Monday 6 November 2017

Echigo Beer - Flying Pale Ale



Name: Echigo Flying IPA

Brewery: Echigo Beer

Style: IPA

Purchased at: Nagano Station

Price: ¥300

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Evilfeast – Lost Horizons of Wisdom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6M1PFLo7S0

Snack: Making fajitas.

Website: http://www.echigo-beer.jp/

Experience.

It has been a while since I’ve written a review. But don’t worry, Ive continued drinking beer. Im planning on doing video reviews when I can be sure no one will walk in on me talking to the camera, that would be embarrassing.




Ive had many beers from this brewery, Echigo Beer. On the can they claim to be Japan’s first micro brewery. If that’s true then I am glad they are still around. All their beers are great and they seem to be a pretty cool company. According to their facebook page they are always attending and hosting events. I’d love to visit the brewery but I haven’t had the chance yet.

This beer is one of their newer ones. At the time of writing this, they are currently releasing one with a tiger on the can. This one, the Flying IPA, has a dragon on it. Have to say, I love the can design. The dragon is holding a beer. Haha. The can alone makes it a worthwhile purchase.

As far as taste goes, while it claims to be an IPA, I think it tastes closer to a pale ale. For me this is a good thing. I cant stand the super strong American IPAs, I think some of them taste like fresh cut grass. This however was much more mild, however still extremely refreshing.

This beer can be a little hard to find. You aren’t going to see it at supermarkets very often. I have seen other beers by this company at Seiyu, so maybe try your luck there. Apart from that, any food shop that sells foreign snacks and spices, seems to have them. There is such a shop in Nagano station.

EDIT: I had this beer again last night. I don't know what happened with the first one, but this one had a much stronger IPA taste. I usually don't like IPAs that much, but this one went down easy. Very smooth. I guess they are a smaller brewery, so the beer probably changes in flavour with each batch.

Thursday 27 April 2017

Fujizakura Brewery - Weizen 330ml bottle





























Name: Fujizakura Heights Weizen

Brewery: Fujizakura beer.

Style: Weizen

Purchased at: Snow Monkey Beer Live bottle shop.

Price: ¥500

Taste: 8.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Still listening to Eternal Champion a lot. Also listening to Visigoth a bit, going through a real heavy metal throw back phase at the moment. I can't stand power metal right now though for some reason, so it's difficult to find modern heavy metal bands that don't drift into power metal territory and at the same time don't suck.

Snack: I had a hot dog with curry sauce on it, it was really good, perfect with beer.

Website: http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/

Experience.

It's finally a great time to be alive again here. The snow has pissed off for a few months and it's
getting warmer everyday, bloody great.

When the sakura trees are in bloom everyone has picnics in the parks under the trees. Everyone uses the same blue tarp and most people are drinking beers and having fun. It's like everyone can finally come out of their winter hovels and celebrate being able to go outside again.

On this particular outing I took two beers with me, both of which were purchased at the snow monkey beer live festival. The first was this weizen which comes from somewhere near Mt. Fuji. This beer was very fruity and full tasting. Very delicious and it suited being outside in the sun with flowers very much.

The design on the bottle was also cool. It was pink which matched the flowers and I think the cap even had a sakura leaf on it. I just grabbed any beers from the fridge as we left, so this one must have jumped to the front to be a part of the spring festivities. Upon looking at the bottle again, I realised the brewery actually has "sakura" in it's name, so yeah it was definitely the right choice to take to a hanami.

I've never seen this beer for sale anywhere before, but perhaps if you are travelling in the Mt. Fuji area you will find it. I plan on climbing Mt. Fuji, so I'll definitely be picking up a few of these when I'm in the area.

Looking on their website, it looks like the have a restaurant in Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji, which is one of my favourite towns in Japan. I cannot recommend going to this town enough, it's really beautiful and you get an unreal view of Mt. Fuji.





Thursday 13 April 2017

Matsumoto Brewery - Pale Ale 330ml bottle



Name: Traditional Bitter

Brewery: Matsumoto Brewery

Style: Pale Ale

Purchased at: Matsumoto Brewery Tap Room

Price: ¥500

Taste: 8/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Akhlys - The Dreaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_SK1Gn63f0

Ferocious and dark black metal.

