Drinks of summer ahoy!

Hello readers. Thanks for checking in! Again, sorry for the lack of updates. I have been very busy the last few months and I have had some good drinks I would like to share. So let's get to it.

Trying an "Africa pale ale".

First off I would like to mention the Akita Craft Beer Festival. It was a fun way to sample some of Japan's micro breweries. Allegedly there were around 70 different companies represented. Several I had heard of before, including Akita's own Tazawako and Aquila breweries.

I sampled about eight or so different beers. I enjoyed the setup, however I thought it was a bit expensive. Something like four 200ml drinks for 1000 yen. I also purchased a small drinking glass to remember the occasion.

As a whole, the beer festival was fun. Though not as nice as the Michigan Beer Festival in Ypsilanti. In my opinion the Akita one has some growing to do.

I would guess there was around 200 people on Sunday, when I went. I understand that the first day had more beer, which was rotated every few hours, and a lot more people. As a whole though the day was perfect for drinking, and my friends and I had a good time.

Displayed left is a shot of some drinks I have recently tried. I might not have a super accurate description of all of them though, I need to start taking notes.  We will start on the left and go right.  The furthest most can is Yona Yona ale.  It is from a microbrewery in Japan. I don't remember where exactly, but I do remember having one of their beers on tap at the festival. Not bad. The second is Brekle's brown ale from Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. The bottle had a brief account of the brewery's history. Over all it was not my favorite brown ale. It was not as flavorful as I would have liked.
The third is a "seasonal" from Asahi, it tastes a little better then normal Asahi and has 6% alcohol. for the price, I suppose it's not too bad, something like 180 yen. The third is Chimay a very strong triple ale something like 8% or more. It had a full rich flavor too. The last of note is the dark Yebisu. Pretty much a dark stout by one of the better large beer companies in Japan.

On a separate note I have located one of my favorite Japanese beers in a local store, the Aooni beer which I had thought to be seasonal. Apparently not. At any rate, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!
Cheers!

A recent expansion of beer knowledge

Again it has been some time dear readers since my last update. I have been busy with my new job, which is going quite well. I have had plenty of time to drink a few new beers. However I have been too lazy to write about them. Well now I will remedy that!

Heartland (Left) and
Brooklyn Lager (Right)

The first two I had some time ago, so I would like to sample them again, but as it is I will talk about what I remember of them. 

The Heartland Beer (green bottle) features a lush tree and a small saying imprinted on the bottle. From what I remember the beer was a simple lager. Nothing amazing, but a good go-to beer. Very smooth and drinkable.

The Second in the picture is Brooklyn Lager "Pre-Prohibition" style. It had a slightly red taste to it, mildly malty. quite good, but fairly expensive from what I recall. It was brewed by the Brooklyn Brewery in Utica N.Y.  Here is a link to their website. I would be curious to try some more beverages from them. This one was quite good.

My next three are slightly more recent. Pictured on the left is Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale from England. It was a very dark ale with slight hints of a caramel or toffee taste. Not bad at all. Sitting at 6% alcohol content it had a good kick to it too.  The middle drink is the new Asahi Super Dry Black. I really like it actually. It has a darker color and is more malty in taste then the normal Asahi Super Dry. With a similar alcohol content and price, this might be my new go-to as it is in every continence store and super market. It would be too heavy to play pong or a normal drinking game with, though a good beer none the less.

The third beer in the picture is Yebisu The Hops. Apparently it's a hoppier version of then normal Yebisu, which I liked quite a lot. The hoppy version is just that, a little more hoppy. Not much more and the alcohol content was about the same too. It was good, but I would just as soon stick with the normal Yebisu.

The last two were VERY different in taste. The Organic Beer was pretty good. A smooth lager, easy to drink, nothing extremely special... Simple and tasty.  The second beer Gugutto-Nama-Kuro was possibly one of the most awful drinks I've had in a long time. it was about 68 yen a can (super cheap). The 5.3% alcohol content was the main selling point of this drink. I'm under the impression their are two drinks sold by this company "Value Fighter" and I have no inclination to try the other one.  It tasted flat when I opened the can, it was awful. To be completely honest though I got the beer as kind of a joke from a co-worker. With the understanding that if he bought it, I would drink it and write about it. Well here it is. At any rate, this post will certainly not be my last. I still have plenty of brews to try. Thanks for reading. Cheers!