Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt is a 5.5% altbier from Aoi Brewing, based in Shizuoka, Japan. It started out life as part of their draft range and made the move to bottles towards the end of 2016. Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt is brewed with Maris Otter Ale Malt, Crystal Malt, Munich Malt, black malt, and chocolate malt, with Magnum and Select hops being used in the bittering and aroma stages to give it a final IBU of 22. It also contains rock sugar as well to ensure that it is labelled as a happoshu and thus ensuring Aoi Brewing only needing to produce smaller batches.
A fairly dark altbier.
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt Aroma and Taste
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt poured out a dark reddish-brown colour with quite a lively head that came from some seriously large bubbles, though unfortunately the head didn’t last long and collapsed into a thin layer of bubbles around the edge of the glass. It had a sweet caramel aroma with some honey-like qualities to it that only improved when Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt had warmed up to become smooth. There was also a hint of yeasty breadiness in the beer but the aromas didn’t really develop much more than that – which was a shame as Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt started off well.
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt had a really nice body to it – full and crisp – and that meant the sweetness from the crystal came through well, yet was not too strong or cloying. It still retained some of the breadiness from the aroma but like the aroma, the flavours didn’t really develop much more than that. It was certainly crisp and would be a nice beer to drink, if chilled, in the summer. The aftertaste was more sweet than bitter, and there was a subtle flourish of flowery nice in the end – not much but enough to go “oh, so there’s the flavour from the hops”.
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt The Bottom Line
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt is a solid dependable altbier – it won’t win any awards nor will it blow your mind – but it does what it’s supposed to.
Where to Buy Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt
Aoi Stolen Addiction Alt can be bought online at the following places:
1 comment
Sounds like a good alt to me, a style which shouldn’t really have much hop flavor.
I met the young brewer at Aoi. Tasted some pretty interesting beers. Well made but just needed tweaking, recipe wise. Easy to do.
Speaks pretty good English and is really improving his beers, as are a few others, which is great to see.
Some of the other newish ones and even some of the ‘established’ breweries continuing to churn out boring and at a times damaged beers.