Snack: I was cooking spaghetti

Website: http://matsu-brew.com/

Experience.

I forget why but I wanted to make spaghetti bolognese from scratch, if you count using canned tomatoes as from scratch. I think I'd been eating a lot of crap at the time, so I wanted something that wasn't dripping in oil or too process. I could have eaten some plain vegetables, but

Anyway this is another one of the beers from Matsumoto Brewery. This is a great Pale Ale. It doesn't have that intense hop flavour of some pale ales. Very refreshing and slightly citrusy I guess. The best thing about Matsumoto brewery beers is how fresh they are. They make them all right there.

I hate it when you find out a craft beer company is actually just a small division of a huge beer company. Mainly because of how stupid they think people are. Kirin and Asahi make "craft" beer here in Japan, but they dont try and hide it at least. Their names are all over the label. Australian beer companies dont do that though, they try to make it seem authentic. Craft beer companies should start in someones garage or by a group of people who want to go out on their own and make something cool, not a board room by a company cashing in on a growing trend and trying to increase their already massive profits. I probably have no idea what I'm talking about here by the way.

I still like the Matsumoto bitter beer the best of what I've tried from them, but this is definitely a delicious Pale Ale that I would love to have again.

By the way, you can see the Snow Monkey Beer Live glass in action here. Only problem with it is the glass is really thin. My premium malts glass broke last night, which I was pretty sad about. If the snow monkey beer glass breaks ill be really sad.

Thursday 6 April 2017

Beer Venue: Oriental Brewing in Kanazawa

Name: Oriental Brewing in Kanazawa

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

Purchased at: Ticket purchased online, there is help for English speakers.

Price: ¥700

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various

Music: Been listening to Eternal Champion a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODNqxcRQGH4

Snack: I'd just eaten a lot of sushi, so I couldn't eat any of the great looking pizzas they had there unfortunately.

Website: http://www.orientalbrewing.com/

Experience:


Over the spring holidays my special lady and I took a trip to a city called Kanazawa. It's a beautiful little city on the Japan sea in the Toyama prefecture. People like to describe it as a smaller Kyoto, but I think they should just focus on being themselves, they have enough to offer.

While there I discovered a local micro brewery called Oriental Brewing. It was a really nice little bar that had two house brewed beers on tap and about 6 other craft beers from different parts of Japan, including the 11% beer I tried at snow monkey beer live.







The bar itself actually has a small brewery attached, which is really rare to see in Japan. I wanted to take a picture but there was a guy in there so I didn't, in hindsight I should have just taken it.



The house brewed beers were delicious. There was a Weizen and a Yuzu beer, Yuzu being a Japanese lemon. I don't even know if they bottle these beers, so you'll have to go there to try them.











They also make some great looking food. We had just been to a really nice sushi place, so I was full as. I really wanted to order a pizza, but we were going to a geisha performance that night and didn't want to feel like compelte shit. The lady working at the bar actually rolled out the dough, put on the toppings and cooked the pizza right behind the bar in an oven. This again is a really rare thing to see in Japan. It's great to see people doing cool things like this.

Oriental Brewing is right near Kenrokuen Garden. If you go to Kanazawa you will almost certainly visit this garden, so this is a great place to go while you are in the area. Also, they host English speaking geisha evenings nearby which is 100% definitely worth checking out as well. They are real geishas and you can play a drinking game with them.

If you are in Kanazawa definitely go here, and don't eat anything beforehand, save your appetite for all the beers and pizza.

You can find pictures of all the stuff I missed on their website. Looks like they really have their shit together, sick dudes.

Beer Event: Snow Monkey Beer Live.

Name: Snow Monkey Beer Live

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

Purchased at: Ticket purchased online, there is help for English speakers.

Price: ¥4500 per ticket

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various, one of the beers with 10% but didnt taste like it.

Music: Toe and Jizue

Snack: I ate super spicy fried chicken, quesadillas and a sausage that made my breath reek but tasted unreal.

