My weekly trips to City Super at the Sogo Department Store in Tianmu have resulted in a number of beer finds. I’ve found some of my favorite Belgian beers, some nice craft beers from the US, as well as the offerings of our local Taiwanese craft brewery. Mixed in with the imports, I recently also found a few unusual cans and bottles from Japan that I thought may be worth a try. These were all labeled entirely in Japanese, so I have no idea what any of them are, but as I open them and taste them, I’ll check into the details and share them here.
The first beer I opened from this group turned out to be a German Hefeweizen style beer from Ginga-Kogen Brewery.
Ginga Kogen has been around since 1996, and is from the Sawauchi village in Iwate prefecture, in North-Central Japan. This area of Japan is known for their heavy snowfall, so it has rich, natural, fresh water. The climate is similar to Bayern in German, which makes it a good fit for brewing this German-style beer.
The Hefeweizen I found here in Taiwan was a 350ml can of Ko Mugi beer. The beer poured a cloudy, golden color with a rich white head. Aromas of banana and spice, with a flavor of wheat and banana. The beer reminded me of so many of the other Hefeweizens I’ve tried over the years, and was easily able to hold a candle to any of them.
