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This beer is already starting off as beguiling. It does not give any indication of if it is a lager or an ale. Instead, it's just beer. It's beer from Okinawa, Japan, so I guess that's going to set it apart from anything else I've had. I think I had ichiban from Japan before, but I don't recall many others. So, I guess I'm going to find out what this beer is all about on the fly. So be it.
I went with a generic glass for this beer, as I didn't know what kind it was. Now that I have poured it, I still am not certain. It looks very much like a lager, as it is quite gold in the center, but that could make it a golden ale. It didn't produce a whole lot of head, but the bubbles are very tiny like an ale would be. The aroma is very much a lager with sweet grains pretty much over top of everything else. So, I'm going to call it. It's a lager. This being from Japan, I'm going to assume that it is a rice lager. Also, the aroma vaguely reminds me of Budweiser.
First sip has the sweetness of the malt, and there is the familiar cold bite that rice tends to give. I'd argue that this has more flavor than Budweiser, and a consequence is that it's going to be better. The question is: how much better? Well, a sip isn't a conclusive way to tell, but it's still not spectacular. For something that has come all the way from Okinawa, I would have expected a beer that was blazing trails. This one doesn't appear to be. It's relatively bland, and it's going to get itself lost in the mix of plenty of other lagers that are already out there trying to make a name for themselves.
Tip-in is sweet and crisp malt with a hint of flowers and maybe even honeysuckle. The middle becomes a drinkable wash of mild and crushable malt with nary a hop in sight. The finish is abrupt, and it snaps off the malt to leave a sweet and bitter taste heading into the trail off.
Bottom Line: Not bad, but really nothing to write home about.
2.5/5
