Brewery: Rogue Ales / Ezo Beer K.K.
Beer: White Crane Bitter Ale
Style: American Amber / Golden Ale / English Bitter (???)
ABV: 5.0%
Character: Rogue’s Oregon Golden Ale bottled under a different name for Japan
Metal Connection: CATASEXUAL URGE MOTIVATION – I am as Beautiful as I have Killed
Well here we are again with yet another beer that has so many different conflicting stories about it according to different websites, and of course the actual Rogue website has nothing at all about this beer. I think if a company makes a product, they should promote it on their sites. How hard is it to have a page up that says “Hi there this is product X, go buy it!” Finally, I found some quality info on this beer. According to the Ezo Beer website. White Crane Bitter Ale along with other Ezo Beers (i.e. Red Fox Amber Ale, Brown Bear Stout) are hand crafted by John Maier of Rogue Ales. Now, here’s the thing though, it turns out that White Crane Bitter is just Rogue’s Oregon Golden Ale, which is Rogue’s original brew, but it is repackaged for the Japanese market. As you can see above, I could not pick a style of this beer, cause four different websites classify this beer with a different style. In my opinion, if this is really the Oregon Golden Ale, then this beer should be labeled as a Golden Ale. I think Ratebeer, Beer Advocate, and Untappd should consider changing this on their sites. Just a thought! OK, now that I got myself worked up about the packaging and labeling of this beer, let’s get to the actual beer,shall we.
Using my 2013 San Antonio Beer Week snifter glass, this beer poured a slightly hazy deep gold color, with a thin off white head, which retained and left decent lacing down the glass.
The aroma is pure malt, mostly all caramel with a crisp earthy finish in the nose. For me there was nothing else going on here.
The taste of this beer is also mostly malt flavored. There is a lot of caramel flavor, even some biscuit notes. There is a slight earthy, piny finish, giving this a good balance of flavor. There is definitely a good amount of bitterness to this beer as well, but not overwhelming. The body of this beer was of medium thickness, and had a clean, crisp bite to it.
Overall, I will say that I am glad I found this bottle, as it seems to be rarely sold in the States under this label. I had happened to find this bottle in the bottle cooler at B & J’s Pizza in Corpus Christi, TX on my last visit there. I am a collector of beer bottles that I have drank, so I am happy to have this one in my collection.
Metal Connection: What better way to compliment a beer that is clearly marketed for the Japan than with one of Japan’s finest Goregrind bands, CATASEXUAL URGE MOTIVATION or C.U.M. When i was younger, this album, The Encyclopedia of Serial Murders was always played very loud to piss off everyone within hearing distance. You will see why when you press play on the video below. Please enjoy the song “I am as Beautiful as I have Killed” from 1996.
Beer Metal Media 