Asahi Super Dry.

I used to work in a sushi restaurant. Before we really calssed up the place,we had these placemats from Asahi. People would come in and want to order Asahi and I'd have to say, "Sorry, we only have Sapporo for Japanese beers." After we got rid of the placemats, we had Sapporo and Kirin (FTW) but still no Asahi.

I finally got around to picking up an Asahi. I've had a weird relationship with Japanese beers as I loathe Sapporo but love Kirin. Since we never had Asahi around, I never bothered trying it. I saw it in the store a while ago and, after passing by it on so many occasions, finally decided to pick it up.

This is the ultimate tallboy. It is a full on 1L can. Awesome. The typical American tallboy is a 1 pint can, a mere 33% increase from the standard commodity can. Extra bright, clear color; super foamy head. Reminds me of a bath scene in some Japanese movie. Typical lager-y taste with a hint of rice, as this is a rice lager. This is the ultimate session beer for drinking over a shared grill-set-in-a-table dinner. Unassuming and refreshing when you need it.

This received a pretty low mark from BA which is not surprising. BA and their ilk like ales and only like lagers that try to be more like ales. Props to Japan for producing their own twists on beer (looking at Hitachino too). Mind you, Japanese whisky also kills internationally so there. I think this is a great beer for what it is and what it tries to be.