Kirin Stout

I have to admit that it had been a while since I had tried the Kirin Stout. I think I had written it off as another beer that tastes just like all the others. Saturday morning I found myself staring at a rack of Kirin Stouts in a little shop on the Shinkansen track in Nagoya. I was about to be on the Shink for two hours, and that kind of work requires beer. Pay no attention to the fact that it was 8am--beers were needed. I decided to choose the Kirin Stout over Super Dry and Kirin Classic, because the morning calls for dark beer. Just like roasted coffee beans brighten your days, roasted malt just wakes you up in a way that lighter beers cannot.
To my surprise the Kirin Stout packed a little taste! Not much, mind you, but enough to make it well worth the 215 yen price tag. Of course it’s not Hida Takayama’s Stout, but then again it costs 300 yen cheaper. It’s no Black Malts or Beer Chocolat, but its cheaper than them as well. I think it's a safe bet to say that Kirin Stout is the best cheap dark beer there is. Asahi Black and other “black” happoushus don’t come close. I let this beer warm up for about twenty minutes before I drank it. When a dark beer gets warm, you start to really get to taste it. The cold can mask flavors. That’s why when you pop a cold High Life it tastes good, but when that sucker gets warm...it is slightly less than desirable.
And the can is just badass. I love the black matte finish on beer cans—it just looks manly.

I highly recommend grabbing at least two of these before any Shinkansen trip.