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Dogo Beer Stout

Dogo Beer comes from Minakuchi Brewery (水口酒造) in the city of Matsuyama on the 4th largest island in the Japanese archipelago, Shikoku.

This city is probably most famous for the Dogo Onsen which was the inspiration for the Onsen (hot spring baths) in the Miyazaki movie "Spirited Away". It's also the only onsen in Japan that has a special, separate bath for the Emperor of Japan (round the back, and obviously closed to the public).

But back to the beer.

Minakuchi Brewery make 3 main beers and the odd thing about them is all the bottles are the same, but they have different tied on labels round the neck to show which type of beer it is.

The first one I tried was the stout.

This is a deep black beer with a yellowy creamy head.
On the nose there were roasted malts, coffee and hints of toffee.

It's a full bodied stout on the palate but with a fairly subtle taste.
Bitter, dry with some hints of coffee on the finish but the main flavour is roasted, bitter, dark malt.

Pleasant and drinkable, but overall nothing too special.

Their website is only in Japanese and can be found here.

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