Japan’s beer market is brutally competitive, crowded with technically polished big-brand lagers whose differences can seem subtle until you pay attention to what each brewer is really selling.

Suntory, which had stepped onto the beer brewing stage slightly later than the rest of its rivals, has always differentiated itself with an aggressive focus on innovation and premiumization. In its own telling, the company’s beer history was shaped by the founder’s “Yatte Minahare” spirit, the broad dare to try what others think cannot be done. That mentality produced Japan’s first bottled draft beer, Suntory Jun Nama in 1967 (made using a micro-filter technology developed by NASA before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon), then the all-malt Suntory Malt’s in 1986, The Premium Malt’s arrived in 2003 as the next step, hailed as a beer created in pursuit of what Suntory explicitly calls “the world’s finest pilsner”.

 

 

In a country where the beer wars are often narrated through the concepts of dryness (“karakuchi”), purity or a richer or lighter body, Suntory’s most decisive move was to build a brand around your enjoyment of the final pour. It ultimately seeks to fuse ingredient quality, production technique and final-glass service into one uninterrupted story.

The house of flavour and “divine foam”

The company consistently sends trainees to study beermaking at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, producing many skilled brewmasters in Japan. It also says that elegant aroma in it’s the Premium Malt’s Pilsner lies in European aroma hops, selected through repeated visits to origin and strict temperature-controlled transport into Japan. Suntory spent roughly a decade developing its “Aroma Rich Hopping” method, which adds aroma hops at the start of wort boiling and fine aroma hops again near the end, a technique designed to maximise perfume without losing structure.

 

The "Aroma rich hopping" method involves adding a first batch of hops immediately after boiling the brew, and then another batch of hops near the end to ensure the heat does not break down the aromatics.

 

“Diamond Malt” is used – a strain that is valued by the company for being unusually rich in umami flavours and hard in structure – allowing for a double decoction method that boils portions of the mash twice to pull more flavour and body from the malt. Since 2023, Suntory says it has gone further by using “polished Diamond Malt” to sharpen both aroma and depth of flavour.

 

The double decoction method used by Suntory boils the mash twice to draw out denser aromas from the malt.

 

Special attention is also paid to the foam, which influences the enjoyment of the beer before it touches every drinker’s lips. Using a proprietary formula that helps with foam adhesion and retention, Suntory describes its beers to be able to generate an extra-dense foam it calls “Kami-Awa” (神泡) (literally “divine foam”) said to enhance aroma in every grain of foam, add a creamy texture to the mouthfeel and protect the beer by slowing its deterioration in open air.

The cult of “Kami-Awa”

Kami-Awa is the hinge on which the whole Premium Malt’s brand worldview swings. Officially, it means the brand’s ideal of “super fine creamy foam”. On the face of it, this may seem to be no more than a brand tagline.

 

 

But the company’s great thesis was that draught beer is unfinished when it leaves the brewery. The product made by the brewer becomes a commodity at retail; in a restaurant it only becomes complete through the venue’s care and passion. It only becomes The Premium Malt’s when the beer server tilts and pours the glass at the right angle, and then builds that dense, almost cappuccino-like foam head on top.

Around 2017, Suntory developed a range of beer-service standards that recognised venues and individual servers for having met Suntory’s rigorous standards of managing and serving Suntory’s Premium Malt’s from the draught tap. All of these certified venues follow Suntory’s draught-service principles and points of obsession, including proper gas-pressure control, glass care, server hygiene, freshness and pouring discipline. In simple terms, this involves keeping the server and glasses hygienic and at the right temperature, matching gas pressure to local conditions, pouring gently to about 70 percent beer, then finishing with a dense 30 percent head.

 

 

In Japan, a Kami-Awa certification would usually follow more training and even undercover inspection, and it’s said that the badge is not permanent. Suntory’s draught advisers reportedly check certified venues regularly, with annual renewal and possible cancellation if quality deteriorates and is not corrected. That strategy has now moved outward since the early 2020s, with Suntory certifying outlets in places like Australia and Singapore as carrying the “KAMIAWA Quality Master” badge.

If you want a sign of how influential that thinking has become, look at its rivals. Just this year Sapporo too launched a certification system for operators who can embody Yebisu through historical knowledge, advanced pouring and pairing skill and brand storytelling. Suntory did not invent the entire category of beer-service education, but this does suggest that the idea that premium beer quality lives at the point of serve has become strategically important enough for rivals to formalise it in their own ways.

