Japanese: 水曜日のネコ (suiyoubi no neko)
Brewery: Yo-Ho Brewing Company
Style: Wheat beer
ABV: 5%
Price: 267円
Strapline: “BELGIAN WHITE BEER STYLE”
Now for something completely different. It’s a treat to help us through the dark days of happoushu. Yo-Ho is an American-inspired craft brewery which has managed to get its produce into the convenience store refrigerators. The can is instantly appealing, even if the charming chap on the front seems to have a rather serpentine body. The beer itself is only slightly opaque compared to a European wheat beer, but the aroma is very inviting. And the taste is confirmation – this is good beer.
Compared to the gallons of bitter and lager that have passed through my system, I am a relative amateur when it comes to wheat beers. They’re not difficult to find in the UK, but it just doesn’t occur to most Brits to order them, except as a slight novelty. My old workplace was unusual in having Hoegaarden, Erdinger and Franziskaner on draught, but most of those carefully-poured glasses were purchased by German, Dutch and Belgian students, rather than the locals. Compared to these beers, the Cat is quite mild in flavour. I suspect the recipe is designed to appeal to Japanese lager-drinkers.
It’s hugely encouraging to me that I was able to buy beer from a non-Big-Four brewery at all. Not only that, but the style is interesting and the flavour is very pleasant. Of course, it costs almost exactly twice as much as a can of happoushu, but it’s totally worth it. If the trendy, overpriced Japanese restaurants in London don’t have a few cases of this in for the beer fanatics then they’re missing an opportunity. The appeal of unsual, foreign beers combined with the aesthetics of the packaging would easily negate any criticisms that this beer is “not quite as good” as its European cousins. It comfortably makes it onto my list of regular drinks in Japan.
Konbini Beer 