I did a double take when I first saw today’s Japanese #BeerSaturday (week 435) ale in the beer fridge at my local Seven-Eleven convenience store.
Emblazoned across the top of the dark orange cans was a surname that took me back several decades to when I had a part time job as a fishmonger’s mate:
GOODALE
It took me a few seconds to realize that this Kirin beer is actually called “Good Ale.” What I saw was the surname of a chap called David Goodale who was a pal of my old fishmonger boss.
On the Fish Round
During the school holidays, I worked the fish round from Tuesday to Saturday, going from village to village selling fresh and smoked fish from the back of our van. On Thursdays we used to visit the wealthy East Sussex village of Ticehurst, park the van on the side of one of the main streets, and sell fish in the middle of the village for a couple of hours. Then we’d pop up to David Goodale’s place - he lived, I think he still lives, in Ticehurst - for a cup of tea. At least, I asked for a cup of tea as in my teenage years I didn’t drink coffee which was the drink of choice for John, my boss, and David.
An Aspiring Film Writer
David Goodale had a certain glamour about him as he was an aspiring film script writer who wanted to make comedy films, something that was deeply impressive for a 14 or 15 year old oik such as myself. I secretly hoped he’d asked me to play a part in one of his productions, but that never happened!
He didn’t succeed in breaking into comedy films so he switched to documentaries and a few years ago he made a documentary series called “Pipe Dreams” about visiting the Yanomami tribe deep in the Venezuelan rain forest to honour a promise he’d made to a young Yanomami on a previous visit.
A Stage Play Breakthrough
A few years later, David and his brother enjoyed success as comedy playwrights with “Perfect Nonsense,” their stage version of P. G. Wodehouse’s comic novel, The Code of the Woosters:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jun/02/jeeves-and-wooster-west-end
The play was staged in India, and this rather thin “interview” includes a good photo of David Goodale, who, apart from being a bit greyer on top, hardly seems to have changed at all from the young chap I knew… way back in my teenage years...
https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/david-goodale-news-296403
Back to Kirin's Good Ale Beer!
This is a new beer by Kirin, launched across Japan on 7th October 2025 with a big branding effort that you can check out by grabbing the QR code on the back of the beer can, which takes you to:
Japanese Beer Tax
Kirin have launched this beer in anticipation of tax changes that will lower the tax on “real beer” and raise the tax on happoshu - the cheaper mock beers - to simplify the tax code and eliminate the difference so that they’ll all be taxed at around ¥55 per 350ml can (not including the 10% consumption tax) that will come into force in October 2026.
The idea seems to be that with mock beers losing their tax advantage, Kirin wants to offer a mainstream lager that tastes like a craft beer and “spreads joy and optimism” - hence its “vibrant” orange packaging and focus on quality ingredients.
https://third-news.com/article/5d5ac9ea-a367-11f0-9cdd-9ca3ba0a67df
I get the positive community aspect of the marketing, but I’m not convinced that the cheap-skates who buy mock beer will switch to a real beer that is a tad more expensive than standard real beers such as Ashahi Super Dry or Kirin’s own Ichiban Shibori, just because their go-to happoshu will be a few yen more expensive under the new tax regime…
Okay, What's Kirin Good Ale Like?
The first thing you notice when you pour Kirin Good Ale is the darker hue of the ale as compared to Ichiban Shibori and other standard Japanese lager brands. The darker hue is real, but I feel that there is some clever subliminal play between the dark orange colour theme of the brand, and the darker gold hue of the beer itself.
It is a 100% malt beer, so no mention of rice as an added ingredient on the side of the can (unlike Sapporo’s Winter’s Tale, that I discussed here: @hirohurl/a-sad-tale-s-best-for-winter-sapporo-fuyu-monogatari-lager )
The alcohol content is more or less 5% as with most mass market Japanese beers.
The Cryo Hop® Technique
Good Ale is a hoppy, top-fermented ale that uses the American Cryo Hop® technique to freeze the hops with liquid nitrogen and then separate the lupulin hop resin from the rest of the hop, which greatly reduces the amount of astringent leafy residue that gives traditional beers their bitter taste.
What you get is a fruity and refreshing beer that goes down the hatch nice and easily. (Mind you, I never had much trouble swallowing room temperature English bitter be it never so astringent.)
In short, if you want something like a craft beer taste without paying craft beer prices, Kirin Good Ale might be just the ticket.
Cheers!
