Aomori Pale Ale is a 5% English pale ale from Aomori Ji-Beer, based in Aomori, Japan. It’s part of their all-year round Ozoresan Beer range that uses water sourced from the snow and glaciers that exist on it. It’s brewed using malt, barley, and hops though the grain bill is less than 25% malt and thus is classified as a happoshu. At the time of writing, Aomori Pale Ale can be found in bottles only.
Aomori Pale Ale Aroma and Taste
Another day, another Aomori Ji-Beer for review. Starting to really get fed up with drinking these as so far, they’ve all been terrible examples of craft beer in Japan and make me angry – could this be another soapbox article coming up?! – about the state of beer production in Japan. Aomori Pale Ale is just as bad as the others. There. You don’t even need to carry on reading this review now. If you want to leave, go ahead – the rest of the review will still be here for others to read.
Aomori Pale Ale poured out a deep amber colour with a finger’s worth of head on top. It kind of looked like an English pale ale I guess – so some credit must go there. But the aroma? What the heck was going on with it – mouldy, phenolic aromas with some hints of gone off peaches and dried fruits. How they heck was this bottled and sold?! Surely there must be some QA going on up in Aomori?
And the body – well let’s just leave at this was a drain pour. I managed to get through a third of this swill before reaching for the backup Ebisu beer. Yes, I have a backup beer just in case if I have to drink something abysmally bad. Aomori Pale Ale tasted off – weird funky flavours going on with bitter astringent peaches and sweetness that was just wrong. I can’t see how people have actually rated this highly on Untappd. I really can’t.
Aomori Pale Ale The Bottom Line
Aomori Pale Ale is an appalling example of a pale ale. There is no reason for this to exist.
Where to Buy Aomori Pale Ale
Aomori Pale Ale can thankfully only be bought online at one place: