Japanese Name: サッポロ 日本の彩PREMIUM 夏の香り
Brewer: Sapporo
Release: Jun. 6, 2012
Type: Japanese Beer
Alcohol: 5%
Purchase Price: ￥224 @7eleven
Tasting Notes:
Sapporo has a new series of beers and new-genre beverages, the Premium line. With this new line they’re pushing the use of grown in Japan ingredients: malt, hops, and Hokkaido grown rice. For Sapporo’s summer beer, Natsu no Kaori (the fragrance of summer) uses (in part) Golden Star hops grown in Furano.
My first gulp had lots of hop and malt in the mouth, with just a little bitterness on the backend. It was definitely not the taste you’d expect from Sapporo, which tends to be on the fuller side for Japanese lagers. The overall flavor was very light, almost hollow, IMO.
As a big Sapporo fan, I was quite disappointed with Natsu no Kaori. I realize for a “summer” beer they were aiming for something light, but this beer is missing something. If you’d like to try for yourself, you may still be able to find Natsu no Kaori in the cooler of your nearest conbini, as it is not sold in the grocery stores.
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