Baird Beer Rising Sun Pale Ale – Beer Review – Brew in Review

Name: Baird Beer Rising Sun Pale Ale

Style: Pale Ale

Country: Japan

ABV: 5.5%

Beer description: Baird Beer comes out of Japan from husband and wife team Bryan and Sayuri Baird. Baird Beer have a good year round selection of about ten beers as well as seasonal releases. They appear to be fairly widely distributed in Japan and are very easy to get in Australia.

The colour of this beer is best described as a light tan, verging on caramel. As a pale ale, there’s nothing remarkable about the colour: it’s the colour of a pale ale. It pours with plenty of excitement and gives a rigorous head the colour of frothed egg white that hasn’t been separated terribly well from the yolk.

On pouring, this beer gives off a great lemon and pine smell while in the glass this takes a back seat to caramel. Passion fruit comes out eventually as well. These three flavours go together nicely. Hidden in all of this is a distinct red spice as well as a crispness. The feeling makes this beer feel like it’s going to be on the light side but it’s hard to tell given there is also a bit of malt in the aroma. There’s also an earthy quality about the smell, but it comes and goes.

The beer feels a little thin in the mouth at first but fleshes out as it’s considered a little more. If you drink it too fast, it might be mistaken for a thin beer, but it’s just that the body is disguised. A sweet pine taste is up front in this beer along with the lemon. It’s hard to determine where each of these flavours come in, but it feels like the lemon is coming in after the pine. Interacting with all of this is the sensation and taste of strawberries and other fruits. This cleanses the pallet briefly for the bitterness kick that is only to be expected.

Baird Beer boasts that their beers are balanced yet complex. A better description would be a subtle boldness about this beer. The Rising Sun Pale Ale is quiet and unassuming, a more American style pale ale, but more Japanese about it as it’s not quite so crass.

Check out more pale ale reviews.

Check out other reviews of Baird Beer.