An informal look at a variety of beers, mostly Japanese craft beer (日本のクラフトビール), with evaluations of Aroma, Appearance, Taste, Palate, and Overall Quality.
I have yet to try a hopposhu that I like, although I haven't tried many. Osmanthus is a very popular flower used for adding fragrance to tea in China, much like jasmine is as well.
Yeah, I understand. Most happoshu have a distinct off-flavor from the added barley spirits.Suntory's Kin-Mugi series has more or less eliminated that problem -- but still not as good as all-malt beers.
Agree that anything by Isekadoya is worth trying -- really solid standard line up. The Pale Ale and the Neko Neko Hazy IPA are quite good. I'd love to taste through as many of their beers as possible in 1 sitting. That could be worthy of a research trip!
Yeah, I think they are trying to attract salarymen with that sense image. Millions of people have had that autumn evening experience on their way home - a suddenly noticed pleasant scent coming from somewhere in the dark.
Yes, based on the details you shared about this beer, it does have more in common with an ale than a lager, but still a little strange. The last IPL I had was Ise Kadoya's back when I was in Tokyo for a couple of days. You mentioned a white stout. I have no idea what that is, but I have had a blonde porter before, which was just bizarre. It wasn't bad, but it was weird having what tasted like a nice porter but looked like some kind of hazy lager. It was Santa Monica Brew Works PCH (Pale Chocolate Heaven).
It's a hybrid style, and I'm not sure if it will ever be better than either of its parts. I don't really see the need for the style. The white stout I want to try is coming out soon from Kyoto Brewing. The brewery seems to be shifting directions these days, with many new and unusual types of beer. kyotobrewing.com/collections/kbc-multi-collection
He is an excellent writer, and no one has covered the Japanese craft beer scene with the knowledge, elegance and depth of research that he brings to the page. Long-time columnist for the Japan Beer Times and author of Craft Beer in Japan: The Essential Guide.
Great review. I am having this beer here from Israel. I bought it from a Russian supermarket where they have a wide range of Eastern European products. It's a good beer. But 6% ABV is a bit strong for me.
This beer is okay, despite the fact that it's not really from a craft brewery. It's available here as a relatively inexpensive import. A few more Eastern European beers have been appearing on the shelves recently, and I want to try them, too. Cheers!
I was in Taiwan for my honeymoon, although I wasn't much of a beer drinker at that time. I'd love to go back and visit some of the craft breweries that you went to on your last visit. I'll avoid this one. "330 ml, which I guess is kind of merciful." That made me laugh.
Lots of Tawan Beer products here, and none are worthwhile. Taiwan is great, and I'd love to go back for a visit. In Taipei, Taihu was easily the best of the three places I went to. They have a few taprooms around the city.
It's definitely typhoon season here too. We had our first "uh oh" storm of the season, but nothing came of it. I'm glad you've been fine so far. I love the title of this beer! I never saw that palindrome before. This one sounds like a winner. I love Czech lagers/pilsners with Pilsner Urquell being my favorite.
Glad to hear that the big typhoon did not hit hard there. I imagine we will get a few more strong storms before the season is over. This beer was tasty; however, I'm sure it's very limited and won't be around long.
1,300th review! Cheers to that! I didn't plan it, but I also happen to be drinking a stout this evening. But it's more of the imperial variety; a really nice yearly release from Stone called W00tstout. If I ever have a long layover in Guam, I'll pop out to check this place out. The new one in Guam is right in front of the terminal!
Oh, that's a good one. Have not seen it in several years. Don Quijote is a loud, bright funhouse sort of store, though I have heard that it offers a more ordinary shopping experience in Hawaii (and perhaps other places).
I've only seen pictures of the inside of the newly opened Guam location and you're right, it does look subdued compared to the images I've seen from the Japanese ones.
My friend brought me a few beers from Taiwan, at least I think that is where he bought them. I believe we reviewed both of them on Abeeradaywithtk's channel a while ago. They were interesting for sure. Some different adjuncts than normal. Cheers!
I checked ABADWTK and I saw that you guys reviewed two Taihu beers. Taihu is a well-established and innovative craft brewery, though not all of their beers hit the mark and they sometimes take big risks with unusual ingredients. This stuff here is from the Taiwan Beer brewery, and it typifies the worst features of industrial brewing.