Taste Testing Every Suntory The Premium Malt’s Serves

With all that said, let’s taste this stuff for ourselves! We had the opportunity to head down to Orihara Shoten’s izakaya restaurant in Singapore to taste through all of Suntory’s beers on tap, one after another, including the flagship Pilsner, the Black, the Kaoru Ale, and Master’s Dream.

 

 

Not only that, we also got a chance to experience the on-trade exclusive items – Mliko, Half & Half and Sunset Blend which are strictly speaking not line extensions but different methods of serving The Premium Malt’s Pilsner and the Black.

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Classic

 

The Premium Malt’s classic beer is Suntory’s 100% malt beer brewed using Diamond Malt – said to be born out of Suntory’s quest to create the world’s finest pilsner.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Warm gold with a fluffy head of foam.

Nose: Crisp and aromatic, with floral, citrusy and malty dimensions. Opens with a distinct hoppy-floral note of honeysuckle and dried wildflowers, over a subdued layer of honey, clear malt sweetness, light tea biscuits and sweet rice crackers. There is a line of citrus dryness and zest throughout and faint umami yeasty quality to it.

Palate: Equal parts malty and crisp with a medium-plus body (a bit fuller than most Japanese commercial lagers in comparison) and moderate carbonation. Served on tap, the foam integrates well into the texture of the beer, giving you a slightly silkier, velvety texture atop the beer. The beer itself brings a lively crisp but well-balanced carbonation. Flavours are balanced between a gentle honey sweetness, a clear malt backbone and some crisp grapefruit zest while developing into a subdued hop bitterness.

Finish: Medium-short in length with a fading sweet barley tone, a continued aromatic hop bitterness, a continued backbone of moderate pomelo zest dryness, fading into a clean, zesty close a touch of an earthy-umami.

My Thoughts

There is much to like about this benchmark premium Japanese pilsner in draft form. While international audiences may often prefer something slightly richer and much maltier, you can see how this is a hit amongst Japanese beer lovers for precisely for its subtleties that might be overlooked – it is more floral in character than the typical Japanese lager, with a malt body that provides more substance than lighter rice lagers, even as it does not seek to deliver that full-throttle richness and sweetness that the heaviest lagers out there provide.

The best way to really enjoy this beer is to have it in draft foam complete with a “kamiawa” foam head that brings out much of that delectable silkiness and signature floral noble hop tones.

Our Rating: 7.5/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Black

 

The Black is where the range shows its darker side. This is brewed in a similar fashion as the classic beer, but with dark roasted malts to give it a fragrant roasted aroma.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Opaque dark brown with a dense cappuccino-tinged head.

Nose: Rich, very mocha-like with a balanced roast. Opens with roasted malt-focused flavours with a semi-sweet dark chocolate and milk coffee tone – it has a balanced and lightly fragrant roast, more polished and very subtly bitter without leaning into burnt notes. Maltose, a sprinkling of dalgona candy (brown sugar candy) with just a touch of citrus zest for freshness on the back

Palate: Remarkably soft, rounded and approachable. Opens with smooth milk coffee with a mildly zesty palate, the foam head an malt texture being plush without getting heavy. Turning to more shaved dark chocolate, mocha coffee and a restrained treacle and brown sugar sweetness that balances out a gentle bitterness from the roasted malt.

Finish: Clean, medium-plus length with continued presence of roasted malt warmth and a touch of Christmas spices amid a fading dried dates and treacle character.

My Thoughts

This is perhaps one of the best-engineered dark beer to serve as a gateway to the category. The brewing philosophy seems to mirror much of what was done in the classic pilsner – it focuses very much of drinkability and restraint – it’s plush with dark malts without being heavy, it has a really restrained sweetness and it has some of that classic dry citrus tones always found in Japanese lager but it never gets sharp, astringent or “kara” at any point.

It is very much made to be a highly sessionable, crowd-favourite dark lager. It’s thoroughly pleasant to drink without upping the ante in any dimension that sometimes makes dark lagers feel fatiguing. This is a very different creature from heavier dark beers that deliver a dramatic peat-smoke or espresso boldness that some dark beer junkies might look for. But this is perhaps Suntory’s way of saying leave this to the Belgian monks.

Our Rating: 7/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Mliko (神泡ミルコ)

Czech-style serve of an entire glass of rich beer foam from the Premium Malt's classic plisner.

 

 

This looks visually more like a glass of whole milk than lager. The Premim Malt’s Mliko is, strictly speaking, less a separate beer than a method of pouring beer. Born out of Czech/Bohemian beer culture, this is a pour built on a side-pull tap opened to a sliver of its full flow, which whips the beer into an ultra-fine foam as it comes out, filling the glass almost entirely with cloud-like froth and leaving only a small pool of golden liquid at the very base. To the Czechs, the Mlíko pour (literally meaning "milk") isn’t a novelty thing but very commonly ordered as a lighter “nightcap” drink before leaving the bar.

