Beer News Round-Up

From CNNGo comes a light-hearted look at the "zero craze" in Japan, including swill like Suntory's All Free, which is free of calories, alcohol and meaning. The article contains this mysterious passage:

Never mind that it costs more to down a can of All Free (alcohol-free, calorie-free, sugar-free) beer-wannabe liquid than the real stuff, at ¥138 for a 350ml can. Real beer that can be bought for as little as ¥90.

Let's ignore the mysterious grammatical issues and ask this question: What "real" beer costs 90 yen? Answer: None. Perhaps the author is referring to happoshu or third-category trash? Don't wanna know.

Kyodo News reports on the not-surprising decline of beer shipments in August compared with last year. Sadly, also this:

Shipments of less expensive, so-called third-category beer-like alcoholic drinks rose 8% to 13.08 million cases, an all-time high for August, mirroring the tendency of consumers to tighten their purse strings, with Kirin’s ‘‘Nodogoshi Nama’’ and Asahi’s ‘‘Clear Asahi,’’ being particularly popular.

So-called third-category beer-like alcoholic drinks. Just the fact that it takes so many words and hyphens to describe the product is enough to cause concern. Then, if you actually taste the stuff ... spit it out. Buy a beer!

That does it for today ... if I can avoid blog-neglect, I'll aim to keep abreast of the latest Japan beer news.

For now, happy drinking, and see you on twitter.

Ise Kadoya "Biyagura" suspends its Beer Day special

The news came from Midori, a hard-drinking hair dresser who has been a frequent participant at Ise Kadoya's all-you-can-drink specials. September, she said, would be the last month featuring the special until Spring (or, perhaps the last one ever ... more below).

Every since I arrived in Ise, a little more than three years ago, this special has been running. Two Wednesday's a month, the brewpub would bring in about three guest beers from microbreweries all over Japan, complementing the slate of beers made in-house, including some interesting seasonal offerings. (The roster was always rounded out with a two mass-market offerings to appease stubborn drinkers who think they know what they like.)

The result was a colorful, half-sheet of paper, describing 10 beers available that night. For 60 minutes, you were free to drink as much as you could for only 1,000 yen (until a recent price jump -- more on that below). If you didn't get enough, a second hour comes for just 900 yen.

The offerings weren't always good. Let's face it -- raft beer among the prefectures is a hit-and-miss game. But with three guest beers each time, there's was almost always something to like. But in the event of a strikeout, you could always rely on Ise Kadoya's own fabulous staple brews: The Brown Ale, Stout, Pale Ale and Shinto Beer. In all, it was a great deal, guaranteed to provide you with good beer.

The first sign that something was amiss came two months ago, when the price went from 1,000 yen for the first hour to 1,500 yen. Although this price hike made sense to me, I feared the deeper meaning -- the special was losing money. Sure enough, a few weeks ago the Japanese website announced the special's "vacation."

What's to blame? Or who? An easy potential target can be found in the mirror. I would usually eat dinner at home and then head to the pub for the nomihoudai a bit later. A few other friends would do the same, so we didn't order food while we drank quite a lot of beer. Did customers like us hurt the bottom line? Seems like it could easily be a factor.

But what else? Has it recently, for whatever reason, become more expensive to purchase and order the guest beer for delivery? I truly have no idea on this one.

Perhaps, also, the special still IS making money ... but barely ... making it an easy target to get the ax.

Whatever the case, it appears that they're going to use the time after this week's final installment to ponder what can be done, if anything, to make the special workable. While the original announcement said the break would last until spring, a more recent post on the Japanese site says something along the lines of "this COULD be the last one ever!"

If they do, how could they make it work? I have some ideas of my own:

Jack the Price
The original 1,000-yen hour was pretty crazy. I wouldn't have flinched the first time if I had found a 2,000 yen price tag. And I won't flinch next spring if they bring back the special with a new price/time structure. How about 2,000 yen (or more?) for 90 minutes? Sometimes an hour feels rushed if it's busy at the bar. And sometimes two hours is a bit much. Maybe 3,000 90 minutes, plus 1,000 for an extra 60? Basically, crunch the numbers and try it out. It just might work.

Map to Mini-Stop
Instead of offering Suntory's The Premium Malts and an Ebisu, point the stubborn types to the convenience store, where they can drink as much Standard Swill as they'd like. An award-winning brewery is no place for beer you can get ANYWHERE ELSE. Practically, this would cut back on customers who just come for a cheap hour of Premium Malts. Idealistically, it would force weary friends of beer-lovers to actually try something new. Or am I way off here?


Well, my ideas have run out for the moment. But surely there are more.

Whatever the case, I hope the special comes back. Being in rural Mie means that I don't have easy access to a wide variety of Japanese craft beers. This event has let me, and others, try all kinds of stuff, be it Baird, Shiga Kogen, or any myriad small breweries all over Japan.


Notes:
-Any visitors to Ise-shi should certainly pop in to Biyagura, just a 20-minute walk or a 5-minute cab ride from Ise-she station. A 2-hour all-you-can-drink, for less than 2,000 yen, remains on the regular menu. Biyagura is closed Wednesdays, except for the soon-t0-be-suspended beer nights. Try the famous mochi across the street ... from the same company, it's history is much longer than the beer's.

-I will try to snag an interview with somebody at Ise Kadoya about the suspended beer nights. Stay tuned for that.

Kisoji Beer and the Mountains

I travel because I like to travel. But as an added incentive, I know that as I explore more nooks and crannies of Japan, I'll find new, potentially interesting beer.

On a recent trip to the Kiso region in southern Nagano, in a tourist-infested post town on the old Nakasendou route from present-day Tokyo to Kyoto, I found Kisoji Beer, made in Nagiso-machi and available around the area.


