Asahi The Double - Pilsner and Ale
Asahi Breweries Ltd

There’s this punk rock song bu Old Man Markley that goes “For better, for worse...” - it reminded me of this beer. I bought this in Yanagawa, JP where we went to eat eel on the “day of the ox”, the dog days of summer. Picked it up because this double pilsner and ale hybrid seemed interesting and knowing it would serve a double purpose gave me the go: the cold can worked well in cooling the sunburn of my wife on the way back.
Have to admit: not sure I had a “proper” ale or even a pilsner in Japan, but making a hybrid of both? Well, it smells like a German pilsener (somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away), with a rather man-made flavor (we are dealing with Asahi, let us not forget). Although as I drank it, I came to notice some hops that reminded me of some other types of Japanese-made ales... but anyway. The beer IS drinkable, by the way, although you don’t really get the best of both worlds here, rather none of either - but still, it remains to be drinkable, in this great uncertainity to be an ale or a pilsener. Sometimes it’s nicely carbonated, bitter and dry, other times it’s mild, round and sweet malted - maybe this “double” feature is the point (hence the alias)? Well, maybe. It wasn’t bad. And back to the song, for better, for worse, it could be better, but it could also be worse...
By the way, I wonder how many of my reviews have been removed so far due to being nonconstructive...