1.1

Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 1 | Flavor - 1 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 0.5

now for frame of reference, my gf and I were in Chichibu area of Japan. We finished a long day of hiking and had to transfer at Chichibu station to catch our train back to Tokyo. We transferred between two stations that were five min apart and had 12 min to change train. We were starving and thirsty after the hike. We found an old liquor shop between the stations that had some snacks and beer and sake. Gf had no interest in sake and only wanted craft beer - ok that is generally how I feel too after a hike. The store had two bottles. One was asanoya Shoten, a local brewery and this beer beside it. We had little time so I just grabbed both and a couple of snacks. Everyone knows that if anyone in the world hates Niigata beer it’s me. We got on the train and drank the Asanoya and the moved on to the Kaede. A few things seemed a miss 1. It was labeled happoshu and not beer 2. I read the ingredients to find out sugar was the No. 1 ingredient, before malt. Then it said it was some kind of dessert beer-ish thingy. Immediately pouring the beer alarms went off. Even Bud has a darker golden hue than this white clear piss. The nose reeks of sweet syrupiness that a five year old would flinch in disgust and ask for something less sweet like Orange Fanta. The mouth is thin, chemically well balanced with no hint of organic product. Tons of fake maple. Insipid would be the most positive thing to say. The finish makes you squeamish to the point you wonder if what you just threw down was quickly coming back up, and no that is not trying to provide interesting color, but that is actually how you feel. The odd chemical finish lasts for a good 10-15 secs to the point you realize you and your fellow passengers are safe from regurgitated Kaede spew that would like burn a hole in the tray table. It takes several minutes to recover from that initial sip and its recommend you drink dreadful lager or something just as pleasant to re-adjust your palate. I also had really spicy senbei crackers, which helped a lot. My heart rate accelerated after the beer and calmed down with the uber spice rice cracker. All in all, I am glad to see Niigata hasn’t missed a step in the past ten years and this is probably their best effort yet.