Probeerer and the new direction of "Craft"

Probeerer: Somebody who loves beer and uses beer as a medium for projects, communication and place making. 

This word was coined by my good friend Emi-san who I met at one of my Shun’s Bar events in Tokyo. I just put a definition to it from my own understanding lol. 

 Lemme just say I love this word, it’s original, quirky, and catchy to say. Love the logo as well. 

So to say that I’m simply a fan of Emi-san is a gross understatement, and when she sent me a message about her event in Tokyo, I decided I wanted to go without any hesitation. Not to mention the event was going to be held at SML, my favorite select shop in Tokyo. 

This all actually started with a mutual friend, Miura-san, who works at SML. Miura-san and I got to know each other because I always went to SML whenever I visited Tokyo. SML, in my opinion, has the best selection of plates and various cooking ware like handmade iron skillets, in the Tokyo area. Whenever I went to SML, I would talk to Miura-san and we would always get a long pretty well, so I asked him if he could join my first Shun’s bar event. When I invited Miura-san again for my second event, he asked me if he could invite a friend of his, and that was Emi-san. 

At the second Shun’s Bar event I had a chance to talk to Emi-san and found out that she was also producing her own beer and I had a feeling we had similar interests, so we kept in contact after the event.

Emi-san’s event was in October which was perfect because it was right when I was coming back home from the states which meant I had to pass through Tokyo anyways. To explain the beer event itself, Emi-san produced 2 different types of beers and it was essentially a get together of people she knew to try out the beers and also have some food that was made to pair with the beer. Even better, all the cups, plates, and utensils that were being used were all from the shop as well, meaning you could buy them if you wanted to. 

I Love this Concept

So, I’m no expert in building shops or event planning, but being an avid shopper and consumer myself and having planned a few events, I have an idea of what I want. I think an event or a store should have multiple layers of experience for the guests. For example, holding a food event where you could buy all of the plates, tools, and ingredients used. Or letting guests know what Spotify playlist you are using that day with a small pop up or something.  So not simply selling products, or just holding an event but allowing these gray zones created from the overlap of spaces. In other words, it’s about letting people know the experience they are having is re-creatable or you could take little pieces of it with you even when you leave that space.  

So at the event, the music was on point, the plates and the cups that were being used were also on point, and you could either buy those things at the event space, or find out what they were using. Amazing. 

There were 2 types of beers which Emi-san produced for the event that day. One was a spiced sort of beer with cardamom seeds and lime leaf. The other was a coffee brown ale which used an Ethiopian single origin bean. She also had another type of beer, I think an IPA on tap from another place. 

 The spiced beer was slightly tangy and had that funk you get when you use spices in a beer. I don’t know if anybody ever had a Belgian White but it’s something like that with the coriander seeds. 

The coffee beer was personally my favorite out of the two. 

I think that people are more familiar with coffee beers being made as a stout or a black beer, but Emi-san decided to use a brown ale as the base. This I thought was a genius idea, especially with the use of a single origin coffee for a beer. Using a black beer would probably cancel out the nuanced flavors of the single origin coffee. However, by using a brown ale as a base, you still have that deeper body and mouthfeel from the darker malts, but all the while maintaining the integrity of the single origin coffee. What resulted from this combination was a cold-brew like beer that was super refreshing to drink. I mean I could have that for brunch with some pancakes or an eggs benedict. Lemme just say, it was real freakin’ good. 

I think that the bigger theme of this event for me was that the various barriers to take part in “craft” are easier to overcome. In other words, people who may not have the expertise in craftsmanship are now able to take part in “craft” and physically make something. So with the beer that I made or the one which Emi-san made, the brewer provides the service of making the beer, while myself and Emi-san provides the concept. It’s sort of an exchange, the craftsman provides the actual skill and finished product while people like Emi-san and myself provide a new perspective, idea, and or untapped resources. Personally, I think this “untapped resources” part is probably the most important thing that people like me can provide. I have a completely different social network to those that a typical brewer may have. Thus, I can use that “social capital” to get resources, services, and people involved that the brewer may not have been able to get access to. Now thinking about it, the perspective part is equally as important too, where the fact that I have no experience in brewing allows me to bring new ideas into the brewing process. I’ve been able to provide flavor combinations that the brewer did not think about, or pairings between food and beer that use local ingredients in new ways. 

This collaboration between craftsmen and people like myself and Emi-san I think is the next step in “crafts”. Rather than simply the product, so to say, what is going to be drawing people and consumers to these products are the people who are affiliated with said item or project. To take this step further, it’s going to be about “worldliness”, “brand”, “lifestyle”, or “aesthetic” that particular person symbolizes or represents. This is not simply about beer, but it can apply to clothing, buildings, plates, furniture and etc. In this way, I think that with the right connections, the hurdle for “craftwork” is going to be set much lower, allowing for more people to take part in “craft” and lead to niche products that have a lot of character and originality. 

In this way, this new world of crafts will not be so much a competition of which product simply has the higher quality (I think that today, especially in Japan, we are able to create things with decent quality relatively easily), but more so on the “brand” and the collaboration possibilities of several “brands”, “worldliness”, “aesthetics”, or whatever you want to call it, all the while maintaining the integrity, process and appreciation for the original item that is being created.

In the end though, I had such a wonderful time attending this awesome event that Emi-san organized. The atmosphere was so welcoming, the music was on point, the food was super fun, and of course the beer had lots of thought put into it. Really happy that I got to meet Emi-san at Re:gendo and hoping that the events that I hold will become sort of a watering hole for these sorts of new friendships. 

So cheers to craft beer, and its possibilities to bringing people together!