Kuni no Cho Hazy Guava Wheat 6% 30 IBU Golden brassy orange with a rich guava and wheat aroma. Medium bodied with a semi-chewy texture. It’s got a decent fruity character and is super drinkable. 3.6-7

I’ll take discounted beer when I can get it, it’s 1-2 weeks past it’s shoumi kigen (best by date) but I don’t care so much. Kuni no Cho Hoppy Wheat Ale 4.2% From the bottle it had a nice pin hop bouquet but that was gone when I poured it in a glass instead I got a wheat graininess with mild fruit character. Medium bodied with a raspy carbonation and dry finish. You get wheat some bubblegum and grain character but the hops are mostly gone and it has very little foam for a wheat beer. Meh, it’s ok but I guess it lost a bit of luster due to age.

Tap at Zest Fest. Cloudy gold with an eggy aroma and a decent medium body. The taste is eggy and wheat but not complex, it doesn't have the spice of a weizen nor the hops of an American Wheat so it's just some kind of dull wheat ale. That being said, it was OK. 3.2

Kuni no Cho One Summer Pale Ale Tap at CBL 2018. Orange brown in color, it’s a bit on the malty side but it had a good bitter bite. This is a solid enough beer. 3.4

Tap at Ibaraki Bakuon. Kuni no cho coffee stout 5% My first beer of the day at Bakuon. A red-brown with a thick beige head that leaves copious lacing behind. The aroma is a floral coffee and sweet stout blend. Medium bodied and dry the flavor kicks off coffee then goes sweet. This is solid and was a good start to the fest.

Tap at the Uji Fest and what I assume is an evolution of their Citrus White I had last year. Mild earthy sweet Hassaku citrus aroma. Cloudy light gold with a medium body and fluffy bready malts and tangy Hassaku. This hits the spot in the sauna that is summer in Japan. Good but I liked last year’s more as I found it sweeter, this version was more beer like with Hassaku accents.

Kuni no cho - M Series Porter 5% On tap at Kuu no Hanare and listed as goku gentei (super limited). A lovely deep cola black with a creamy beige head makes for an appealing beer. The aroma is rich sweet chocolate that almost has a lactose edge to it. If that is the case they should have called it a sweet stout rather than a Porter. Either way, it smells nice.

Med-full bodied with a tongue prickling mouthfeel. This is aggressively roasty, a bit of a sweet hit (lactose?), coffee grounds, nutty and some chocolate ion the finish as the beer mellows out. Looks like they’re slowly getting a handle on making dark beers. Pretty good.

Kuninocho Scottish Ale 5% On tap at Kuu no Hanare

A mahogany brown with a nutty/caramel aroma - it’s nice but has me wondering if it is a rebranded alt. Med-light bodied with a raspy carbonation. The taste is nutty, cocoa powder, a hints of fruit and mild hop notes. Alright.

Draft at Ibaraki Bakuon. A pretty amber gold color with a fairly thick off-white head. The nose is ripe melon with resinous hop pellets. Pretty good though the melon comes off a bit extract like. The taste is melon, Graham biscuits, honey and a lightly bitter hop but in the finish. Really interesting but it gets a bit cloying after awhile.

Ok everyone is assuring me this is a different beer than their Black Bitter so I added it to the database. 5% 50 IBU On tap at Bungalow. I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile and it has finally been released. It pours a dark reddish-black with a creamy beige head that becomes black with ruby highlights in the glass. A soft cocoa powder aroma wafts from the glass, the taste is bitter dark chocolate, tannic, cocoa, vanilla, with a dry finish from the bitter black malts. It is quite thin bodied and has some roasty qualities in the aftertaste. Soft fairly rounded carbonation, as it warms up you get more acrid bitter dark malts. Not balanced but not that bad. This needs tweaking like the Black Bitter which has improved quite a bit from the last year’s version.