Beer for eels please

Marketed for eel lovers in Japan, a new beer has been launched to quench the thirst for the opressively warm Japanese summer. Apparently the beer is very complimentary for the sticky and slightly sweet flavours of the unagi (eel). Translated below is some of the reasoning behind Miyashita’s Sake Brewery’s newest endevour…

Unagi is traditionally eaten during the summer to boost stamina against the appetite-destroying heat, particularly on the midsummer days of the Ox (July 24th and August 5th this year). While the origin of this custom is generally unknown and up for dispute, Miyashita is promoting a theory that explains that because the day of the Ox is associated with calamity, people traditionally turned to the Black Tortoise (the guardian deity of the north, also the direction associated with the Ox) for protection from disaster. The Black Tortoise God is black, thus people ate black food like unagi and now, says the brewery, black beer.

And there you have it! Either way beer is beer and I’m sure it will go well with anything rather sticky, salty and slightly sweet. Yum again.

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