I tried all 4. Wasn't impressed by the pale ale or IPA. The hefeweizen was ehhh...OK for 218 yen. But since I can get similarly ehhh...OK Oettinger weiss for around 150 yen at Yamaya, I'm not sure I have a reason to buy the Donki weiss again. But this ehhh...OK stout is frankly the cheapest stout I'm aware of in Japan, and that makes it something I might buy again. It's not the best, it might even be the worst...but even bad stouts tend to not be completely bad like the dregs of other styles can be.
Good comments on these beers. I would agree that the Pale Ale and the IPA are not standouts, certainly not when there are so many other good one so easily available. That said, I think I could buy the IPA again. The hefeweizen is mislabeled - it contains witbier ingredients and tastes like it. The stout was the most interesting, and it is true that it's harder to mess things up when you've got heavier, dark malts to mask any defects. Cheers!
Hefeweizen vs. Witbier side by sides are possibly my favorite tasting to do; if they're both good. It's really fun to see the difference between the banana/clove of the Hefe and the coriander/citrus of the Wit. It is kind of funny that they called it a Hefeweizen then proceeded to include coriander and orange peel in it.
Such a combination would let you sense the differences, and sometimes they are not so pronounced. This one was an unusual mix of the two styles, with a leaning toward wit.
Sazz hops are used in British dry stouts along with Fuggles and Northern Brewer among others. I even made one eons ago with N. Brewer as the bittering hop and Saaz for aroma -- it turned out to be one of the best I ever made.
Okay. Wish I could have sampled your brew. From the label info, it seemed that they intended to make an Irish Dry Stout. But overall it was sweeter and creamier than that style. Give it a try.
It was surprisingly not bad at all. You might find some Japanese craft beers (though maybe not any stouts) at a Whole Foods or Total Wine store, or maybe at an Asian supermarket , if you have one near you.
I didn’t mind this one either. At least better than the others in the series, I thought. (It kind of reminded me of a slightly heavier version of a Yona Yona Ale though, for some reason.) Oh, nice glass by the way. 🍻
Certainly at that price, it is a worthwhile beer. I might buy all four styles again to check my earlier evaluation. The glass ... from some brewery somewhere in Japan ... ah, the name will come to me ... sometime. :))
Wow, very surprising styles for a store like that to get into. Cool, I guess. I have heard about the one opening in Guam just a couple months ago. It was a huge deal there! Guam does have a small craft beer scene with three breweries that I know of. My favorite of the three by far is The Guam Brewery, which puts out a lot of great stuff. Their head brewer, Andrew Brunson, has a very interesting history, including being the head brewer for the largest craft brewery in the Kingdom of Jordan, Carakale. I wonder if the new Donki is eating into their market shares. It will be interesting to see which of the four you think is the best.
I think that the Donki beers will be just a minor part of their overall sales. So maybe not a problem for The Guam Brewery. Best one? Maybe the stout or the IPA. None of the four are terrible, but none really outstanding, either.
Brooklyn does some production here in Japan. We don't often see many of their more interesting limited beers (e.g., Black Chocolate Stout or Black Ops), but the lager and some others are usually available all year.
It would have been shockingly off-brand if this had been any good. I get lost every time I go to a Mega Donki (most confusing store layouts ever?), so hopefully I can't even find this beer LOL.
Well, it was not totally terrible. Pretty much on point for the style, but not really pushing a lot of flavors (maybe using less than stellar ingredients). Try one and let me know what you think. I think Donki wants people to wander around in a state of confusion and tension, in the hopes that they will throw more stuff in their shopping baskets.
I wonder if any of these macro breweries' crafty beer lines ever take customers away from themselves by introducing them to new (read better) beers. I can imagine a Sapporo lager fan who one day sees this, tries it, and is amazed at this new flavor, and thus begins his craft beer journey. Either way, I think it's basically a good thing that there seems to be a lot of new crafty beers out there.
That's a good question. It could be that these could be gateway beers. But I think their effect is more detrimental to legit craft breweries' sales numbers. Kirin is especially aggressive, with its "Tap Marche" business. They provide small beer servers to bars and restaurants, and of course they also distribute the beer to serve, with an emphasis on their leading crafty Spring Valley line.
