Tuesday 8 December 2020

Ohayo White Ale - Peccary Beer.

Name: Ohayo White Ale

Brewery: Peccary Beer, Ina machi.

Style: White Ale

Purchased at: Bell Shine Supermarket

Price: ¥540

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Haunt - Mindfreeze
 
Snack: Home made carbonara.

Website: http://www.peccarybeer.com/

Experience:
I found this beer at a super market near my house. Compared with Northern Nagano, craft beer has been more difficult to come by around these parts. There are less breweries, and I guess it is more remote than the places around Nagano City. Some supermarkets do have local craft beer though and I am always happy to support this.


 This beer, the Ohayo White Ale by Peccary Beer in Ina City, caught my eye because of the pig on the label. I looked at the brewery’s website and it appears a ‘Peccary’ is a breed of pig. The different beers they brew all have a unique pig assigned to them with a different name. This beer though has a rooster on it, I guess because it is a ‘ohayo’, aka ‘good morning’ beer. I plan on trying the other pig beers. According to the website, the brewer grows a lot of the ingredients for his beer on his farm. This explains the amazing fresh taste and beautiful amber colour of this beer.

 The beer itself was delicious. A little bit spicy, and a little bit fruity, but not overly sweet which I have come to hate in white beers. The colour looked beautiful in the glass. A little bit darker, I think, than some other white beers, especially ones produced by bigger breweries.

 Two things I am sure that make crafting beer in Japan an uphill battle is the price and the fact that it is a pain in the ass to throw away glass bottles. This beer was about \540 yen I believe, a lot higher that the \200ish yen for a 500ml tallboy. I drank this beer a few weeks ago, but I still have the empty bottle, along with many others, in my house because we can only get rid of them once a month, at about 8am on a Sunday morning mind you which is a little too easy to miss if you have been working on building your glass bottle collection the night before.

However, I cannot argue with the taste and overall better feeling I get when drinking a beer like this. Especially one brewed so close to my house. When I drank this beer I was reminded why I like craft beer. The delicious taste and beautiful colour made for a great experience.

With this beer I cooked Carbonara pasta. I followed a ‘traditional’ recipe from the Jamie Oliver website. It tasted great, especially with this beer. But I do miss the shitty creamy one from a pizza shop in my town in Australia. But a fine beer like this calls for a fine meal to go with it. Since this pasta probably cost around $20 after I bought all the bloody ingredients, I would call that fine enough.