A buddy of mine stationed in Japan sent me this beer and I would like to know exactly what it's called.
I don't know the answer but download Google photo translate and it should translate the characters to English.
I'm convinced it's one of those Japanese ghost things that really doesn't exist.... I've literally been looking on Google image for 3 hrs off and on... Then at the risk of being a racist, asked my buddy... He didn't know either... Good luck man!!!
Best guess... it's a Stout from the Yamaguchi Narutaki Kogen Brewery. The photo is of the Joeiji Temple Sesshu Gardens in Yamaguchi City... the beer label also says Nishinokyo Yamaguchi. The label style also matches others from the brewery.
I'm with @rfgetz on this And on your label, as opposed to the labels shown in his photo above, there is text above the circled style descriptor - those Japanese characters might be translated as "West Kyoto series" - which makes sense for the scene, since the Joeiji Temple Sesshu Gardens are located in Yamaguchi, which is called "The Kyoto of the West" - so it may be a new series release from Yamaguchi Brewing... Lastly, the last two large characters running down the right side of the label might represent "temple" and "garden" - like, the beer's name might be "(*Something*) Temple Garden" All that shit is half speculation, half impromptu research - so take it all with a hefty dose of salt.
International beer detective work is fun reading. Sorry I can't contribute any help. Carry on and Happy Friday!
These are always fun. A few months ago, a guy posted a grainy black and white picture of his father drinking a beer back in the 50's, and wanted to know about that beer. Several of us tackled the problem with photo editing and googling and made short work of it. The beer and brewery had been gone for decades, but the information was still out there.
Too much free time on my hand this morning at work. Translated some of the logo -- getting the city name at the top left of the label was key, as only 2 breweries seem to exist in that city. The first result I found was of the artwork on the label on the city's website. The rest was looking at images on Untappd and Google. Surprisingly, the photo I posted is from the Japanese Amazon website. It was a very fun 10 minutes!
Japanese acquaintances translated it as "Snowy Garden Stout (no filtration)". With place of brewery as Yamaguchi. They couldn't read the label well enough to name the brewery fully.
Your *Something* part means snow. The beer name is "Sesshutei" which means snow, boat and garden. Sesshutei is the name of the garden in Yamaguchi. Someone mentioned that the label says non-filter but it also says "生 (Nama)" which means non-pasteurized. There's no English pages but here's their website: http://www.yamaguchi-jibeer.com/ Their website mostly talks about wedding, awards and a little bit about their beer but there's no information how they started the company or anything even in the "about us" section. Strange.
