素 (Su)

The inspiration for this beer was actually food: plain pizza crust served at Monk as an appetizer. Trying to recreate the immaculate balance of the dish through the medium of beer was one of the most challenging things we have done yet. We thought long and hard about removing as many layers as possible while still keeping the beer interesting. To add to the challenge, we wanted the malt that Imai-san hand roasted to linger in the background of the beer without being too forward.

While making a beer as perfect as Imai-san's pizza crust is a very tall order, we will say that we feel it is a great accompaniment to his food. Rich malt flavour fades to a slight acidity in the finish, meaning it goes well with any dish. We hope you have the chance to try Su, and especially recommend it while on tap at Monk!

Naming: If you are fortunate enough to visit Monk for dinner to enjoy Imai-san's food, we think you will agree that the entire experience is an exercise in simplicity. This concept was transferred to the beer as well, tying to remove as many extraneous elements as possible. We extended this idea to the name as well, deciding simply on the Japanese kanji character 素 ("Su"), meaning "simple" in English. While the character has many meanings, alone and in combination, similar to the beer we removed as many elements as possible to keep the simple beauty of the name itself!

Style: American Blonde Ale

Malt Bill:

Pilsner, Hand Roasted Malt, Carapils

Hops:

Bittering: Hallertauer Hersbrucker

Flavour/Aroma: Hallertauer Hersbrucker

Yeast: US-05

ABV: 5.0%

IBU: 16

Gas Volumes: 2.4