以下、英語の後に日本語を記載しております。 I have passed the Advanced Cicerone® exam, becoming the first person in Japan to hold this title and one of only 200 individuals worldwide! It has been a remarkable journey since I embarked on it in 2017, when I decided to do more than just drink beer. After passing the Certified Cicerone® exam in 2018—a challenge in itself that involved roughly one year of study, tasting many past-date beers, and taking the exam in Hong Kong—life and work intervened.
I read 30 books on the Advanced Cicerone reading list and spent countless hours studying the 34-page syllabus. Along the way, I founded Beerjuku (now with over 70 beer-tasting events completed), became a beer judge for the Japan Craft Beer Association, and began judging beer competitions in 2020. Through teaching beer, I have become a better listener (though I know there is still work to be done), a better cook, and perhaps a better person. Balancing the required patience and mental resilience with work and family time was tough.
I have met many amazing people and made new friends thanks to beer and Beerjuku.
The final leg of my journey would not have been possible without the people I met at the Advanced Cicerone tasting exam in Chicago last September—you know who you are.
I feel humbled and privileged, and I still can’t believe it!
I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who made this journey possible and inspired me: infinite thanks to my loving and supportive wife and daughters, and to my mother, who has always been there to listen and encourage me. Love you, Mom.
Thank you to the Beerjuku regulars—you know who you are—for the remote sessions during COVID and to everyone else I forgot; without your support, the Beerjuku study sessions wouldn’t have happened!
I am grateful to the venues that have supported Beerjuku:
Imazato Craft Beer Cafe
Lingua World Cafe
Midnight Sannomiya
torne_craftbeer
And a special thanks to the owner of Mother Tree in Osaka—your passion for craft beer and your constant efforts to introduce amazing beers to more people are unparalleled. Your passion has inspired me; please keep inspiring others!
My beer journey continues! – Daniel Kotlikov, Advanced Cicerone®
In the second part of the beer off-flavor seminar we will be sampling 5 off-flavors highlighted in orange in the below list. Off-flavors marked in green were covered in the first event in December 2022. Beer off flavor spikes, beer cost and participation fee inclusive event participation cost is 4,000 yen. Please order a pint after the event as a thank you to Beer Bar Torne for letting us use the the space.
第一回と第二回イベント10種類リストです。 List of samples for first and second events.
Due to Covid-19 pandemic, we will be observing social distancing rules. It is attendee’s responsibility to refrain from participating if they experience any symptoms. Please check your body temperature – if you have a fever above + 37.0 C, please refrain from attending.
Notes for participants:
Please be on time, if you’re not there we will start without you.
If you cancel, please message me or/and write a post on the event page. Do so at your earliest convenience.
Please bring a pen or a pencil to write tasting notes.
Don’t drink coffee or other strong flavored beverages one hour before before the event.
Please don’t wear perfume or other strongly scented beauty products (hand cream etc).
If the event is full contact me directly for the cancellation stand-by list.
The day before my Birthday, the friend casually texted me saying he might have a surprise “if it comes out right”, and asked if I will be home around dinner time the following day. His inquiry seemed rather ambiguous, so I dismissed it as a common courtesy. I was quite surprised when he, his wife and daughter appeared at my doorstep with a cake box. After a short visit and many thanks on my part they left and I had the Kiev – a Soviet classic hazelnut flavored cake with an offensive amount of butter, sugar and a rich nutty chewy filling all to myself. Finding such a cake under a glass of a Japanese pâtisserie is impossible. As a consequence, my friend’s wife, an experienced home baker, made one from scratch!
This Kiev cake followed a traditional Soviet recipe. The egg yokes for one of the frostings are conditioned over night. Crushed whole hazelnuts and hazelnut baking flour is used. It’s small but fierce and physically very heavy – because its mostly sugar, butter and nuts.
