difficult to put into words in English, to be honest, but I think you’ll pick it up if you start listening for this pattern. は can also interrupt adjectives in this way: 難しくはありますが (muzukashiku wa arimasu ga, it is difficult but).
This tweet does a great job of displaying this phrase.
Deploying both 手探り and は in this way will be an exploration at first, but you’ll pick up the rhythm and get used to them both with a little contextual practice.
ビール: Cheater Yeast
“Cheater hops” is such a new term that it doesn’t have enough search results to generate meaningful data on Google Trends. I first heard the term last year at Metropolitan Brewing’s Beerfly Alley Fight, when my buddy was rueing (rueing, I say!) his English Bitter’s loss to a Sabro Pale Ale.
I haven’t personally used Sabro hops, and I don’t remember what the pale ale tasted like other than a moderately bitter and aromatically hopped off-golden ale, but I do buy the idea that there are cheater hops: hops that have such intense and complex flavors and aromas that using them is akin to “cheating.”
The term dates to a 2017 post on Michael Tonsmiere’s blog, and he provides a more technical definition: Cheater hops contain all the elements necessary for biotransformation to occur.
Biotransformation is complicated, but also incredibly simple: Yeast interact with hop compounds to produce flavor/aroma compounds that previously were not present. In order for this to happen, all of the necessary compounds for the reaction must be present, and “cheater” hops have all of those compounds. No additional hops have to be added.
Biotransformation and cheater hops (and non-cheater hops for that matter) have been at the forefront of brewing and homebrewing over the last three to four years as the hazy IPA category has evolved from Heady Topper to New England IPAs and now the infamous milkshake IPA. These new flavors are by and large fruity, citrusy, and tropical, and they work well in these kinds of beers.
The more interesting development this year to me, however, is the idea of “cheater yeast.” Ironically, cheater yeast produce less flavor, not more.
Yeast work in a very specific temperature range. Ale yeast generally work best from 60-68F (15-20C), and lager yeast from around 45-60F (7-15C). Traditionally, there have only been a few exceptions to this rule, notably saison yeast, an ale strain that ferments comfortably into the 80s (26C+). Another traditional example is California common (aka “steam beer”), an amber ale that derives some of its character from lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures.
Generally when you ferment in the 80s and up with regular yeast, you’ll end up with a variety of unwanted flavors such as fusel alcohols (a “hot” alcohol aroma that may or may not give you a hangover), esters (fruit), and phenolics (smoke, banana, clove, spice).
In the case of both saison and California common, though, the additional flavors are wanted. Saisons have a slight phenolic character. Anchor Steam has some yeasty character that wouldn’t be present if you fermented it 15 degrees cooler.
One of the other major developments in brewing over the last three to four years has been the explosion of Kveik yeast, thanks in large part to work by Norwegian beer writer/historian Lars Marius Garshol. Lars has been exploring true farmhouse breweries all across Scandinavia. These are often incredibly primitive brewing setups, with little in the way of written recipes or even thermometers. They brew as they were taught by family or friends, as they’ve been brewing for decades. This often means fermenting quite hot, yet the beers do not present many of the off flavors I mentioned above.
This isn’t to say they are totally clean yeast. The Chicago yeast company Omega Yeast developed a Hornindal Kveik blend that is getting a lot of run in New England IPAs because it ferments hot, doesn’t produce fusels or phenolics, but does provide a pleasantly fruity ester base for hoppy beers. (Hotter fermentation also means a faster fermentation, which means more beer in less time for budget-conscious breweries.)
Recently, however, Omega isolated a single yeast from this blend and released it as a clean, “crispy” Lutra strain. Bootleg Biology has made a lot of noise with their OSLO strain, which is a similarly clean Kveik strain that seems to be getting used in “pseudo-lagers,” but I don’t have easy access to Bootleg here, so I picked up a pack of Lutra the week it was released and brewed with it over the July 4 holiday.
I brewed a dark mild, a recipe I’ve brewed four to five times already with three different yeast strains. It almost always comes out well. It’s based on a reliable historic recipe from Ron Pattinson’s blog—1952 Lee’s Best Mild—but I wanted to see how it did in the middle of summer with Lutra.
It was fantastic.
Not only was it just as good as my previous batches brewed with traditional British ale yeast, it attenuated more fully and fermented out more quickly, so I was able to go from grain to glass in nine days. The beer has been remarkably stable in the bottle. I drank it into September and October and it tasted great: only 3.5% alcohol but medium-bodied, a touch of caramel and molasses, hints of chocolate and licorice and roast.
The hot weather is just about over in Chicago, and my apartment is drafty enough that I can use whatever yeast I want in the fall and winter, but Lutra opens up the possibility of brewing pseudo-lager during the spring and summer, which is an exciting prospect.
This yeast absolutely needs to be marketed for new brewers as a cheater yeast. It’s so forgiving, both in terms of pitch temperatures and pitch quantity (Kveik yeast have been shown to be reliable even when underpitched) that it’s hard to imagine brewing a bad beer with it. I’m eager to give it another go.
