Kirin's New Boys

Why do I bother? DH sent me the picture of the two new Kirin Anniversary brews at school today and told me they were yet to be tasted. I get all excited and stop by 7-11 on my way home. Sure enough, there they are.

I opened the pilsner first and it pours a nice light golden color as you can see in the picture. And the taste? It's Kirin Lager in a pretty new can. It has a little more hop maybe but the body is the same. Rather than enchancing the beer, it just makes it a little bitter. It is not a bad tasting beer, but it is still a Japanese light lager. The Pilsener Beer that is splayed across the front of the can means nothing to the Japanese drinker, but to us ex-pats, eeking out our existence in this light lager land, it is a ray of hope. A hope for Pilsener Urquell. Hell, a hope for some Bud Heavy. But, whatever. I should have learned my lesson by now.

I am halfway done with the pilsener now and I will say this. It is keeping its taste as it gets less cold. That tells me that it is well made. Some of these Happoshu's turn to piss water if you give them 10 minutes. The Pilsener can is nice to look at. It is gold and has the Kirin emblem made into a shield design. I guess it is a throwback to X number of years ago. They have added some green highlights to it that work visually. You have a gold can representing the beer and green highlights that represent the hops that you wish were there.

Next. Kirin's 120th Anniversary Lager Beer is better than the Pilsener. On the scale of all malt Japanese lagers, this is below Suntory's Premium Malts but way above the swill that is Yebisu. It pours a golden color, darker than the Pilsener, and has a body to match. A body that I enjoy experiencing with my tongue. In the dark world of Japanese beer, this new Kirin lager is a 40 watt light bulb. At 210 yen a can, I would drink it again. I know I said, "why do I bother?" but this beer makes me want to bother some more.

This is off topic but I was thinking about it just now. I was teaching the special class at Tobu Junior High school today. When I say 'special' I mean learning disability. I hate teaching that class because the students suck. Jennifer, who I team teach with, and I try to have fun games and activities for these students but they just bitch and complain. Well, only 3 of them do but that is enough to ruin a class of 9 kids. Today, one girl cried and threw her colored pencils on the floor for the sake of fuck-if-I-know. Another boy was yelling and trying to cut his finger with scissors. It made me want to drink beer. And that is what I am doing now.