 

Suntory developed its own version which it calls Kamiawa Mliko (神泡ミルコ), to be served at approved venues. What’s most beautiful is how this pour could apparently hold together for a longer timethanks to the Kamiawa Rich Method that the brewery engineered specifically to build up the high-molecular protein content in the wort, with protein structures holding up the foam. With it, the structure holds long enough for the Mliko to function as a proper serve rather than a parlour trick.

According to Suntory, this is a serve in which the beer’s flavour is condensed into an entire glass of rich, creamy foam.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: A pint filled to the brim with a dense, cloud-white foam atop a sliver of golden classic pilsner at the base. It looks denser than steamed milk froth and similar to pre-baked meringue.

Nose: Aromatic and crisp with lifted floral, honeyed and biscuit-malty dimensions. Opens with an amplified hoppy-floral note of honeysuckle and dried wildflowers, sitting over a layer of light honey, faint beeswax sweetness, and a clean malt backbone. It has a thin thread of citrus zest, more an aromatic suggestion than the cut grapefruit I got on the classic pilsner pour.

Palate: Be assured that this doesn’t feel like just drinking beer foam or the light steamed milk froth on a cappucino. It’s quite dense, silky, creamy and pillowy, more like sipping a beer-flavoured slushie. The texture lands somewhere between a very light cream mousse and a barely-set panna cotta with a subtly sweet milky quality. The foam quickly collapses on the tongue and releases a soft and gently sweet melted inner cream of a toasted marshmallow with a light honeycomb sweetness.

Finish: Very short and clean. The foam collapses, releases its scent of floral hop and honey, and is gone. A very, very faint yeasty-lactic note lingers right at the back, like the ghost of yogurt at the bottom of a glass, then nothing.

My Thoughts

The first thing to know about the Mliko is that you have to drink it fairly quickly like you do a soft serve ice cream while it still has its shape. You can see from the picture above that when the foam loses its structure it slowly settles back into the classic pilsner, which is not what you came for.

While I initially expected a full glass of foam to leave me feeling bloated and gassy the way a pint usually does, this doesn't. It drinks like a slurry rather than just gassiness or the airy quality of a glassful of light foam. What you get is a soft, continuous pour of flavour that gently dissolves in the mouth and you finish the glass feeling like you’ve drunk half a normal pour of beer. The classic pilsner character still remains in attendance and I do get that lightly sweet malt body and that lifted floral hop tone, except it has been condensed and turned into something closer to a dense drinkable wet beer cloud.

 

 

I am suitably impressed by this. What the Mliko really demonstrates is why Suntory keeps banging on about its Kami-Awa foam technology as a brand pillar. Czech beer culture has been pouring mliko for over a hundred years, but outside of Bohemia it has been seen as nothing more than a curiosity. In a characteristically Japanese exercise in cultural cross-pollination, Suntory has taken it out of a Czechian beer tavern, studied the beer chemistry needed to make the foam behave reliably across the course-paced rhythm of Japanese drinking. It is the same impulse you see behind Japanese whisky, Japanese coffee culture, and the way a kissaten in Kyoto will treat a hand-drip filter with as much reverence as Vienna does to its own café tradition.

So is the Mliko a gimmick? Sort of. But it is one of the most satisfying gimmicks in commercial beer right now.

Our Rating: 8.5/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Half & Half

Equal parts Premium Malt's classic pilsner and Black.

 

 

This is much easier to understand – it is constructed as a 50:50 mix of The Premium Malt’s classic pilsner and the Black. This is said to be richer than the classic pilsner, but harmonious and mellow in its aromas.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Cola-brown with ruby-mahogany edges with the same fine, creamy foam you get on the classic pilsner.

Nose: Aromatic and fruity over a soft roast. Opens with soft banana and orange marmalade with a touch of caramel underneath, some floral-honey tones of honeysuckle and dried wildflowers coming through but pulled a shade darker by a gentle cocoa, milk coffee roast and a toasted hazelnut note. It stays very fresh and crisp up top.

Palate: Medium-full and rounded, with a body closer to a craft pale ale or a European amber. Opens with citrus, light apricots with just as present shaved dark chocolate and milk coffee, some chocolate taffy candy, though never as sweet as that sounds, held in check by a light brown-sugar sweetness and a very gentle bitterness off the roasted malt. More crisp grapefruit and pomelo zest cutting back through on the second half, balancing out the roasted aromas.

