Iwate-ken Iwate-machi
Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

Okay here we go: I think Sapporo deserves a bit more respect and attention that it normally gets. To my understanding, Suntory, Asahi and Kirin gets the most PR in Japan and unfortunately their “limited edition” or one-off productions quite often fail to meet the expections raised by their commercials.
However, while Sapporo seems to be a bit more reserved about their communication, the kind of beers they came up with lately were surprisingly better than your average boring Japanese brew. Let me tell you what made me think so.
I have seen that Sapporo has been re-doing a lots of their staples and also been issuing special versions of some of their beers made with hops from the Tohoku region and so on. This one for instance is a version of their pilsner sold only in 7-11s and boasts to be made with hops from Iwate machi, Iwate prefecture. And so what? you might say.
The can tells you that the hops used for this beer were cultivated for Dainippon Beer before the birth of Sapporo, back in 1910 and is called Shinshuu Wase, a hop variety original to Japan. They also tell you that that these hops are grown by the Miura family and is used for over 50% in this beer.
And now for the beer itself: might have been because the beer was still relatively fresh (2 months after production,) it felt kind of vivid and interesting, the aroma of the hops in particular, that reminded me of some kind of fruits, melon perhaps? Still they had a kind of sweet, fruity smell but the beer was well balanced with the bitterness from the hops, was definitely a German pilsner but of the richer-tasting variety, properly carbonated, still smooth and mild enough to drink.
This beer was pleasant enough to drink and had no foul aftertaste, it tasted like an “average” lager or pilsner you would get back in Europe, Austria or Germany in particular, and as such, it was a positive experience - since you can’t really expect Japanese beers to be “normal” in the same way as their Western counterparts. But with the recent efforts of Sapporo, the “average” in Japan seems to be changing in a positive way, and I hope this change is for good.