BIIRU

If my laptop battery holds out, this should be the first ever Japan Beer Spectacular, which is pretty much just me posting pictures of beers I have had here. See, I had the foresight to take pictures of a lot of them so that I could do something like this. So, these pictures were taken over the course of many weeks, not one night, so NOBODY FREAK OUT.



Asahi Clear Black
This is a limited edition beer that appeared about a week back. Asahi is Japan's biggest beer company, if I recall correctly, and their Super Dry variety is Japan's favorite beer, although I don't really see why. I'm more of a Kirin man, normally, but I have to hand it to Clear Black. It's really good. It's pretty rare to find a dark beer here, as most Japanese beer is very similar to American-style lagers; that is, they are unsurprisingly rice-lagers. Some of the hops are replaced with rice, which makes the beer lighter. I don't feel like going into a lecture about American beers right now, but maybe I will later, or maybe you can just look it up and see why beer snobs are stupid. But, I digress, as I am wont to do. Clear Black was smooth and surprisingly not bitter at all.



Asahi Draft

This is one of the many regular varieties of Asahi. Asahi Super Dry comes in a silver can, but the other varieties all come in white cans with colored trim. This is the red one. The blue one is "Aqua Blue," which is fairly distasteful, and the green one is "Style Free," which is inoffensive, excepting the nonsensical name. I have little to say about Asahi Draft, which is typical in pretty much every way.



Suntory Kin-Mugi

Suntory is sort of the also-ran of Japanese beer. The big three are Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo. Suntory is mostly known for dominating the whiskey market with their crazy old man mascot and for making every other kind of alcohol you can imagine, but doing it so poorly. Of course, they are the only real choice for anything that isn't beer or sake, so most Japanese people don't know what they are missing, as far as I can tell.

Kin-Mugi means "gold wheat." It's kind of an oddity here because it is a wheat beer in the Belgian tradition. I don't think it's a limited edition or anything, but I hadn't seen it here before, so maybe it is new. I like it, but I am a fan of wheat beers, and I know it's kind of a contentious issue to beer drinkers. But to people who don't like them, one point: you are wrong.



Kirin Enjuku
Enjuku means "circle ripen," according to Jim Breen, but to me it means "cheap crap." A big can of this costs only a couple yen more than a small can of other beer, so I am guessing that this is sort of like the Pabst of Japan. It tastes pretty terrible, so I guess America wins that battle because Pabst rocks.



Kirin Enjuku Kuro
Kuro means black, which indicates that this is another one of the rare dark Japanese beers. It's not limited edition, according to the can, but I only found it in Hiroshima, which tells me it is not very common. It's also not very good, so maybe that has something to do with its distribution. Really, it's not bad, but, compared to the Asahi Clear Black, it is pretty much crap. It's got kind of a weird aftertaste which seems to be pretty common with beer here that I just can't get into. Ah, well, it was worth the price, but not really worth seeking out.



Kirin Green Label
This is one of the regular varieties of Kirin, and a pretty decent one. It's maybe not quite as good as Kirin Ichiban, but I can't really explain why. I don't really know what is different about it, but I like the green can. I also like that it is cheaper than Ichiban, so that's nice.



Kirin Stout
This one just appeared a few days ago. It doesn't say it's a limited edition, but maybe it is. It's not bad, but not great. I'm not really a huge fan of stouts, so I guess I am not the best judge. But I like the can, so bonus points for that.




Kirin Tanrei
The kanji on this one are too dificult to bother translating. This is basically just another variety of Kirin, about the same as Green Label in everyway. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. Really, I don't know. I'd have to drink the two in the same sitting to tell. There are two pictures because the back of the can has recently been changed to the picture of that dude with the lobster or whatever it is. The pictures are actually of different cans. I bought a second can tonight just to get the picture of the back, which is usually just the same as the front. At first I thought it was a new kind of beer, but I was sadly disappointed. Anyway, it's pretty good, so I'm not going to complain.



Kirin The Gold
This one, I believe, is a special edition in celebration of some anniversary. It's pretty good, but a little weird. I prefer Kirin Ichiban. I don't really know why they didn't just keep the original recipe for their special edition, but I guess they have to do something new, and it is hard to top perfection.



Sapporo Namashiboori
I don't remember this beer at all, so it was probably just the normal Sapporo stuff, which is ok, but not great. Kind of a shoddy looking can, too.

That's it for the beer pictures, but I'd like to dedicate this update to my college roommate, who was pretty cool to hang out with on the balcony and have a Pabst with while the sun when down on rural Illinois. In honor of him, I'll quote some Dylan:

He died on the road
He died on the road
He never had enough money
To pay his room or board
And he was a friend of mine

I stole away and cried
I stole away and cried
'Cause I never had too much money
And I never been quite satisfied
And he was a friend of mine