Not sure if this will work at all (might on GtS but probably not in my site), but recorded this whilst walking our dog in the darkness the other night.. the frogs are back.



My parents arrived today and with them the 6 cans of beer from my favourite Scottish brewer. Two for us, to for my in-laws and two for my brewer friend/mentor.. my folks were travelling light..

Was almost on tears with the first taste.. there is way to much poor to mediocre small batch beer here giving craft beer a bad reputation.. whilst there are great brewers they are small and don’t have a wide spread (generally by choice) but there needs to be way more emphasis on quality over band-wagoning cheap ass table sugar liquors and marketing them as craft beer..

.. and with a sip of beer from the fledgling brewery who first inspired him to (very fucking slowly) follow the same path, his fierce dedication to the raise the quality bar of Japanese craft beer was re-forged.

.. as he reclines against the tiny food preparation area of his inadequately sized kitchen space, the protagonist, not for the first time, has expanded his sights a shade more aloft..

.. it is not for profit but borne from a desparation to be able drink a beer that doesn’t resemble domesticated pet piss that drives his determination.. such is the power of barrel-aged maple ale and raspberry and toasted nut porter..

.. the only thing that could possibly vanquish his unbridled desire to eternally change the craft beer industry in this super corporately focuses nation is the onset of sleep..

.. but our battle-aged hero has an unlikely ally in his almost one year old progeny, her impatient demands for mid-sleep liquid snacks and the females in his family (who represent 75% of the “bedroom”) incessant talent for talking perpetually whilst awake or otherwise..

.. will our grey-haired, white-bearded, ginger eye-browed, middle-aged, peddler of as of yet non-existant theoretical future beers love up to this moments expectations and indeed will he ever stop typing this unnecessarily long drivel-filled, failed attempt at a goodnight fediverse post?

Hard to say really, maybe time wil. te..

💤


Categories:

    Our first non-domestic visitors (my parents) since moving to Japan have landed on Japanese terra firma. Still enough time to tidy the house etc. before we go pick them up this afternoon.



    Looking at hop rhizome sites and hoping to place an order and get planting soon.. but first I need to confirm that I can definitely use the plot of land which has been suggested for them, and then that it is actually suitable.

    My parents arrive for a few months on Friday so could be a good project to start with extra hands.



    I am so tired that when I yawn my eyes release tears.. thinking of collecting and brewing a beer with them.. a gose makes most sense..



    Approaching second return date for Leviathan Wakes which I borrowed from the library and I’m only about 150 pages in. It’s a great read but I just don’t, unfortunately, have enough spare time and energy for such a tome. Will revisit if I get more time or go on holiday though as I definitely want to finish the book at some point.



    I recently posted about the annual medical test that we did for the first time since moving to the village, and today I got the results of my tests.

    Firstly, I am happy to report that my move to veganism appears to have cured my hyperuricemia (which was detected the last time I did one of these tests, in uni in Japan in 2010).. this is good news and to my mind somewhat expected.

    However I seem to have fairly low HDL cholesterol (just below recommendation) and high triglycerides.. which I am primarily attributing to my intake of monster energy drink as a result of a massive lifestyle change and parenting of young kids.. also whereas I used to snack on nuts in Scotland, almost everything here is seasoned with some sort of animal extract so I snack a little less healthily and more often than I did when I was in Scotland and healthier options were more abundant.

    Not too concerned about this as my job will become increasingly physical and I can easily cut back on sugary drinks and fatty snacks.. just relieved that nothing serious came up.

    .. I did recently receive a notice that I am eligible for an array of annual cancer detection tests too (not all free). Waiting for the results from the first set of them will be nerve-wracking but I think these annual checkups are a pretty good service to offer.



    I really love my fairphone, due to my clumsiness I had to replace a few parts last year and it was a breeze, it’s a great device but I am not sure that I would have bought it if I had known they were Europe only.. the replacement parts had to be sent first to Scotland and then Japan which wasn’t inexpensive.

    I really love the design ethics of the frame.work laptops and, as per fairphone, their adherence to the right to repair. I would love to buy one but they too do not (yet) sell to nor deliver to Japan.

    I want devices that won’t need replaced wholesale every few years but this seems pretty difficult in this part of the world at this time.



    Just when we thought we had more or less decided on our future brewery location, an unrelated conversation with my brewer friend leads to us finding out about another location in this village that is potentially for sale.. and it is bigger, flatter, more accessible, has existing buildings etc. etc.

    The time to be bold is upon us.. we are going to drop by tomorrow and be more direct than is customary for these parts.. fingers crossed!