XZcluziv! Rrantz!

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaammmmnn!!!

That pint of Green Flash West Coast IPA is looking *pritty--prittty----priittttty-----* gooooood!

(Under flourescent lighting it will actually turn a chartreuse color and channel Jimi Hendrix)

To be honest though, as much as I respect the milestone that these dudes have so vigorously thrust into the soft, supple, inviting peat bog of brewing history...and don't get me wrong, it is a fu*ckin' great beer...there are others out there that are equally great that don't also make you drop whatever you're doing just to comment on how utterly out of this world they are.

 "WHOA, ye blasphemer!" I can already here some of you saying, or just "whoa, whatev!" from others.

But consider:

1) Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA

Here's what I dig about this amazing brew: not only that Racer 5 is a delicious IPA with a distinctive taste, but simply that they dared to defy what has, in my humble IMHO, become a convention in craft brewing, at least west of Denver, CO, and east of, of, of, prolly, Shanghai...or, whatever, to make your beer like X-Treeeem! with like hops and now, xecret ingredientz, like 'horn of yew' or 'greenbrier sprawn'--I mean, what the WTF??? Guys, guys... do we hafta?--and they're a Cali brewer too! Shi7z! Are them Cali's changing the game on us? Is Arnold Schwarzenegro gonna mandate that the world's craft brewers now use more tigerbalm in their secondaries? OK, OK, I rant... It's a good beer. And obviously, I had too many of thems 2nite. WHatev..

On to my second point:

2) Great Divide's Titan IPA

"With a Spritz of Raid!"

This brew, though I have not been fortunate enough (yet!) to get on tap (voice of Dr. Evil: I live in furkin' JAPAN fergourdsakes!) tastes really, really good right out of the bottle (thank you Nagano Trading, you money grubbing, wholesome, righteous, money grubbing capitalists!). Experts say: "...Good balance...slight burnt-nut sweetness that's just right for the winter...to be perfect, could swing just a tad more to the bitter...Two tits up!" Har, I made that up. No, I actually said that. OK, it's a delicious beer, and only serves to remind me how effin' impoverished we are over here in Japan, on the one hand, that we have to spend 1000's of yenz for one lousy bottle, when at the corner Brew-Stop back home it would be like 2 bucks if THAT--_and_ spend an entire column of my blog bitching about it, sheesh, idiots!

However it also serves to make me feel totally slightly superior about the, what 3? 5? professional craft brewers that we have over here (in Japan) who totally kick ass, and who aren't trying to compete with (in that sense) or prove anything to anyone, but who'er just keen to learn and learn and learn, and then learn some more and then make kick ass beer. OK, I'll talk about that later. Watch this in the meantime, errgh! Idiots!

Here's what happens when you mix up the 'record' and 'stand-by' functions on your camera!