New Beers from the Japanese Majors in 2019: Asahi Breweries / 日本の大手企業からの新しいビール 2019: アサヒビール

We’re into 2019 now. It's time to take stock of new beers brought out in 2019 by the four major breweries in Japan: Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, and Suntory. I'll discuss them each in a separate post. I'll also give my own rating score and the current RateBeer weighted average score (both scores out of a possible total of five), keeping in mind that most of these newer brews have fewer than ten ratings.

Let’s start with Asahi Breweries:

Asahi Craft Style American

Pale Ale - American / APA / 5% / My Rating: 2.2 / RateBeer Avg: 2.65

Nose of peach, apple, and rude fuzzy spirits. Deep gold color. Stone fruit, with some citrus, and something darker, maybe raisins. Grain spirits intrude a bit after mid palate. Thin-medium body. The Asahi marketing team is sort of flailing around here, and I'm sure this one will disappear within a month or two.    

Asahi Craft Style British

Pale Ale – English / 5% / My Rating: 2.10 / RateBeer Ang: 2.63

A rough malty aroma, stone fruit, dusty rusty metal. Deep dark amber color, light brown tea-colored head (very quickly dissipating), and weird fat bubbles jumping off the bottom and sides of the glass. Overly sweet stone fruit, spirit, fruit soda, and minimal hopping. Thin-medium body, harsh carbonation on tongue. Not enjoyable. Despite the "Enjoy the World's Styles" on the can label, this is really no style and is not really enjoyable.

Asahi Craft Style Amber Lager

Amber Lager - Intl / Vienna /  6% / My Rating: 2 / RateBeer Avg: 2.72

This faux craft brew has a nose of sweetened roast malt, cinnamon. Bright dark tea color, nearly no head. Thin flat sugary maltiness, light caramel, hint of dark fruit, and spirits. Thin-medium body. The added grain spirits are more or less disguised, but this is all artificial tasting and there is no mistake about that. The Asahi website tells me that this style is quite popular in New York, and all I gotta say is: Ya learn something new every day. And you, dear beer lovers, I hope that you have learned that this is not a beer you need to try.

Asahi Craft Style IPA Type

IPA / 6% / My Rating: 1.9 / RateBeer Avg: 2.70

Oh, no! Here we go again. Another faux craft (let’s say “crafty”) beer. It has such a strange aroma: sweet cake, sugar candy, all sick floral and lightly citrus-like. Clear medium gold color. Thin lightly syrupy (sorry for all the stupid adverbs) sweet maltiness, with spirits present in a big way, and some sugar cake frosting on top. Harsh carbonation, which gives it a sort of metallic feel. Really weird stuff. And did you know that this is Asahi's very first attempt at the IPA style? You will never, ever, have another IPA like this. And I hope you don't have this one. "IPA Type" ? --- more like an IPA Typo.

Asahi Kurenai

Märzen / Oktoberfest Bier / 6.5% / My Rating:2.30 / RateBeer Avg: 2.79

Light sweetish malt aroma, some roastiness. Dark straw color (not crimson, as the word “kurenai” suggests. Sugary roast malt, light stone fruit, with the alcohol mostly hidden. Thin-medium body, lightened up with rice. Nose is unimpressive. Color does not show any autumn colors. Amarillo hops? Did not detect them. More like a strong pale lager than an Oktoberfest beer.

           

Asahi Gold Label Go For 2020

Pale Lager - Intl / Premium / 5% / My Rating: 2.8 / RateBeer Avg: 2.84

This is everywhere now, and will likely remain on the shelves until after the 2020 Olympics. Fuzzy malty nose plus cornstarch, and a quick swirl brings out some graininess. Clear medium straw color, thin white filmy head. A small initial burst of malt, tiny citrus, slightly rough bitterness, and it fades out, like an exhausted marathon runner just shy of the finish line. Thin-medium body. One year to go. Kanpai, Japan. However, this beer will not be on anyone’s leader board.

Asahi Clear Natsu Biyori

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5% / My Rating: 2.10 / RateBeer Avg: 2.54

Nose of spirits and some grain and some mild stone fruit. Medium gold color. Light stone fruit, grain spirits, and a dull bitterness in the latter half. Thin body. More junk from this Clear Asahi series.... and now it's a special one for summer! Don't be tempted to try it ...
           

Asahi Fujisan Japanese Premium Ale

Blonde Ale / Golden Ale / 5.5% / My Rating 2.6 / RateBeer Avg: 2.85

Thin citrus spritzy nose, with some grass. Very pale straw color, fluffy white head, and lazy carbonation. Thin mild fruitiness, with some decent bitterness in mid palate, and fairly clean but dull finish. Thin body, on the edge of being watery. Of course, they had to lighten it up with rice....

Asahi Gokujo Kire Aji

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5% / My Rating: 2.20 / RateBeer Avg: 2.67

Aroma of spirits, rough stone fruit juice. Clear medium dark gold color, with a thin hypnotic stream of bubbles rising. Flavors of spirits, some really weird stone fruit-like stuff, light bitterness, and then the spirits remain on the tongue in the finish. Thin-medium body. Pretty yucky, overall.
 

Asahi Super Dry Royal Limited

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5.5% / My Rating: 2.8 / RateBeer Avg: 2.79

Aroma of starch, grain, rusty metal. Medium gold color under a 1-cm soap sudsy head. Thin maltiness, some moderate hops, light fruit note, touch of grass, and a thin bitter finish. Thin-medium body. Okay, for this kind of adjunct-laden stuff that Asahi puts out. And it is limited, indeed...

Asahi Super Dry Sumiwataru Karakuchi

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5.5% / My Rating: 2.90 / RateBeer Avg: 2.91

Aroma of light grass, some rough citrus. Clear medium gold, creamy white head. Straw, grass, mild citrus, a tad sweet in mid palate, and then a light bitterness in finish. Thin body. Similar to the regular Super Dry Karakuchi, but perhaps a little maltier and with little more body. Nothing terrible nor terribly good.

Asahi Clear Kyushu Umaka Shikomi

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5% / RateBeer Avg: 2.79

No chance to try this one

Asahi Clear Tohoku No Megumi

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5% / RateBeer Avg: 2.77

No chance to try this one

Asahi Clear Hokkaido No Megumi

Pale Lager - North Am. / Light / 5% / RateBeer Avg: 2.68

No chance to try this one