Sekinoichi Shuzo / Iwate Kura Beer
Microbrewery
in Ichinoseki,
Iwate,
Japan 🇯🇵
Associated Venue: Iwate Kura Restaurant
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Tap at Molto. Beautiful orange-red-amber, clear, with a low, tan head. Malty, minty nose, caramel, bread, pine. Lightly resiny and herbal flavor, caramel, burnt toffee, brown sugar, raisins. Smooth and full. A strange one. These Ibuki hops this year are almost worthless. This is a big brown sugar bomb, and interesting, though 1 is enough.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Can from a supermarket. Pours reddish brown, at first lots of cream beige, off-white foam but that level gets lower as time goes by. Nose is bready, rye bread there, some light citrus and rowan berries. taste is bready as well, caramel character there with some relatively mildly bitter but quite grassy hops. Dry and medium bitter aftertaste. Decent food beer, reasonably hoppy and characterful but not too much so.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
With lunch at Molto on a Friday after a meeting. An American White which is a cloudy gold with a refreshing citrusy hop bouquet. Medium bodied and smooth with crisp bitter citrus hoppiness. A winner.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5
Bottle in Kansai, as well as draft at festivals. A golden brew that while fairly clear has an earthy vegetal sansho character which gives it a not so palatable bitter flavor. I remember having this a few times and coming away more disappointed than impressed...
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
33 cl bottle at commune 246, Omotesando, 900Y. Red color big offwhite head. Aroma of light roasted malts and mild bittering hops. Taste fairly bitter, good balance. Light to medium body, fluffy texture, finish is quite dry, hardly noticeable alcohol. OK strong red ale.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Iwate Kura Pumpkin Ale 5%
A cloudy gold with a thick foamy head and an on point pumpkin ale aroma: allspice, cinnamon possibly mace and nutmeg as well as pumpkin flesh. Medium bodied and raspy but smooth. The malts give soda bread while it’s deftly spiced with pumpkin. Much much better than I’ve ever had it in bottles or in previous years.
They hit the right balance of pumpkin and spice, I’d prefer a tiny amount more maltiness but that’s a quibble. Not a hop Bomb but I get spice AND pumpkin and in my book that’s what I want. As it warms up the malts come through with a dark rye bread like character.
If you see this on tap, try it and tell me if I’m imagining things but I’d say at the moment this is probably the best local pumpkin beer in Japan.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from Tanakaya. Pours a hazy, lemon juice pale yellow. Lemon, yuzu and faint ginger notes on the nose. Pillowy, soft mouthfeel with lowish carbonation. Like a sports drink in some ways texture-wise. Some scratchy graininess and lots of lemon on the palate with some faint ginger as it warms. Grainy with a lingering soft tartness. I’m digging this. --- Beer merged from original tick of Takata no Yume on 27 Sep 2016 at 21:21 - Score: 7. Original review text: Kinda digging this. Named after the rice from iwate-Kura. Light bitterness, some tartness. Scratchymineral water like mouthfeel. Soft.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Pours white and hazy, not that much foam. Reading the name, it sounds like "yume" could be derived from two words: "yuzu" and "ume" (that was before I did some research and found out that Takata no Yume is basically a rice brand - that has been used in this brew). Anyhow, I could get some strong yuzu in the nose and when drinking it, the body was quite soft and pillowy, sort of reminding me ume plums. Surprisingly good, fresh and fragrant fruity rice ale - that actually has yuzu in it as well, so my initial guess about the name wasn’t that wrong. If you asked what I’d like to drink in Japanese summer, then I would answer "something like this"
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
On tap at OBF 2016. I have no idea if this is the regular or the Sansho IPA. It is only listed as Herb Ale Sansho. Pours a copper color with a medium white head. A big spicy nose, the peppercorn like herb is pretty big. The flavor is lemongrass, big but not distracting Sansho, dry malty base. Solid.
Oakes (33097) reviewed Sansho Ale from Sekinoichi Shuzo / Iwate Kura Beer 9 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
"Hand Ale Sansho". Slight haze, light amber. Medium head. Aroma is very herbal - green orange, mint, lots of fun. Soft body, same palate, really want fun, unique. Great balance.
Brewery Stats
| Score | 6.74 |
| Beers | 73 |
| Ticks | 229 |
Top Reviewers (Not including batches)
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Kyotolefty | 50 |
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KansaiBeerLovers | 28 |
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willisread | 26 |
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TimE | 25 |
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tokyobeerdrinker | 20 |
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jimgreen | 8 |
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jinroh | 8 |
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omhper | 5 |
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Ferris | 4 |
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Biruski | 4 |