Tuesday Tasting: Tainai Kogen Beer

Continuing my quest to try as many Japanese breweries, this week I'll be looking at Tainai Kogen Beer. I ordered a sampler 3 pack of their beers via Rakuten. They're a german style brewery located in the mountains of Niigata near the Tainai Ski area. Traditionally, they made 3 styles of beer: a Pilsner, a Weizen and an Alt but they've recently added a 4th style, a Rauch.

I chose to order the Rauch, Alt and Weizen.

One thing I like about this brewery are their clean modern labels. Their core range is a classy black with brass colored katakana type and scenes from their mountain home. The Rauch has a big bold but clean label. Looks good!

I started off with the newest beer in their line up, the Rauch.

Rauch

5.5% It was a bit of a gusher when opened and had a HUGE head of beige-orange tinged foam. The head was very long lasting with decent lacing, nice. 

The color's a clear dark amber brown with ruby highlights - a truly beautiful looking beer. The nose is sweet, tangy & smokey though milder than Schlenkerla or Fujizakura's Rauch.

The beer's medium bodied with a silky mouthfeel. The taste is surprisingly earthy, malts then a hit of that smokey flavor. An interesting take on a rauch, more subtle than in your face but well done - I like it. 

I then moved onto their Alt which I chose to order over their Pilsner. Both are styles that I'm not terribly interested in but I find altbiers slightly more interesting.

Alt

5% It pours a dark reddish brown that is similar to the Rauch but the head while beige/brown & fizzy vanished quickly leaving no lacing behind unlike the thick head the Rauch gave, still a nice looking beer though. 

The aroma is toffee, caramel, a hint of anise and some grainy maltiness. It is medium bodied with a cola like somewhat heavy and rough carbonation giving it a fairly aggressive mouthfeel. 

The taste is again surprisingly cola like, some fudge, caramel, a bit of grains and a truly dry sharp finish. This beer isn't that smooth or balanced it's kind of an in-your-face altbier if that makes any sense. 

Last up is one style I usually enjoy, their hefeweizen. What I look for in a weizen is a good dose of cloves, a cloudy straw gold color, thick head of white foam and possibly some fruity banana or bubblegum notes with a soft body. Let's how it measures up.

Weizen

Served in a weizen glass as it should be! Tainan Kogen’s Weizen pours a slightly deeper gold than I am used to in a weizen but has an impressive thick fluffy head of foam that gives it good lacing and decent staying power. The aroma is an enticing fruity clove scent with bubblegum notes - oishisou! 

Medium to light bodied the mouthfeel is fairly smooth with a spritzy carbonation. The taste is a bit more average, cloves, spices, some fruity esters but also a bit of a watery quality taste-wise. A pretty good weizen. 

My favorite of the three was the Rauch, then the Weizen, then the Alt. Looks like these guys are a pretty decent little brewery.