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.

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!