Sapporo Reserve

(22 oz can: $2.49 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Date stamped on bottom of can: L1105, which I presume is 11-Dec-05. Expecting another bad imported pale lager, Sapporo Reserve in the fancy can is actually not bad at all. It’s clean, somewhat crisp, quite grassy, lightly sweet, and grainy, but mostly, it just has a nice, pleasant, drinkable flavor that I wish all pale and premium lagers had. I’m really appreciating drinking a beer of this style that shows obvious hops and malt rather than adjuncts and unpleasant bitterness. Grassy, grainy, malty nose isn’t remarkable, but certainly pleasant enough. Light-medium body is more than sufficient for the style, and with moderate carbonation and light crispness, this is clean and refreshing on the palate. Medium straw in color with excellent clarity, I would like a few more carbonation bubbles rising through the beer to maximize the beauty of a beer like this. The very bubbly, snow-white head doesn’t quite reach a full inch in height and settles by the bubbles merging together into larger bubbles, but eventually settles to a normal ring. Compared side-by-side with Kirin Ichiban, the Sapporo Reserve is better tasting and more flavorful by leaps and bounds. For the style, it just doesn’t get a whole lot better than this beer.

(can - 650 ml) Slightly hazy gold color with about a half inch of fizzy white head that quickly fizzes out. Light aroma of malts with a touch of grain and possibly some hops. The taste begins with a sweet and malty flavor followed by a bitter and metallic middle and watery and bitter finish. Aftertaste is gently bitter.

Can: Light amber colour, with a medium heavy white head lots of carbonation. Aroma with hops. Taste is quite decent for a lager, crisp, hoppy with a good balance of bitterness and sweetness.

12 oz bottle. There is really not much difference between Sapporo, Kirin, and Asahi. All 3 are Coor’s light type clones. I mean come on, do you expect rally good beer from Japan? No, of course not. You expect good food!

Sapporo Reserve is a very well done beer. The label states that this beer is brewed with "the finest barley and European hops". That is not surprising, German brewers were sent to Japan in the latter half of the 19th Century to teach the Japanese how to brew beer. This Germanic influence can be seen today in Japanese beer styles, most notably in "black beer", a German style of dark lager that has survived in Japan, and is still being brewed there to this day.(see my review of Sapporo Stout for details.) Sapporo Reserve is not a schwarzbier, but is more along the lines of a malty German helles, bordering on maibock. Sapporo Reserve pours to a beautiful, bright, golden color with a nice white head, and a lively carbonation. The nose on this beer is very enjoyable. Really nice aromas of malt marry with some grassy hop aromatics. The palate is firm, good pale malt flavors are round and clean on the tongue. This beer finishes with more good malt character and is balanced with some good, dry hop bitterness. This is a very balanced beer. The label states "malt liquor", which translates that its abv is higher, I’m guessing around 6-7% avb. I enjoyed this beer very much, it reminded me of a good malty helles style beer poured at Oktoberfest in Germany, or even a Maibock. The emphasis on the label was European hops, but the malt character of this beer impressed me the most. Hops are there, but only to balance. I would match this beer with Japanse fare such as sushi, or perhaps grilled fish or chicken.

This is nothing at all like regular Sapporo. Its more like one fantastic premium lager. It’s really smooth and complex. I was very pleasantly surprised by this.

Bottle - slightly skunky malt aroma. No noticeable hops. Looked like Bud Light. Flavor was much like the aroma, but with a strong corn taste. Not real good.

Buttery-golden, fairly dead except for a white head that lasts as a 1cm cap. Light aromas of grain and adjunct grains. Flavor is grassy-sour-bitterness with malts coming through late with a touch of sweet. Light- to mid-bodied. Mostly harmless.

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