Hidatakayama Pale Ale

Brewed by Hida Takayama Beer
Style: English Pale Ale
Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken, Japan

Serve in English pint

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Very nice, and not what one would expect from a Japanese microbrewer. Aroma is mainly light fruit and pour is an apricot amber with lingering head. The flavour is intially light apricot which then moves quickly to a pleasent bitter finish. Would classify this more as an American Pale Ale over an English style.

Solid enough but fails to lift from what is a fairly large pack for this style. Mildly hoppy with some passionfruit but there’s a slightly "off" note that suggests the bottle wasn’t in the best condition. Relatively low carbonation for the style.

Bottle (500ml) at Sosuke Ryokan, Takayama, Room 8. Cloudy golden/amber – white head. Nice hoppy, grass, citrus, grape fruity, light resin, medium malty, fruity, nice crispy, grainy, toasted, knækbrød. Very nice.

Draught at Eni-brau in Osaka. A very fruity, smooth, and mild version of a pale ale. Medium caramel malt richness, with bready taste, medium to light hops, bubble gum. Good balance, with just enough hops. Super smooth. Very well done and understated.

Bottle. Hazy golden with a medium head. Exotic fruits aroma. Complex fruity and somewhat bready flavours. Well-carbonated. Interesting.

My Bottom Line:
This frail Pale Ale has a few basic cereals to accompany the grassy hop presence, but its shyness and lack of cohesion got disappointing real fast.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam dissolves into the pale blond.
-The grassy, fruity hop nose is quite subtle.
-The maltiness provides few flavors apart from distant caramel, and just enough body to carry the beer.
-Bubbles are large, but soft.

Can; best before July 31st (had on June 28th).

Medium shiny offwhite creamy head. Very light brown body. Light fruity hop aroma. Dry, watery fruity hop taste. Very mild and clean, maybe a bit too clean. Tastes like lager. (0.35l on draft.)

Tap in Takayama. Unfortunately my nose was all stopped up so I couldnt smell anything. Was quite pleasantly surpised with this beer, I ordered the house ji-beer and this is what I got. Very nice dark color, refreshing carbonation and very nice hoppiness. Was almost like a cross between a pilsner and a pale ale, I dont know what kind of hops normally go into a pale ale, but they were included in this beer along with pilsner style hops. Very well balanced, refreshing and delicious. Expensive though, a pint or so set me back 800 yen. Egad.

Found this little gem way back in a small touristy village in the Japanese Alps. A slightly cloudy orange color with a cream colored head. Aroma of malts and floral/citrus hops, slight lambic smell. Tangy, maybe infected, or miss tagged cause somethings amiss. It says "Pale Ale" in Japanese on the sticker affixed to the can but it’s certainly not Dark Brown as Nesta describes. , I drove right past this brewery during my travels and have regretted doing so, until I tasted this beer.

Very impreessive beer. Slight hoppy aroma - very subtle, but pleasant at the same time. Very bark for this style of beer.... dark brown with a nice fluffy white head. The hop flavour doesn’t knock your socks off like some beers in this style do, but they are certainly present and go nicely with the malts which gave the beer its colour. This certainly is a very very well made beer and makes very pleasent drinking. Which is more than I can say for alot of Japanese "craft" beers.