Asahi Super Dry - Dry Premium - Hatsushikomi Premium

This one was a huge disappointment. Too watery and lacks any real beer taste. And what's with the name? Asahi Super Dry - Dry Premium - Hatsushikomi Premium. Too long and two words are used twice in it. My guess is that they wanted to make sure that the consumer understands that this beer is REALLY dry and REALLY premium.
 

Name: Asahi Super Dry - Dry Premium - Hatsushikomi Premium
Launch: Dec. 24, 2014
Ingredients: Malt, hops, rice, corn, starch
Alcohol content: 6%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Asahi Breweries
Note: Limited edition.

Asahi Super Dry - Dry Premium (facelift 2014)

Cannot keep up with this one. They have changed the can design for at least four times since its initial launch in June 2013. As for the taste, it's great.

Name: Asahi Super Dry - Dry Premium (facelift 2014)
Launch: Jun. 11, 2013 as part of gift pack.
Ingredients: Malt, hops, rice, corn, starch
Alcohol content: 6%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Asahi Breweries

Sinto Beer

 Fruity fragrance X perfect bitterness. Thank you Murakami san!
 

Name: Sinto Beer
Ingredients: Malt, hops, rice
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Ise Kadoya Microbrewery
Location: Ise city, Mie prefecture 

Suntory Craftsman’s Beer / Kasshoku no Yoin

Fruity. Good balance. Long aftertaste. Great.

Name: Suntory Craftsman’s Beer / Kasshoku no Yoin

Launch: December 9, 2014

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Suntory Holdings

Note: Limited quantity sold only at Aeon Group stores.

Clear Asahi Tsumitate Hop

Not all that different from the regular version.

Name: Clear Asahi Tsumitate Hop
Launch: Nov. 26, 2014
Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, corn, starch), spirits (barley)
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: New genre (liquor)
Company: Asahi Breweries 
Note: Limited edition.

Local Beer from Nagano

As the picture can tell we were very serious about our mission of tasting these beers. To be honest, I don't remember much of this night, but apparently I (we) did try these brews.

Zenkōji Roman Kuroyuri

See further details here about tasting.

Name: Zenkōji Roman Kuroyuri
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Reijin Brewing
Location: Suwa city, Nagano

Zenkōji Roman Shirakaba

See further details here about tasting.

Name: Zenkōji Roman Shirakaba
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Reijin Brewing
Location: Suwa city, Nagano

Zenkōji Roman Rindō

See further details here about tasting.

Name: Zenkōji Roman Rindō
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Reijin Brewing
Location: Suwa city, Nagano

Suntory Craftsman’s Beer / Enjuku no Umami

It is obvious they put a lot of effort into this brew. Great stuff.

Name: Suntory Craftsman’s Beer / Enjuku no Umami

Launch: October 14, 2014

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Suntory Holdings

Note: Limited quantity sold only at Aeon Group stores.

Fuyu Kirin

See details here for winter 2014 beer battle.

Name: Fuyu Kirin
Launch:
Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, corn, sugars), spirits (barley)
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: New Genre (liquor)
Company: Kirin Brewery

Suntory Fuyo no Hōjun

See details here for winter 2014 beer battle.

Name: Suntory Fuyo no Hōjun

Launch date: 

Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, sugars), spirits (wheat), carbon dioxide

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Suntory Holdings

Note: Seasonal edition.

Asahi Fuyu no Okurimono

See details here for winter 2014 beer battle.

Name: Asahi Fuyu no Okurimono

Launch: Sep. 30, 2014

Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, corn starch, flavor enhancer [amino acid]), spirits (barley)

Alcohol content: 5.5% or above but less than 6.5%

Tax category: New genre

Company: Asahi Breweries
Note: Seasonal edition

Winter Lineup 2014

Tested some winter edition beers today with Józsi. To me, after yesterday's major drinking, they all tasted the same. However, Józsi came up with an actual ranking.

 

1. Suntory: Fuyu no hōjun
2. Kirin: Fuyu kirin
3. Asahi: Fuyu no okurimono

 

 

P.S. Sapporo did put out a winter beer, but their's is real beer; therefore, it is uncomparable with these third-type stuff.

