OH! LA! HO! Brewing - Kolsch, Can.

Name: OH! LA! HO! Kolsch

Brewery: Oh La Ho! Brewing

Style: Kolsch

Purchased at: Seiyu.

Price: ¥350

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Still listening to Visigoth album, “Conqueror’s Oath.”

Snack: Still eating the Piri Piri chicken.

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

Experience: Had the OH! LA! HO! Pale Ale a minute ago, now on to the Kolsch. This one was smooth as milk my man. Very tasty. I couldn’t drink more than one or two of the Pale Ales, but I can see drinking many of these and it being good. I don't know what a Kolsch is, I expected the beer to be dark based off the name. I'll have to research it.

I love the can designs. I mentioned the orange can in the last interview, this one is blue. These cans really stand out, they look pretty simple but I like that. Some cans around here have scribbles and stuff all over them, they look terrible, like they were designed by a two year old.

I think this might be the last OH LA HO beer I had to try. I’ll keep a look out, and they do release new ones now and then. But this might be the last of their main ones.

OH LA HO! Brewery - Pale Ale, Can.

Name: Pale Ale

Brewery: Oh La Ho! Brewing

Style: Pale Ale

Purchased at: Seiyu.

Price: ¥350

Taste: ８/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: The new Visigoth album, “Conqueror’s Oath.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtc2Yn6WJQw

Snack: I bought some Piri Piri seasoning in Australia and cooked some chicken with it. It was mainly spicy, not that tasty, not a fan of that but next time I reckon I’ll use less.

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

Experience:

I’m doing my best to try all the OH! LA! HO! beers. So far I can’t say they have any bad ones, they have all been delicious. On this particular night I tried two, the first being the Pale Ale.

OH!LA!HO! have another Pale Ale, the Captain Crow Extra Pale Ale, which I have reviewed before. The regular Pale Ale is definitely easier to drink. They hops flavour is definitely a lot smoother, which I prefer. The taste was pretty typical of what you would expect for a Pale Ale. I used to be a big fan of this style, but recently I go for darker beers instead. I still found this to be very tasty and I’ll definitely be buying it again.

Love the orange colour of the can. My favourite colour has always been orange and I think I worked out why recently. My birthday is in October. In Australia it’s springtime, usually overcast, maybe a little bit green with some warmer days, overall a green, blue or grey sort of feeling. In America however, it’s autumn, lots of orange and warmer colours. Halloween is in October too, which has a very orange feel. I’m guessing when I was younger I’d watch cartoons and other TV shows set in October and associated it with the good feeling of my birthday. I’ve always liked autumn, being cozy and Halloween too, I’m guessing this is all for the same reason.

OH LA HO! Brewery - Amber Ale, Can.

Name: Amber Ale

Brewery: Oh La Ho! Brewing

Style: Amber Ale

Purchased at: Nagano train station.

Price: ¥350

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: I was still listening to Aura Noir from the previous review, but at the time of actually writing this I am listening to Summoning’s album, Oathbound.

Summoning – Oathbound.

Snack: Chicken sandwich with japapenos

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

I drank this beer just after the Thrash Lager in the previous review. When I poured this beer into the glass, jeez I was admiring the colour. A beautiful, deep brown with slightly brown foam on the top. This is my absolute favourite colour for beer, love it when the foam is dark like that. I think it’s because one time a friend of a friend came around to our house with some beer he had made himself. I was like, WTF you can make your own beer??

The taste man. Just perfect. It’s got that slightly sweet and caramel flavour you’d expect from a beer of this colour, but not over the top so you feel sick by the end of it.

I’m gonna go ahead and say this is my favourite beer from Nagano that I’ve tried so far. The Yona Yona pale ale has been dethroned and a new power has risen. Hail, amber ale, king of the bar.

This is the type of beer I imagine them drinking in Lord of the Rings. In fact I am reading lord of the rings at the moment. I just finished the chapter where Aragon and company arrive at Isengard to find Merry and Pippin eating and drinking to their hearts content. When they sit down to lunch they are offered beer from a barrel. OH LA HO’s Amber Ale is what I imagine they drank. Oh and from the movie where he says, It comes in pints?? This is the beer I imagine. I thick, strong foam, hearty, warming flavour with naturally brewed flavours.

