Kinshachi Nagoya Akamiso Lager
Japanese beer tasting, White Horse, London SW6, June 2011; Top Tastings 2011
ABV: 6%
Origin: Nagoya, Chūbu, Japan
Website: www.kinshachi.jp
Based in Japan’s third biggest city, Nagoya, Kinshachi was established in 1996 as the Landbeer brewery, though points to an earlier local tradition of brewing in the 1880s. Its experiments with adding traditional Japanese ingredients to craft beers include a green tea beer and this remarkable fusion, which draws on one of the local specialities, akamiso or fermented red soya paste — around 5kg for every 20hl batch. It was originally made for a local expo event a few years back and is now one of the beers of which the brewery is most proud.
This rich red-brown beer has a fine, smoothly foamy yellow head and an oddly fruit with notes of banana, strawberry, sour cherries and wood. The palate is rich and malty, almost like a Belgian dubbel, with an unsurprising note of salt and savoury unami flavour — the signature of fermented soy products but surprisingly and very successfully balanced by dark malt tones. I also noted dry crackers, buckwheat noodles, and nutty sweetness. The beer slips smoothly over the tongue into a warming fruity and raisiny finish that finishes with notes of banana, chocolate and popcorn. Definitely not a gimmick but a very memorable and enjoyable beer that deserves wider recognition.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/kinshachi-nagoya-red-miso-lager/69655/
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