Sapporo Premium Beer

Brewed By: Sapporo Breweries in Tokyo, Japan (or wherever it's contracted)  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014 

Style/ABV: Japanese Rice Lager, 5.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

This is my beer. This beer has ushered me through countless sushi and Chinese food meals. This light, cheap, refreshing rice lager is a little slice of beer culture...and frankly, one of the best macro lagers available. And it's made by Sapporo, my guys!

Sapporo is the oldest brewery in Japan; and was first brewed in Japan by German-trained, lager brewer, Seibei Nakagawa. Sapporo Premium beer was brought to the USA in 1964 to save sushi lovers like me. 

The Sapporo Premium is a staple and classic, and features rice in place of corn. DAE Japan? This beer pours into a nice dark gold color, kicking up two+ fingers of dense, off-white head. This actually has head retention, and leaves webs of lacing. It's like a Lager...with hops. What a concept.

Sapporo Premium Beer

This actually smells quite hoppy out the gate, especially at lower temps. In particular, you get a lot of grassy hops, floral hops, and some cracker/biscuit that is going to totally betray you when you taste it and realize this beer is rice-based. It smells incredibly bright, clean, vibrant, and fresh....words that often DO NOT describe the typical saccharine sweet and skunky pale lagers that typically cross paths with hobos and 7-11.

At cooler temps especially, this is just a treat to sip on. It has a lemony zest like club soda, with some nice funk and malt backing from the rice. This does provide some of that "lager funk" typical of the style, but it's much cleaner and more refreshing than other examples. There's a touch of apple in here, completely intentional. And the grassy and floral hops that were in the aroma show up in the taste. This really punches in all the flavors you'd want from a Lager, without any of the saccharine sweetness, skunkiness, or weird gasoline flavors that you might find in a 40oz of malt liquor. 

You have to be a cold hearted bastard to rate this beer like it's some sort of fancy thing. This is the epitome of clean, functional beer...sort of like Japan. I mean, what sort of weird tentacle candy that doubles as a dildo for young men will they think of next. This is just light-bodied, refreshing, clean on the palate, and fairly complex for the style. How many Lagers provide that clean Lager funk and malt base, with some gentle apple notes, and then bring it all home with crackers, biscuit, and grassy/floral hops. This is my sushi slayer, and maybe my desert island Lager.

Rating: Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. Leave it to Japan to make the quintessential sushi-beer pairing. Ignore BeerAdvocate or RateBeer in regards to this beer.

Random Thought: You do want to drink this beer fresh.