Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Glass at Kappa Country. Very fruity, ginjo-ka nose. Estery, with peaches, melon, and lots of spice. Full estery fruit flavor, lots of evident booze. rounded and full. Good, but not great. A bit too boozy. Not such a prominent nama character either.
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Bottle @ fonefan tasting. Clear as water without head. Aroma is sweet, rice and alcohol. Flavor is quite sweet. Sweet finish with lots of alcohol. 121013
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle @ fonefan tasting. Clear as water without head. Aroma is sweet, rice, some alcohol and minor notes of fruit. Flavor is quite sweet. Sweet finish with warming alcohol. 121013
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Ambrato ramato achiuma media media persistenza piuttosto maltata leggero caramelli lievi tostature poco luppolata ma discreta aeccheza
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5
399 yen from Suvaco. 5% nice clear gold color, thin effervescent white head. Classic kolsch look. Sweet bready malt aroma, minor grain notes and a hint of hops. Nice full bodied mouthfeel, a bit earthy flavor, slightly rough but a crisp light bitter finish. A pretty good kolsch which is perfect for this summer heat. Give it a shot this summer folks.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
On tap from the brewery’s stall during Gion Matsuri. It pours a dark black with a creamy looking tan head. A mild chocolate aroma but the body is unfortunately watery. The flavor is a decent roast coffee/chocolate malt flavor with some bitterness & a dry finish ok but more of a scharzbier than a stout I think.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
On tap at the Kyoto Craft Beer Fest. It poured incredibly red with a pink head. It had a mild fruity cherry aroma and a decent cherry taste. Not bad, just an average cherry beer but I did enjoy that it had a natural cherry taste & didn’t come across syrupy/artificial.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
I picked up a bottle at Global Kitchen the supermarket in the basement of Kyoto’s Yodobashi Camera. 398 yen’s not such a bad deal. It is immediately different from most chocolate beers in that it is not a stout, it poured a dark reddish brown with a light white quickly dissipating head of foam. The aroma is straight up chocolate which is matched by the flavor but the chocolate taste is slightly sickly sweet. The label says it is made with cocoa powder but also has some kind of sugar added to it. The hop bitterness is slightly detectable in the aftertaste. It is ok but I am not too keen on the added sugar... I liked it at first but then the sweetness got a bit cloying...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Bottle, it poured a slightly opaque straw color with almost no head. My first impression from the aroma was a kind of sake sweetness which when I saw it listed on Untappd as a Japanese rice lager kind of made sense. The commercial description on ratebeer backs this up so it is definitely noticeable. At first I was kind of disappointed as I felt it had more of a sake than beer profile which wasn’t at all what I was expecting (the bottle was a gift and I started drinking it without knowing anything about the beer). At that point I’d have rated it as a 1 out of 5 but as I accepted it for what it is a beer with a kind of fruity sake taste it grew on me and boosted my rating to 3/5. It is interesting and something definitely made in Japan, worth a try. It is definitely not a bland lager. Looking at the ratings here I’d drink it bottled or on tap in Japan, I had no idea this was sold in cans. Maybe that is just for export...
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5.5
It poured a cloudy golden white but the flavor is like a bitter beer. After reading the commercial description I can totally pick up on the yuzu & coriander. I guess the yuzu gives it that zest & it seems refreshing. It is interesting but I think it probably doesn’t resemble what they drank in ancient Egypt... worth a try though, decent. ----May 2014 Part of the 580 yen tasting set. On tap at Kizakura Kappa Country----- A pale cloudy straw gold with a lingering filmy white head. An enticing strong coriander & wheat aroma. Med-light body with a smooth soft mouthfeel. The taste is somewhat ascerbic, mouth-puckering, sweet, fruity, spiciness from the wheat plus lots of coriander. Not bad.