Ginga Kogen is based in Sawauchi village, in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. The village is apparently a “special snowfall area”, with some of the heaviest snowfalls in the whole country – so obviously (!) they make a German-style hefeweizen.

This is their Silver Bottle, and I admit, the packaging sold it to me. I’m a sucker for blue glass, and I don’t care what the anti-clear bottle brigade says – it looks cool as hell.

The beer certainly looks the part, pitting a dirty straw colour, with more than a little haze and a lazy off-white head.

The nose, too, is a classic hefeweizen, yeast heavy with a touch of honey and a faint grassy note.

On tasting, a soft mouthful of fine bubbles blends nicely with a sweet honey start, a slight artificial banana flavour and a distinct spice background come through and feed into a slightly acidic, short finish. It’s the kind of beer that simply vanishes from your mouth as you let it sit on your tongue – which usually results in drinking very quickly!

A delicious and unexpected beer, in a beautiful package – easily worthy of 3.5 stars.