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.

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.