Sapporo Stone Warrior

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

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack gifted to me in Chicago, IL; 2015 

Style/ABV: English Dark Mild Ale???/Brown Ale?? EH???, 5.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Disclaimer, this beer sucks. About Sapporo: 

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. 

Sapporo Stone Warrior

The Sapporo Stone Warrior was a beer I first encountered while out to sushi. It was then gifted, generously, to me via a 6-pack. I enjoyed it upon first taste, but upon revisiting it 4 more times I've concluded that this is a mediocre beer and you're better off just getting the regular Sapporo stuff. 

This pours into an amber-brown, reddish body, kicking up a finger or two of tan-tinged head. It looks like a Brown Ale/Mild/Dark Lager. 

The aroma here is toast and caramel, with light grassy hops. The caramel is actually not that bad, with good kettle notes and some nuance...I guess I don't hate it as much as I remember. 

This still tastes a bit underwhelming, with lots of toast and caramel, unbalanced grassy hops, and unchallenged sweetness. It's one-dimensional and sweet and that doesn't play favorably. 

This isn't very complex, but it has good carbonation. It's drinkable and all that, but I was hoping for something a bit more refined. Palate depth isn't bad but this is unbalanced. It's just...not very intriguing for me. It's both one-dimensional and unbalanced but too sweet with caramel, toast, and hops that show up to attempt to rectify things but fail. I'm gonna leave it at that. 

Rating: Below-Average (2.5/5.0 Untappd)

This is a Light Below-Average. I'm giving this a .5 bump, actually, from a 2/5 to a 2.5/5. So it isn't swill by any means, but it doesn't intrigue me and it's really sweet. It was actually a poor choice to pair with my sushi, since the sweetness was just too much on top of the already sweet sushi rolls. You could do a lot better than this. 

Random Thought: I'm too tired for random thoughts.