If you’re only an occasional hobby brewer or even just want to try brewing one time, why worry about controlling fermentation temperature? If you’re brewing any beer that requires a clean fermentation profile—think anything from your basic golden ale and a slightly hoppy pale ale to schwarzbier and bock—Lutra will do a fine job.
いろいろ
茶: Tea
Twitter is good sometimes. I have to thank DickMcVengeance who connected me with Dale North, game music composer and apparently Japanese tea expert. I was looking for some matcha to cook with and potentially drink. Dale recommended O-cha.com because they sell tea from Tsuen, the oldest tea shop in the world. Unfortunately their shipping is very expensive (~$45 and via Fedex).
He recommended Hibiki-an.com for better value, and I came away impressed with my experience. I ordered culinary matcha on Labor Day, and the shipment arrived from Japan via DHL three days later. They offer free shipping on orders over $35. I picked up a big bag of culinary matcha and one packet of sencha, which got me to free shipping. The culinary matcha tastes fine as drinking matcha to my palate, and it comes in much larger quantities. Highly recommend Hibiki-an.com.
I’ve made two pound cakes with the matcha so far.
One was a success and the other was a fail—for the second, I tried to invert the color scheme and may have added too much matcha to the batter, so the dough looked like it hadn’t cooked all the way through. I’m not about to food poison myself.
You may imagine me blissing out with tea ceremony, but you would be wrong. I like my tea, and will pay for someone to make matcha for me, but at home I’m not too fussed. Hibiki-an recommends a bottle shake method for cold matcha that I’ve been enjoying. 2g of matcha with 300ml of room temperature or cold water. Shake it in a PET bottle, and you’re good to go.
メスカル:Mezcal
I feel like I have to mention Aquilino Garcia’s passing. He died in June this year. I learned about “El Maestro” at a showing of the movie “Agave: Spirit of a Nation” at the Music Box here in Chicago. The movie follows three tequila/mezcal distillers of various sizes, including Garcia, who works on such a small scale that he uses five gallon glass carboys—the same kind that I use to make beer in my apartment. The movie is beautiful will hook you on agave spirits.
There are still bottles of Mezcal Vago produced by Garcia on the shelves. Estereo here in Chicago is selling small format versions of his Elote expression, but there are other varieties as well. They’re all worth seeking out.
I’d recommend picking up a slightly cheaper mezcal for mixing, and when you do, try a mezcal Negroni.
ポストモダン: Postmodernism
Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster) called this essay the best beer writing he’s read in years: “After Opacity — Concerning Hyperreality and Simulacra in Contemporary Beer.” I enjoyed it, but it also kind of broke my brain. I’m of the opinion that the history of beer and beer style has not been one with clear delineations. It feels like all the talk of copies and simulacra requires clearer distinctions. Every now and then something comes along that radically moves tastes in a different direction, but it’s still on a spectrum. So while current drinkers are growing up on hyperreal NEIPA relative to traditional IPA, couldn’t you say the same of the first cask of light-golden pilsner tapped by the Czechs? Is that not equally hyperreal relative to previous beers? Maybe it’s the intent of the brewer that matters here.
I will say that Sapporo Beer brewed in Wisconsin is not right, and not as good as Sapporo Beer brewed in Japan.
But as long as you’re drinking what you like, and reasonably informed, I can’t fault you for drinking “hard orange juice.” Whether the style sticks around or not, well, that’s a different story. Just ask Brut IPA.
The only thing I ask of beer drinkers is that they drink fresh beer (for most styles). The best thing you can do is always check packaging dates. Trust packaged-on dates over best-by dates, and always look for the dates on the bottom of cans. Personally, I try to avoid beer that’s more than a month old (for most styles).
オクトバーフェスト: Oktoberfest
Speaking of being informed, the most interesting distinction in beer right now is Märzen and Festbier. These are the Oktoberfest beers that you’re seeing on shelves, and for years they were strictly the malty Märzen versions. In the past five years there have been more Festbier versions here in the U.S., which are a paler golden, slightly stronger in alcohol, and more bitter. I like to think that Sierra Nevada kicked this off with their annual collaboration with German breweries (that sadly didn’t happen this year), but really they started in Munich at the actual fest around 1990. Prior to that date all Oktoberfest beers had been Märzen. The Cicerone program put together a nice tasting comparison on YouTube if you’re interested in learning more (although I’d recommend fast forwarding through the first five minutes).
デーブ・スペクター: Dave Spector
My mom sent me a link to John Denver at an event in Nagoya in 1995.
I mean, say what you will about “Country Roads,” but Dave Spector’s interpreting skills totally floored me. They’re flawless! I love the しかもですね when Denver adds a bit about how the song is in every karaoke bar in Japan. That feels so incredibly natural. Follow Dave on Twitter for solid Japanese puns.
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