Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
180ml bottle. Rick rice nose, bit of vanilla and stewed fruit. Oily, somewhat thick. Smooth, rounded, slightly boozy and hot. Nicely mellow hiyaoroshi. Tasty rice, fruit. Good.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
750ml bottle from Japan Centre. Clear very pale yellow colour, no head and aroma of mellow rice, sweet fruit & alcohol. Taste is rice, sweetish honeydew melon, pineapple fruity, with warming spicy & earthy alcohol. Smooth mouthfeel, medium bodied, soft carbonation, lingering warm boozy finish. Nicely drinkable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Pour from a fresh 720ml bottle. Rounded, full and oily palate. Very fruity, quite sweet. Melon, pears, citrus. Nice rice. Very tasty and solid, though a bit too sweet to drink a lot.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Popped in to Hankyu Department Store and found Hidatakayama, Tsuyama & a new beer from Shuzan Kaido: Weizen Mild, a new label, a new name, a new beer? Sold alongside their normal weizen so I guess so. 5% It pours deep amber-gold with a fluffy off-white head that leaves behind soapy looking lacing. The aroma is wheat, mild cloves, some banana &l malt sweetness. Smooth bodied, the taste is cloves, a bit of biscuit/crackers, some graininess and a dry somewhat bitter crisp finish. Easy to drink in that goku goku way.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Full and creamy, with a slight caramel nose and rice. Full flavor, lots of rice, lactic creaminess, and a touch of butterscotch. All the workers at the brewery laughed when I compared its flavor to their Amber Ale, but it really did have some caramel in there. Nice, but outshone by the other sakes in the lineup.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Distinctive rice flavor from the Iwai-mai. Spicy, ginjo ka, smooth and clean. There is some noticeable cedar flavor, which is very nice, as it is also extremely subtle, not at all like a taruzake. This is fermented in a big cedar barrel (1000 liters or so) but then aged in steel. Great stuff.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Fruity, spicy flavor with a bit of sawdust. Clean, light, smooth and delicate. Some melon flavors. Wonderful.