Beer in Japan

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Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 1:08 pm

Heading off to Japan for a skiiing holiday in a week or so.

I'll be in Tokyo very briefly, Niseko for a bit over a week and Sapporo for a few days. Thinking of hitting the Sapporo beer museum and garden, probably not the current factory on the outskirts of Sapporo. I was reading about Sapporo black in a Michael Jackson book I have so I was planning to try it. I've also seen references to Bilk (Beer made with milk) so might try it out of curiosity if I see it. I'm keen to try their beers that you can't get here in Australia.

Anybody got any beer advice for while I'm there.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby MOFO » Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 4:09 pm

There is a few microbreweries - there is one in Nikko, "Nikki Beer" which is about 1.5 hours north of Tokyo (you need to take a bullet train for an hour and then a conventional train for about 30 minutes) - a pretty nice beer, although to be fair anything is nice after drinking Asahi from the can for a week...its pretty much in the style of a Urquell/Steinlager style fresh, bitter, probably about 30 IBUs style beer...
What else... You can drink yourself silly for pretty reasonable amount from the large 500ml cans from the 7Eleven. Its not called beer often, it is called Malted Barley drink or something, and is .1% under the alcohol volume that they have to pay lots more taxes for "beer".
As per usual, most important is the food and the company you wash it down with... Make sure you get into the Okonominyaki - I love that food.... and often you can do (spelling obviously will be wrong) Nomi-ho-ti and tubbi-ho-ti - "All you can eat, all you can drink" - if you are going to do a reasonable session, then for about $50 you can eat and drink all you like for about 3 hours - pretty reasonable. There is a great deal in Tokyo which is a boat cruise ("Yakatabune") on the harbour, very simple, but quite cheap - all you can eat & drink for something like 10000yen - its worth it - and fun to cook and eat...
Obviously if you are going to Sapporo then you can go to the Sapporo brewery... I would be interested to go right up north and see the Japanese/Russian population up the tip and see what they drink... bet it'd be some harsh spirit of some sort.
Dont forget to get into the Sake.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Thursday Jan 17, 2008 8:14 am

Thanks for the tips. Won't be getting up to Nikko but I'll keep a look out for it anyway. Definitely won't be forgetting the sake. The stuff I've tasted here in Oz hasn't been very good but I'm looking forward to a choice of styles rather than the slim pickings I've seen here in Oz.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 1:48 pm

OK So now I've got back from Japan I thought I would share something about beer over there. Fortunately its not all Asahi super dry. From reading that I have done after some US sailors introduced beer to the Japanese they went to Germany to learn how to do it properly. The first Japanese owned brewery was in Sapporo and they still have some very nice beers, although mostly of lager style. Sapporo, Kirin and Suntory all have all malt lagers which are very clean and quite tasty. When we were around Tokyo if you ask for draft beer you get Asahi but in Hokkaido you get Sapporo beer, much better. I feel that because the different food I was eating it threw my tastebuds out of alignment a bit, so I tried not to compare with beers back here.

We visited the Sapporo beer musuem which was interesting and they had dried hop cones that you could pick up and crush (mmmm) and also some pale and dark grain. Much better than the years old POR pellets that they had at XXXX brewery in Brisbane. We went next door to their Beer Garden which also has massive beer halls. All you can eat Mongolian lamb BBQ and drink for less than $40. There was a few light lagers, one with some rice, another all malt, a dark lager (Yebisu the dark) which is dark and roasty. They also offer half and half, a mix of the all malt light and dark lagers. Some breweries also do a stout.

We planned to visit a microbrew in Sapporo Factory (the original brewery site I think) but after the all you can drink we were not in much of a state for doing that.

At our hotel in Niseko they sold a couple of different brews under the name of Niseko Highland Brewery. I'm not sure what they were supposed to be as everything but the name of the brewery was in Japanese, I still have the bottles if anyone out there reckons they could translate. One was a pale lager, the other had a bit more colour to it, both were good.

