Can from Chitose Airport. Pours a deep brown with a modest beige head. Some dark fruit on the nose with some roasted malt and smoked prosciutto. There is a hint of smoke on the nose. Fairly dry with a little fruity sourness that comes out on the palate as well. Body is quite thin. Tastes like schwartzbier in 2015. Fairly run of the mill, except for the unexpected smoked character. --- Beer merged from original tick of Yubari Coal Mine Dark Lager on 06 Aug 2015 at 19:20 - Score: 5

35 cl can, souvenir from trip to Japan. Black color. Light brown head, not too long retention. Aroma’s: roasted malts/ground coffee, drop/licorice. Flavor is light sweet, roasted. Thin mouthfeel. Finishes with roast, slightly dry and light bitterness. Nice enough.

350 ml can from The Garden, Jiyugaoka. Pours pitch black - of coal black. Has a nice beige head at first but it reduces soon. What remains is creamy and fluid, leaving nice lacings on the glass. Aroma has some roast with dark fruits, maybe dried plums. Taste is also nicely creamy, some roast malts, brewed nicely into a dry beer - that has a lot of flavour for the meagre 5% abv it packs. Bitter and charred aftertaste, remains for some minutes. Quite enjoyable, actually much better than I expected.

Can from Kita Recipe in Umeda. From Susukino Beer in Hokkaido comes this black pour with a beige head with rusty accents and ok lacing. Served in a snifter it gives off an aroma of soft chocolate. Medium-light bodied with an energetic carbonation giving it a spritzy mouthfeel. The taste is roasty, bitter dark chocolate & cacao beans. The finish is somewhat ascerbic giving a kind of mild puckering palate cleansing effect. A decent enough schwarzbier and much better than their pilsner.

Draught at the brewpub. They call it a stout. I was not sure whether it was a stout or a schwarz. Tastes more like a dry stout. Dark black with a nice tan head. Burnt malt aroma with coffee. Very creamy flavor, strong roasting and coffee. Sweetish, light but with full flavor, good malt. Clean and flavorful.

Extremely dark brown color. The nose is like cappacino with two spoons of sugar. Mouth is robust and sweet with lots of dark malts playing around. Very nice, save for the sweetness.