Bottle from the Low Cost Beer online shop. Pours hazy orange with a short-lived thin white head. Aromas of light banana sweets and dough. Taste adds some light spice. Sweet finish.

11.2 Fl.Oz bottle, just out of date; drank at home on 27th November 2024. No head on the hazy golden/orange body. Aroma of banana and spice, taste follows the same lines.

24/10/2024. Draft at Hitachino Brewing Marunouchi, Tokyo Station. Pours cloudy pale orange gold with a small frothy white head. Aroma is sweet, wheaty, orange, coriander, citrus, banana hints. Quite sweet with mild bitterness and slight tartness. Moderate body, smooth, low carbonation. Nice.

350mL can with JP11.23m on the bottom, drunk 10/18/24. Clear bronze with a hint of copper/amber. Medium-sized, white head slowly recedes to cover. Bitter, grassy and/or herbal qualities in the nose with big pepper notes and an underlying dough and honey-like malt. Not what I was expecting (honestly was expecting Americanized saison here) and I'm pleasantly surprised at the lack of crude esters/phenols. Malty flavors with light caramel and/or koji. Sweetness tempered somewhat by whatever this bitter element is. Not a classic Belgian saison, nor is it a crappy Americanized version. Not sure what the hell this is, but it's different and interesting. Maybe a touch sweeter than I'd prefer. Lingering orange water, floral notes, grass and sweet koji. Not really rating this as a true Belgian saison. More of a flavored/spiced ale.

Bottle with code SB 24.03a, drunk 10/16/24. Quite dark, probably clear. Light tan head quickly fizzling to edge. Big umami in there, seems fitting for a Japanese beer. Light ash, lots of rich, salty soy and plentiful dark chocolate. Not really getting any barrel (that I'm familiar with, anyways). But it's a clean, competent, rather rich, yet not overly roasty stout. Brown sugar galore. Reminds me of a toned down (less sweet) version of Dragon Stout. Mild chocolate, more brown sugar, caramelized sugar, turbinado sugar. You get the idea. Maybe the barrel dries the beer out and/or rounds it out some, but it doesn't seem to yield much flavor. Is there some cherry character here? Definitely a bit lingering on the finish. Very pleasant stuff, though a bit sugary and rather light-bodied/watery for an Imperial Stout (ha). Not quite enough complexity and body for its size.

Golden, cloudy with a medium white head. Hops malt, floral citrus.

Can from Beer Love: pours dark gold almost orange with white head. Aroma is yuzu and malty lager. Not sure how old this beer is, but it does taste quite malty with a good bit of sweetness. Yuzu is well represented.

300ml bottle. Clear pale pinky orange. Aroma is floral, leafy hop, melon. Taste initially sweet and fruity, melon, pear, leafy hops, some booze, fairly dry finish, none of the bitterness the others mention. Spritzy carbonation.

NOTE: ABV given as 12% on the front label, but the rear label (James Clay import) says 10% which I assume is what the other raters are referring to. I'd like to think the brewery knows better than the importer though! The non-hopped version is also 12%

Bottle from the Low Cost Beer online shop. BBE 07/2024. Pours lightly hazed golden with a thin white head. Aromas of faint plum, generic fruitiness. Taste is light sour, light saline, some cereal. Clean finish.

300ml bottle. Crystal clear, very pale yellow tint (odd then that they choose to put this in a blue tinted bottle, which of course made it look green...). Aroma is fruity, melon, something sweet/syrupy that I can't quite pinpoint, possibly banana. Taste is sweet, melon, pear, floral, again possibly some banana, caramelised sort of flavour, some alcohol warmth but no burn and doesn't feel particularly boozy. Light-moderate carbonation.
Sweetest of the few sake I've tried so far but rather enjoyable.