Shizuoka Summer Mikan Ale

• Alcohol Content (by volume): 5.0%
• Starting Gravity (degree plato): 10.7
• Finishing Gravity (degree plato): 1.8
• Bitterness Units (IBU): 15
• Color (SRM): 2.0

• Water: Soft, Cleanly Flavorful, Local
• Malted Grain: Floor-malted Maris Otter & Pilsen, Wheat
• Un-malted Grain: Japanese Wheat
• Sugar: Japanese Korizato (Rock Candy)
• Hops: Whole Flower Cones – Various Varieties
• Yeast: House Scottish Ale Strain
• Other: Local Natsumikan Citrus Fruit (Peels & Juice)

The artwork here is Eiko-san’s (our designer/artist/friend) beautifully vibrant and colorful rendition of the juicy/pulpy insides of a sliced summer mikan (natsumikan) fruit. With just a glance you can almost feel and taste the fruit’s piquantly refreshing character. The kanji on the label are the characters for summer (夏) and citrus (柑).

A summer mikan (natsumikan) is a grapefruit-like citrus fruit that is tart and sweetly sour in flavor and wonderfully aromatic. The only fruit to make it through the doors of the Baird Brewery, of course, is fresh whole fruit recently plucked from the land. The natsumikan fruit we use is home-grown here in Shizuoka prefecture. The bounty of fruit is painstakingly hand-processed by the Baird Brewery team before its introduction into the brew-house and then again into the cellar. You can taste the freshness and wholesomeness of the natsumikan fruit in each sip of this extraordinarily piquant brew.

“I enjoy eating bracingly tart fruit. Natsumikan (summer mikan) is just such a fruit. I enjoy even more drinking the fermentation by-product of such fruit when used judiciously in beer brewing. Shizuoka Summer Mikan Ale is a celebration of both beer brewing and nature’s bounty.”