Koshihikari Echigo Beer Review: A Drinkable Beer from Japan, If You Can Stomach the Price

Koshihikari Echigo Beer

Echigo Beer Company, Nigata, Japan

http://www.echigo-beer.jp/

Echigo Beer: Not as
bad as you'd expect.

I have never had a Japanese beer that I enjoyed. Ever. The Japanese are to beer what the Germans are to sashimi. There is no denying that the Japanese have a predilection for tasteless, dry lagers. They seem to make nothing else. They have no business in the beer business, which is why Echigo Beer was such a surprise. It definitely was not as horrible as I expected. The pale straw colored, lightly carbonated lager was sweet on the tongue and dry on the finish. The interplay between the sweetness and the dryness made for a more pleasant drinking experience than expected from a Japanese beer. The beer was still nearly body-less, however, with no head. If Japan began to make beers only of this quality and higher, the country could eventually, possibly crawl its way out of the League of Shame. Not at this price though, the beer cost me $8 for a 12 oz. bottle at Tokyo Table in Irvine, CA.


-Ryan

Style: Rice Lager

ABV: 5%

Available: California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, New York City

Beer Valley Leafer Madness Review: A Taste Bud Ass Kicking

Leafer Madness

Beer Valley Brewing Company, Ontario, OR

http://www.beervalleybrewing.com

Leafer Madness: A nice taste bud
ass-kicking if you can get it.

Leafer Madness is quite possible the bitterest liquid I have ever drunk. I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the name practically shouts that some serious herbage was involved in the brewing of this beer. The beer exploded from the bottle, soaking me and the floor. Once I got it into a glass, Leafer Madness poured a deep golden color, but somehow confused my taste buds into thinking that some roasted grains lurked under the bitter barrage of more than 100 IBUs. The bitterness stayed with me after each sip. Don’t start an evening of beer tasting with this beer; you won't taste anything else for the rest of the night. The head was long-lasting and tightly woven with tiny bubbles. The aroma provided a hint of sweetness and a gale of American hops. At 9.0% ABV, this beer puts lightweights like me on our asses.

-Ryan

Style: Imperial IPA

ABV: 9.0%

Available: Total Wine, Bev Mo, and specialty shops on the west coast only

Moonlight Brewing Death and Taxes Lager Review: Death and Taxes? Yes please!

Death and Taxes Black Lager
Moonlight Brewing, Santa Rosa, California
http://www.moonlightbrewing.com/

Smoked, dry, lightly sweet, and smooth. In a word, delightful. I was gulping without realizing.  Perfect for sitting on the porch, or watching a football game, or watching a football game on your porch if you are so inclined. I'm happy to report that Moonlight Brewing has put out a very nice Vienna lager that I would easily order over Negra Modelo. Well, that is to say when the opportunity presents itself of course.

-Jesse

Style: Dark Lager
ABV: 5.0%
Available: On tap in coastal Northern California only

Coopers Pale Ale Review: Another Aussie Export We Could Do Without

Coopers Original Pale Ale

Coopers Brewery, Adelaide, Australia

http://www.coopers.com.au/

My least favorite pale ale ever. No hops character on the nose or the tongue. The beer tasted quite a bit like a light lager. The color was a cloudy straw, and the head was thin and dissipated quickly. Coopers Original Pale Ale is bottle-conditioned, but I didn’t get much from the presence of the yeast either. I expected more after tasting the entirely drinkable Sparkling Ale from Coopers. Coopers Brewery has been around a long time, and it brews the right way, but I didn’t love the Original Pale Ale. I suppose that one could use this beer to train drinkers of macro lagers to be more adventurous, but if I am honest, I’d rather have a Budweiser. That is not a ringing endorsement from me.

