Pours murky brown, bit dirty and not really with much carbonation to speak of. Nutty brown ale caramel nose, this one has also decent hops and some fruit aromas. Taste has this creamy caramel candy flavour with some additional herbal hoppy edge. Nice hop character overall, dry and quite long lingering finish. Actually enjoying this one more than I thought I would.

Harvest hop version (from notes). Rather strong and insistent hop aroma. Brownish/yellow color. Fresh and malty. Palate is a bit watery. Okay.

Sample at S&G tasting. S&G goes to Japan PART 1. Special THX to Christian. APPEARANCE: clear dark blond beer, small unstable off white head. NOSE: herbs, sweet, caramel. TASTE: herbs, chocolate, some coffee, spices...

Small glass on draft at Craftheads, possibly leftover from the Shiga Kogen anniversary event. Labeled as Not So Mild Ale Harvest Brew. 200 ml pour. Clear dark amber with off-white head. Aromas of toffee, light roast, floral notes. Tastes of toffee, biscuit, light caramel, toast, light floral hops. Medium-light body with a dry finish.

Half pint in Ushi Tora. Clear dark chestnut brown with some reddish brown tinges, off white head. Nose is nutty, toasted and roasted malt, caramel, coca-cola, ale fruity. Taste is roasted malt, fruity coca-cola, earthy hop, caramel. Bit light on richer flavours but ok.

Nutty aroma and roasted flavor but very mild despite a fairly heavy body, almost no carbonation, watery finish. Kind of a weak brown ale, not for me, quite a disappointment.

Draught at Bungalow. Dirty copper with a big creamy head. Aroma is spicy and floral with some pine. Flavour has malts and grain, small pine hop finish. Very nice.

From bottle, 11/14/2011. Aroma: a bit of funky, earthy malt Palate: light bodied, a little thin. Flavor: light roasted grain and coffee beans. Comment: light bodied, easy drinking and flavorful.

Draft at Bungalow’s 1st Anniversary Shiga Kogen Tap Takeover event. 500 yen, 4.5% I had this a long time ago in bottles & really enjoyed it. Let’s see how this draft batch is.  Possibly wet hopped as it is marked HARVEST BREW. It pours a dark ruby brown with an off white head of foam. The aroma is citrus, pine & caramel. A nice floral type of bouquet. Nice full body, but undercarbonated again. Fruity, malty sweet with good lemon notes with a piney finish & a malty aftertaste. Yup, I still like it!

Bottle from Hasegawa. Fresh hop vesion. Muddy red brown colour with hardly any head. Aroma is saucy, bit of chocolate, malt, quite stinky. Some booziness in the background. Maybe something BBQ like, meaty and saucy. Taste is less interesting, but quite nice still, initial malty sweetness, bit of chocolate, caramel, slight bitterness too, but buried. Body is quite thin, had this with the other fresh hop shiga kogen I had. Hint of fruitiness in there, berries maybe, but mostly sweet. Not sickly though. Better than I thought it was going to be.