That's very interesting. When I was at Tokyo Disney for those couple of days in the beginning of summer, I had the opportunity to try a lot of Spring Valley offerings, but I decided to try others that I had never had instead. I'll probably at least try some of the Spring Valley line next time.
You should try Spring Valley, at least once They have four styles. Not bad. I don't buy them because I don't want to patronize their "crafty" (really, anti-craft beer) strategy.
I really like that terminology, "crafty beer." You're the first person I've heard use it. "It's definitely not a lager." Hey, that's the first step to making a crafty beer, so good job Sapporo, I guess.
I've never had a smoked beer, but I would love to try something from this style! When I saw the Godspeed logo, I first thought of the ship by the same name that brought some of the first English settlers to Jamestown.
I am fairly confident that I've solved the mystery of which Korean brewery brewed this one, and that's because I'm drinking the Korean version this evening! And it actually isn't Hite, it's OB. If you Google "OB Premier Pilsner" you'll see exactly why I think this beer is that one. And you were right about suspecting it was made with noble hops. Your version says n English "Rich taste German hop" and my OB Korean version says in English "Rich taste with German noble hop." The only difference between the Korean version that I can get here in Saipan and the one you were drinking in this video is .1% ABV. I agree with everything you said about prices and all malt beers. I prefer all malt, so I appreciate these macro breweries still offering these. Here, you can get a can of this for $1 or a six-pack for $5.50.
Very interesting. I checked some photos, and the can design, color, wording are all quite similar. OB used to be my preferred beer, back in the day when there were only two main ones, OB and Crown. They have been owned by AB-InBev for some time now, but I'm glad to see that it is still around.
I would love to give this one a go, as I do like this style. Speaking of Sapporo, did you hear the good news about Anchor Brewing? I forgave Sapporo after I learned more details about the closure and sale. I'm excited about Anchor's future now!
This one was ... okay. Several breweries here are producing white ales at the moment on a limited-term basis -- though I think most buyers don't know what that style is. I'll review another one soon. Yes, it looks like Anchor will make a comeback. I hope that the craft beer community buys the beer again.
It's hard to believe I left a comment here over two years ago. Honestly, it's fun reading my old comments. A bit like reading a diary. I hadn't had any Deschutes beers at that time! Well, after those more than two years, I'm finally enjoying this excellent IPA this evening. I was shocked to see it here and immediately picked it up. Even though it's almost a year old (not bad for this place, really), it was still very good. I like slightly crystal malt forward IPAs and pale ales. Congratulations on 600 subscribers, by the way!
I like Deschutes a lot, and I always try to visit the pub/restaurant when I am in Portland. Not sure when I'll have the chance to do that again. Thanks for the kind thoughts on the subscriber number.
About a month ago, my brother was at a wedding in the Bend area. He took that opportunity to visit the Deschutes brewery and sample a lot of their offerings. One of the cool things he said you can do there is view Black Butte, walk to Mirror Pond, and, of course, see the Deschutes River. I wished I could have gone with him!
Wow! That included so many words that I’ve never ever heard in a beer review. I was drinking one (tasted perfectly fine btw) and looking for more info, and suddenly began to retch. And I had to stop the video at ‘baby poop’ - I’m not sure why you would keep going after that!?
Sorry I put you off your beer!. No, "baby poop" does not often make its way into reviews. Some well-regarded beers (e.g., saisons from Hill Farmstead) may have a bit of that character in the aroma, but in a strangely positive way. Anyway, Helios is making some so-so brews at their brewery up north, and this one was less so.
I used to see a lot of Brooklyn Beer product around me, but it seems like I see it less and less. I have never been overly i pressed with them. They are ok, but nothing special. This sounds like it is in line with most of their other stuff. Cool review!
I have yet to try a Brooklyn Brewery beer. I also had an IPA from a very large brewer this evening, the Goose Island IPA. Though not a hazy, it too was very mild, essentially bland, and not that good.
Most Brooklyn Brewery beers are quite good. This one was a slight disappointment. I have avoided Goose Island, except for their Bourbon County Stout, since they sold out to AB-InBev.
I heard Goose Island changed the recipe on their once-classic IPA. Because of its price, I've only had the Bourbon County once, but wow, it was good. I think I should revisit it.
