Agara Craft: Lychee, Mikan and Sansho Ales From Wakayama

Agara means "our" or "ours" in the Wakayama dialect.

The name came out of a student project at Wakayama University, chosen with the idea that the beer should be something the region could be proud of as its own.

That's not just branding. All three of the Agara beers we carry are built on things Wakayama grows.

Sansho Ale

Wakayama has the largest sansho harvest in Japan, and this beer uses budo sansho from Shimizu in the prefecture, a lot of it.

Sansho isn't chili heat. It's citrusy and numbing, the tingle you get from good mapo tofu or a proper unagi seasoning. In a beer it comes through as a bright, prickling finish that keeps the whole thing from going soft.

If you've only had sansho on food, this is worth trying just to see what it does on its own.

Mikan Ale

Wakayama is Japan's mikan country, and this is the one that tastes most obviously of where it's from.

Pale malt underneath, then mandarin, bitter orange rind, and a hint of yuzu. The rind character is the important part. It stops the beer from being a sweet fruit beer and gives it something to finish on.

Lychee Ale

Brewed with real lychee grown in Wakayama, which is not a fruit most people associate with Japan at all.

Aromatic and floral, and lighter than you'd expect from something this perfumed.

Why We Pour Them

Because fruit beer usually means syrup, and these don't.

Each one is a single regional ingredient handled properly, from a brewery whose entire identity is built around its own prefecture. That's a way of working we recognize.

Pair Them With

Sansho Ale with unagi don, sansho is the classic seasoning for eel, so the pairing is already written.

Mikan Ale with karaage or tebasaki. Citrus and fried chicken never fails.

Lychee Ale with handrolls, seaweed salad, or anything delicate. It's the lightest of the three.

Try Them at Juraku

All three Agara Craft ales are on the beer list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Summer beers, and we'd start you on the sansho.