Kirin Ichiban

I do like the Japanese mentality towards beer, they push the ideals of purity and flavour over anything else, which is an ideal that has worked well for them. Asahi has broken the market and there is now moving influence from big Asian brands like Singha and Chang but the problem I find with all of them is that even though they are all crisp and bone dry lagers, they all tend to taste a little similar. So does Kirin Ichiban have what it takes to step away from the crowd and WOW me with scintillating hop profiles and cushion soft maltiness?

Well the pour is pleasant enough, a frisky single finger head soon dissipates to leave you with a beer that is a much darker amber than many others you'll see come out of Japan. The smell is of fresh grain, nothing fancy but it's definitely doing what it's said it's going to do and I'm warming to them slightly simply for not lying to me. The taste is crisp, sweet and biscuity at first before having a little rasp of bitterness in the background, on second taste the biscuit notes start to mix with the bitterness to create a dark berry taste which is intensely comforting and when you mix that with a body that seems custom made for refreshment, it looks like you're onto a winner.

Kirin Ichiban is definitely more interesting than I thought it was going to be which certainly teaches me not to judge a beer by its bottle. I've noticed you can find this on tap in trendy bars especially in places like Brighton and the unbearably cutting edge parts of London (you know the ones I mean, the ones with all those people who wear glasses with no lenses and cardigans in summer.) I remember having this on draught and being disappointed, this may well have changed but if you do have it on draught then make sure you do so whilst surrounded by drunk businessmen doing karaoke and not by a bunch of hipsters doing an ironic top 10 list of the best Morrissey hair cuts (there's just one.)

Food Suggestion: This seems like an all rounder, you could have this as easily with fish and chips as you could with sashimi. I look forward to mixing it up with all sorts of jazz to see what fits though I suspect that this could quite easily go better with a sweet than with anything savoury.

Drink this if you like: This is close to Singha but it isn't a million miles away from things like Pilsner Urquell and Budweiser Budvar.