Website: http://snowmonkey.jp/

Experience:

On the 18th and 19th of March there was a music festival in Shiga Kogen, Nagano. Shiga Kogen is a big mountain range that would be well known to anyone that comes to Japan to ski. Also a beautiful place to explore and wander in summer. 

The festival was called Snow Monkey Beer Live. A bunch of really cool Japanese bands were playing. As well as that, a heap of craft breweries come and set up small bars in the concert hall. You get a special beer glass and a bunch of beer tickets, and then you can try a whole lot of beers from all over Japan. There was awesome food too.



Of the bands playing, I was particularly excited to see Jizue and Toe. I couldn’t believe these bands were playing so close to my house.



There was still a lot of snow once we started getting into the mountains. I was surprised because down in town theres not a flake left.

I tried a lot of different beers but decided I wasn’t going to review them all. Instead I bought a bunch from the bottle shop they have set up. It was unreal walking into the room and seeing all the different cool beers from all over Japan. I only bought 6, but I wanted them all.

                            This is the glass you get, it's my main glass now.

On the day my favourite beer was one that was infused with a smokey flavour somehow. I can’t remember which company made it, but the point is there was a lot of cool beers to try.

Even if you aren’t a fan of the bands playing, it’s still definitely worth going. The range of beer was terrific, it’s cool to see so many people making cool beers in Japan.


If bands like Toe and Jizue are playing, I can’t wait to see who is on next years bill. There were three shows all up. One on Saturday night then two on Sunday, a midday one and an evening one. For each ticket you buy you’ll get 5 beer tickets. 

About the shuttle bus. Apparently there is a shuttlebus that runs from Yudanaka station up to the event. Its kinda hard to find information about it on the website, but when we got to the festival a guy gave us the schedule. Maybe if you click around enough on the website you can find it. There are also other local busses running but they stop before the festival finishes.


Thursday 9 March 2017

Hitachino Nest Beer - White Ale 330ml bottle



Name: Hitachino Nest Beer

Brewery: Kiuchi Brewery

Style: White Ale

Purchased at: A shop called Aming, it sells fancy things.

Price: ¥300

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5.5%

Music: The Cure - Greatest Hits.

Snack: I think I made quesadillas that night, but I can't remember.

Website: http://www.kodawari.cc/?en_home/products/hitachino-nest-beer.html

Experience:

I was cooking tea and listening to music, so I decided to have a few beers, everyone in town was shocked because I have never done this before.

I was looking forward to this beer because the label is cool and I like White Ales a lot. I was not at all dissapointed! This beer was really refreshing and delicious. The label says it was made with orange peel, which I felt like I could taste, but maybe I just thought that because the label said so.

This beer might be my favourite now, I will try a few along side the Yona Yona pale ale to see which I prefer. If nothing else I think that this company is becoming my favourite beer company in Japan.

This company seems really switched on. It looks like they are getting distributed around the world now. And you can brew your own beer there, which is bloody cool. As far as I know not a lot of breweries offer this in Japan. And people cannot brew their own beer at home, due to strict laws, so this is a really awesome oppertunity for people in Japan.

Keep an eye out for the owl mascot of this beer, and drink a lot of it! Support companies doing cool things like this!


















Thursday 23 February 2017

Yo Ho Brewing - Yona Yona Ale 330ml can.



Name: Yona Yona Ale

Brewery: Yo Ho Brewing

Style: Pale Ale

Purchased at: Liquor store in a super market.

Price: ¥350

Taste: 9.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5.5%

Music: I was playing guitar while drinking this beer. I have a 7 string guitar, running through a bass amp with a Rat distortion. Just messing around with some heavy sounding riffs.


Snack: Beef Jerky, later that evening I ate pizza.

Website: http://yohobrewing.com/e/yonayona.html

Experience:

In the last review I reviewed an IPA made by the same company that made this beer. It was terrible and I'd prefer to never have it again. This beer, however, is one of the best beers I've had here in Japan. It's a Pale Ale, which I am already a fan of, but to me it doesn't have any of the bad tastes some Pale Ales can have, where they end up tasting like soap.

