Orion Premium Draft Beer

Brewed by Orion Breweries Limited
Style: Pale Lager
Urasoe-City, Okinawa, Japan

Had it in Okinawa years ago and remember it as a light refreshing non-offensive session lager that goes good with burgers and baseball.

A typical pale lager, but with a bit of flavor, very thirst quenching, and easy drinking, great with Sushi today, but nothing special, average. Bottled sample.

Bottle - For a pale lager this was quite good. I would have given it higher marks, but it had a slightly metallic upfront taste. Good lasting head, mild hop flavor.

Bottle. Mid golden colour with a slim white head. Grainy, hoppy and wet paper aroma. Taste is bad, real bad. Can’t go on.

Orion smells of fresh pale malt with slight hoppiness. It pours with good head retention and smooth, even carbonation. Its flavor is quite fresh and clean, and quite true to the pale lager style. Good Saaz hop extraction but not enough of them. Medium body, with a semi-dry finish. Many of the Ratebeerians must have had skunked bottles, because my sample rivaled the finest pale lagers.

Whole Foods, Sandy Springs, Ga. - 633 ml bottle. Pours an almost transparent light, pale golden with a thin, light, white beady head with good bubble action. Slight wet paper bag aroma with some brief grassy notes. Flavor has a typical pale lager flavor that is not meant for much description. Some grassiness, a hint of bitter hoppieness, Saaz perhaps. Turns slighlty metallic near the bottom of the bottle with some mushy corn notes. Not as dry as most Japanese lagers,but is quite crisp. May be a decent companion to Sushi. Passable.

Sampled from bottle. Pours brilliant, pale yellow-gold with a mountainous white head. Holy crapola. This thing stinks: DMS & sour malt dominates the aroma. Flavor is well-balanced and grainy with metalic aftertaste. Mmmm, metal and adjuncts. Thin-bodied, moderately carbonated and hard to swallow. Nasty.

Date unknown, but the bottle had been sitting on the shelf for quite some time, must be a 2004 bottle. Pours a golden body, typical pale lager loooking, so pardon me for not going in depth on that. Light amount of creamyish, white head which is actually quite well-retained. Medium-sized bubbles rise slowly. Smells of light apples at first, in fact I just barely catch a whiff of it, and then I can not find that note through the rest of the beer. There is a touch of graininess, something dry with a bit of corny biproduct smell, perhaps a touch sugary. I will say that the aroma, while not offensive at all, to me, is ridiculously weak. I have to sniff at it quite aggressively to even be able to note some light grains and grass. Anyhow, the flavor begins very even and reserved. Just a plain white dough-like maltiness. Moderate carbonation is not biting or overly forced. Ends with some (more) pale grains and light honey. Not watery at all, so that was impressive. Medium to medium-light body, just a very steady honey/dough maltiness on the palate with a touch of hops bitterness and some green apples lingering (not in the nose, though). Even provides good lacing. Hey, it was a hot day, very humid and nasty out and I was thirsty. It tasted darn good to me. Didnt find any metal or skunkiness.