2012 Japanese Beer List

Nothing goes better with a ballgame than a cold one, but there wasn't any games to go to on this vacation (except for little league) so I had to live with just beer on it's own.

Here is a list of beers I tried on our recent trip to Japan, by brewery and ranking in order of my enjoyedness:

Echigo Brewery; Niigata: http://www.echigo-beer.jp/
Stout
Red Ale

Ise Kadoya Brewery; Ise: http://www.isekadoya.com/
Kumano Kodo Ale
Shinto Beer (Sinto)

Kinshachi Brewery; Nagoya: http://www.kinshachi.jp/
Okazaki Miso Lager
Nagoya Akamiso
Red Label Alt
Matcha Draft (Green Tea)

Macrobrews:
Suntory Premium Malt's
Suntory Premium Malt's Kuro
Sapporo: The Winter's Tale

First of all, to me there aren't too many bad beers.  Beer is like music, everyone has their own preference and taste, and there is usually a time and place for every beer or song (maybe not every song). 
Of the beers listed I would have to recommend the Ise Kadoya brews the highest, the Kumano Kodo Ale especially.  They currently only sell this beer in the Ise Shima area or online, but if you are ever visit Oharaimachi, they have a bar open to the street that looks really cool.  The Kinshachi beers were good too, definitely out of the ordinary and worth a try, I don't know if I would go for a Matcha Draft again though.  The others were good, but nothing too exciting. I know you can get Echigo beer in the U.S. but I wouldn't recommend it for the price it goes for in Seattle at least.  The only beer I was little dissapointed in was the Sapporo, it was pretty much a standard Sapporo with a bit more alcohol content, basically Sapporo Ice.  Probably not bad on a cold Hokkaido night, but I would suggest it as more of a third or fourth beer of the night rather than the first.