Nuttari Brewing: Aranami IPA (Japan: IPA: 6% ABV)
Visual: Browned gold body, thin browned head that leaves suds.
Nose: Cake sponge. White bread. Bready hop character. Lemon grass and bubblegum.
Body: Faintly sweet. Brown sugar. Palma violets. Bready hop character. White bread.
Finish: Palma violets. Bready bitterness. Brown bread. Lightly peppery. Lightly earthy. Wheaty. Solidly bitter hop character.
Conclusion: This, surprisingly for an IPA found in Japan, reminds me more of old school British IPAs than any other take on the style. I don’t know if it is a deliberate choice, but it is very much what comes to mind.
It has got a lightly earthy, peppery bitterness, with less of the showy notes of its USA or NZ cousins, solid bitterness but not bracing or kicking, just an every present background. Something bitter but restrained.
The malt is fairly sweet, again not matching the overt sweetness of an east coast IPA or the dryness of a west coast, more the robust adjacent of a British bitter which again is what to calls to mind the old school British IPA take. It feels much more sessionable in flavor than most of the beers that call themselves session IPAs do – though this not having to deliver at a sessionable abv probably helps give it room to build that flavor profile.
It is a solid beer, no stand out shining moments, but robust and uses the earthy, peppery hop character without falling into the trap of ending up just tasting of soil like many a bad beer has.
A solid, almost sessionable IPA if not for that pesky abv!
Background: The Nuttari brewpub in Niigata is a very cool experience. Nigh uniquely for a craft beer place in Japan (in my experience at least) it eschews the more American styling and actually leans into a more traditional Japanese room look – even having an area to take your shoes off before going in. It gives it a completely different vibe and makes it really welcoming. This was helped by both really friendly staff – the woman serving me was so friendly and happy to discuss the beers and Japanese whisky – which is always good by me- and also friendly fellow drinkers. One drinker recognised my Eddie Dennis T-Shirt and expressed his love for the older years of Progress Wrestling. So overall really nice place to drink. While this beer was good, I really wish I had done notes instead on some of their other beers. They have a lovely old ale made with Nelson Suavin hops which was a brilliant mix of British old ale tradition and NZ hop freshness that I highly recommend, and their anniversary amber ale very much impressed me in a style that is often very average. So, if you are in the area, check them out. I would say this one I did notes on was by far the weakest of their very good beer list, and even as that was not a bad beer.
