From time to time the feral critters of Japan have a tendency to act up. This is especially true of the monkey population, some of whom enjoy sharing a bath with their human cousins. We are not especially fond of having monkeys share a tub with us, but we are very interested in their relationship with alcohol. These animals, at least many of them, like to drink. Mark Forsyth tells of an island off the coast of Panama where mantled howler monkeys engorge themselves with “the fallen fruit of the astrocaryum palm (4.5 percent ABV). They get boisterous and noisy….”1 I guess that’s why they call them howler monkeys. Interestingly, he doesn’t reveal the name of the island. Perhaps he does not want the word to get out to the international simian community. Mounting evidence suggests that our closest relatives (No, I’m not talking about your uncle Fred) have a rudimentary understanding of the fermentation process. A recent report by RTE News contains this revelation: “At least three species of primates are known to knock ripe fruit to the ground and return later to eat it, when the alcohol content is higher.”2 With all of this information swirling around our brains, we opened a bottle of Shiga Kogen’s Snow Monkey IPA, so named in honor of Snow Monkey Park, which is about eleven minutes away from the brewery.
Snow Monkey IPA is a refreshing brew, loaded with hops on the nose and on the palate. It has soft carbonation that lets you know it is there without being unpleasantly aggressive. It is pale yellow and cloudy. Aside from the hops, we picked up on very subtle apricot notes. We don’t know whether the monkeys would go for this one, but we do, of course. The howlers down in Panama would certainly be satisfied with the alcohol content, though. It’s 6% abv. That beats astrocaryum palm any day.
1Forsyth, M. A Short History of Drunkenness (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2017).
2Leech, J. “If Monkeys Are Fermenting, Why Aren’t You?” RTE News, November 11, 2021.
Drinking Japan 