Beer Tasting Help

I am doing a Summer Beer Tasting in June

8 half bottles of beer and one full bottle of beer.

Thinking four pairs of one style and then one full beer - as a starter beer when people come into the event.

Thinking

Styles

Session IPA - Coedo Session IPA and Lag Daytime IPA or Stone Go To IPA

Fruits Beer - Baird Natsu Mikan and if possible Shimane Yuzu Fresh

Wheat Beer - Fujizakura and Weinstephaner

Pilsner - Bayern Miester and Cool Breeze/Shiga Kogen Nigai Pilsner


Opening beer - was thinking to get a growler of something from Y Market or Kyoto Brewing. Maybe a saison.

Any suggestions about styles or beers that would better fit, would be appreciated.

Tim

I’ve seen Pizza Port’s PONTO in Japan. That would be better than serving Stone’s Session in your tasting.

Ahh, good point. Didn’t think of that. I still like Daytime IPA the most of those three but ponto is good.

Why would Ponto be better than Go to?

Ponto is hoppier than Go To. Also because distribution, your beers are probably over 30 to 60 days old. Therefore Ponto will have more flavor than Go To at that point.

Hard to assume how old the beers are, but good point about age affecting the quality. That is something I will take into consideration.

Pizza port prints the date at the bottom of the can. It’s a must in California when people are always looking for the freshest IPA.

Sorry, but where is Go to from? They come through the same distributor and are bottled not far from each other
I disagree about it being hoppier - The late addition hopping is very fragrant for the Go to. Perhaps the Ponto has more early hop bitterness, but this will not necessarily mean the beer will travel better... And to be honest I have had some beers in better condition in Japan than I did in San Diego, so thats a crap shoot too.

I disagree about it being hoppier too.

It’s really hard predicting how lower alcohol beers (non Lacto/Brett/..) will hold up, i think. There are a few parameters to follow regarding hopping but bottling/canning techniques can make such a big difference. I’d suggest go and decide closer to the date when you know what’s available if you’re unsure about the two.

Also a far shot, but if you can find somebody from Belgium flying in you might want to add a Lambic to the tasting. Either Box-in-a-bag or just a growler fill. It’s my go-to summer beer when in Europe. Always having a 10l jerry cans in the fridge!
Most reliable quality: Cantillon, Lindemans (!), Oud Beersel, Giradin, 3 Fonteinen (if available)
De Troch is very hit and miss. The Lindemans has been really good, pretty clean but great session beer!

Can’t help with the rest yet, my knowledge of japanese beers is still so limited!
(I will be picking up the Yuzu Fresh, ratings read great!)

Jonno, you are right if you had beers in better conditions in Japan than in San Diego. I agree that lots of bars here serve great beer with dirty lines I can only speak from my experience, I buy lots of Ponto when I go to tailgate parties. That’s all.