Maybe this beer simply came to me at the right time, but I really enjoyed it. I’m writing this review during down time at work now, but you had better bloody believe I’m going to pick up a few cans of it on the way home tonight, go ahead and put money on that. I reckon I’ll drink one or two while in the bath tonight. Sounds great to me.

OH LA HO! Brewery - Thrash Lager, Can.

Name: Captain Crow Thrash Lager

Brewery: Oh La Ho! Brewing

Style: Lager

Purchased at: The Oh La Ho! Brewery and Nagano train station.

Price: ¥350

Taste: 9.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: It’s a thrash lager so I had to listen to some Thrash

Aura Noir – Black Thrash Attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-kKaJ21gbw

Snack: Chicken sandwich with japapenos

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

Experience.

OH LA HO! releases another beer with their mascot, Captain Crow. I don’t get why he is on some of their beers and not others. I’ve reviewed the other Captain Crow beer, the Pale Ale, and I have to say Captain Crow is getting better because I like this one more.

I feel like I don’t often see craft lager beers, it seems like a style that you might see more in British Pubs or something like that. The taste of this beer is delicious. I’ve had it a few times because shortly after it released I bought it every time I saw it. On their facebook page I remember them posting something about there only being a certain amount of these beers being made, like 2000 or something. So I though Man I better get as many as I can! But I’ve seen this beer many times around Nagano, even now months after its release, so clearly I read something wrong.

This beer is really tasty man. They say it’s a lager but I feel like I can taste a lot of hops or whatever, like in a Pale Ale. Maybe this is how lager is meant to taste, but as I said I imagine standard draught beer when I think of lager, so I was a little surprised. So I don’t at all regret buying it a bunch of times, and I still go for it if I see it available. Nice colour and a lot of foam, but that was probably just from the way I poured it.

OH LA HO! has a brewery a little south of where I am outside of Ueda in a village called Tomi. It’s up in the hills and has an unreal view. They have all their beers there on tap. The food there is pretty fancy, I was hoping for hamburgers and stuff when I went there, but I was able to get chips and sausages so I was happy. I 100% recommend going there if you can! At the brewery I saw this beer won a heap of awards. It deserved them!

Beer Event: 2018 Japan Brewers Cup.

Name: Japan Brewers Cup 2018

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

Purchased at: Ticket purchased at the door.

Price: ¥500 per ticket

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various, up to like 10 or 15%

Music: Bands unknown to me, but good.

Snack: Grilled Lamb, Fish and Chips.

Website:  https://japanbrewerscup.jp/english.html

Experience:

I was on my way down to Tokyo planning on doing some walking around some smaller temples. I’ve been watching what I eat recently and cutting down on beers and bad food. Well all that went out the window when I found out there was a craft beer festival on in Yokohama. 

The building that the festival was held in was awesome. It was right by the sea and made entirely of wood. It was curvy too, it felt like walking on the back of a giant whale, entering through the blowhole to devour the beers where its brain would be.

When I entered I was in shock. Inside the large room, lining the walls, were a large number of craft brewery stalls, all offering their unique brews. It was unreal. There was also a grilled meat vendor and a place that had fish and chips. Bloody oath.

 

It was overwhelming at first, I didn’t know what to choose. The festival was also a competition for best beer. I found myself in front of the brewery that won best beer. It wasn’t even 2 o’clock yet and they had already sold out of their award winning beer. Sucked for me but it must’ve been awesome for them.

So I went with an old favourite: Harvest Moon brewery. I first tried these guys at the Snow Monkey beer festival. I was drawn to them because I like the video game series named Harvest Moon, and the Neil Young album Harvest Moon. Jeez a great night would be listening to Harvest Moon while playing Harvest Moon and drinking some Harvest Moon. So I got their sampling set, some fish and chips and went outside.

