"Mellow Richness of Quality Hokkaido Barley Malt"

The title of this post is the slightly misleading quote from the can of Sapporo's Creamy White a special Kansai region dai-san (third-category) brew released this month. Japan's third-category brews use very little or no malt to reduce tax and thus price. So-what you say? Well, beer crafters use barley malt for good reason - fermentation only works on sugars and grains don't contain any, but when barley gets moist and germinates the sprout contains an enzyme that converts starch into sugar (malting). Creamy White and other dai-san are brews but without malt they are hardly beers; dai-san are to beer what processed cheese food are to artisan cheese. Yet with tighter purse strings in this Japanese economic malaise, drinking up a six-pack of real beer is now a luxury. Creamy White does deliver a creamy texture (surprising as these names are usually just hyperbole) with a sharp and fizzy finish. The result is a cheeper drinkable brew as long as you keep your expectations realistic, we are talking Velveeta here not brie.