Beer # 499 Lone Star Lager (Canadian Version)

Beer # 499 Lone Star Lager

Brewery: Sleeman Brewing and Malting


Type: Wholly owned by Sapporo Breweries Company  Est.:  1988

Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Lager

ABV: 4.9%      IBU: 10

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $2.0 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

sleemanbeer

    @sleemanbeer

Ok... This beer is iconic and intrinsically linked with Texas, except, it is brewed by a Japanese company in... Guelph, Ontario, Canada? Well... yes, and yes... The original Lone Star Brewery was built in 1884 in San Antonio Texas. It was Texas' first large scale mechanised brewery; originally put together by Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch fame and a group of local San Antonio businessmen. Busch had bought the Alamo brewing company in 1874 and used it to build the new Lone Star Brewery. Lone Star Beer itself, wasn't brewed until1940 by Peter Kreil of Munich (It is very much a Munich Lager). The Lone Star Beer Company has had many masters over the years. It has been moved to several locations in Texas, it was purchased in 1976 By Olympia Brewing from Washinton,

No.. Not that Lone Star.

and again in 1983 by G. Heileman Brewing. Stroh's bout Heileman in 1996, and then Stroh's was bought by Pabst in 1999. Pabst now contracts all the brewing of Lone Star out. So where does Japan and Canada fit in? Glad you asked. Stroh's Canada was purchased by the Sleeman Brewing and Malting company which was later bought out by Sapporo of Japan. Sleeman's brews the Stroh's line Including Lone Star, Old Milwaukee, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Still billed as the "National Beer of Texas, even though this one is brewed North of the border... Let's give this one a try. 

Let's use the Schwartz on this Lone Star...

Clear gold in colour with a thick, bright white head made up of small bubbles. The aroma is corn syrup and malt extracts. Rain watery German-style hops and hints of wet dog. The first sip is sweet and corny with a very light malt profile. Taste is very flat with a watery texture. There is a clean crispness to the beer, but it comes at the cost of very little flavour in the actual beer. Aeration makes it taste like sugar water.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 3/6 SO-SO
Re-Order:  1/6 FAIL
Experience: 3/6 SO-SO


Final Thoughts:

This is a very boring beer. There is really nothing to it but sugar and a hint of malt. I get the feeling that if you drank too much of this the gut-rot and headache the next day would make you wish you were dead. It tastes like an underage party... one where you cobbled together anything with alcohol in it. It's not so bad, that if someone offered me one I could drink it... but I would politely decline a second one.

CJT

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Beer # 289 Saison du Japon Hitachino Nest

Beer # 289 Hitachino Nest Saison du Japon

Kiuchi Brewery

Kounoso Naka-Shi Ibaraki, Japan
Independent
Flavoured Saison 
6.0 % ABV 16 IBU
Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$4.30 (Canadian) At the LCBO

Twitter: @kiuchibrewery (Japanese)

Iching Papeda

Any time we can find a Japanese craft beer up in this area of Ontario I get rather excited. And This is one of the better ones to cross the pond. Hitachino Nest is the craft beer line that supplements Kiuchi Brewery's Sake business. Kuichi has been producing fine sakes sine 1823. In 1996 Japan passed a law that permitted microbreweies and Kuichi took that oppurtunity to expand into beer production. 

Tonight's beer is a Saison, a light bodied ale, flavoured with the Asian fruit Yuzu. Yuzu comes from china and it is said to be a cross between a proto-citrus fruit called the Iching Papeda and a sour mandarin orange. Yuzu is a slightly tart fruit similar in taste to a grapefruit with major hints of lemon and orange. It is mainly used as a flavouring in Japan, rarely eaten as a fruit. You can find it in the citrus based soy sauce Ponzu, and it is often zested and used for garnishes. 

Yuzu

 Saison du Japon is a wheat and barley based beer that has been flavoured with yuzu and then given further complexity by adding Koji. Koji is a fermented rice base that is used to start the fermentation process in sake.

Onto the beer...Kanpi!

