My conbini

My corner conbini rocks. Just picked this up tonight.

Echigo 'Rauch Lager'. Smokin'.

"Conbini". That's Japanese short-speak for 'convenience store' (say it). They are not like the convenience stores back home, though some have the same names: 7-Eleven, AM/PM. Here they are clean, well-lighted places. Most sell alcohol, but not anything that special. Beer-wise it's the usual: Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi, and an astounding selection of 'beer-like' beverages, some of which have an image of a tall frothy beer printed on the can, letting you know that it definitely IS NOT beer.


But my conbini is different.


After the earthquake (remember that?) last March, supply lines were disrupted for thousands of daily goods all over the country. There was a brief run on supermarkets and conbinis for staples like milk, bread, and beer (hell yeah, that's a staple). I was bummed that the only good mass market beer that's produced here, Suntory Premium Malts, was no longer available at my corner conbini. Of course I had homebrew to drink, don't get me wrong, but once in a while it's nice to crack open a nice bottle or can of something else.


One night I got home from work and joked to my wife about going down to the corner conbini to pick up some Yona-Yonas (one of Japan's many several fine craft beers, if you don't know). She's all, 'Haw-haw Mark, right.' And I was all 'Totally! Haw-haw, joke-joke!'


Much to my surprise then, when I got to the conbini and saw that a whole shelf was now stocked with JP craft beer, including Yona-Yona! RAWK. Betcher ass I bought me some.


"WTF?!" I said, in totally different words to the conbini manager guy. Seems that those aforementioned supply lines being cut, all they could get to fill their shelves was locally produced suds. No more mainstream fizzy crap, no more sub-human, soylent yellow type shit for the trogs. All that was available was REAL craft beer, made by REAL craftspeople in REAL breweries (not factories!). Huzzah!!


Well, the dream didn't last. Gradually things normalized in the weeks after the quake, and the good beer in my corner conbini went away. I have to admit that I had a bit to do with that, actually. I was a little sad. I mean, what are you gonna do? It's a chain, they just do whatever the mothership or whatever tells them to do right? Well fuggit, I thought I'd give it a try anyway.


I went down there and asked the manager about that 'Interesting beer product' they had in their cold case a few weeks back, saying that if that were ever to appear again, by golly I sure would be keen to lay my hands on some, and in particular...and I proceeded to tell them which ones they should be ordering.


"The cojones on this guy!" says the store manager. Only it came out sounding more like, "Well, I'll call the distributer and order it, and we should have it in by this weekend."


Which they totally did! And instead of letting it sell out and restocking with the usual shite, now they seem to be experimenting with different craft beers on this one shelf from month to month, maybe to see how they sell, and tonight this smoked lager from Echigo turned up. Again, RAAAAAWK.


So that is why my conbini rocks.


However, big caveat concerning the Rauch pictured above. Don't bother. It sucks. Well, I'll admit that I don't have a lot of experience with real German smoked beers ('rauch'='smoke'). And I DO tend to like Echigo's brews in general, and their Pilsner in particular, so they must know what they're doing...but...this one, man. It's like getting a mouthfull of smoked bacon with every swig. Overpowering. Or maybe daring? Are they trying to raise the bar? (Someone should) But does it matter if everybody's left the room? What is the sound of one guy barfing? OK, that's not a koan. That totally has a sound, and I don't want to be making it, which I totally will if I drink more of this beer.


Still. My conbini rocks for having it. My. Con. Bini.