This beer was kind of citrusy, it has a great golden colour and looks perfect when poured into a glass. It goes down smooth and it is extremely refreshing. There's a bar at the station in Nagano that serves this beer in those glasses that look kinda like wine glasses, but for beer. I raised my glass and drank to those who were frantically trying to catch their trains. Little did they know, with all their rushing around from place to place, that the perfect beer in the perfect glass was located in the very place their journeys began! If you find yourself at Nagano station, tear up your ticket and head to the second floor, there's a bar there with a sausage place right across from it. You can drink this beer all night and eat sausages at the same time, sounds pretty good to me.

Yona Yona apparently means "Night after night" in Japanese. I guess they are implying you could drink this beer night after night without getting sick of it. I think because it doesn't have any super strong flavours in particular this could be true. I don't see what there would be to get sick of. It's just a clean, fresh tasting beer.

The only reason I didn't give this beer a 10/10 is because I'm waiting for the true king of beers to reveal itself to me. At the moment this beer is probably my favourite one in Japan. If you see it, bloody go for it, I don't see how you could possibly regret it.

Today is Friday, so I daresay I will be grabbing a few of these on the way home tonight.

YO HO Brewing - Aooni Blue Devil IPA 330ml Can.




Name: Aooni

Brewery: Yo Ho Brewing.

Style: IPA

Purchased at: 7/11

Price: ¥300

Taste: 3/10

Alcohol Level: 7%

Music: Ahab - Boats of the Glen Carrig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XmmznY45I


Snack: Beef Jerky

Website: http://yohobrewing.com/e/

Experience:

I purchased two beers to drink while I was playing guitar on a Friday night. They were both made by the same company, one an IPA and one was just a Pale Ale. Somehow, the same company managed to make one of the best, and one of the worst beers I have ever tasted.

This one was one of the worst. I could barely finish it. In fact I couldn't finish it while I was playing and was holding onto it up until I was leaving the music studio, at which point I skulled it just to get rid of it.

This tasted like dirty cauliflower water, that's my best way of describing it. I've tasted IPAs before, they aren't my favourite style, but I don't want to spit them out like this one. Maybe I picked one from a contaminated batch or something, I don't know, but it tasted terrible. Thankfully I had a beef jerky chaser to get rid of the flavour.

I realised I have another one in the fridge at home, so I'll suffer through it again to see if I was wrong the first time. If you are really into IPAs you could give it a try, but I would recommend trying another one of the beers this company offers.

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Zenkoji Roman Beer Rindou - 330ml can


Name: Zenkoji Roman Beer Rindou

Brewery: Reijin Shuzo Co.

Style: Stout

Purchased at: Liquor store in a super market.

Price: ¥250

Taste: 7/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Been listening to Alcest - Kodama a lot recently. I love all of Alcest's albums, my favourite song off this one is probably Eclosion. I am glad Neige brought the harsh vocals back on this album.


Snack: Beef Sausage (Good) and a ``Kebab``(Abysmal)

Website: http://www.reijin.com/info/


Experience:

Zenkoji is the name of a huge, famous temple in my town. It is about 1400 years old, but it's been burned down and rebuilt a bunch of times. If you spend any amount of time in Nagano you'll probably visit it at least once. They hold a lot of festivals and events here though out the year, and it's just a nice place to take a walk. For the few weeks that pokemon go was popular, it was a great place to do laps and catch pokemon, until they put up signs asking people not to play it near the temple.

Saturday night was the Zenkoji Lantern festival. Hundreds of lanterns decorated by people in the town lined the streets and the temple itself was lit up with a sound and light show. I really like these festivals where everyone in the town seems to come out, it's a great atmosphere. Since it was saturday night and Zenkoji's festival, I decided to have a ``Zenkoji`` beer.

I think they make this beer in a town called Suwa, which is and hour or two south of Nagano city. Looking at their website, it appears that they have made a number of beers themed on things in Nagano. It looks like the company focuses more on their sake than beer. The company appears to be quite old, but I'm sure that their beer would be a newer venture for them.

