Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle @ home, presumably from an IP trade with TimE, I can't recall. Black color. Light brown head with some retention. Aroma's: wood, red fruit, light sour, roasted. Retronasal it's sweetish, chocolate, light booze/alcohol, light sour, a bit raisins, wood/tannine/vanilla. Flavor is moderate sweet, roasted, light moderate bitter, a bit alcohol. Finishes with roasted bitterness. I liked the regular RIS better, but this is still pretty good.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Sweet nose of cinnamon, cloves, all spice sweet nose. Off sweet mouth with modest all spice, not cloying or over bearing, fairly nice and drinks much lighter than 8.5%. Good stuff
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Tap at Craft Beer Holiday 2017. A clear orange brown with red highlights served on the cold side so the aroma was pretty mild spice. The taste was a good mix of allspice and coriander but balanced and smooth. This was pretty good.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Draught @ LBK Craft, Nara. Pours reddish orange with a smooth head. Aroma of caramely malts, pine and toffee. Taste is smooth, slightly caramely malty with some pine and resin. Finish is smooth, slightly crisp and sweetish with some pine and caramel. Okay.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Tap at Osakajo. Spicy nose, light kabocha, caramel. Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. Dry, spicy flavor, light sweetness is good. Full but not heavy or cloying, citrus, and nice fruity malts. Nice stuff. Not overdone.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5
Tap at Koumin. Swan Lake Strawberry Dark Saison 6% Deep cola black with a thin tan head and a berry aroma with lightly roasted malts. Light bodied and surprisingly dry, this reminds me of my own Homebrew so not what I expect from a commercial craft brewery, a bit amateurish. The aroma definitely has strawberry a bit of yeast and the dry flavor drivers both with some chewy dark malt buns. Ok but I suspect I would have enjoyed Ushitora's 189 Juicy Sugiru Pale Ale more..
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 7
dark brown color. Medium brown head. Off sweet rich Nose of dark chocolate, licorice, red wine, mushrooms and treacles with distinctive Belgian yeast. The strawberries are much more present in the mouth, and sit on top of chocolate, licorice and estry notes. The issue is the mouth is way too carbonated and takes away from this rather complex beer. Very good job on integrating the fruit. Because of aggressive carbonation the finish is fairly undistinguished. Starts great, but gets partially ruined by carbonation.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Dark red brown color. Big burnt raisins with a touch of oak and vanilla but not overly sweet or huge. The mouth is surprisingly light for 10% with barrel aged character not too deep. Overly all easy drinking.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Pours golden with a bit of foam. Grainy aroma, simple light beer. Bready, clean and refreshing, not too exciting though.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
On tap at Popeye’s. Pours a clear amber color with a small white head. A nice soft fruity nose, caramel. Smooth toast, caramel, light citrus. Very clean.