Pours a rich golden colour with a light off tan head made up of small bubbles. Nose is mineral, citrus, slightly soapy, mildy sweet with some caramel. First sip is tangy and tart, effervescent, somewhere between lemon and pomello. with hints of orange and grapefruit. Hints of wheat with some banana and clove. Aeration brights out some warmth slight hints of rice and sake.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 5/6  PASS
Re-Order:  5/6  PASS
Experience: 5/6 PASS

Final Thoughts:

Lovely, well put together beer, good complexity and a nice crisp clean taste. Certainly could enjoy a few of these. Get out and try one while it is still here.

Cheers

CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas: Day 2

Beer # 165 Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

Kiuchi Brewery

Kounoso Naka-Shi Ibaraki, Japan
Independent
Flavoured Imperial Stout 7.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$7.95 (Canadian) At the LCBO
Twitter: @kiuchibrewery (Japanese)

Beer

Coffee and Tommy Lee Jones

If Japanese love certain things, coffee and beer are definitely on the list (especially since you can find both in vending machines just about anywhere) So putting them together is not a hard leap.  Kiuchi Brewery has been making Sake for 180 years (still a relatively young Sake House) They moved into the beer business in 1996 when the laws were changed to allow companies to operate microbreweries.

Hitachino Nest with it's trademark owl has quietly made inroads on the Japanese beer scene for almost 20 years now and it is just beginning to surface in other countries (thankfully!).  Tonight's offering is an espresso stout. Not a rare type of beer by any means but it is interesting to see a Japanese take on the beer.

試飲へ (Onto the tasting)...



Pours a deep dark chestnut brown with a tan head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is fudge, chocolate, coffee, leather, and a hint of molasses and dark roasted malt.first sip gives up deep chocolate malt with a well rounded bitterness. Some smoke and molasses. A hint of dark fruits and a little pepper. The finish feels like a shot of good quality espresso. Aeration gives us a warm toasty hit of alcohol, and some leathery smoky lingering flavours.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 



Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Re-Order:  5/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS
Christmas Spirit 5/6 PASS


Final Thoughts:

Lovely beer. Good style, good taste, well balanced, and carefully crafted. The Japanese do take great care in crafting good products and this is no exception. Try it while it is still on the shelves and hopefully we will see more from them in the coming months

Cheers And Beery Christmas


CJT


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Beer # 64 Hitachino Nest White Ale

Hitachino Nest White Ale

Kiuchi Brewery
Kounosu Naka-Shi Ibaraki, Japan (Independent)

Belgium Style Wheat 5.0% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500 ml.

$3.85 (Canadian) At LCBO.

Today is International Beer day and to celebrate I have a couple of international beers to post. First trip out we are heading to Japan to a place that was ravaged by the earthquake earlier this year. The brewery in question had some roof damage, heaved roadways, a broken bottling line, and *Gulp* 500 smashed bottles of product and 800L of lost sake! But in true rebounding spirit, the brewery fixed it's bottling line and began bottling water to aid survivors and rescue crews during the clean-up of one of the worst earthquakes in Japanese history. The Brewery has since restarted and is back up to full capacity.


Kiuchi Brewery began life in 1823 when it's founder Kiuchi Gihei started a small sake operation. Over their 180 years they perfected the art of sakes and decided to expand. in 1996 They began the Hitachino Nest beer line and began using the iconic "white owl" as the logo for the beer. The brewery also makes Shochu a rice wine that is part rocket fuel. As of 2004 Kiuchi had started purchasing grapes with the intent of making wine.

Onto tonight's tasting:

Washed out straw colour, translucent with copious amounts of sediment and particulate. Head is bright with small bubbles and short lived. Cinnamon and clove on nose with slight mustiness. Dry wheat sweet flavour of concentrated orange juice and bitter orange peel. Aeration brings out orange peel and sharply bitter hops.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional

                                                                                                               

Cost:  5/6  PASS

Colour:  5/6  PASS        

Beer Style:  5/6 PASS  

Re-Order:  4/6 PASS   

Experience:   4/6  PASS

Final Thoughts:
I was excited to try this beer as I had only previously had the Japanese staples (Sapporo and Kirin) It does reflect the Belgium style for a wheat beer, but it is not spectacular. 


Cheers
CJT