Orion Premium Draft Beer

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

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Shaker

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330 ml can bought at Sogo Freshmart in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Clear golden yellow colour; Thin head and white foam which last for about 30 seconds; Small lacing and pretty fizzy carbonation; Quite pungent smell of malt, rice, very light wet cardboard and faint grass; Very light sweet taste of thin malt, with rice, corn, faint chalk dust, and faint note of grass; Light body, thin but crisp palate; Mouth feel is typical, highly carbo macro with very low malt base, rice-laden, and very faint but tolerable chalk dust; Hoppiness is very faint grassy nose, almost zero taste of citrus and hint of grass and bitterness. Not much of a finish; Slightly Dry after taste, very easy to mouth.

Comments: As Orion’s mainstay, this is no lowly happoshu, but there’s not much quality to speak of, either. Typical ricey Asian macro with very low chalk as its redeeming value, and as a ‘draft’, its taste is wet and messy. Not a drain pour, but not something I’ll have again.

Pale golden beer with a minor white head. The aroma has some nice hops and malt. Light body with moderate carbonation. A pretty normal pale lager.

Bottle at Maru in Cary, NC. Pours a clear golden color with a moderate white head. Nose is much like every lager that you find being mass produced. I did find this one to be very clean and crisp, which was a nice finish to a meal of Korean bbq. Easy refreshing drink, but nothing to seek out.

Can in KinosakiOnsen. Clear yellow - white head. Light malty, light hay, watery, light cardboard, sweetness, candlewax, corn. Bland - boring.

Now I don’t usually review cheap pale lagers but Wade’s Wine’s just introduced a new Japanese beer section and due to my obsession with anything Japanese, I had to try it all. Faint aroma of corn. See through copper appearance. Taste is a bland, watery mess with weak flavors of rice flakes and biscuit. Overall, just your standard pale lager. Not very good.

Bomber. Clear pale golden yellow, foamy white head vanishes. Sweet corny aroma and taste, bready lager malt, some faint grassy hop. Average carbonation, light bodied, low hopped. Typical Asian industrial swill manufactured to be consumed in mass quantities. LF (Lagerboy Friendly)

From the bottle at sushi dinner. Served in a fountain soda glass. LOL @ the beer of beers! Very pale pour, light head probably due too dish washed glass. Aroma of rice, corn, and light fruit esters. Flavor is similar, very light and watery. Sort of like a Bud. To bad sushi restaurants don’t serve Japanese craft beer, if it even exists?

On tap at Mura, Raleigh. Extra pale gold pour, well carbonated but looks pretty generic. "The beer of beers"? Odd. Non-descript, vaguely malty/corny nose, but there’s really very little there no matter how deeply you snort. Slight vegetal taste, more grain, and maybe just a scooch of citrus. At least it’s got slightly more personality than the usual yellow fizzy shit.

Bottle. Pale yellow color with small foamy white head, slight citrusy aroma, sweetish bland taste, high carbonation, abrupt finish. Generic lager.

Tap at a Melbourne Japanese restaurant. Pale gold with a luxuriant white head that lasts well. Not much to the aroma or the taste - seems to be one of those "taste the nothingness" Japanese deals - but it’s slightly crackery and not that sweet, modestly grassily hopped with a gently drying finish. Very light and not really my sort of thing, but a pretty fair beer.