It was pretty cold, but a lot of people turned up. As the host pointed out on stage later, there were a lot of non-Japanese people there. I’d say at least a third of the people there. Families were turning up. There was a dude asleep already. There were some huge security guards, but I doubt they were needed. The overall atmosphere was so friendly and fun feeling.

I finished those beers and went back inside. This time I went with Oh La Ho! a favourite of mine that I’ve reviewed before. I felt like I should support my fellow Nagano residents. This time I went with some grilled lamb, which is a bit rare in Japan. They also had wild boar and deer, but I didn’t want to tempt fate with shitting myself while I didn’t have a quick exit or a real idea of where I was.

After all that I came back inside. There were bands playing so I decided to watch them. As I was drinking outside and idol band were on stage. This seemed like a really odd choice for a beer festival. They had a lot of fans there though, glowsticks flaring. When I went inside though and band that had an acoustic guitar, violin, harmonica with effects and drums where on. They were really damn cool and suited the mood so much better. I didn’t get their name though which sucked. I was feeling the beer pretty hard at that point, so maybe I enjoyed them more than I would otherwise. Off to the side I saw the idol band having a meet and greet with their rather intense fans. I guess if you paid extra you could go behind the booth and have a close talking conversation with them where they pretended to be interested in what you were saying.

During this time I had many more beers, but I can’t remember the breweries. I walked around and got a beer from any place that had no customers and looked lonely.

Overall I rate this event a 10/10. Heaps of beer at a good price, good food, not overcrowded, no dickheads and no annoying rules like not being able to go outside or anything. It reminded me of a larger Snow Monkey beer festival. If you get the chance to check out a beer festival in Japan, bloody do it. 

Beer Cup Website: https://japanbrewerscup.jp/english.html
Oh La Ho! Beer: http://www.tomi-kosya.com/ohlaho-beer/ohlaho-beer.html
Harvest Moon Beer: https://www.ikspiari.com/harvestmoon/

Yo Ho Brewing - Karuizawa Kogen Beer Belgian White

Name: Karuizawa Kogen Belgian White

Brewery: Yo Ho Brewing


Style: Belgian White

Purchased at: A restaurant in Karuizawa

Price: ¥500 (Restaurant price)

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Summoning - Stronghold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuoR8wEW0Bo

Snack: Roasted Chicken at the restaurant.

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

Experience.
I'm a little confused about who brewed this beer exactly. I thought that Karuizawa Kogen Beer was its own company and brewery, but on the website it says it is owned by Yo Ho brewing who are also based in Karuizawa and gave us the undeniable masterpiece known as the Yona Yona. I'm just going to assume this is a company owned by Yo Ho until I can find out what is really going on. Looking on their websites it appears as if there are two separate companies, but then I see the Yona Yona label in different pictures. And the bio mentions Yo Ho brewing. Enigmatic and confusing! You don't need to be a genius to drink and enjoy their beers though, so here we go.

Karuizawa is a town in Nagano, Japan. It is fancy as heck, lots of rich people shops and skiing and all that. It has two big breweries that are brewing great beer. Yo Ho brewing and the Karuizawa Brewing Company. Both of these breweries are based in a city called Saku though, which is maybe half an hour away from Karuizawa. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Karuizawa is a place where rich people from Tokyo have their summer or winter homes. Maybe they don't have the room for big breweries. I'm sure some marketing magic was involved because, no offence intended to Saku, but Karuizawa I imagine would be a lot easier to sell as a luxurious place where beer flows freely or whatever.

Anyway, I've reviewed two of the beers from this company before, but they were their all year beers. This is the first seasonal one of theirs but as I said you shouldnt have too much trouble finding it. I'm not even sure what season this beer is meant to be available, it doesn't really matter, what matters is the taste.

And boy, the taste is unreal. This beer is sweet and fruity. I swear I could taste oranges or something. I can see it becoming a bit sickly if you had too much of it, but one or two and you are in heaven. Looks so nice in the glass too.

These beers can easily be found in Karuizawa, Nagano. Just about anywhere that sells craft beers will sell this beer. Maybe it will be out of season when you look for it, but don't worry because it will be coming back.

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.