Day 59, 2.28.11., Sapporo - Reserve

So I often go out to eat with my good friends Kelly and Shane, and a regular choice, (especially late-night after work) is sushi.  One night recently, Shane ordered Asahis for the table.  "no,no," I stopped the waiter, "make mine a Sapporo."  Now aside from making me feel like the lead businessman in a cheesy Sapporo commercial, I also got a fair bit of grief from Shane and the others for actually having a preference between the two main Japanese lagers that I believe are available at every Sushi place ever.  But for whatever reason (even I cannot say exactly why) I have always preferred Sapporo over Asahi.  One day I'll have to do a side by side tasting.
So when I saw Sapporo Reserve I figured I'd better give it a try.  The difference, from what I can gather, between the Reserve and the regular is that the Reserve is an all-malt beer.  All-malt means that only malted barley is used to make up the fermetables in the beer.  What this likely means in the case of Sapporo Reserve is that they aren't using any rice.  One source I read said that it does in fact follow the  German purity law, meaning that only water, barley and hops are used in making the beer. 
Enough about that, how is Sapporo Reserve?
Pouring it into the glass from the big steal can, I noticed it's a bit darker than Sapporo Premium (the 'regular' Sapporo) with a big creamy head.  It has a lovely fruity nose.  There's some citrus and some floral hop aroma.  On the palate, the beer has plenty more of hops, certainly more than its Premium cousin.  The hop character is nice and bitter and well integrated.  There's a bit of citrus sourness too.  It has a bigger body too, with a really nice silky, velvety body.  Actually that's probably one of it's best attributes.
At any rate, I think this is  a really good Japanese lager in the European style.  I'll definitely ask for it next time I'm out with Shane... "Make mine a Sapporo Reserve please!"
8 out of 10