Asahi Hop Kaoru Pink no Beer Cocktail

Yep, pink beer, this is what the market needed. It tastes like rose hip...tea...or something.

Name: Asahi Hop Kaoru Pink no Beer Cocktail
Launch: Oct. 7, 2014
Ingredients: Malt extract, hops, sugars, dietary fiber, soybean protein, yeast extract, rose hip juice powder, anthocyanin pigment, flavor enhancer (amino acid), sweetener (acesulfame-K)
Alcohol content: 4%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Asahi Breweries Note: Limited volume.

Grand Kirin Battle

Compared some Kirin beers sold only at convenient stores for a premium price of 245 yen per bottle. Kirin started an entirely new strategy on the market. While one of the beers is sold at all convenient stores, the other ones are sold only at a specific store only. Miki was my partner in crime sorting these babies out. Anyways, without further ado, here is our ranking. 

Miki's ranking
1. Mild rich (Lawson)
2. The aroma (7-Eleven)
3. Hop fruity (Family Mart)
4. Browny (Circle-K/Sunkus)
5. Rich malt & dip hop (All stores)

My ranking
1. The aroma
2. Mild rich
3. Hop fruity
4. Browny
5. Rich malt & dip hop

 

 Pictures: Before/after. Haha!

Grand Kirin Hop Fruity

Fruity indeed.

Name: Grand Kirin Hop Fruity
Launch date: September 23, 2014

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Kirin Brewery
Note: Sold at Family Mart only.

Asahi Super Dry / Dry Black / Orange & Black

I just don't understand why I torture my taste buds with funky stuff like this.

Name: Asahi Super Dry / Dry Black / Orange & Black
Launch: Sep. 9, 2014
Ingredients: Malt, malt extract, hops, rice, corn, starch, essence
Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Asahi Breweries
Note: Limited volume.

Asahi Beer Spritzer

Tastes more like wine, less like beer. I really don't get what the product philosophy behind a hybrid drink like this one. People who wanna drink beer will buy beer and people who wanna drink wine will buy wine. Only beer bloggers like me and those unfortunate ones who left their glasses home while out shopping would buy such a funky product.

 

 

Name: Asahi Beer Spritzer

Launch: Sep. 9, 2014
Ingredients: Malt, hops, sugars, caramel pigment, white wine, grape juice, yeast extract, soybean protein, acidifier, essence
Alcohol content: 3.5%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Asahi Breweries

Kirin Tanrei Platinum Double

For ranking, check out my Zero/Zero Happōshu post.

 Name: Kirin Tanrei Platinum Double
Type:
Ingredients: Malt, hops, barley, sugars, caramel pigment, spirits, essence, acidifier, processed starch, sweetener (acesulfame K)
Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Kirin Brewery

Asahi Super Zero

For ranking, check out my Zero/Zero Happōshu post.

Name: Asahi Super Zero

Launch:
Ingredients: Malt extract, hops, caramel pigment, alcohol, dietary fiber, rice lactic acid fermentation liquid, acidulant, flavoring, emulsifier, flavoring (amino acids), anti-oxidant (Vitamin C), sweetener (acesulfame K)
Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Asahi Breweries

Oettinger Export

Not bad. The strongest of the three Oettinger brews with 5.4 percent.

Name: Oettinger Export
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5.4% 
Tax category: Beer
Origin: Germany
Notes: 330ml can.

Int'l 9

Miki (Nick) and I had too much free time at hand, so decided to have a little beer tasting over the weekend. Went to the nearest Sugita liquor shop for some samples and picked up four bad boys randomly. Random it was, we chose two Americanos, one Spanish and one German. Nevermind all the fluff, here is our (identical) ranking.

1. Warsteiner (Germany)
2. Estrella Galicia (Spain)
3. Liberty Ale (USA)
4. Budweiser (USA)

Zero / Zero Happōshu

Wow, what a day. We tested four no sugar/no purine (whatever that is) happōshu (low malt beer). Three of them came out on September 2, while the fourth one from Sapporo was launched a couple months earlier. Actually it was upgraded from new genre after the tax people figured out that Sapporo misidentified its product which enabled the brew to qualify for a lower tax bracket.* But nevermind all that tax talk, let's get to the testing part. Miki and Józsi were so kind to help me taste the four products which ranged in flavor from chewing gum through bitter medicine to non-alcoholic beer. After the first two, Miki said that he had enough of this crap and refused to try the other two. Józsi and I decided to keep going and try all of them. Our conclusion was that they not only taste like something other than beer, but they taste like more or less the same product sold under different brands. Anyways, we abandoned our initial plan to rank these beers and decided give them zeros which should not be all that bad in terms of evaluation since we are talking about 0/0 beers.

 

* You can read about this issue here in more detail.

Kohaku Yebisu

Just came out today! Hmmm, very little initial taste followed by some unexpectedly strong bitter aftertaste.

Name: Kohaku Yebisu

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Sapporo Breweries

Most Popular New Genre Beers on the Market

OK, me and Miki got together for some serious drinking, but we had nothing to compare. So what do you do? We picked some beers we already had before. This time we picked the most popular new genre brands of the four major Japanese beer makers. Same old, same old... here comes the ranking. Oh, forgot to say, our ranking was identical.

1. Suntory Kinmugi
2. Clear Asahi
3. Sapporo Mugi to Hop / The Gold
4. Kirin Nodogoshi Nama

Yebisu Natsu no Koku

Just like the can says, it is best "on the rocks." Nice 7% punch. Actually it is/was only available as part of gift packs, but for some reason I came across two cans of this brew at a local Sugita store which is about to go out of business in a few days.

Name: Yebisu Natsu no Koku

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 7%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Sapporo Breweries

Asahi Aqua Blue

For ranking, check out my Light Happōshu post.

Name: Asahi Aqua Blue

Launch:

Ingredients: Malt, hops, barley, barley extract, starch, sugars, yeast extract, seaweed extract

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: Happōshu

Company: Asahi Breweries 

Asahi Style Free

For ranking, check out my Light Happōshu post.

 

Name: Asahi Style Free

Launch:
Ingredients: Malt, hops, sugars, caramel pigment, yeast extract, soy protein
Alcohol content: 4%
Tax category: Happōshu
Company: Asahi Breweries

Light Happōshu

Another weekend, another beer battle. This time, we compared all six low cal/low carb happōshu (low malt beer) currently on the market. My partner in crime was my fellow beer lover Miki. We usually stay away from light beer, but we decided what the heck let's give'em a try. However, our prejudice against light beer proved us right. Light beer just doesn't cut it for us. But nevermind all that. Here comes our ranking. 

Miki's ranking
1. Asahi Aqua Blue
2. Kirin Zero
3. Asahi Style Free
4. Kirin Tanrei Green Label
5. Sapporo Koku Zero
6. Kirin Tanrei Double

My ranking
1. Sapporo Koku Zero
2. Asahi Aqua Blue
3. Kirin Tanrei Green Label
4. Kirin Zero
5. Asahi Style Free
6. Kirin Tanrei Double

See ranking of light new genre here.

Fall Lineup 2014

Well I'm only human. Just realized that Kirin has been putting out "real" beers in the fall. So I apologize for segregating Sapporo's winter edition last year for being real beer. (Actually I am writing this post in January 2015 and I left out Sapporo's winter beer in 2014 as well.)

Anyways, I was gonna have a little get together and compare these brews, but for whatever reason I ended up drinking them by myself. But just for the heck of it, let me post this group pic of these babies.

Suntory Aki no Zeitaku

Great taste, but it tastes kinda like Kirin's Koi Aji.

Name: Suntory Aki no Zeitaku

Launch date: 

Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, sugars), spirits (wheat), carbon dioxide

Alcohol content: 6%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Suntory Holdings

Note: Limited quantity.

Sapporo Migaki Mugi Creamy Shitate

Eh... Tastes like some cheap Korean import. Stay away from it!

Name: Sapporo Migaki Mugi Creamy Shitate
Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, sugars), spirits (barley)
Alcohol content: 5% 
Tax category: New Genre (liquor)
Company: Sapporo Breweries 
Note: Sold only at Aeon Group stores for a limited time period.