



One beer two beer red beer blue beer! Japan's Abashiri Brewery is well on their way to offering us the united colors of beer, though nobody seems to have requested this of them. Regardless, Okhotsk Blue (also known as Ryuho Draft) joins Abashiri's rainbow-hued beer lineup along with Hamanasu Red draft and Shiretoko Green draft.

Here's a short video from Abashiri showing the cool blue beer and a bit of the local scenery:





Abashiri is a microbrewery located on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. Owned and operated by the Takahashi Company, Abashiri has been turning heads (and possibly stomachs) for some time now with its unusual beers - and by "unusual" I mean Scallop Beer and Bilk. The latter, an incongruous combination of beer and milk meant to appeal to the female demographic, deservedly made the Ten Even More Weird And Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks listing last year - and hasn't been heard from since.



In any case, Okhotsk Blue Draft stands out for its cool color and interesting (yet not off-putting) ingredients. The brew is made using water melted from icebergs that float each year onto Hokkaido beaches from the chilly Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the North Pacific ocean bordered by Japan and Russia. Fine & dandy, and a good selling point to boot.



Then Abashiri went one step further and used seaweed to give their brew and icy blue tint. Perhaps not the greatest selling point but it does make Okhotsk Blue look, well, different. As for the taste... reports state that Ryuho isn't at all bad as beers go, and if you didn't know there was seaweed in it, you likely wouldn't guess there was. (via Gaijin Tonic)