Bottle from the brewery. Amber-orange, hazy, with a nice head. Caramel, butterscotch, orange, toffee in the nose. Diacetyl. Sweet flavor, lemon or yuzu, butterscotch. On the right tract but the diacetyl is overwhelming.

Iwami Bakushu American Pale Ale 5.5% The bottle’s branding and label looks great.

A new brewery from Shimane with an orange brown color and a thick buttery rich butterscotch diacetyl aroma. Smells off.

Initially you get crackery malts and bitting citrusy hops but then overwhelmed by the diacetyl. You see where they were going and if they get rid of that diacetyl it’ll be pretty good but as it stands it is a fail.

Pale yellow, cloudy, with a huge, fine, airy head. Very spicy and fruity nose. Lots of coriander, yuzu, wheat, and a bit of candy. biscuity, very much so, wheat, yuzu, spices. Again, there is a candyish character to this one too. Not bad, but maybe it’s the koji or something. They have interesting ideas here, and lots of local additives, but they need to work out the fermentable base a bit better. Not bad, mind you, for a new, small Japanese brewer. --- Beer merged from original tick of Belgian White 307 on 11 Jan 2017 at 00:48 - Score: Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7. Original review text: Bottle. Lemon or yuzu nose, wheat, spice, coriander, koji. Very spicy flavor with coriander and sansho, lemon, crackers. A bit thin and simple, but decent.

Bottle, mail order from the brewery. Yeasty, biscuity nose. Malty, esters, peach, some apple. Cloudy gold with orange tints, low head. Fruity, yeasty flavor, wheat, spices. A bit too sweet and spicy for a saison, but reasonably well put together. Peppery, bitter finish. Malty. Something about it is a bit fake. Candy-like.