Bottle from Awara Onsen. Pours darker gold, some white foam on the top at first, does not stay very long. Nose is lightly grainy, touch of wet cardboard and wet malts. Tastes grainy, biscuits, light wet tartness there as well. Light bitterness. Not the greatest balance but nothing really wrong with this either. Kinda meh.

------------update----------------Bottle from Isetan Kyoto, this time around the beer is a nice looking clear gold with a fairly typical sugary sweet macro lager nose. The taste is malty sweet with a bit of a bitter green hop bite and fairly crisp finish. This bottle is in much better condition but still a tad too sweet for me and kind of average. Decent enough compared to the mess I had before. Best Before 2014.9.25 ----------------old review 2.6/5-------------Bottle from Rakuten for maybe 575 yen or so. Served in a footed pilsner glass. It pours a muddy looking brownish gold with a thin fizzy white head. The nose is sweat yeasty & kind of off for the style - war too much of a clay like estery profile. The body is medium full &!it has a decent mouthfeel but the taste is yeasty estery candy sweet with a minimal malt presence & not much from the hops. Served cold it is drinkable but this beer is way way off style & while not a drain pour it isn’t something I’d go for again. Pass. Actually as it warms up it keeps getting closer to a drain pour, I wish I was drinking it at the brewery where it seems to have been much nicer than this mess.

Bottle from the brewery. Deep golden color with light carbonation and a tall, fine, head. Bready, grainy aroma with nice grassy, herbal hops. Fruity, citrus flavors accompany the bready pilsner malts. Rich cereals balanced well with noble hops, plus something vaguely minty as it warmed. Nothing surprising, just clean and tasty. Light, clean body. Enjoyable, if in fact not really reaching for more.