Being a beer connoisseur, I immediately started thinking about beers that could work well with the cake flavors and took upon myself the mission to do as many beer and cake pairings as I can. Here are my tasting notes:
Mikkeller Baghaven – I Found My Thrill 7.4% ABV
I Found My Thrill is a Danish wild ale aged for 30 months in French Oak Foeders on locally grown Blueberries. This deep burgundy colored, refreshing and highly effervescent light-bodied ale with plain yogurt sourness, delicate blueberry and oak flavors has a whiff of a rustic Danish barn to it. Buttery sweetness of the Kiev is contrasted by a tangy blueberry yogurt and lightly puckering oak tannins. The carbonation lifts the buttery fats from the palate making you ready for more cake.
Paulaner Brauerei – Paulaner Salvator 7.9% ABV
Salvator pours mahogany with a lightly tan head. Rich biscuit, caramel and toffee aromas with some floral notes on the nose. Similar malt forward nutty and biscuit flavors are barely balanced by high and clean floral bitterness. The body is medium and smooth. The finish is brief with biscuit like malts and clean bitterness. The Kiev is showcasing the Salvator’s bitterness and slightly overpowers the beers flavors. The hazelnuts somewhat complement beer’s nutty and biscuit flavors, while the bitterness is contrasted by cake’s sugar and carbonation is scrubs the palate.
Different kinds of nut flavors in the beer worked well with Kiev’s hazelnut and intense dark roasted coffee flavors of big and high ABV beers wonderfully demonstrated the cutting power of the bitter coffee with sweet desserts.
Miyazaki Hideji Beer – Kuri Kuro (Dark Chestnut Ale) 9% ABV
Kuri Kuro pours an opaque very dark brown with a fluffy tan head and has a cocoa nibs, nuttiness and sweet caramel bouquet with butterscotch notes. The dark chocolate, coffee, chestnut, caramel and toffee malt flavors are dominating. There is a light stale note, but its not unappealing. The body is medium to full and oily. When I had the ale fresh, there was an alcohol-like roughness in the finish, but after cellaring it for a year, the roughness has mellowed out – aging it was a good decision. Similar yet different chestnut and hazelnut flavors work well together. The lightly sweet beer accentuates the buttery hazelnut like sweetness, while the cake makes the coffee like and cola nut like beer nuttiness stand out. Light to medium carbonation is cleansing the palate of the slick butter leaving a long and lightly warming hazelnut buzz. A great pair!
Heretic Brewing – Shallow Grave Porter 7% ABV
The Shalow Grave pours a dark brown with mahogany tint and a fluffy tan head. It has aromas of nuttiness, cola and French roast espresso. Burnt toast, caramel, butterscotch and nutty flavors play on the palate. Smooth, chewy and silky medium to full body makes it quite drinkable. The Porter has a brief finish of dry roasted coffee, caramel and nuts. The French roast espresso contrasts with Kiev’s buttery hazelnut sweetness. The low carbonation and the sturdy body of the beer makes the pairing very satisfying – you can’t stop the teaspoon of cake followed by a sip of beer repetition.
Mikkeller – Beer Geek Cocoa Shake 12.1% ABV
The Cocoa Shake pours an opaque very dark brown with a dark tan head. It has a rich Swiss milk chocolate bar and vanilla ice-cream like aroma with notes of soy-sauce. The flavors are similar with the addition of vanilla, caramel and toffee. The body is silky and full and the carbonation is low to none. The finish is very long warm and drying, full of dark chocolate and roasted coffee. Intensity-wise, both the Kiev and the Shake are similar. The cake’s hazelnut buttery sweetness is contrasted by a dark chocolate, cocoa powder and roasted coffee. Beer’s vanilla complements the buttery Kiev sweetness and the high ABV cuts the cake butter. Both the cake and the beer are desserts which could be had on their own. Having both together is an intense experience and is quite a treat.
Dark brown with a fleeting tan head, this milk stout has aromas of cocoa, chocolate, cola and Resee’s cups. Ritch cocoa, dark chocolate, Resee’s and nutty roasted malts dominate the palate. Silky smooth and slick medium to full body has normal carbonation and a cappuccino-like dry roasted coffee finish. Hazelnut and peanut flavors work well together and if you have the cake first, there is a smooth transition from former to latter. Bitter roasted coffee and dark chocolate contrast the buttery cake sweetness and the palate is refreshed by carbonation. A great pair.
