Amager – Samurai

IIPA – 440ml – 9%abv

Anyone who has ever met our bear-like Head Brewer, Jacob Storm, has probably noticed that deep in that always smiling face there is an extra layer of depth and mystery. And if you look really deep (Jacob hates that!) you will recognize some unmistakably Asian facial features – or more specifically, Japanese. Today most of us may see him as the epitome of an Amager boy, but Jacob’s ancestry goes way back to a far more colorful past. In early 1869 Jacob’s seven times great grandmother, Candelia Storm, sailed as a ship’s cook aboard the Dutch merchant clipper Kosmopoliet II. Japan was slowly opening up to the world after a long period of isolation. But not everybody in Japanese society approved of this change, and as Kosmopoliet II pulled into Tomakomai Harbor on Hokkaido Island in February 1869, fate had it that the island had just been captured by a traditionalist Samurai warrior clan, and renamed the Republic of Ezo. The Samurai wanted absolutely no dealings with the Dutch merchants with one exception: Candelia Storm had spellbound the leading Samurai officer to a degree that went all the way to marriage and a baby. However, the rebellious Republic of Ezo did not last for long, and the changing times overthrew not only the Samurai republic but also Candelia’s marriage, and she ended back at Amager with a very exotic looking baby boy, and a story that the locals found hard to believe.