This beer was a stout, I think. It had a pretty strong toffee sort of flavour. Seems like it would be great drinking it in the warmth of  pub, unfortunately I was outside and didn't bring gloves. Drinking a Zenkoji beer in Zenkoji itself was a pretty cool experience though and my hand which was slowly succumbing to frostbite was able to keep the can cold. I've seen this beer for sale at the station, so a lot of people probably buy this beer right before they jump on the shinkansen. While drinking this beer I was eating some of the food being sold from stalls along the street. I had a sausage, which was really good, and a kebab which was terrible.

Kebabs in Australia are unreal, easily one of my favourite foods. I've tried to find kebabs here in Japan, and I've been disappointed every single time. For some reason every kebab vendor in Japan uses shredded cabbage instead of lettuce. They use mayonnaise instead of more traditional kebab sauces. And they are always tiny. Sometimes the meat in them is pretty good, so it's not all bad I guess, but they are nothing like back home and I can't imagine any kebab enthusiast ever being satisfied. Still, I'll continue searching this country for a decent kebab. If I ever find one, they will have an extremely loyal customer.

Anyway on this particular night a local restaurant that will remain nameless set up a food stall. They had fried chicken and kebab rolls. Great, I thought, beers and kebabs, what a great festival. Boy was I wrong. The kebab was ice cold and it had coleslaw in it with some meat. Had I had a few more beers and not been at a festival I would have thrown it to the ground and stomped it. Why even call it a kebab? It was a coleslaw wrap if anything. This is probably a similar feeling that Japanese people get when they travel abroad and encounter deep friend mayonnaise bombs advertised as ''sushi''. I get that different countries have different interpretations of classic dishes, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.

Anyway, the beer was really good. If you drink a Zenkoji beer in Zenkoji temple, I'm sure it's gotta be good luck or something, so try it out. You'll find this beer at the station and pretty much any souvenir shop that sells food. My  photo was pretty crap, so look for the red can with a picture of the temple on it.

Tuesday 7 February 2017

OH! LA! HO Beer - Captain Crow Extra Pale Ale






Name: Captain Crow Extra Pale Ale

Brewery: OH! LA! HO Beer

Style: Pale Ale

Purchased at: Liquor store in a super market.

Price: ¥300

Taste: 7.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Ahab - Boats of the Glen Carrig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XmmznY45I


Snack: Beef Jerky. Special Setsubun sushi roll.

Website: http://www.tomi-kosya.com/ohlaho-beer/ohlaho-beer.html

Experience:

Today was a special day in Japan called Setsubun, we still had to go to work though. Setsubun is a special bean throwing day. In the evening I guess, someone in the family puts on a demon mask and runs around the house while the rest of the family throws beans at them. Someone I work with told said the demon is like all the bad thoughts and stuff you have, so throwing beans at the demon is a way to get rid of a lot of negativity you might be carrying around. If someone started throwing beans at me, I'd definitely leave, so it seems like a good idea. You might have to be careful if you have a kid with some heavy shit going on, those beans might knock you out.

On this particular day they make really long sushi rolls that are probably shared with the family. I got one for myself though and I did not share it. With the sushi rolls they have also been selling peanuts and beans in supermarkets for weeks leading up to this day, so I imagine a lot of people get into it pretty hard.

It also happened to be Friday night, so I decided to help myself to a few train beers. You can drink anywhere here in Japan. A lot of people from other countries, especially Australians, think this is really cool and almost instantly and constantly take advantage of this. Living here for a while I've come to realise that most Japanese people don't drink beers and stuff on the train after work, so I try and be a bit subtle about it. You might feel a bit awkward, but in my opinion Train Beers are an essential part of your Japan experience.

This beer is an Extra Pale Ale. I looked it up and the thing that makes pale ale taste like a pale, I think, is the hoppiness. Whatever it is, this beer has a LOT of it. Fortunately I like this flavour, but if you aren't into it, it's going to be way too strong. I was glad to have some of the beef jerky on hand to balance it all out. Apart from that it was really refreshing and delicious.