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: 4.5%

Available: Total Wine

-Ryan

Victory Brewing Company Golden Monkey Review: It's no IPA, but I'm Learning

Golden Monkey
Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA
http://www.victorybeer.com



Victory has a neat little Belgian whatchama in their Golden Monkey. Yes, I'm out of my element. My taste is a product of the Pacific Northwest, and it's hop obsession. I haven't traveled through the Low Countries nor have I been schooled in the nuance and interplay of sour sweet acidity that heralds the your entry to the "Disneyland of beers." Go easy; I'm a child of divorce. Golden Monkey is an exceedingly clear liquid, even compared to Budweiser. The best advice I can give is don't start with this one unless you are entertaining western European guests or end with it either, as the aftertaste is not what you'd want to go home with.  Me personally? I want to snuggle up with a beautifully balanced IPA before bed, but I digress. I suppose the final word I have on this one is "try" it. I assume that little Belgian boys and girls had to try it at one point before they got so damn sophisticated, so that's my advice to you.

-Jesse

Style: Belgian Tripel Ale
ABV: 9.5%
Available: Victory's beers are distributed in roughly half the states in the Union and sold by Bevmo.

Sierra Nevada Estate Ale Review: Beer for Beer Snobs

Estate Ale

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA

http://www.sierranevada.com/

I have a theory that the more difficult opening a beverage is, the better the drinking experience inside. Cheap wines often come in bottles with screw tops, allowing us to get drunk quickly. More expensive wines invariably come corked, and getting the damn cork out of the bottle is sometimes the most difficult part of the day. Beer follows a similar pattern. Tasteless, yellow fizz comes in cans with tabs. Sure the beer smells of aluminum, but think how easy it is to get it out of the can! Twist-off caps are more difficult; we must twist, burning up a calorie that we have carefully stored through drinking beer. The best beer usually comes from bottles with pop tops. Pop tops require a tool -- only humans, with our opposable thumbs, can get to the beer inside. 

None of these packaging choices was complicated enough for Sierra Nevada’s Estate Ale. Each is too easy. We cannot properly appreciate a beer like Estate Ale without struggling to open it. To assure that we do respect the beer, Sierra Nevada dipped the sealed bottle in Kevlar-reinforced wax. The damn thing is nearly impossible to open. Getting the top off took patience and a chainsaw. My wedding took less planning.

Once I got the bottle open though, the experience was magnificent. Fresh grapefruit aromas met my nose even before I began to pour. The Estate poured a golden color with a nice, off-white, lingering head. The flavor was well balanced with sweet, toasty malts and citrusy hops mingling nicely. 

Those beer drinkers who find IPAs to be frequently too bitter should still be able to enjoy this ale. Estate Ale is also 100% organic for hippies.


-Ryan

Style: Ale

ABV: 6.7%

Available: Total Wine

Tell Us About Interesting Beers

We drink a lot of beer here at Beer Snark, but we can't get to every delicious beer at once. Have a beer that you want us to try? Let us know. We love any excuse to drink more beer, especially if it is good. Tell us where to find it, and we'll drink it and post about the experience here.

-Ryan

Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier: A Pleasantly Mediocre Hef

Hefe-Weissbier

Paulaner, Munich, Germany

http://www.paulaner.de/home.php

This lightly sour, cloudy, and orange wheat is not what I'd have thought to pair with a burger. Well actually in this case it's portobello burger, but I think the remark "pleasant surprise" is warranted. This beer actually has a way of preserving and lifting the savory favors without destroying your pallet. Again I'd believe this observation would hold true for beef's flesh as well. That said, I don't feel like this one distinguishes itself as a unique Hef and that's ok; I'm not disappointed, but at the same time it isn't a brew I'd walk a block for considering the ubiquity of Widmer's.  

-Jesse

Style: Hefe-Wiezen

ABV: 5.5%

Available: Widely Distributed

Tasted: Burgers and Brew, Sacramento, CA

Beer Snark's Purpose

The primary purpose of Beer Snark is to allow us to taunt people into drinking good beer. Beer Snark's ultimate goal is to promote the craft beer industry in the United States and around the world at the expense of bland, American-style lagers. If you have stumbled upon our humble blog, you must either like good beer, want to like good beer, or your Google machine is broken. At Beer Snark, we care not how you arrived, only that you drink good beer. We employ a highly scientific tasting and rating system that enables us to review beers objectively and accurately; if we like a beer, we will say so in a snarky way. If we hate a beer, we will say so in as snide a manner as is humanly possible. You have our word.