Beer: Black Miso
Brewery: Japas Cervejaria (São Paulo, Brazil)
Style: Stout – Russian Imperial
11.5% ABV / 68 IBU

Part of the incredible story behind Japas Cervejaria can be found on each of the brewery’s can releases. Japas is a collective of three Brazilian women—Fernanda Ueno, Maíra Kimura and Yumi Shimada—paying homage to their shared Japanese heritage with beers that riff on Japanese concepts and ingredients. Black Miso proves to be a great showcase for this type of novelty, a high-octane Russian Imperial Stout that incorporates a totally different type of fermentation: red miso paste.

Black Miso is a bit thinner that your typical Russian Imperial Stout, with a body that more closely resembles the closely-related Baltic porter style. But despite its thinness, it hits all of the right notes, especially with its beautiful onyx color and its rich, full flavor. Black Miso has truly bold, roast-y notes of coffee and chicory (or the world-famous coffee at Cafe du Monde in N’Awlins). The balance of malt and bitterness in Black Miso is perfect.

And the red miso paste adds incredible dimensions to the stout base, much like the niche trend of adding butter to coffee to amplify the richness. Black Miso is actually one of three similar variations on Russian Imperials that Japas has experimented with, including Hiratake mushrooms and kombu, the edible kelp that forms the base of the Japanese soup stock dashi. With contract brewing agreements in place with Great South Bay Brewers in Long Island, Japas Cervejaria has extended its reach in the Western Hemisphere and will be leading the charge with this type of cultural fusion. Love, thy name is umami.

For more info, check out Japas Cervejaria here.