Hidatakayama Karumina

Bottle. Black with a smallish tan head. Surprisingly fruity nose given the appearance, especially the strong orange zest aroma. Orange and lemony flavours, quite acidic, not as much as a hint of roast. Alcohol. A top range beer that will surprise most.

Sampled @ GJBF Yokohama: Dark chalky caramel, light tan head and lacing. Nose of belgian esters, lots of banana, clove. The flavor is estery, some malt and alcohol, clean, belgian.

Deep cloudy brown. Gentle off-white ring. Flowery, gingery, spicy ale with sturdy malt backings underneath. Those malts are chocolatey and darkly toasty while their fellow ingredients propose hints at mint. Certainly bready through and through, but one of its most striking features remain its high juiciness, grapey, but plumy even more so. Light to medium bodied, very soft carbonation.

The look: Cloudy dark brown body with a little tan ring of foam
The style: Flowery Belgian Dark Ale
The stuff: Aromatic flowers/herbs take a lot of room in this beer, maybe a bit too much so. The floral scent/flavours are hard to identify but they are of the perfumy relaxing kind so I’d say camomile, lavender and friends but I may be totally off. The Belgian foundation takes a little brown ale twist. Some roastiness. Distant nutty notes. In this case the warming alcohol is welcomed as it diminishes the beer flowery character. There are a few things that I didn’t like about this beer but it does many things really well. For characteristics such as originality and intensity I would have given it a few “A”s but it seems to already have more than enough of these.
The how: Japanese themed tasting session at MartinT. Bottle from MartinT
The conclusion: Very original. Ideal for tasting sessions as the perfumy flowers/herbs might become annoying after a full bottle.

On bottle at Thrash Zone Yokohama. Perfect tasting beer. Full bodied and good aftertaste makes this one one of the best Japanese beers for me that i could drink on my 14 day’s trip. Had about 100 different beers over there from all over the world