5.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Draft in Sapporo, Japan. Pours reddish amber, transparent, with limited foam. Aroma is of berries, and somehow cough syrup. Body is average, with delicate carbonation. Taste is pretty sweet (added sugar, I guess), with limited sourness. Finish is regular.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 Oct 2018
at 08:28
5.4/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Draft in Sapporo, Japan. Pours pale canary gold, with limited white foam. Aroma is lemony and reminding of soda. Body and carbonation are average. Taste is slightly tart. Finish is kind of short.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 Oct 2018
at 08:16
6.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Tap at SBV Kyoto. Pastel yellow, cloudy, low head. Nose is sansho pepper, lemon, banana, clove. Rather light, sweet, simple weizen base with prickly, tingly sansho in the right amount. Not really my thing but done pretty well.
Tried
from Draft
on 19 Jul 2018
at 02:39
6.8/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Tap at SVB Kyoto. Cloudy, somewhat muddy, deep amber to brown with lace. Nice hoppy nose, tropical fruit and grpaefruit, bit of caramel malt. Malty, fruity flavor, nice hops this time, slightly old school malt profile. Tasty and well done.
Tried
from Draft
on 19 Jul 2018
at 02:36
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Tap at SBV Kyoto. Medium brown color, clear. Nice chocolate malt nose, caramel, hojicha in the right proportion. Malty though not thick or heavy, somewhat sweet, the tea showing up a bit more than the hops, in a somewhat classic English brown. Decent.
Tried
from Draft
on 19 Jul 2018
at 02:33
6.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 5.5
Spring Valley Brewery Houjicha Brown Ale 4.5% Bottle picked up at SVB KYOTO(450 yen). Orange-brown in color with a light beige head and the aroma is caramel biscuits with chocolatey houjicha. It’s not bad and kind of reminds me of a houjicha latte I had once. As you drink it, it does get a bit too sweet.
Tried
from Bottle
on 17 Jul 2018
at 13:00
5.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 8
Overall 4.5
Tap at SVB Kyoto. Pale clear gold, with a really grainy sweet macro-lager nose, maybe a touch of floral but minute hop premise. The flavor was the same but this is a slick overly sweet macro-lager with no real dryness or crispness or anything notable as being "fresh hopped" it could be that the Ibuki hop is on the weak side but I am guessing they were cheap and barely hopped it. So. Damn. Lame.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 Oct 2017
at 08:10
6.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 5
Tap at SVB Kyoto. I was walking by on my way to the station and saw that the Kyoto 2017, 4.5%, beer was back on. It was limited to a small size but as that is all I wanted no worries. An opaque hold with a minimal head and rough grainy aroma. Very sharply carbonated, overly so and sweet and grainy. This is like a crappy macro-lager brewed badly on a micro-system. How on earth did this sell out? It has a tart citrus zest edge, a bit eggy, and just plain weird. Way too gassy, some version of a Kirin beer from 1988 called no. 1497 according to the menu though the English menu doesn't mention any connection to Kirin and just says it is made with Kyoto grown Koshi hikari rice. So delving into the menu I see it was made with wheat and koshihikari sake rice making this a golden speciality grain beer, I guess. Meh, way too bloody gassy, nothing is off with this beer but it is pretty frikin' boring.
Tried
from Draft
on 11 Oct 2017
at 08:54
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Tap at SVB Kyoto. Said to have 20% wheat, 20% rice, plus koji. Grainy, rice nose, porridge, light citrus hops. Pale gold, light haze, with lace. Sweet rice flavor, grains, mild and balanced with not much hop. Plain.
Tried
from Draft
on 11 Oct 2017
at 03:12
5.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 6
Tap at SVB Kyoto. Pale gold with a light haze and lace. Rough vegetal and resin nose, a touch of citrus, malty. Rather harsh and astringent hop flavor, resiny, ok malt. These Ibuki fresh hops are not very convincing. Low carbonation. A taster is enough.
Tried
from Draft
on 11 Oct 2017
at 03:10