Tokyo summer beer

Suntory Tokyo Craft Sawayaka IPA

Brand: Suntory Breweries

Price: 180 yen

Place of purchase: Belx Supermarket

Rating:

Suntory's Tokyo Craft series of beers featured this one, Sawayaka IPA, this summer. It's got a combination of hops - citra, Galaxy, and Haratau. The promotion for the beer indicates that this IPA is meant to capture the crisp, even sharp, quality of this variety of beer. It's not bad as far as IPAs go, it delivers on the sharp, hoppy flavor with some citrus notes. It's an okay 'drinking beer', going well with rich foods such as fried dishes. I would get it again to do a taste test with other IPAs to see which is my favorite.

If I'm going to pay a premium price for a particular variety of beer, I hope that it offers something distinct and appealing. Usually, IPAs have a high hop content which lends them a characteristic flavor range in addition to a slightly higher alcohol content (usually 6%) to carry the hoppiness. Tokyo Craft Sawayaka is 5% (but I didn't really miss anything here) and has that crisp quality but it's not a showstopper. While major breweries are getting better at brewing a wider variety of beers, they still seem to market to middle-of-the-road consumers with pretty standard flavors.