Is this the most important beer I have had in recent years? I don't know. After the embarrassing robotic declarations by American's trendier craft brewers that they will "not... use... rice... not... use... corn..." all I want are Belgian monks to bring out a range of pure alt grain beers that give the finger to barley, that make barley scream "I suck!" as it lays in the corner weeping at its own insignificance.

Samuri pours a light gold with a thin white foam from gentle carbonation. The aroma is yogurty sour with some herbal notes. In the mouth, the beer is a wash of soft light flavours. I get dry twiggy rosemary or thyme things happening. I get little tastes of what seems like the little kid brother of a tripel. There is a slight background black tea astringency. Sadly, the BAers don't get it though the brothers do.

You could go in a lot of directions tweeking this beer to create something interesting with herbs and orange peel. Work the yeast strains. You could make the beer with different sorts of rice. There are masses of varieties out there - and I now want a Thai red cargo rice beer. Then I want blue corn beer and sorgum stout. Bring it on.