Hi no Tani Sour Beer is a 5% sour beer from Hi no Tani Beer, based in Mie, Japan. It’s part of their summer seasonal lineup and can be found in bottles outside of the brewpub, and on tap there. Hi no Tani Sour Beer is brewed using a sour mashing process, a traditional method used in Germany under the famed Reinheitsgebot law, and allowed German brewers to reduce the pH, or acidity, of the mash and thus still sell their beer in Germany. The process is used to produce a softer mash profile during drinking.
I really don’t know what is going on in this beer.
Hi no Tani Sour Beer Aroma and Taste
Hi no Tani Sour Beer poured out a hazy golden grapefruit colour with no head at all in it. It had a strong vinegar-like aroma to it – not quite the sour profile I was looking for really in a beer. I like vinegar on my chips but in a beer? No bloody way. Luckily I had bought two bottles of this but unluckily the second bottle as potent as the first. Sour beers tend to be more lactic acid than vinegar from my experience – and drinking 330ml of vinegar-smelling beer is not high on my list of wants from a beer. There was also a hint of butterscotch from Hi no Tani Sour Beer too – another off flavour in a beer that really did not endear itself to me.
If the aroma wasn’t enough of a warning to you, then let the body be one. It’s a vinegar butterscotch bomb of epic proportions that ended up, perhaps only for the third time of drinking and writing for BeerTengoku, a drain pour.
Hi no Tani Sour Beer The Bottom Line
Hi no Tani Sour Beer was either a dodgy botch or a crap beer – either case, I wouldn’t gamble on trying it unless someone else buys it for you.
Where to Buy Hi no Tani Sour Beer
Hi no Tani Sour Beer can be bought online at the following places:
