Kizakura Kyoto Beer: Uji Matcha IPA and Lucky Dog Session IPA

Kizakura means yellow cherry blossom.

The brewery was founded in 1925 in Fushimi, the sake district of Kyoto, and it's one of Japan's better-known sake producers. In 1995 it started brewing beer with the same water it had been using for sake.

That's the short version of why a Kyoto sake house ended up making one of the more distinctive IPAs in Japan.

Kyoto Matcha IPA

An Imperial IPA brewed with matcha from Uji, the region just outside Kyoto that's been the center of Japanese green tea for centuries.

8.5% ABV, 70.6 IBU, and a deep green color that people photograph before they drink it.

The reason it works is that matcha and hops are doing similar jobs. Both bring bitterness and a vegetal, grassy edge. Stacking them means the tea doesn't sit on top as a novelty flavor. It reinforces the structure of the beer, and the bitterness lands in two layers instead of one.

At 8.5% it drinks like an Imperial IPA should. This is not a session beer.

Lucky Dog

The opposite end of the range. A session IPA at 5% ABV and 45 IBU.

Built on pilsner and caramel malts with Saaz and Citra hops. Citra brings the bright citrus aroma, Saaz keeps the bitterness modest, and the body is lighter than a standard IPA. Clean, smooth finish.

If the Matcha IPA is the one to try once, Lucky Dog is the one you order twice.

The Kappa

Kizakura's mascot is a kappa, the water yokai from Japanese folklore, the one with a dish on its head that has to stay full of water when it comes ashore.

The brewery leans into it hard enough to have named a whole restaurant and gift complex after it.

Pair Them With

Matcha IPA with fried food that can take the bitterness, karaage, katsu, okonomiyaki fries.

Lucky Dog with almost anything. Skewers, handrolls, edamame.

Try Them at Juraku

Both are on the beer list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side.