This beer is brewed in Nagano, a bit south of where I live. I checked out their website and they appear to have a number of beers available. I've seen a few of them before in 7/11s around here, but I didn't realise they were the same company as this Captain Crow one, so I'll be getting some on the way home to try for sure. Looking further I found that they have a restaurant here in Nagano.

There's a great write up about it here: http://beertengoku.com/2016/03/16/restaurant-oh-la-ho/

Looks unreal and I can't wait to go.



You'll be able to find this beer in many places around Nagano. I've seen it in 7/11s, restaurants and a few of the smaller liquor stores. The smaller liquor store tend to have more variety and more local beers. As I've said before, places like Takagi are terrible for finding local or craft beers. Keep an eye out, you'll definitely spot this distinctive can and be crushing them in no time.

Remember, always train beer responsibly. Don't be loud, just enjoy the views on your journey and be good.

Monday 6 February 2017

Matsumoto Brewery - Traditional Bitter, Pint






Name: Traditional Bitter

Brewery: Matsumoto Brewery

Style: Bitter

Purchased at: Matsumoto Brewery Tap Room

Price: ¥900

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: I was listening to Amusement Parks on Fire a lot at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsWO6VI9XU

Snack: Pancakes.

Website: http://matsu-brew.com/


We were heading down to Matsumoto City in central Nagano for some exclusive pancakes and I decided to check if there was a beer brewery somewhere in the area. Matsumoto is a really cool place, it has some really nice old streets to walk around and some bloody great restaurants, so I thought there might be a brewery nearby. Sure enough, I came across the Matsumoto Brewery, and their tap room was right in town, so we decided to check it out. The venue has a small bar downstairs and a small room upstairs with a few tables. Downstairs was packed so we grabbed a pint of the Traditional Bitter and sat upstairs.

I've had regular bitter beers many times in the past that were pretty shitty. I associated the name 'bitter beer'' with a shitty, mass produced beer, I went in thinking it might be a bit crap. This wasn't the case at all, it was extremely smooth and delicious. I began to feel extremely cozy. The warm room and the old Japanese streets around me started to feel very comfy and I was ready to take a walk around. Maybe it was the beer talking though.

I believe they had two beers on tap, and four beers for sale to take home in bottles. I grabbed the four to try later. I tried the Traditional Bitter again at home and can safely say nothing was lost in bottling it up and enjoying it at home. It was still a terrific, tasty beer.

I really like their company slogan, ``WE NEED MORE BEER!!!`` I feel like they get me. They have bags and Tshirts with this printed on them 



If you find yourself in Matsumoto, I strongly recommend you check this place out. The staff there speak some English, so it's perfect for travelers who want to try some excellent, local craft beer. Taking a look at their facebook page, they seem to put on a lot of events around the town. They certainly are a lively bunch who want to get their beer out there and enjoyed amongst the people. So get out there, support them and drink a lot of their beer.

Sunday 29 January 2017

Minami Shinsyu Beer - Golden Ale 330ml bottle.


Name: Minamishinsyu Beer

Brewery: Komagatake Brewery

Style: Golden Ale

Purchased at: Grill The Butcher, a steak restaurant in Nagano Station

Price: ¥800

Taste: 9.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Restaurant background music. Before I arrived I was listening to Aves - Feathers
https://avesmusic.bandcamp.com/

Snack: Steak.

Website: http://www.ms-beer.co.jp/

Experience:
On Australia day I decided to have a beer and some steak. Finding a decent steak in Japan can be difficult, depending on where  you live. Outside of the main cities if you don't love Japanese food  to death, then you will have to learn to cook. Thankfully for us there is a really good steak restaurant in Nagano Station called Grill the  Butcher. Compared to Australian prices, the steaks are not that expensive. They are delicious and there's absolutely nothing Japanese about the taste, except for the wasabi they put on the side of the  plate which I try my best to ignore.

Anyway today's beer was a craft beer from the Komagatake Brewery in Southern Nagano. I haven't visited this brewery yet, but if I find myself down south I will definitely check it out. Making craft beer in Japan can't be easy. It's illegal for people to make their own
alcohol at home, which sucks because just before I arrived here I tried brewing a beer of my own (it was terrible). Maybe the process of making sake can become explosive if amateurs try it, I'm not sure, but they don't want people making it at home. To get a license to make
beer is tough and expensive, so given the chance I will always support a craft beer company here.

