Keyaki. Aroma is caramel, light hoppiness. Dank and earthy. Alright. Want to try it again.

Dull amber, a bit cloudy. Has a nice lemony hop note but a touch of stale amber malt stuff. A bit stale, but some hop bitterness. Hoppy but quite unexciting amber.

Shiga Kogen Not so Red IPA 6% bottle served in my IPA glass. This is made with the experimental HBC431 hop variety and pours a matte orange brown with a light beige head so yeah it lives up to the name as it isn't all that red. The aroma is dank grapefruit rind with a herbal oregano/chives component as well as some pine but it gives me a spice rack kind of feel that makes me think it'd pair well with Italian food. The taste is bitter herbs, grassy, mint, chives, dank pine with just a bit of a rough rustic malt character. An intriguing beer but it feels like a fun experiment rather than something where all the kinks have been worked out. I predict this will be a one off so if you haven't had it yet and you see it somewhere give it a try. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Tap at Keyaki Spring 2016. Not much of anything on the nose...maybe a dash of caramel and light earthiness. Palate is a little better with citrus, earthy twigs and lots of caramel notes. Average carbonation with a medium body. Finish is a little too rough and overly bitter. Decent, but doesn’t quite hit the mark. --- Beer merged from original tick of Not So Red IPA #13 on 15 May 2016 at 17:03 - Score: 6

Tap at Keyaki. Nose of caramel, oranges, earthy hops. Cloudy reddish brown color with lace. Nice hop flavor, earthy, spicy, leafy, with some caramel malts behind. Decent.