Enoshima Beer

One of the couple of Japanese craft brews that I brought back with me from my most recent business trip to Japan. The beer is from Kamakura Brewing, which generally makes good (perhaps not great) beers. With this being their flagship Pilsener, I figured it would be tell me a lot about the overall quality of the Kamakura outfit.

Sadly, this is going to be a rather short and not-so-merry little tale. Even with the dating on the bottle saying this very fresh, this has a very dull, very old and tired flavor. Where there should be crisp bitterness (from Saaz, maybe?), there is only mushy nothingness. Had a weird salty aspect that didn't work at all, either. Maybe this is not a Pils at all, but an aborted attempt at a Gose? Impossible to tell from the website. But while the Japanese put some weird flavors into their beers, going for a salt-and-coriander wheaty Gose just doesn't ring true to me.

To top it all off, the very same mild sourness that I've found in all previous Kamakura beers is even more prevalent in this lager. Not plesant.

I'm sure there are some decent Japanese craft-brewed lagers out there, waiting to found. But this one? Pass.
//TB