Winter beer

I just got a case of Kirin Beer’s latest beer*.
(*Actually, it’s a 発泡酒 (Happoshu) which is a low-malt beer. These are popular because they avoid the high beer tax in Japan and therefore are cheaper. They taste quite the same as “regular” beer, so I like them.)

This new beer is called 「冬麒麟」 (“Winter Kirin“).

It tastes very good. It has a “mild taste” just as it says in the ad.
This is a temporary beer offered by Kirin Beer for this winter season, so if you’re in Japan, I recommend trying a can or two.

(The Kirin Beer Company is named after a mythological dragon-like creature called 「麒麟」 (Kirin)…not a “giraffe” which is also called “kirin” in Japanese but written 「キリン」.)

To all the beers I’ve drunk before

I don’t claim to be a beer ソムリエ (sommelier), but I know what I like.

I’m gonna try and make a list here of as many of the different beers I’ve tried that I can remember. And I’m gonna try to rate them (with a rating scale of 1-3 stars (★ ～ ★★★). One star (★) being the lowest, and three (★★★) is the highest).

I also wrote the beer’s country of origin.

The star ratings are simply my personal opinion. Kirin Beer is my favorite. And I think any cold lager is good.

Just so you know where I’m coming from.

• Kirin Lager (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Classic Lager (★★★) – Japan

• Kirin Ichiban (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Strong Seven (★★★) – Japan

• Kirin Tanrei (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Tanei Double (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Tanrei Green Label (★) – Japan
• Kirin Nodogoshi (★★) – Japan
• Kirin Enjuku (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Koku-no-jikan (★★★) – Japan
• Kirin Aki-aji (★★) – Japan

• Budweiser (★★) – America
• Bud Ice (★★) – America
• Bud Dry (★★) – America

• Heineken (★★★) – Netherlands

• Guinness (★) – Ireland

• Hitachino Nest Beer (★★★) – Japan

• Asahi Super Dry (★★★) – Japan
• Asahi Hon-nama Draft (red can) (★★★) – Japan
• Asahi Hon-nama Aqua Blue (blue can) (★ ) – Japan
• Asahi Hon-nama Gold (gold can) (★★★) – Japan
• Asahi Cool Draft (★★★) – Japan

• Orion Draft (★★★) – Japan
• Orion Southern Star (★★★) – Japan

• Suntory The Premium Malts (★★★) – Japan
• Suntory Malts (★★★) – Japan
• Suntory MD Golden Dry (★★★) – Japan
• Suntory The Straight (★★★) – Japan
• Suntory Jyokki-nama (★★) – Japan
• Suntory Gold Brew (★★★) -Japan

• Carlsberg (★★★) – Denmark

• Beck’s (★★★) – Germany

• Yebisu Premium (★★★) – Japan
• Yebisu Premium Full Malt (★★★) – Japan

• Sapporo Draft One (★★) – Japan
• Sapporo Nama Kuro Label (★★★) – Japan

• Satan (★★★) – Belgium

• Singha (★★) – Thailand

• San Miguel (★) – Philipines

• Corona (★★★) – Mexico

• Samuel Adams (★★) – America

• Miller Genuine Draft (★★★) – America

• Kamakura Moon (★★) – Japan

• Coedo Ruri (★★★) – Japan
  

  "Coedo Beer" from Kawagoe (Koedo), Saitama, Japan

I may have tried others that I’ve forgotten. This is all that I can remember off the top of my head.

As you can probably tell by my ratings, I love beer…and I’m not real picky. But I’ve tried Guinness Beer and I didn’t think much of it. やっぱり、I like lager beer.

What do you think of my list? Have you tried any of these beers? Are your impressions different from mine?  What’s your favorite beer? How often do you have a beer? I have a couple with dinner everyday.

Vodka and cola

I mentioned my preference for beer over cola on an earlier post (Click here to read it).

But on 七月八日 ((2009) July 8), Kirin (the Japanese beverage company most famous for their line of beers) will begin selling 「コーラショック」 (“Cola Shock”).

キリン「コーラショック」 (Kirin "Cola Shock")

It’s a canned cola and vodka cocktail.

The ad says that it’s a 発泡酒 (Low-malt alcoholic beverage) that contains アルコール分５％ (5% alcohol).

As I mentioned before, I don’t drink cola often…but this is one kind I’d like! 😉

New drinks

I wrote about Pepsi Japan‘s new drink that they started selling this week called Pepsi Shiso.
(Click here to read it).

I decided to buy a bottle of it today to try it just for the novelty value.

"Pepsi Shiso" on the convenience store shelf.

I know what シソ (Shiso), the Japanese herb, tastes like. We actually have some growing in my wife’s garden right now.
I like it fine…but the idea of “Shiso flavored cola” seemed very odd to me.