Finish: Medium length and warmer than the Pilsner's quick close, but cleaner than the Black on its own. Caramel and roasted malt fading, with a faint bitterness and a thread of cookie dough right at the end. Slight mint and a light earthiness sit underneath before fading into a citrus-hop dryness.

My Thoughts

A solid beer that could satisfy on its own or as a pairing with richer dishes. This lands closer to a European amber or a craft pale ale than to a commercial stout, and it’s still very easy to take across a full meal. The roasted body fills out the lighter frame, and the brighter citrus top end stops the dark malt from getting too heavy.

While the classic pilsner might pair with typical izakaya-style foods, the Half & Half is one I would reach for against richer food, like Japanese tonkatsu or Japanese curries. It has enough body to stand up to the dish, enough crispness to wipe the palate clean before the next bite.

Our Rating: 7/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Sunset

The Premium Malt's classic pilsner topped with richer Black beer foam.

 

 

This is more so a layered drink than a blend and it’s a bit more theatrical than the Half & Half. The classic pilsner is poured as the base, then capped with a head of dark foam pulled off the Black tap, in roughly a 70:30 split with the dark foam slowly bleeding down into the gold below.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: A warm gold body at the bottom climbing through a band of twilight amber in the middle with a cappuccino-toned foam crown on top.

Nose: Roast-led up top, fresher underneath. Opens soft and roasty, milk coffee and cocoa with a thread of burnt sugar and toasted marshmallow, a little dalgona, and a whisper of smoked orange peel with a touch of darker dried fruts such as dried figs and dates. There’s a shade of a fresher, sweeter malt character of barley and light caramel as the head settles.

Palate: The palate moves as you go down the glass. The first mouthfuls come through the dark foam and land closest to an amber, creamy and full on entry with milk coffee, soft cocoa and a caramel and dark-sugar sweetness with a soft roasted malt smokiness underneath. As you drink down and the foam folds into the body, it gradually lightens and into crisp grapefruit and citrus zest cutting back through the roast. By the back half of the glass it drinks clean and crisp, much closer to a bright pilsner than as rich, roastier thing you met at the top.

Finish: Shifts as you go down the glass too. Early on it is roast-tinged and a touch dry, caramel and a faint smoke holding on. Later it closes cleaner and crisper, more citrus-hop zest and a fading barley note with just a touch of hop bitterness.

My Thoughts

Of the two blended serves, this is the one to sit with on its own and watch its rewarding arc. While the Half & Half gives you one settled, rounded flavour from first sip to last, the Sunset is built in layers and it moves, starting rich and roasty at the top and drinking progressively fresher and brighter as the dark foam dissolves into gold pilsner. Taken across the whole glass it is the lighter and more refreshing of the two, and it is at its best when you pay attention to it evolving in the glass.

Our Rating: 8/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Kaoru Japanese Ale

 

This is Suntory's move into ale. It began as a limited release, the Kaoru Premium, in 2014, then returned as a year-round product in 2015, and was reworked and renamed in 2023 as The Premium Malt's 〈Japanese Ale〉 Kaoru Ale.

The “Japanese Ale” tag is the key. If you go back into the history of Suntory’s founding as a spirits company, there was a huge debate in the fledgling Japanese whisky industry about the right way to present a Western liquor to the Japanese market – whether one should faithfully follow the recipe as traditionally developed by Westerners, or to develop a new recipe made to suit the Japanese palate. Ultimately, Suntory decided that the best approach was to make a Japanese version that the domestic market would love.

Naturally, an imported “Western” ale style, dropped into Japan unchanged, would not suit the way people here actually drink: with food, across a meal, favouring finesse over heft. So Suntory tuned the ale for that Japanese table rather than borrowed wholesale from Europe.

The Kaoru Ale is pitched as a refreshing and fruitier ale beer made possible by no small amount of Japanese R&D. The first is a proprietary top-fermenting ale yeast, BH-154, which Suntory says it picked from more than a thousand candidates for its ester-rich, fruity fermentation character. The second is the Callista hop, a rare low-alpha German variety out of the Hüll research institute, which carries stone fruit, berry and citrus rather than bitterness. European aroma hops add the floral lift, Diamond Malt gives the base, and the Kamiawa Rich Method is applied here too, concentrating both the foam and the flavour.

Suntory also claims that the Kaoru Ale is particularly popular with younger drinkers (and some say the ladies), although I personally beg to differ because I thought it was solid while being of neither these categories.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Bright apricot, under a fluffy white head.

