Y Market Japanese Roast Ale by Y Market Brewing

Y Market Japanese Roast Ale is a 5.8% American-style brown ale from Y Market Brewing, based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. It’s brewed using imported Cascade, Centennial, and Citra hops from the US, though the Japanese influence is strong with two-types of Japanese barley tea, 2-row and 6-row, first roasted and then placed in the secondary fermentation. At the time of writing, it’s unknown whether this is a seasonal beer, one-off beer, or part of their year round line up but like the majority of the Y Market Brewing beers, it’s on draft only.

A brown ale no matter how red it looks.

Y Market Japanese Roast Ale Aroma and Taste

Another beer at Craftsman Yokohama and another mislabelled beer. Supposedly a red ale, Y Market Japanese Roast Ale did not have the aroma of one, with heaps of citrus and floral notes coming off it, until the roasted tea aroma kicks in. I wanted there to be aromas of malts but being an American brown ale, it did mean the hops came through over everything else.

Though citrus and floral in the nose, there was the merest hint of bitterness from Y Market Japanese Roast Ale. The tea produced some nuttiness to the body that again pushed the malts out. I did go into drinking this beer thinking it was an amber ale and I was left disappointed but the guys at Y Market Brewing are incredible helpful and list all of the beers on their site. It was a decent enough beer; drinkable and tasty, yet I couldn’t help but think with the mix of hops and tea that something had been left missing out – yes, the malts.

Y Market Japanese Roast Ale The Bottom Line

I would have liked more sweetness to balance against the hops and tea but Y Market Japanese Roast Ale is not a bad beer by any means. Would I order it again? Yes. If there was nothing else on the menu that I wanted to drink.