Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Tap at Bakuon 2025. Pale gold, hazy, thick head. Nose is weizenbock clove, banana, sake koji. Estery and rich, malty, wheaty, lots of cloves. Sake character is less than other versions due to the wheat. Good.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Beer Hearn Shinjiko Yuuhi Beer
aAPA 5.5% 27 IBU
Rusty Amber orange color with minimal foam but it’s a solid APA.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Tap at Bakuon. Hazy IPA with lemon. Pale yellow, hazy. Lemony nose, orange juice, light tropical notes. Zesty, lemony flavor. Well done.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle. Dank, fruity aroma, white grapes, tropical fruit, citrus. Mosaic hops evident--Citra also used, they say. Light bready malts, rice. Medium golden to orange with quite a bit of haze a a large, pillowy head. Hoppy, light, crisp. The hops really shine and make it fun. Dank and fruity, with a very bitter finish. The malt is crackery and crisp, senbei, saltines. Also shows a soft, rounded sweetness from the rice. Well done with a surprisingly bitter and crisp finish that lasts a long, long time.
Label is more interesting than the beer but it’s fine. Less exciting version of the pils really. Nothing particularly of note.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Shimane x Itakura Sake Orochi 2019 9% Near the end of the bottle, funkier aroma than the 2018. Orange liquor sake funk with sweet syrupy malts. Getting long in the tooth but still good.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Tap at Dig the Line. Clear, bright golden. Pear, apple, melon nose, rich malt, rice, light ginjoka. Very dry, crisp finish for such a strong beer. Cleaner and less sweet than in other years--and now I see it was based on a saison, which explains it. Nice.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Shimane Beer Orochi 2018 Sake Beer collaboration 9% Golden with orange tints and a malty caramel with honey sake aroma. Medium to full bodied with loads of sweet malty caramel. This is tasting super mellow and smooth.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Tap at Dig the Line. Clear gold with lace. Nose is rice, peaches, melon, Asian pears. Dry, slightly bitter, somewhat sweet, very fruity. Hides the alcohol amazingly well. Lots of estery stone fruit and melon.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Tap at Takumiya. Deep orange, slightly hazy, with a thick head. Rich fruit nose, citrus, stone, melon, tropical, oranges. Wow. Deep, ripe, luscious fruit aroma. Sweet flavor, ginjo-ka, honey and caramel malt, lightly cloying, malty and rich but a bit simple. slightly funky and bitter finish. A bit too heavy and sweet in comparison to the best years, but still good.