Nose: The most perfumed and fruit-forward beer in the range. Opens with fleshy apricot and peaches, ripe rather than sweet, before pear, sliced apples, a touch of muscat grape and some tropical pineapple and mango influences at the back. Underneath the fruit runs some malt influences with biscuits and shortbread, honey, and a soft apple and pear blossoms. A fresh line of grapefruit peel.

Palate: Medium-full and rounded, clearly fuller than the classic and just a notch below the Master's Dream in weight, carried on a soft, fine carbonation and a creamy foam entry. For all the fruit influences, the malt stays the centre of gravity here with honeyed biscuit and a cereal-grain backbone blended with apricot and grapefruit. There is a light apple-must sweetness and a cider-like crispness that keeps it fresh. A gentle hop bitterness building late, and a return of grapefruit zest in the second half.

Finish: Medium-plus in length. Fleshy apricot and honeyed biscuit fade first, some orchard-blossom florals and a gentle hop bitterness tailing off into dry grapefruit pith.

My Thoughts

This is the fruitiest and most aromatic beer in the range, but it retains most of the authentic Pilsner malt character and moderation rather than becoming a juicy, sweet, hazy-IPA sort of fruit bomb. The apricot and stone fruit sit in the nose and float over the palate, integrated with the malt that does the structural work underneath. Where the classic leads with bright florals and a citrus snap, and the Master's Dream pours everything into layered malt and grain, the Kaoru sits apart: more perfumed and stone-fruity than the classic, and almost as rich in texture and maltiness as the Master's Dream.

The “Japanese Ale” concept earns its keep here. This is an ale calibrated for the Japanese table – not Belgian, British or American. It’s very aroma-led, focused on finesse over thickness, fruitiness without overt sweetness or the high-fermentation funk found in craft ales. It would sit very easily next to sashimi or grilled Japanese dishes. This is one that I would strongly recommend wheat beer / weissbier lovers who think they would enjoy something with a similar body and richness, but without any of that herbal or banana bread tone.

Our Rating: 9/10

Beer Review: Suntory The Premium Malt's Master's Dream

 

Finally, we have the premium peak of the range, built around triple decoction and a copper kettle.

This beer is said to have taken Suntory's brewmaster over a decade of refinement, and is openly called their “dream beer”. It runs on the same ideas as the classic pilsner but pushes each one further. It uses part floor-malted Diamond Malt, 100% European aroma hops and natural water, then steps the brewing up from the classic's double decoction to a triple decoction, boiling portions of the mash three times to draw even denser and toastier malt flavour and body out of the grain. The consolidated wort is then cooked in a patented copper circulating kettle, the copper chosen for its heat conductivity and ability to lift its deeper, toastier character to the beer. The resulting taste is described as “multiple, intertwining layers”.

For years it lived almost entirely in restaurants and bars before Suntory finally rolled it out in cans nationwide in 2023, positioning it as the beer chosen by well-known establishments.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Apricot-gold, with a fluffier white head.

Nose: Deep, malt- and grain-led and more reserved florals than the classic's bright florals. Opens with rich toasted malt of fresh-baked biscuit, breadcrust, over a base of light caramel, toffee and a honeyed barley sweetness. A soft, herbal-grassy noble hop sits behind it, more savoury herbs, with just a thread of grapefruit zest lifting the top.

Palate: Medium-full and layered, fuller-bodied than the classic but kept crisp and refreshing by a fine, lively carbonation. The richness here lies not so much in a weighty body but in the depth and definition of the malt and cereal aromas. Toasted biscuit and breadcrust moving into cereal milk and honeyed grain sweetness and a light toffee and caramel core. Through the middle runs a crisp golden apple brightness and a sweet lemon-citrus lift, subtle hoppiness in the background. Towards the back the palate turns drier and crisper into a crispbread cracker note.

Finish: Medium-plus with toasted malt and a honeyed sweetness fading first, then a soft, grassy-herbal hop bitterness that gradually subsides along with a faint citrus dryness as it tails off.

My Thoughts

This is the most layered and malt-forward beer in the range. Where the classic pilsner leads with bright florals and the Kaoru Ale reaches for ripe and more perfumed stone fruit, the Master's Dream seems to pour all its attention into the malt. You get depth and definition rather than breadth: layer upon layer of toasted grain, biscuit and gentle caramel.

All this malt weight never tips into heaviness. It stays crisp and refreshing, with a clean carbonation and a bright thread of golden apple and citrus cutting through, so it still drinks quite refreshing–pulling out malt complexity without weightiness and fatigue.

Our Rating: 9.5/10

 

@CharsiuCharlie