It seems the Japanese also like their imported beers. I had Bass Pale Ale off tap at another bar. The hotel I was staying in (mostly Japanese guests) had a wide variety of Belgian and other european beers in their convenience store. Leffe blond and brune, gouden carolus, some german wheat beers, kolsch just to name a few. Prices were cheaper than here as well. In amongst all these fantastic beers was a stubbie of VB, ha ha ha. I took a photo of this fridge so I'll have to post it if I can figure out how.

Of course you can get beer nearly everywhere in vending machines and it seems to be consumed at any time of day. We got on the Bullet Train bound for Nagano at 7.30 one morning. Japanese people were having their breakfast noodles, rice, fish etc all washed down with a large can of beer.

While in Sapporo we visited the snow festival which also included a food festival. At -5C there is no problem with your beer going warm while you sit at a table which is half covered in snow. But if you are concerned you can buy a mug made of ice just to be sure.

I know some of you ski so I'll let you know that it snowed four about 4 of the 7 days we were in Niseko. One of the days there was beautiful fluffly knee deep powder on the main runs not to speak of what was off piste. Awesome stuff.

Sorry if all of this is a bit jumbled.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby James L » Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 2:33 pm

Sounds like a pretty darn good holiday to me... Lucky bugger
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby Chris » Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 3:11 pm

I love Saporo- enjoy :D

Aside from that, try some sake- not that warm crap though.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Thursday Feb 14, 2008 8:13 am

I was actually keen to try a variety of sakes but when we were over there most menus just had sake on them rather than the different styles just as most menus just have beer. Not being able to speak Japanese made it a bit difficult to ascertain what type of sake I was actually drinking. Most shops had a variety and with the use of my phrase book I did manage to get some help in choosing a bottle to bring home. Some of the packaging actually has a bar representing the continuum from sweet to dry and a symbol to represent where the particular product fell in the range. Haven't tried the bottle we bought home yet.

I forgot to mention the automatic beer pouring machine I saw. The waitress put the plastic cup (yechh) in and pushed a button. The machine tilted the glass for most of the pour and then straightened it towards the end to create a head. We could probably start a discussion on whether the head should be created first or last, but I suppose their aim was quick consistent pouring.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby Kevnlis » Thursday Feb 14, 2008 8:21 am

I think those machines are a great idea. How often do you go to a pub and get the same beer from the same tap in the same glass from three different barmaids and they are all different? At least with the machine you know what you are paying for!
Prost and happy brewing!

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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby gregb » Thursday Feb 14, 2008 11:46 am

The Wowsers would have a fit if they started turning up in NSW.

Cheers,
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Thursday Feb 14, 2008 1:43 pm

Have now uploaded some photos to Photobucket. I'll just post a link to the album rather than autoinsert the photos here. It opens on a slideshow but if you press the grid button you then get photos which you can click on to see larger images.

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/earle_beer/

Edit: or it may just open on the album itself???
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby matt » Saturday Mar 01, 2008 11:36 pm

good stuff earle. i'm heading to japan later in the month [not up to Sapporo though :cry: ]. i can't wait to check out their beers and pubs. all you can drink and eat sounds very appealing.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby Snowdog » Sunday Mar 02, 2008 4:01 pm

I see they are getting into microbrewing in Japan now... It would be cool to check out these brews...

(from the Seattle Weekly)
Kiuchi Brewery, located a few hours northeast of Tokyo in Ibaraki Prefecture, has brewed sake since long before the Meiji Restoration, which, if you didn't catch SAM's "Japan Envisions the West" show, was when Japan finally opened up to the West. The brewery began beer production just over a decade ago; it added shochu (a distilled spirit) to its repertoire in 2003, and has plans to unveil a line of wines. The name "Hitachi" comes from the original name of the region the brewery is located in, which also includes the headquarters of the electronics company by the same name.

Hitachino Nest White Ale has garnered the most acclaim for the brewery as a two-time gold medalist at the World Beer Cup. The white ale is a classic Belgian witbier scented with coriander and orange peel, and contains just enough hops to give the beer a lift. When you taste it, the underlying flavors almost creep into pilsnerland, but the hopping keeps the beer light, round, and soft. Suggested takeout: aromatic and slightly sour Thai food, especially dishes with lemongrass and tamarind paste, like the veggie phad woon sen with fresh herbs and sesame oil from Jhanjay Vegetarian Thai Cuisine in Wallingford.

The Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale has that chalky, candied-cigarette smell I often get with stronger Belgian ales. There's a nutty, rich quality to the smell and taste, similar to butter chicken or brown rice, that you know isn't dessert, but the beer is not without sweetness. Suggested takeout: anything with sweet-hot flavors, like the barbecued pork from Kau Kau Barbecue Market in the ID, with extra mustard, of course.

Hitachino Nest XH Ale is good if you enjoy sour beers Aged in shochu casks, this is wonderfully weird. The first time I tried it I thought it had a slight lambic quality. Its lightly sour taste was almost fruity, just shy of cherry. The delicate bitter aftertaste, which is a result of the cask aging, reminded me a little of black tea. This is a beer that deserves food and is incomplete without it, like a chianti without a tomato. I can't imagine anything more perfect with the XH than the duck and bao from Lee's Asian Restaurant in West Seattle.

The Hitachino Nest Commemorative Ale has not only the color of pumpkin but also the faint aroma and flavor of many things orange, from apricot to squash. For a Belgian-style strong ale, it's one of the best pumpkin beers—without any actual pumpkin—that I've had in a while. Its flavor is sweet and mildly savory at the same time.
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Postby gregb » Friday Mar 07, 2008 4:58 pm

earle wrote:
good stuff earle. i'm heading to japan later in the month [not up to Sapporo though :cry: ]. i can't wait to check out their beers and pubs. all you can drink and eat sounds very appealing.


Check out the websites of the major brewer like Sapporo, Kirin and Suntory before you go. Most if them have beer gardens (and maybe brewery/museum) in the major cities that may be worth checking out.

As Snowdog indicated microbrewing is alive and well in Japan and some searching on the web may reveal some details of locations.

We flew JAL and they had Yebisu and Sapporo classic on board so you can get a headstart on your cultural (beer) experience.

As a hobby/interest (whatever you want to call it) an appreciation (love of) beer combines fantastically with travel. We're thinking of skiing in NZ again down the track and I'm looking forward to getting back there and sampling more of the local beers nearly as much as I'm looking forward to the travel and skiing. Its been about 4 years since we last visited and while I enjoyed beer I was not into it nearly as much as I am now. Fortunately I didn't miss out completely last time, managing to sample a variety of Speights including Old Dark and Distinction Ale (does the gold medal ale taste that you can get here in OZ taste grassy to anyone else?), the styles available from the Wanaka brewery, and a couple of brews from the West Coast sold under the brandname Good Bastard. Then there's the food when you travel. I've just realised I live in a cultural, beer and culinary desert. Thank God for home brew.


Which shifted the focus of the whole thread to Beer in NZ

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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Saturday Mar 08, 2008 12:31 pm

Thanks for shifting the rest to a new thread Greg. I was thinking yesterday that we had away from the orginal topic.

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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby Antsvb » Sunday Jan 11, 2009 4:37 pm

Hey guys,

Any newer info out there for this thread?
I am heading to Japan this year and am definately interested in doing a few things beer related. Will mostly be around Osaka and Nagoya, of which I know you can do an Asahi tour/tasting (not real pumped for that one but will still do it).

Do we know of any other brewery tours or any micro scene?

Cheers
'Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.' - Benjamin Franklin.

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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby earle » Tuesday Jan 13, 2009 7:31 pm

I think there's some threads accross on the Aussie Home Brewer forum as well. Beer was introduced into Japan by the US but they then went to Europe to learn to brew properly. If you can get away from the "dry" beers they import to Oz even some of the mainstream brands make quite good beers.
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Re: Beer in Japan

Postby matt » Saturday Jan 17, 2009 12:51 pm

there was a boutique bottle shop [well it was part of a european styled deli] in one of the shopping centres around Namba station in Osaka, that had a really great selection of micro brews. they even had a house brand that i guess was sourced from local [or near by] producers. i can't remember if it was the JR or Nankai station mall though, leaning more towards the JR station i think.

everywhere else in Osaka i found to be dominated by the big brewers, though actual bottle shops [not 7/11 et al] have smaller breweries' beers like Nest
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