A unique barley wine, showcasing the tobacco-like smokiness of Kyo-bancha
[Character]An American-style barley wine, brewed with Kyo-bancha Tea. The beer's caramel toffee notes from the malt combine with the Kyo-bancha's slight herbal and tobacco-like character. This beer has low bitterness giving it surprising drinkability, with a decadently rich character.[Food Pairing]Curried mackerel, mix nuts and cream cheese, rum and nut chocolate[Naming]The fox ("Kitsune" in Japanese) is an animal with significance to both Yamori Shuzo and Kyoto Brewing. Fushimi, with its infamous Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, has the fox as an important shinto symbol, and this is the local major shrine for both the area of Yamori Shuzo and that of our brewery's area. The fox also has a number of connections with the supernatural, and there is a "yokai" (ghost or spirit) connection with the idea of a flame called a "Kitsunebi" that floats close to the fox, sometimes appearing or disappearing just like the fox might with a flicker, in places where there may well be no fire whatsoever. For this beer, within the aroma and flavour of which is a distinctive smokiness from the mysterious Kyobancha tea, this felt even more apt.[Brewer's Voice]We brewed this beer in collaboration with Yamori-Shuzo in Fushimi. Yamori Shuzo's brew team is headed up by Hiroko, once of KBC, prior to which she had a career at Yoho Brewing in Nagano. When meeting up with Hiroko at Yamorido, the brew-pub of Yamori Shuzo, we sat down to drink tea and not beer. Taking inspiration from the old tea house which now houses their brewery, we wanted to pay homage to that, and use some of the tea still being sold there today. We decided on using Kyo-bancha, a tea unique to this city, which has an unusual but wonderful tobacco-like character, with a light savoriness and smokeyness to it. To balance out such a strong flavor and aroma, we decided the beer had to be equally as impactful. Looking for a rich malt character and sweetness to balance out the tea, we decided on making a barley wine. Using a blend of Golden Promise and Maris Otter base malt with a splash of light wheat malt, the depth of character in the beer comes from the tea, and the 2-hour extended boil to caramelize and bring out the rich malt flavors. A hefty 14kg of tea was used in this batch, which allows the tea character to come through in full effect, like drinking a cup of freshly brewed Kyo-bancha. Fermented out with a neutral ale yeast, we wanted this beer to showcase the malt and tea over everything else. To summarize this beer in 2 words, I'd describe it as “luxuriously simple”.StyleBarley Wine with KyobanchaSeriesNakamaABV11.5%IBU25Gas Volume2.55MaltMaris Otter, Golden Promise, Wheat MaltHopTettnangerYeastCali AleOthersKyobancha Tea, DextroseCategoryBeerJAN4589718742335
