Karuizawa Kogen Beer - 2020 Session Ale

Name: 2020 Session IPA

Brewery: Karuizawa Kogen Beer

Style: IPA

Purchased at: Aeon.

Price: ¥350

Taste: 8/10

Alcohol Level: 4.5%

Music: Iron Griffin - Curse of the Sky. 
 

Snack: Quesadillas. Earlier in the day I ate some fried oysters.

Website: https://karuizawa-kogen-beer.com/

Experience:

I have returned to the mountains of Nagano. The feeling of walking into a supermarket and seeing the shelves lined with Kirin, Asahi and Yebisu brought a tear to my eye, let me tell you. For the first few weeks I drank these beers, and some old favourite like the Yona Yona Ale. As time passed I decided to start exploring Nagano’s craft beers again. The beer I chose to restart my Nagano life was the 2020 Karuizawa Session Ale.

This beer reminded me of other IPAs I’ve had in Japan, in that it didn’t taste like they injected pure hops extract into this beer like so many others I’ve tried in Australia. The IPA taste is more subtle, but undeniably there. Refreshing and fruity are words that definitely come to mind. Perfect with dark chocolate or, as I had, quesadillas.

In the time between now and my last review some things have changed, some things have remained the same. I still love quesadillas and jambalaya, but I’m adding more foods to the short list of things I cook. I still listen to heavy metal, there have been a lot of great releases and a lot of older albums I have discovered.

 

While drinking this beer I was listening to Iron Griffin – Curse of the Sky. Incredible, somewhat lo-fi heavy metal with amazing vocals and riffs. It’s not a loud album, and may take a few listens to get into, but if you like Demon Bitch, any bands playing that throwback heavy metal style, give them a listen. They aren’t at all psychedelic or overly rocky,

 

While back in Australia I worked on making my own beer and slow cooking meats. Both of these will be difficult to do in Japan. It’s illegal to brew your own beer here, and gas ovens are not at all common. I do want to get into smoking and slow cooking meats in a weber style bbq, but I live in an apartment at the moment. I’ll sort it out.

 

House IPA - Shiga Kogen Brewery.

Name: House IPA

Brewery: Shiga Kogen Brewery.

Style: IPA.

Purchased at: Aeon Supermarket.

Price: ¥400

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: 6%

Music: Still listening to Demon Bitch - Hellfriends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03AEI2NiKM 

Snack: I had some chicken with this sauce. I purchased this sauce at the Shiga Kogen Taphouse, so I thought I should enjoy the sauce with their beer.

Website: http://www.tamamura-honten.co.jp/

Experience:

I have been delaying the review of these Shiga Kogen beers because they are easy to find where I live. I am quickly running out of time here in Japan though, so I thought I had better start. There are at least 10 of these that I need to get through. I have 4 more in my fridge, all different styles, and there are more to collect yet.

To put it simply, I loved this beer. It was deliciously hoppy and refreshing. There was not a lot of foam. The colour was a deep brown which I think looks so delicious. As you can see I have a Shiga Kogen glass as well, I would have liked it if the beer filled the entire glass I have to say. The Shiga Kogen brewery grows their own materials, so I am lead to believe. And I can only imagine they source their water from the icy peaks of the Shiga Kogen mountain range which rises above their brewery. This image in mind makes me enjoy this beer so much.

These beers can be found at the Nagano Train Station and Harashin super markets most easily. Occasionally I see them in convenience stores, but that has always been a rare event. Having a glass bottle to get rid of in Japan is perhaps one of the most inconvenient things imaginable, thanks to the lack of public bins.  There is one day a month where I can dispose of glass bottles from my apartment. Already this month I have quite a few beer and wine bottles. By the time I review all of them I am going to have a massive collection of glass.

.

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.

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.