Asahi Brewmasters Select

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 4

bleh. notas good as the black. not even close. typical slightly-better-than-the-crap swill. no redeeming qualities, really, just not as foul as many of them.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Sampled on 4/19/2009. This pale lager pours a deep orange gold color from a 12oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is cereal and grain, with a touch of citrusy hops. A medium bodied Pale Lager. The malts are cereal and grainy, perhaps a touch of rice. The hops are floral. Nice balance. Some decent flavors is this one. Good carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet and malty.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 2 | Overall: 4

A deep opaque reddish-orange bodied lager. The head is a robust, soapy white. Decent hang time. Settling into lumps of soapy froth. Weak aroma of sweet grains. Not real impressive to the nose. The body is watery and the taste down right bland. Won’t do this one again.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 4

Pours dark gold with perfect clarity and a nice, foamy head. Aroma is light, featuring herbal hops and faint metallic notes. Plenty of grain flavor balances bitter, citrus hops. The finish is somewhat dirty. Light bodied, moderately undercarbonated, not smooth.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Sampled from bottle. Pours copper-gold with a thick, creamy white head/ Aroma is sweet malts and some grassy hops. Flavor is slightly sweet and dominated by lightly toasted malts. Some grass and metals were also present, but light. Medium-bodied and a bit more gassy than I would prefer. A decent lager. Although I wouldn't pick up another sixer, I'd certainly have it at a sushi bar where options are usually limited.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

The aroma is sweet and malty with some caramel overtones coming through with maybe a slight hoppy aroma. The appearance is typical to the style and is a nice amber to brown in color with a slightly fuzzy head on top that is full but diminishes to a thin lacing that is off-white and laces the glass. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied with some moderate malty complexity with some okay hoppy balance with an aftertaste that is caramel-like and sweet with a finish that is wet-like and coats nicely and is rather refreshing and smooth given the brewer of this beer. Overall, not a bad offering and is rather boring but drinkable; I am just not a fan of Asahi but at least this brew is unoffensive and smooth.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

A brand new offering from Asahi. Now, not to be sardonic or anything, but does the world really need yet another rather dull lager from my second least favorite Japanese brewery? Apparently so, since I also noticed a full-color advertisement for this very-same beer in a frou-frou magazine that I was flipping through today at the doctor's office waiting room. Grabbed a single 12 oz'er of this at my local liquor store on the way home from the doctor's office for a laugh.

Imperial Red packaging. Any time you are dealing with the color red in many Asian cultures, you're dealing with what is expected (or contrived) to be the upper-crust, whether it be in clothes, resturants, royality..., or in this case, beer. Is this beer worthy of such high standards?

Yeah, I guess it's okay.

Why the rather indifferent appraisal? Only in that this really doesn't deliver anything that I haven't had before in seemingly dozens of other European-style Lagers. Not bad, not great, just sorta "there it is -- take it or leave it". For some reason, "Polish Lager" sprung into my mind with this one, if that helps you imagine the point-of-reference here....

Compared to most Japanese lagers and happoshus, this is indeed a notch above. I tend to think that this doesn't have as much rice as many beers of that ilk do. And while that in itself is a plus, the results still aren't impressive enough to really wow me, either way.

A step-up from the norm, but still nothing all that special IMO. And definately not very regal or "select"....

Music: Cage's "Astrology".
//TB