Tuesday Tasting: Satsuma Shuzo

This week I'm going to look at a trio of beers from Kagoshima Prefecture that my buddy Brian kindly sent to me. I had some of these years ago and thought they were alright but I get the feeling that the recipes have changed. Back then I think only Satsuma Purple was made with sweet potato but it now seems like all of them are.

I received three different styles: 

Satusma Gold, Satsuma Black and Satsuma Red.

The Red replaced Satsuma Purple which was one of my favorite Japanese brews from when I just started getting into Japanese craft beer.

Satsuma Gold 4.5%

A clear bright bass color with a white head of foam. The aroma is bready malts, sweet with a spicy sugary quality I guess comes from the sweet potato. That surgary charact is a bit artificial but not terribly so.

Medium to light bodied with a syrupy texture. The taste is very sugary sweet like some kind of powdered candy but you also get a more typical lager like bready malt sweetness and it finishes quite dry.

It's a weird beer, not as bad as some online reviews painted it to be but too sweet and if that is coming from the sweet potato it is definitely clashing with the other ingredients.

Satsuma Black 4.5%

Also made with sweet potato it pours a cola black with a fizzy beige head that vanished so quickly I couldn't snap a photo of it. 

A nice chocolate fudge aroma with a spicy cinnamonesque quality which is similar to what I picked up in the Gold  which must be from the sweet potato. The dark malts seem to balance that out and prevent it from getting too sweet. 

It is light bodied, a bit too gassy and finishes fairly dry. The flavor isn't bad, roasty, chocolate syrup but it does have that sweet potato character of starchy sugar that is pretty odd.

In this beer the sweet potato sort of works. Decent. 

Satsuma Red 4.5% 

This beer pours blood red with a pink head of foam. The aroma has a fruity wine like character coupled with the sugary spice component I associate with sweet potatoes.  

It's medium bodied with a rich silky mouthfeel. The flavor is sweet though somewhat artificial seeming sweet potato, fruity, some diacetyl but it is weirdly well integrated.

My big takeaway from this brew is of a fruity cotton candy. It’s alright but the discontinued Satsuma Purple was the real winner from this brewery in my book.