The beers of Iwakuni: Hokkaido Brewing Company Otarueru Ale

I got this one at the YouMe a couple of months ago. The only English on the bottle is "Hokkaido beer" on the cap and the web site so it took a little extra research. The website is entirely in Japanese so I had to Google translate it.

This is what I'm working with.

Unfortunately, I started to write this a while back and I can't find the website again. From what II remember, it's an amber ale using ingredients from Hokkaido prefecture. The brewery is not to be confused with the Hokkaido brewery owned by Sapporo. This is a microbrewery in the city of Otaru with some limited distribution throughout Japan. (hang on, I found the website again). According to the website "The amber color tickles the beer-loving heart, it is a very rich flavor". The bottle is a steep shouldered longneck bottle with a pull tab cap featuring the shape of Hokkaido prefecture and the breweries website (the only English on the bottle). The label is pretty cool, even though I can't read anything on it. Nice little symbol featuring hops and barley stalks. It is 5% ABV and 330 ml. I will be using the dry beer glass from my Japanese beer glass set (mostly because I've never used this one).

Nose from the bottle is a sweet malt barley, kind of bready. Pours off golden with a light white head and has lively small bubble agitation. Nose from the glass is the same but with an overriding apple characteristic. On first sip, it's bready with cracked barley characteristic (which is to say, it's malty but not roasted), this subsides to light hops being the overriding characteristic, then a bread finish with a hop aftertaste. It's very German, as most Japanese beers are, despite being an ale. I certainly like how the hops make their presence known more and more as you sip this beer. It is a light body with medium acidity.

So I recently discovered the late 70's-early 90's metal band Saxon. Although I suppose that's a rather limiting view of them, as the band is still mostly intact after 40 years. I have had the song "Crusader" stuck in my head all day and I don't mind one bit. I bought their 1984 album "Crusader" and 1986 album "Rock the Nations" based on their epic cover art from a record store in Iwakuni I frequent. I also purchased the late 70's Canadian hard rock band Teaze's first self titled album for similar reasons.

Just look at that jungle cat, makes me want to buy a panel van just to have this painted on the side. Maybe It's because I was raised on Cheap Trick (by the way, bought their 1977 album "in color" at the same place) and the only good radio station in town when I was growing up was the classic rock station and on top of all of that, the majority of my friends were metal heads (I being the lone rude boy), but the late 1970's-early 1980's is just a cultural golden age for me. The majority of my favorite bands are from that era or have styled themselves after it. I love the trucks from that era. The vinyl from then is both of great and awful, the recording tech was better than it ever had been but the disks were flimsy. On the other hand, we have only just recently started making turn table cartridges that are better then the ones of that time. 

Final thoughts. I love the fact that it's a Japanese beer that you can taste the hops in but it's not trying to be American. Very refreshing to see. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.