I was right. Pepsi Shiso smells and tastes alot like the herb. As I said, I think Shiso is good…as an herb. But in a cola, I found it unappealing.

I took a couple sips to try it, and gave the rest of the drink to my kids. Even they found it “mediocre”.

I guess we won’t be buying Pepsi Shiso again.

After trying the Pepsi Shiso, I opened my favorite drink…an ice cold beer! (Actually a 発泡酒 (Low-malt beer), which is just as good to me).

Yesterday, I bought a case of Kirin Beer‘s newest offering: 「コクの時間」 (I would’ve translated it as “Wonderful Time“…but it says on the can “Golden Moments“).

Regardless, the beer was much better than the herb cola! (Actually, a cold beer is better than any other drink! 🙂 )

I ♥ Beer

I like beer! Especially 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer).
I drink a can or two everyday with dinner.
I even like 発泡酒 (low-malt beer), which is popular in Japan because it’s taxed much lower than regular beer…and therefore cheaper. (Actually, all of the beers mentioned in this post are 発泡酒 (low-malt beer)).

My favorite beer is 「麒麟淡麗」 (Kirin “Tanrei“):

But I’m not picky. I’ll drink any* beer.

麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) is currently selling my favorite 「淡麗」 (“Tanrei“) beer in special cans for the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup which will be hosted by South Africa. (Japan co-hosted the 2002 Soccer World Cup games with South Korea, by the way.)

The special “2010 Soccer World Cup” edition 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) cans show the JFA (Japan Football (Soccer) Association) logo.

Kirin "2010 World Cup" special-edition beer cans.

Another beer that I like is the fairly new 「麒麟ストロングセブン」 (“Kirin Strong Seven”), which has 7% alcohol level (compared to the usual 5.5% of regular Japanese beer)!

Kirin "Strong Seven" Beer with 7% alcohol.

* I said above that I’ll drink any beer. There are exceptions…I don’t like lite beers or non-alcoholic beers. 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) has recently introduced one of each into their line-up. I won’t be buying either of these!

One is their new lite beer called 「麒麟ゼロ」 (“Kirin Zero“).
It’s called “Zero” because it contains 糖質ゼロ (zero carbohydrates) and カロリーオフ (low calories). It’s also only 3% alcohol.

"Kirin Zero" lite beer. (No thanks.)

The other is 「キリンフリー」 (“Kirin Free“). This is a ノンアルコール (alcoholic free) beer.
It contains “0.00% alcohol“.

Kirin's "alcohol-free" beer. (Not for me).

Have you ever tried any of these? What type (and brand) of beer do you drink?

Japanese beer

Do you like beer?
Have you ever tried Japanese beer?

I ♥ beer!

「麒麟ビール」 (Kirin Beer) is my favorite…but I’ll take any cold lager!

Kirin Tanrei Double

Japan has five major brewers:

• Kirin Beer – This beer began in the late nineteenth-century in 横浜 (Yokohama, Japan). It’s named after a mythological creature called a 「麒麟」 (kirin) that looks like a dragon (it’s featured on the beer cans)…not named after a giraffe (which is 「キリン」 (kirin), also).


A mythological "kirin".

Many people don’t know that hidden in the creature on Kirin Beer cans is the word 「キリン」 (kirin):



「キ・リ・ン」 (Ki-ri-n) written in the creature's mane.

(I wrote another post that mentions Kirin Beer. Click here to see it.)

• Asahi Beer -Started in 大阪 (Osaka, Japan).





The Asahi Beer brewery is a Tokyo landmark.

(I have pictures of old Asahi Beer posters on the end of another post. Click here to see it.)

• Suntory Beer – Also started in 大阪 (Osaka, Japan).
  Suntory Beer got it’s name because the founder’s name was Mr. Torii…or Torii-san. So, he took the words Torii and san and reversed them into San-torii and changed the spelling to Suntory.

(Another famous Japanese company got their name in a similar manner. The Bridgestone company was founded by Mr. Ishibashi…which translates into Stone bridge, which he reversed to Bridgestone.)



Suntory Beer

• Sapporo Beer – Started in 北海道札幌 (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan).


Sapporo Beer

Sapporo Beer bought the Yebisu Beer brewery (which was from Tokyo), so they make that beer as well.



Yebisu Beer (pronounced "Ebisu")

• Orion Beer – From 沖縄 (Okinawa, Japan)


Orion Beer

Have you ever tried Japanese beer? Which ones have you tried? Did you like them?
What’s your favorite beer in the world?

As I said above, I like 「麒麟ビール」 (Kirin Beer) best…and probably オリオンビール (Orion Beer) as my next favorite.