An Abundant Harvest of New Fall Seasonals: Big Red, Yamamomo, Bohemian Pale

Dear Taproom Friend & Baird Beer Enthusiast:

Unlike the case of industrial beer, where summer reigns supreme, craft beer truly is a beverage of all seasons. That said, fall — with its crisp and brisk weather — strikes us as a quintessentially good season for the enjoyment of the robustly full-flavored ales that typify craft beer. We are excited to announce today’s release of three such autumn ales: Big Red Machine Fall Classic Ale, Otomi Orchard Mountain Plum Ale, and Bohemian Pale Ale.

New Baird Beer Seasonal Releases:
*Big Red Machine Fall Classic Ale (ABV 6%):

To baseball fans, October means World Series (also known as the “Fall Classic”) time. To me, the annual Fall Classic invariably brings back boyhood memories of watching and rooting for the great “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati teams of 1975 and 1976 World Series fame. Big Red Machine Fall Classic Ale was brewed initially in 2005 as a 30-year tribute to the Cincinnati Reds World Series championship team of 1975 (they beat the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic 7-game series). We continue to brew it annually because it is such a fine beer and it is the perfect libation to enjoy while taking in the Fall Classic.

Brawny in the depth and richness of its malt character, this malt muscle is balanced beautifully by a wonderfully spicy and sprite hop essence. Much as the rare combination of power and finesse was a hallmark of the Big Red Machine on the field, so too is it a hallmark of the Big Red Machine in the pint glass!

Big Red Machine Fall Classic Ale is available on draught at all of our Taproom pubs as well as at other select Baird Beer retailing establishments in Japan. It also is available in bottles (630 ml) for purchase direct from our brewery e-shop or from one of the many fine Baird Beer retailing liquor stores in Japan.

*Otomi Orchard Mountain Plum Ale (ABV 5.5%):

Collaboration beers have become a hallmark of craft brewing, representing as they do both the innovation and camaraderie that so define the efforts of artisan brewers. We were thrilled when the opportunity presented itself to collaborate on a beer with both our farming friends at the Otomi Orchard in neighboring Izu no Kuni and our brewing colleague Mr. Luc Lafontaine of the renowned Montreal brewery, Dieu du ciel.

Luc and I have long wanted to brew together and we both share a passion for formulating beer recipes that incorporate unusual Japanese ingredients, particularly fresh fruit. Oki-san of Otomi Orchard is the second-generation head of his family farm and a customer at our Fishmarket Taproom. A casual conversation between us in July revealed that he had a field full of organic yamamomo (mountain plums) that were ripe and ready but without a market. A collaboration was born.

After tasting and gathering the fruit together with Sayuri and our girls on a hot July evening, I began collaborating via email with Luc on the recipe. Yamamomo fruit is sour and piquant and we decided to incorporate it in a lightly hopped, low-gravity, highly attenuated session ale that would be dryly and quenchingly tart. In addition to the local yamamomo fruit, we also included serious quantities of two other indigenous Japanese ingredients: namely, un-malted wheat from Chiba and sudakito sugar from Amami-Oshima. The beer was brewed at the Baird Brewery on July 29 with Luc in attendance, sweating profusely side by side me and the other Baird Beer brewers. The task of primary fermentation was assigned to our Scottish ale yeast, but krausening at packaging occurred with our our Belgian wit yeast.

Otomi Orchard Mountain Plum Ale is now pouring from our Taproom taps and also will be available both on draught and in bottles at select Baird Beer retailers in Japan.

*Bohemian Pale Ale (ABV 5.5%):

This small-batch pale ale is brewed with Bohemian floor-malted pilsner barely and loads of Czech Saaz hops. We have dry-hopped with a combination of Saaz and two German Hallertau varieties: Hersbrucker and Tradition. If pale ale was a style from Bohemia, this is what it would taste like.

Bohemian Pale Ale is available only as real ale on hand-pump, and exclusively at our Baird Beer Taproom pubs. Stop in for a pint while the pouring lasts!

Cheers,

Bryan Baird

Baird Brewing Company
Numazu, Japan
HOMEPAGE

Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery