Suntory The Premium Malt's / Kuro

Unquestionably the worst Japanese dark beer. For ranking check out my All Blacks post.

Name: Suntory The Premium Malt's / Kuro
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Suntory Holdings

Asahi Super Dry / Dry Black

Sorry, not a dark beer fan. Don't know what to say about it. Average taste. For ranking check out my All Blacks post.

  

Name: Asahi Super Dry / Dry Black
Launch: Apr. 3, 2012

Ingredients: Malt, malt extract, hops, rice, corn, starch

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Asahi Breweries

Asahi Kuronama

Sorry, not a dark beer fan. Don't know what to say about it. Average taste. I like the can design though. For ranking check out my All Blacks post.

Name: Asahi Kuronama
Launch: Oct. 1995

Ingredients: Malt, hops, rice, corn, starch

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Asahi Breweries

Kirin Ichibanshibori Stout

Sorry, not a dark beer fan. Don't know what to say about it. Average taste. I like the can design though. For ranking check out my All Blacks post.

Name: Kirin Ichibanshibori Stout
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Kirin Brewery

Yebisu Premium Black

I'd say this is the best Japanese dark beer on the market. For ranking check out my All Blacks post.

Name: Yebisu Premium Black
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Sapporo Breweries

All Blacks

After a hard week of work, we decided to do a little get together with BBQ and beer tasting. This time I picked Japanese dark beers available on the market. The lineup is as follows (from left to right): 1. Sapporo Mugi to Hop Kuro, 2. Kirin Stout, 3. Yebisu Premium Black, 4. Suntory The Premium Malt's Kuro, 5. Asahi Kuronama and 6. Asahi Dry Black. Only Sapporo Mugi to Hop Kuro is new genre, all the other ones are real beers. To be honest, after the third one they kinda started to taste the same. Anyways, here is our ranking.

 

Miki's ranking:
1. Yebisu Premium Black
2. Asahi Kuronama
3. Kirin Stout
4. Asahi Dry Black
5. Suntory The Premium Malt's Kuro
6. Sapporo Mugi to Hop Kuro

Józsi's ranking:
1. Yebisu Premium Black
2. Kirin Stout
3. Asahi Kuronama
4. Suntory The Premium Malt's Kuro
5. Asahi Dry Black
6. Sapporo Mugi to Hop Kuro

Attila's ranking:
1. Yebisu Premium Black
2. Kirin Stout
And the rest is all the same...

My ranking:
1. Yebisu Premium Black
2. Kirin Stout
3. Asahi Kuronama
4. Asahi Dry Black
5. Suntory The Premium Malt's Kuro
6. Sapporo Mugi to Hop Kuro

Helios Aoi Sora to Umi no Beer

I really love its smell. Smells like hay. I'm not into white beer, but this one is pretty good. It has its own style which says drink me or leave me. People will either love or hate this beer. There is no in between. I would adjust on the can design though. They tried to blend German rigidity with Okinawan flexibility. Didn't turn out too good.

Name: Helios Aoi Sora to Umi no Beer

Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Helios Brewery
Location: Nago city, Okinawa prefecture  

Suntory The Premium Malt's / Koku no Blend

Suntory's website says that this beer is a mix of the regular Premium Malt's and the "black" Premium Malt's. And they don't lie, it tastes like a dark version of the regular brew. Unfortunately when you try to please regular beer lovers and dark beer lovers at the same time, you end up pleasing nobody. It's an in-between without its own taste.

Name: Suntory The Premium Malt's / Koku no Blend
Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Suntory Holdings

Mugi to Hop versus Mugi no Koku

Designer's block? Tight deadline? Call 1-800-sue-his-ass-off.

Value Fighter Gugutto Nama Kuro

Don't know what to say. Please no more Gugutto Nama. I'd say this one is somewhere between the other two Gugutto Nama versions. It does taste somewhat like stout, porter or whatever you wanna call this kind of dark liquid, but for some reason it just turned my stomach upside down. The only interesting thing about this brew is that it has a 5.3 percent alcohol content. 5.3? How did they come up with this figure?

Name: Value Fighter Gugutto NamaKuro

Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, starch), spirits (barley, rice)

Alcohol content: 5.3%

Tax category: New Genre (liquor)

Origin: Korea

Note: Value Fighter is the store brand of the Yamaya liquor store chain.

Value Fighter Gugutto Nama Rich & Mellow

The only good thing I can say about this brew is that it does not have that horrible aftertaste as its default version Value Fighter Gugutto Nama. Is it too much to expect something better from a liquor distributor like Yamaya?...

Name: Value Fighter Gugutto Nama Rich & Mellow

Ingredients: Happōshu, spirits

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: New Genre (liquor)

Origin: Korea

Note: Value Fighter is the store brand of the Yamaya liquor store chain.

Value Fighter Gugutto Nama

Wet cardboard initial taste with sweetish aftertaste. The only reason I finished this can tonight is because I’m all out of beer. Design-wise, probably one of the worst beer can designs I have ever seen. It reminds me of some cheap, sugary soda drink rather than beer.

Name: Value Fighter Gugutto Nama

Ingredients: Happōshu (malt, hops, barley, starch), spirits (barley, rice)

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: New Genre (liquor)

Origin: Korea

Note: Value Fighter is the store brand of the Yamaya liquor store chain.

Neue Welt and Bergen Bräu Are No More

Looks like Daiei’s store-brand new genre “Neue Welt” is no more. I went to Daiei’s Imaike branch in Nagoya in mid-May 2014, but Neue Welt was nowhere to be found. Instead, the supermarket was filled with Aeon’s store-brand beer TopValu Lager and new genre TopValu Barreal. Too bad, I really wanted to give it a try before it goes into oblivion.

The low-priced Korean import was probably phased out after Aeon acquired top stake in Daiei, making the smaller rival retailer a subsidiary. Aeon succeeded in raising its stake in Daiei to 44.24 percent from 19.89 percent in August 2013.

Neue Welt was launched by Daiei in October 2006, becoming the first new genre to be developed and released by a major retail store.

Along with Neue Welt, Daiei’s other brew Bergen bräu was pulled from the shelves as well. Bergen bräu was the only store-brand happoshu on the market and what’s more it wasn’t a Korean import, but came from Belgium. It hit the market in December 1993, becoming the very first happoshu on the market. In fact, the term “happoshu” wasn’t even in use at that time. Since it could not be called beer, the industry called it “hops” until the word happoshu came along.

Ikinama Gold Label

My first Hong Kong-made import beer. It has an extremely light taste. So light that I don’t really taste it at all. Might as well classify it as an ultra super light new genre. Drinkable, but there is nothing to enjoy about.

Name: Ikinama Gold Label

Ingredients: Happōshu (corn, malt, hops, caramel color), spirits (wheat)

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: New Genre (liquor)

Origin: Hong Kong

Note: Sold at Sugita liquor shops. Can size 330ml.

Ikinama Super Fine

Most store-brand as well as no-brand beers are from Korea; however, this one is from Thailand. Has a light, typical imported new genre taste. The only good thing about this brew is that it doesn’t have a repulsive taste like some of the Korean imports.

Name: Ikinama Super Fine

Ingredients: Happōshu (rice, malt, hops, caramel color), spirits (wheat)

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: New Genre (liquor)

Origin: Thailand

Note: Sold at Sugita liquor shops.

Grand Kirin The Aroma

Check out my post on the Grand Kirin first because most of my comment on that brew applies to this one as well. I purchased both beers at the same time to be able to compare them, but to be honest, there wasn’t much to compare. They do taste somewhat different, but I don’t see why they had to launch two versions of the same product.

 

 

Name: Grand Kirin The Aroma

Launch date: November 12, 2013

Ingredients: Malt (barley malt, wheat malt), hops, sugars (lactose)

Alcohol content: 5.5%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Kirin Brewery
Note: Sold at 7-Eleven only.

Grand Kirin

Beautiful design and I also like the enlarged bottle opening which makes it easier to drink it straight from the bottle. Although it has great smell, the taste itself is kind of a disappointment. It is good, but nothing really special. In addition, while other premium beers - which are sold in can - are 350ml, the Grand Kirin is only 330ml. Replacing the usual can packaging with a nice-looking bottle is a great idea in terms of design, but it should be 350ml just like other premium beers. Looking at volume to price ratio, now the Grand Kirin is probably the most expensive premium beer on the market, even more expensive than Yebisu which is usually priced a few yen higher than other premium brews.

Name: Grand Kirin
Launch date: June 19, 2012

Ingredients: Malt, hops
Alcohol content: 6%
Tax category: Beer
Company: Kirin Brewery
Note: Sold at convenience stores only. Initially sold only at 7-Eleven.

Suntory The Premium Malt's

Called a premium beer and priced like a premium beer, but it is no better than some regular beer like Kirin Lager Beer. Tastes pretty good, but I’m missing that extra that would make it a premium beer. To be honest, I prefer Suntory’s regular Malt’s over this one.

Name: Suntory The Premium Malt's

Type:

Ingredients: Malt, hops

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Suntory Holdings

Silk Yebisu

Just as the can says, it has a “creamy smooth as silk taste.” I don’t know how they do it, but this one is just simply wonderful. To be honest, this one is kinda girl’s drink but it shouldn’t stop any guys to give it a try.

Name: Silk Yebisu

Type:

Ingredients: Malt (barley malt, wheat malt), hops

Alcohol content: 5.5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Sapporo Breweries

Kirin Lager Beer

Used to be the king of beers in Japan until Asahi Super Dry came along. Nevertheless, I think Kirin Lager is way lot better than Asahi Super Dry. Kirin Lager is what I call beer. Smells like beer, tastes like beer and has a great can design. Simple, somewhat traditional, but it says it to your face that “I am beer.”

Name: Kirin Lager Beer

Type:

Ingredients: Malt, hops, rice, corn, starch

Alcohol content: 5%

Tax category: Beer

Company: Kirin Brewery