The beer made by breweries in Nagano always tastes so clean and fresh. There is basically an unlimited supply of fresh water, thanks to all the snow melting and running down the mountains. Drinking beer made here really feels like you are drinking the nectar of the mountains. I believe this company was born from a whiskey company, so I don't think it is some tiny 3 man operation or anything, but looking at their site tells me they are still quite small and everything appears to be handmade.

I had the Golden Ale. It was clean, fresh and crisp. I wanted to sip it because it tasted so good. Drinking this while eating steak, man I was loving life. There was maybe a tiny bit of sweetness or citrus flavour to it, but nothing too strong. Just the delicious taste of fresh beer straight from the icy mountains of Nagano, perfect.

This beer might be a little difficult to come across. I assume outside of Nagano there might not be too many places to buy it. Here in Nagano you might get lucky at a souvenir shop, they occasionally sell beer and sake. Shops selling local foods and crafts might sell it. I live in the northern part of Nagano, so perhaps going south would be easier. And of course, check the menu and maybe it will be available. To my knowledge this was the first time I'd come across this beer, and it wasn't on the menu last time we were at this restaurant. I would like to buy more, but apart from this restaurant, I'm not 100% sure where to find it.

I've found that bottle shops like Takagi are completely useless for beer, they only sell Asahi and Kirin, so don't even bother trying. Maybe the supermarket Tsuruya would have it sometimes, but I haven't seen it. Most people in Japan seem pretty happy with Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo, so you have to go looking for craft beers here. if you are travelling in Japan I urge you to venture outside of smashing Asahi and Kirin the whole time. When they have a cool label and it says it was brewed locally, it really brings to mind the idea of people taking water straight from the rivers and crafting their beers among the mountains of Nagano.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Asahi Super Dry 500ml



Name: Asahi Super Dry

Brewery: Asahi Breweries LTD.

Style: Japanese Rice Lager (I guess they make it from rice?)

Purchased at: 7/11

Price: ¥250

Taste: 6.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm

Snack: Peanuts

Experience:

This is probably the most recognisable Japanese beer. It's going to be available just about anywhere you go around here, so expect to drink a lot of them. It's not too expensive and it goes down easy, as long as it's cold. Once it starts warming up a bit it starts tasting like a muddy puddle, but before then it's delicious and refreshing.


The taste is probably as close to what you might expect the beer in a cartoon to taste like. I wouldn't say it's boring, but it's taste is completely non threatening and simple. Some people might find it bland, or boring. This isn't the type of beer you sip at a fine dinner or taste during a beer sampling journey or whatever. This is a beer that's just for knocking back and relaxing.

The pictured beer came at the end of a long walk. I discovered a bit of a trail that runs along a treeline near my house, so I decided to follow it. This was just before winter set in, so it was cold but hadn't started snowing yet. As I was walking I passed a man with a dog and a sack of persimmons. He gave me a piece of fruit and I got to play with the dog for a minute, great experience. Finally after climbing a short hill I realised I had arrived at a road I knew quite well, so there was no point in exploring further. I found a nice spot under a tree, went to a 7/11 and then came back to enjoy the sunset. The first swig as I sat overlooking my small town while the sun shined golden orange as it went down, let me tell ya I'll be thinking of that scene next time I'm at the dentist.

As I said before though, as this beer warms up it sucks. I bought 2 beers that day, by the time I got to the 2nd one the muddy taste had begun to set in. I think it's safe to say that this a beer best enjoyed in a pub or in the comfort of your own home with a fridge. If you are looking at necking 2 or 3 beers while you are walking around, I suggest you try something else.

All in all this beer makes for a great standard when drinking beers in Japan, certainly one to be proud of. I daresay, if you spend a few weeks here traveling around, in the years to come the sight and taste of this beer will come to remind you of your trip. I still live in Japan, but just looking at the can reminds me of fun times I've had with friends, long train trips and walking around my town on warm summer nights.