Remember that old Saturday Night Live Skit, Samurai (Insert Various Topic Here)? There were a series of these in which Samurai Futaba (John Belushi) flailed about his katana while mumbling unintelligible Japanese. Some of the more memorable skits were Samurai Hit Man, Samurai Divorce Court, and of course, Samurai Delicatessen.

Of course, the episodes are a bit long in the tooth now, maybe just a little older in fact than my bottle of Terrapin Side Project 17: Samurai Krunkles. OK, I exaggerate but I have had this one for a while, since about August of 2012 actually. So this bottle is almost 2 years old. It’s gotten to the point these days where I just have far more beer than I can drink on hand, partly because there are so many great beers out there and only so many one can drink, but also because I drink quite a bit of draft beer too at Taco Mac.

From the label:

Taking the Orient and the rest of the world by storm, Krunkles returns!  In this edition of the bearded IPA brewer’s saga, “Samurai Krunkles,” as he was once known in the Far East, pulls out all the hops from his katana’s sheath to make this Asian flared brew.  While traveling around the Pacific in a souped up rickshaw pulled by his trusty side kick Cato, Krunkles uncovered unique brewing ingredients such as jasmine rice, jasmine green tea and the finest ginger the Orient had to offer for this Samurai master’s ale.

Ingredients from the website:

Other: Jasmine Green Tea, Jasmine Rice, Ginger, Dextrose

Malt: 2-Row, Best Munich, Victory, Pale Crystal

Hops: Columbus, Nugget, Falconers Flight, Zythos, Sorachi Ace

Terrapin Samurai Krunkles has an alcohol content of 7.1% by volume and 70 IBUs. I paid $7.99 for it in 2012.

Terrapin Samurai Krunkles pours to a bright orange color with a light creamy head and a fragrant nose of lemony hops (Sorachi Ace) and herbal tea. Taking a sip, I get a little caramel up front, is it lightened by the rice? Perhaps it’s imagination. Light spicy ginger dances across the plate and in the finish I’m getting more of the zesty lemony Sorachi Ace hops and some herbal green tea notes. Something tasty and different, perhaps not the best Side Project but an interesting night’s drinking pleasure.

This is still pretty tasty after a few years actually. It’s something a bit different from the pack, and I’m glad I kept it refrigerated for much of its tenure chez Bruguru. That said, it’s not the best of the Side Project series, not even close, but I might buy it again if it were re-released as some of these are.

Tune in next week for another episode of…..Samurai Krunkles…..



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