1/100) Cyonmage (Yamaguchi Micro Brew)

I have set myself the goal to review three beers or ciders every week for 100 weeks. I will be learning about beer and ciders more as I do this, and if I am successful in this venture, I will have tried about 300 unique drinks. If you're curious how I'm doing, the number in the post's title tells you which week I am in now.

The first three posts in this series are a bit retroactive because I had actually planned on starting this blog series while I was visiting Japan in June. It didn't happen. However, I still count those three weeks in Japan as the first three weeks in my challenge. This is the first of those three retroactive posts.

Pale Ale, Wheat, Alt

These three brews are from the prefecture of Yamaguchi and are from a company called Cyonmage (pronounced Chonmage). If you've ever seen a samurai movie, you have seen a chonmage(丁髷) They are those little knots of hair that characterize the samurai's cliche hairstyle. You can see them on the bottles in the above picture. If I remember correctly, samurai sported this style because it prevented their hair from getting in their way.

Alt アルト) I was genuinely surprised at how good this beer was. It has a warm flavor with a nutty finish that calmly dissipates in your mouth. ☆☆☆☆

Wheat ウィート) Again with this one, I was surprised at how good it was. Because the name was simply "Wheat" I had expected a light, unremarkable taste. Instead it had a smooth semi-sweet initial reminiscent of a generic wheat beer that transitioned into a lightly sour citrus background. ☆☆☆

Pale Ale ペールエール) My friend who I shared this with said this Pale Ale was quite good. Unfortunately, hops and I have a bad relationship. The more hoppy something is, the less likely I am to like it. I wonder if I should even be reviewing Pale Ales, IPAs, or ESBs. So, despite my friend liking it, I did not. The initial has a lightly bitter floral hop taste that rises into a crescendo of bitterness that I found myself fighting against as it continued to linger. It might be a good pale ale, but I just couldn't get into it. ☆☆