Tama no Megumi (Ishikawa) Pale Ale

Brewed by Ishikawa Brewery
Style: American Pale Ale
Tokyo, Japan

On tap at the brewery. Medium copper color. Flowery, slightly perfumey aroma, with citrus, hops, fruits. Hoppy, fruity, light flavor. Slightly alcoholic!; with honey. Popcicle like. Ok. It might be good if it weren’t so cold. Rather bland, though.

Deep golden color, eggshell white head, nice hoppy taste and again, a nice feel, rather creamy. Well done! I could drink way too much of this!

Medium offwhite creamy head. Yellow body. Light fruity aroma with strong tropical fruit hop background. Sweet roasty taste with lots of tropical fruit hops. Very harmonic. Dry hoppy grain aftertaste. Very nice. Ɛ.3l on tap.)

rating is combined. Med. amber color. Little to no head. Big grapefruity, citrusy nose. Sexy oranges, apples, spice, tea and cinammon mouth. Weak malt presence. Finish is lacklustre and has no punch. Will try on draft at pub in near future and see how that is any better. 7/4/7/3/13 -3.4 Nov 5, 2006 Rerate on draft from pub. Light amber color, senous passionfruit, peaches and apricots in the nose. Much more alive thanout of the bottle. Highly aromatic mouth with is like drinking liquid hop flowers with grapefruit soda poured on top. The finish is still lack luster for bitterness, but the body is more balanced than I noticed before with some crystal (??) malts? If it was more bitter this beer would give SNPA a run for its money, but it doesnt. 9/3/8/4/14

Bottle. I agree with the prior two ratings. If SNPA is an "Introductory" beer, then this one is an introduction to that. Hey, some people need baby steps. Thick apple juice appearance with very little head. Clean, dry mouthfeel. Vague pear taste, apple aroma, hint of baby good. Not bad but too bland for my taste. Gimmee some bittering hops with that!

I agree with the prior rating. An excellent pale ale with a touch less bitterness than Sierra Nevada. A real quality effort from this Japanese micro. Balanced, with sufficient malt. The bottle is covered with Japanese characters that I have no hope of deciphering, but I can only imagine that they say something like ’although Japanese beers generally leave something to be desired, the beer in this bottle is much, much better than Sapporo. We promise.’ And that’d be no lie.

An excellent brew reminiscent of Sierra Nevada. Slightly cloudy. Hints of fruit. Excellent.