Reviews & info on some beers, bars & pubs in Japan (mainly Tokyo/Yokohama area) - with an extra large serving of nonsensical jibbbbah jabbah thrown in:

Tuesday 30 June 2009

What can be worse than Guinness?

The new Sapporro Yebisu Stout Creamy Top. That's what.The Good Beer Country Boys reported on this about a month ago, tipped off by HomebrewJapan.

Seeing that the guys at Sapporo sat on their laurels and lost their lucrative contract with Diageo for Guinness and Kilkenny (Diageo instead joined forces with Kirin to create the Diageo Kirin Company, limited), they are now responding to this upset by 'bringing out their own version of Guinness', next month.
Tit-for-tat and very childish, perhaps.
As if the latest incarnations of Yebisu weren't bad enough, they now have to bring out a 'creamy top'.Concerning beer, those very words make me cringe (but they don't necessarily make me cringe if those words are concerning say, a well endowed person of the female persuasion). I'm thinking nitrogen assisted creaminess. Arfticially long lasting huge heads (again talking about beer). Plain nasty crap taste.I could be wrong.I don't think so.
DJToucan gives the stuff a reasonably good rating on Beer Advocate.
As far as I know, he's the only one to have tasted it yet.
"...The beer has an alcohol content of 5 percent, and boasts a smooth texture with a gentle aftertaste."
"Yebisu Stout Creamy Top goes on sale at bars and restaurants from July 3rd, with plans to put it on sale to the public in a few years."


Hmmm...

9 comments:

  1. In theory this should be almost identical to Guinness given that they have the Guinness recipe.

    That said, I don't know any place that serves Guinness that hasn't already bought Kirin connectors so that they can sell Kirin Guinness. I wonder if Creamy Top is going to be available anywhere at all.. and whether the servers top it off with a clover.

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  2. Perhaps they'll add a circle instead, representing the rising sun.
    I think they should have announced this beer earlier, as soon after they lost Guinness as possible. May not make much difference. All the bar managers I spoke to thought the Sapporo sales people were arrogant wankers and are over the moon that Kirin now sells Guinness and Kilkenny. Looking at the pics, I'm not looking forward to my beer having a 33% creamy top.

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  3. Guinness might just be the most artificial thing I have ever put in to my body - and that says it all!

    Jonno at work

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  4. Does that include your ass dildo shaped washing up liquid bottle?

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  5. Amazing, how people who have not even tried the beer think that they are qualified to comment about it.

    I have and it is a very smooth stout. Much better than Guinness in my opinion.

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  6. DEar anonymous:
    Fair enough.
    I guess I have just go to try it myself.
    Thanks for the comment.
    You are right. I need to drink it before deciding wether it's any good or not. But to be fair we were commenting on what we thought it would be like and didn't say if it actually WAS good or bad.
    So far, I've heard one person like it. That's yourself, 'anonymous'.
    I'm not going to go out special just for this but next time I come across some, I'll try it and put my findings on this post.
    'much better than Guinness' doesn't really make me want to drink it. However, 'anonymous', your comment has brought creamy top back into my thoughts and so next time I see it, I'll try some creamy top. I'll try to say why I myself did or didn't like it. I'll also seek thoughts and opinions from other friends who have tried it and edit this post at a later date.

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  7. As an Irishman and a devout Guinness fan and 1659 Society member, I found the Yebisu Stout to be an outstanding stout with a fine balance of texture versus weight.

    I found mine adjacent to Gate 41 in the Narita airport as I was rushing to make my plane. I saw it displayed and had to have it, boarding be damned. Had I not been rushed, I would have stayed for several more.

    Can I compare it to the almighty Guinness or Murphy's? I would need a blind side-by-side environment for that. I do know that it's superior to Beamish - that's for certain.

    Put me down for one who enjoyed it immensely. Apparently, it liked me as well. How do I know this? The pint glass asked me to take it with me and so I obliged.

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  8. Glad you enjoyed it. Hope the glass is happy in it's new home.
    Thanks for the comment.
    I'm thinking (as I've sadly never been there yet) but the Guinness of lore is to be found in on it's home soil, rather than in Tokyo or even London pubs. That could explain the serious devotion it's received at the hands of many an Irishman.
    Can't say I have fallen in love with the guinness over here - despite mostly drinking that alone in my early years over here. Makes me want to try this creamy top even more now!
    Aaah, the hype machine is working!

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  9. I love the Creamy Top!! Looking for a clone recipe but everyone thinks its a lame version of Guinness so Ill brew a Guinness instead. I'll hopefully nail it then! The Creamy Top is hard to find in Japan, even around Tokyo there are just a handful of pubs that serve it.
    Fatty.

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