Stone Brewing – Espresso Totalitarian 10.6% ABV
The Espresso Totalitarian has a very fluffy dark tan head and pours an opaque black. It has aromas of nuttiness, caramel syrup, cappuccino foam, clean noble hop floral spiciness with a charred campfire-like note. The nutty, chocolate, cola like malts transition to a medium roast espresso flavor. Body is full and carbonation is normal. The bitterness is assertive. Warming and drying, French roast espresso bitterness with soy sauce like notes persists in the finish. Kiev’s buttery sweetness is cut by Totalitarian’s extreme bitterness which is coming from roasted coffee and hops combined. This is a great example why bitter coffee works well with sweet desserts – the cutting, or the extreme contrast of flavors, is very exhilarating and pleasurable.
Crooked Stave – Coffee Baltic Porter 8% ABV
A drinkable, full bodied, smooth and lightly oily Baltic Porter pours a very dark brown with a tan head. It has aromas of nuttiness, cola, dark chocolate and espresso. Both dark and milk chocolate flavors are followed by a dry and warming chocolate and espresso finish with a campfire like note. Intensity-wise the cake and the porter are quite similar. Buttery and sweet hazelnut is complemented by the dark bitter dark chocolate and roasted coffee of the beer and a unique mocha-like flavor is created. Excellent.
Smog City – Coffee Porter 6% ABV
Aromas of dark chocolate, French roast coffee, caramel with charred charcoal-like notes, bitter espresso, cacao powder and dark chocolate-like flavors, smooth and silky smooth body make this very dark brown with tints of ruby porter yet another good pairing. Carbonation is low to medium and bitterness is medium to high to which the roasted malts contribute. Finish is brisk with cappuccino and dark chocolate and has a very dry and roasty note. The cake accentuates the roasted acidic bitter espresso and brings forth Porter’s caramel and toffee like notes. The contrast between the buttery sweet hazelnut and the bitter coffee is quite enjoyable. Interestingly, when the cake is gone, the beer by itself becomes quite bitter, so, you need to time your eating and drinking to finish at the same time.
Fremont Brewing – Dark Star 8% ABV
Dark Star has a very creamy cappuccino and milk chocolate bouquet with a light roasty notes. A rich coffee-like malts and oatmeal flavors of this very dark brown Imperial Stout are balanced by a high to assertive clean bitterness. Its body is medium to full and silky with oats. Coffee flavors in the finish are brief, however a warming and dry roasted note remains. Cappuccino and oatmeal make hazelnut to take the spotlight and linger on the palate. The bitter and drying coffee is contrasted by the cake’s sweetness. Its flavors pass gently into hazelnut, which makes the beer’s caramel-like notes shine trough. Similarly to Smog City’s Coffee Porter, when the cake is gone, the roasty note in the finish becomes assertive.
Conclusion
The most memorable pairings were Kuri Kuro, Peanut Butter Milk Stout, Beer Geek Cocoa Shake and Espresso Totalitarian. Different kinds of nut flavors in the beer worked well with Kiev’s hazelnut and intense dark roasted coffee flavors of big and high ABV beers wonderfully demonstrated the cutting power of the bitter coffee with sweet desserts. The least favorable pairings were I Found My Thrill and Salvator. Although there was a contrast between the dry and tart blueberry yogurt of the Danish ale and the sweet buttery hazelnut, intensity-wise it was a mismatch. A lightly flavored shortcake with fresh berries could have been more fitting. Doppelbock’s mildly sweet biscuit and caramel flavors were overpowered by Kiev’s richness. The lager contrasted the cake with hop bitterness and scrubbed the buttery palate with carbonation, but nothing more. If anything could be learned from this experiment is that beer and cake can create wonderful pairings and at least, the staple pairing of vanilla ice-cream and stout, separately or as a ice-cream float in the beer, should be tried by everyone.
