Today's focus will be on beer. Recently Japanese beer manfacturers have been going through a slump due to the economic slowdown (blah blah) and the fact that young Japanese consumers are becoming increasingly health conscious. To counter this the Kirin, Sapporo et al. have been looking for new angles on the market. The first one of these up for review is Smooth by Kirin.
The packaging bravely declares "low alc." "low carbonization" "low fermentation" and then some silly slogan about how it makes you all comfortable. As I pop the cap, despite having gotten all shaken up as i walked home from the store it makes a small "pssht" sound as if i just took it out of the fridge after leaving it there for a week. The taste is very mild. Not mild in a horrible american beer that tastes like water sense but more like a pleasant sunday afternoon, spent sitting on a porch, maybe it's autumn, the birds are singing, leaves are falling but it's someone elses job to rake them.
As much as i'm against the philosophy of this beer I have to admit it's not bad, it's quite light but not watery, it's not bubbly but neither is it flat, it's something of a inbetween thing really. I can't really like it because it's not really beer, at the same time i can't really hate it since it's not bad. I'm a bit confused really.
