Tap at Garage 39. Roasty and smooth, with a decent about of sweetness. Cocoa, some umami, light wood, coffee, and nuts. Not as impressive as the 7% version last year, but very drinkable and nice.

Bottle - Roasted malts, smoke, bittersweet chocolate and nuts. Jet black with no head. Dark chocolate, light coffee and nutty. Light balanced bitterness and a sweet finish. Not bad, a nice basic stout.

Tap at Craft Man. Pretty deep red with a low head. Fruity nose, apples, oranges, not potatoes, tangy. Very sweet and tangy flavor, orange, very fruity, weird. Not enough tartness, so that it is a bit irritating. Sweet. Think and light. Don’t really dig it.

Draft. 650 yen for a half-pint at Qbrick. 5%  a clear straw gold pour with a mild lemon aroma. The taste is like a lemonade alcopop, a lemon lager for summer. Nice but not as smooth as it could be. Ok. --------------Bottle named Miyazaki no Minori Hyuganatsu part of the Miyazaki Agriculture Support Project. 5% Bottle from Aeon Mall Kyoto, 514 yen incl. tax. Another incredibly pale opaque star gold pour with a thick fizzy white head though this one seems to leave more lacing and foam behind. Tons of citrus hyuganatsu notes and a good dose of zest in the aroma. The mouthfeel is a bit rough, sharp carbonation. The taste is pretty pithy with lots of sour/bitter citrus quite a strong flavor. I think I like the aroma on the hyuganatsu more but the taste of the kinkan better. Still it is ok, though more of a fruit seltzer cocktail than a very beer like beverage.

On tap at Ant n Bee, August 2013. Slightly hazy golden with a small white head. Light and fairly refreshing with mango, some citrus and notes of wheat. An ok one.

med golden color. Fruity, mildly citrus, malty, but hops sneak up. A touch of acidity, Well balanced, light refreshing. Not so different than their other lager, but that is not a bad thing.

Very cloudy brown color that looks unappealing. The nose is plain coffee with some sourness. The mouth is somewhat astringent and tons of coffee. Not really that bad, but pretty one dimensional and not my cup of tea, or many people for that matter.

Draught at Molto Stand. Hoppy noise—could it be Nelson? Citrus, grass, bready malts. Sweet cake and bready malt flavor, with very nice clean and bitter hops. Rich, thick, good. Very hoppy. I would make it a touch less sweet. Good stuff.

Deep golden color. Creamy white head. Grassy hoppy nose. Very light body, tons of grassy hops. Excellent malty backbone, clean dry and wickedly hoppy finish. The hops never disappear from your palate. Wow, amazing beer.

On tap at Bungalow, I ordered this as I was curious to see just what an Indian or India Pale Lager was. The concept seems to have been to supercharge a lager with extra hops. It poured a nice slightly opaque gold with a nice 1cm of fluffy white foam. It had a nice citrusy floral hop aroma. Unfortunately, the taste kind of didn’t live up to the look of the beer. It was bitter with notes of pine & funk followed by a bit of a grassy taste. As I kept drinking the beer the bitterness got kind of overpowering... it is pretty odd, a nice idea but the execution was lacking. I think they didn’t use so many different kinds of hops, the bitter taste was pretty one dimensional. A for imagination, A- for looks but C- for taste.