Sapporo Premium Beer

I'm a sucker for a cool looking can.

This is the Sapporo Premium Beer. A 5.0% abv Japanese rice lager brewed under contract in Ontario. This is basically the same as an American adjunct lager, except the Japanese use rice as the adjunct instead of the cereal or corn common here.

This isn't the type of beer I usually drink but, like I said, I'm a sucker for cool, shiny can. Besides, I've had most of the other popular Asian beers, I needed to scratch Sopporo off the list. Done.


It's a 22 oz can so it's a no-brainer that I had to pour it in my big-ass mug. After pouring it, and cleaning up the minor spill that always seems to happen with big cans, I noticed that it is a very light, golden, straw color. Reminds me of Miller Lite. The head receeds quickly but never dies completely and does leave some light, scant lacing.

The smell is very clean, very subdued, much like a Euro lager. There is a touch of malt in there and a ghost hint of hops but nothing to really write home about. Now to taste...

Ok, there's carbonation up front, a mild, but present, malt middle and a bit of annonymous hop on the back end. There's also something else there, very slight... could it be the rice?

It finishes clean and the carbonation is about right for the style. It goes down smooth, with no metallic taste occasionally found in canned beer and none of the 'adjunct lager aftertaste' common with American light beers. Again, this slight difference might have to do with the rice, it's hard to say, and it might just be me.

I compare this beer to Miller Lite, only a it's a little better. Which is why I call this beer a Glass 1/2 FULL. Relax, I haven't hit my head, I know it's not a great beer, and it's not a craft beer by any stretch of the imagination, but for what it is, it's pretty damned good. It's a light beer, folks, and it's worth a try if you like light beer. Cheers!