Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sapporo draught


Sapporo is a wonderful beer. In Brisbane you can get it in a can (650ml) or you can get it in a bottle (334ml). The bottle is the real deal, brewed in Japan and the can is a filthy impostor! The can  (like so many beers now) is not made in it's country of origin, it comes from Canada. Now i love Canada. I have spent a bit of time there and drank some really good beer, especially from Quebec but this beer is not Sapporo. The difference between the can and the bottle is MASSIVE!
I am not going to write about the can version i just wanted to warn you.

I am going to call the bottle version 'draught' because that's what it says on the bottle. This is a very clean, fresh crisp beer. There is, like most Japanese beers a nice rounded malt flavour but it is very well balanced and so damn crisp. The bitterness is perfect and the finish dry without being clawing. There are signs of fruit and hop but its all so subtle and well put together that's its hard to taste anything other than refreshment.

I dare you to drink just one of these. I also dare you to start drinking beer that comes from its country of origin because no matter how exact the ingredients are, the water (which is 90% of the beer) is never the same and the taste is always dramatically different. Beware of Stella, Becks, Asahi, Kirrin, Heinekin just to name a few!!
Dan


4 comments:

Pete said...

I didn't know that about the cans of Sapporo. Explains why I've never really rated it I suppose. I'll be on the look out for the bottles from now on though.

Do you know if the draft stuff in Australia is imported from Japan or brewed under license?

(mutual friend, Sandy Burns, suggested the blog by the way. Some fantastic posts!)

Graham Sutherland said...

Hi Pete, the bottles available in Australia are brewed in Japan (hopefully, you'll just have to check the back of the bottle when you buy)

p.s. is it Sandy from Edinburgh?

Pete said...

Good to know, gonna have to give it a shot. Cheers.

Yep, it's Sandy from Edinburgh. My wife used to work in Oddbins with him :) .

Graham Sutherland said...

good on Sandy, keeping people interested in alcohol.
I think we buy the bottled Sapporo from Japan Food Corp, so you can contact them to find a retailer in Sydney.