Echigo Premium Red Ale

Brewed by Echigo Beer Company
Style: Amber Ale
Nishikanbara-gun, Niigata-ken, Japan

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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UPDATED: MAR 30, 2010 Cask at the Tokyo Real Ale Festival. Pretty red, glowing color. Nicely hoppy aroma, very earthy, as is the amber malt and hop flavor. Nice caramel and good balance. Decent flavor, though not all that special. Can: Starts with a very nice American hop nose, with red fruits and gumballs. The flavor cannot keep up with the nose, though. Maybe better than from the hand pump!

330. Pours a clear and very dark amber with a loose tan head. Creeps up like it wants to gently geyser when you first pop the cap. But it’s calm in the glass. Big caramel nose...pretty much a malt sugar aromatic dialed up to high. Creamy medium body with soft carb. Toasty, nutty caramel mid palate with a vacant finish. This is why ambers have a hard time converting people to craft beers...nice, but kind of a snooze, despite having no real flaws.

Can. Gift from Sybil. Toasty, roasty malt, some choco-like scent, too. Ruddy, reddish-brown, thin tan head, lots of carbonation. Light sweetness, some sourness in mid palate, a bit of dry fruit, some butterscotch. Medium body, very strong carbonation on the tongue.

Creamy ruby tinted deep amber coloured body with a dense, thick tan head that looks like nitrogen, but it’s not - very nice actually! Aroma of fresh light hops (nice, as well!), caramel, toffee, potent fresh malt finished off with a touch of rice. Medium-bodied; Very nice balance of hops and sweetness - the malt is in the background, but the flavour really hinges on hops that are noticeable at first and then overwhelmed by a lot of caramel sweetness - but the balance is surprisingly right and for a beer like this on this side of the world, done very well. Aftertaste shows some earthy malt, a little toffee, a hint of alcohol, but the bitterness from the burnt sugars and hops is always noticeable. Overall, a surprisingly good beer that should be sampled if you can find this! I sampled this 350 mL can purchased from City’Super! (2 IFC Location) in Central, Hong Kong, SAR China on 30-June-2011 (my birthday) for HK$18.00 sampled on the other side of the world at home in Washington on 18-October-2011.

Bottle from Davis Beer Shoppe. Pours reddish brown with a thick beige head and a sweet treacle aroma. There is a thin grain flavor with a dry chalky finish.

Bottle sampled with Vi, Ken and Daddy Vuong. Pours a reddish - amber body with light lacing. Aroma is plain, sweet bready malts. Mouthfeel is thin and carbonated with a nice subtle bready flavor and notes of sweet malts.

Lovely can art and a sexy amber brawny red colour. Nice PNW hop nose. In the mouth it is quite fizzy and thin. A bit of caramel malts with a decent though light hoppy finish. Pretty straight forward and some work on the body would really pick this up. Solid.

Sampled on 9/2/2011. This amber ale pours a medium reddish amber color from a 33cl bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is caramel, sweet and a touch hoppy. A medium bodied amber. The malts are caramel and fruity. The hops are herbal and earthy. Nice carbonation. Decent balance. A touch on the sweet side, yet there is a touch of sweetness at the finish. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Bottle. Amber, small and fully diminishing head. Moderate, malty and caramel sweetish aroma, some fruitiness and alcohol. Medium body, malty and caramel sweetish flavor, some fruitiness and alcohol. Finish is average, malty and sweetish, alcohol. Malty and sweetish red ale, lots of alcohol in the flavor/finish.

Bottle from Hi Time. Pours very, very ruddy with a decent creamy beige head. Roast caramel aroma. Med body. Flavor is fruity! Fruity hop. It’s a bit sweet but there’s just about enough hop to cover that. Certainly a hoppier amber than many. There’s an interesting flavor in the background that’s burnt and herby. So this is a unique beer that is interesting and tasty. Not one of those dull, blah ambers.

From can. Poured clear copper with a big head. Citrussy caramel aroma. Hoppy, US West Coast citrus hop flavours, ending crispy with a touch of caramel. A well-crafted ale.