The town, Magome (pictured above), is perched on a hillside, its main street lined soba restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. Also, packed with tourists. We walked half the distance of the town's main drag, and already I had seen loads of shops selling Yona Yona from Shinshu. At the top of the hill, a liquor shop had that plus something else that caught my eye: the blue can of Kisoji Beer.

It was 11 a.m., but I had to try one. Should have tried two. I went for the pale ale, which was bitter, sure, but there wasn't much to it. Or maybe the early hour meant my tasting system was not fully firing.

After a cold soba lunch, we walked through the town again and I went for a Shinshu blonde ale. This was pretty tasty: a good combination of bitter and smooth.

This was followed by a quick bus ride to Magome Pass, followed by a two hour hike along the Nakasendou trail to another little post town in the mountains, Tsumago. Tsumago has been fully restored to look like it did in the Edo period. There are still plenty of tourists, but not as many as in Magome. The restoration and lack of crowds makes for a very pleasant post-hike evening.

Sadly, at the evening taiko/drama/dance performance in the center of town, the only beer available was also traditional: Asahi Super Dry.

The Japan Beer Times summer edition hits beer shelves everywhere

With summer comes the third issue of The Japan Beer Times, the bilingual (and free) quarterly magazine about craft beer in Japan.

I popped in to Ise Kadoya's Biyagura after work today to pick up a few copies. Ise Kadoya itself is featured in this issue, along with a brief eyes-on-the-ground report from myself on the Wednesday nomihoudai specials.

I just got done reading through the whole issue. It's great to see such a magazine exist, and it's also nice that content is presented in English and Japanese. Besides the Ise Kadoya feature, you'll find, among other things, a write-up on Helios of Okinawa.

The summer issue is not yet online, but perhaps your local craft brewpub has the hard copies in stock. Go for a drink, leave with a magazine.

Baird Brewing in The Huffington Post

Baird Brewing gets plenty of attention in the Japan craft beer universe, but once in a while the spotlight shines from afar. Today, The Huffington Post features an interview with Bryan Baird himself.

Among other things, Baird says that 10 years deep, "we seem to have gained real traction and
achieved that magical sort of critical mass. Our three gold medals in the 2010 World Beer Cup certainly didn't hurt things either."

So things are going well. Reading more of the interview, it's not hard to see the ingredients of success, like Baird's commitment to character, which he describes as "the interplay of balance and complexity." Too many craft beers in Japan, Baird says, have complexity, but lack balance (while the big brewery offerings have balance but ... you know the rest).

Another interesting comment from Baird was in response to a question about the "Japanese"-ness of Baird beer:

We enjoy lovely soft water in Numazu that really contributes a round and balanced house character to our beers. In the Japanese aesthetic, harmonious balance is greatly prized. I think Baird Beer is a liquid embodiment of that Japanese aesthetic value

Looking ahead, Baird sees good things for the craft beer market in Japan. He says he can picture the market share for craft beer in Japan jumping from less than 1 percent (today's figure) to something more akin to the numbers in the U.S. (4 percent by volume and 7 percent by dollar) within 10 to 20 years.

The full interview has a lot more interesting items to digest, so give it a read.

Which Ise Kadoya beer would you stock in your shop?

If you were running a wine shop in an Oregon college town, and you were in the process of expanding to craft/world beers, which of Ise Kadoya's export offerings would you add to your line-up?

This is the question faced by my stepmother and father. She runs the wine shop full time, while my father helps out when he's not occupied by his main job.

On his recent trip to Japan, I took my dad to Ise Kadoya's Biyagura and the Great Japan Beer Festival in Osaka. All of that drinking, we decided, was marketing research.

Right.

But really, my dad e-mailed this morning asking which Ise Kadoya beer they should stock. Not an easy question.

Here is the lineup available from their U.S. distributor, Shleton Brothers:

Triple Hop Ale
Presently on tap at Biyagura, this seasonal is very nice. Oregon craft beer types tend to go for the hoppy brews, and the "triple" label might attract curious consumers.

Brown Ale
As a regular tap at Biyagura, the Brown Ale has become one of my favorites from Ise Kadoya. It would serve as a fine representative of Ise Kadoya's quality, but does it lack a certain flash?

Genmai Ale
Another seasonal recently on tap at Biyagura, the Genmai Ale is a unique offering. Probably a good one to have on stock for a store boasting a huge beer selection, but not a must-have for a wine shop expanding to craft/world beer.

IPA
Oregonains love their IPA. And college students, be they hop-heads or not, like the higher alcohol content. Splash the 7 percent on promotional literature and perhaps some recently anointed legal drinkers will be drawn in. Plus, it's a tasty brew (although I have not had a sip for months upon months).

Pale Ale
This is another very nice regular offering from Ise Kadoya. I tend toward the Brown in a head-to-head but the Pale can be a very nice somewhat lighter experience.

Scotch Ale
Never tried this or seen it. Anyone?

Stout
Another regular offering, the Stout is pretty tasty. But there's no way it could gain a following in the land of Deschutes Black Butte Porter.

So after all that, I'm still torn between the IPA and the Brown Ale, with the Triple Hop in the mix for good measure. Where do you stand? Help stock the shelves with the right choice!

Hunting for IPA at the Great Japan Beer Festival

At half passed four, we walked to the station in front of the Kyocera Dome along with dejected fans of the Orix Buffaloes, who had just taken a 9-2 beating courtesy of the Softbank Hawks.

We were in a decidedly better mood, having just descended from the Sky Hall, high in the Dome's upper quarters, where Day 2 of the Great Japan Beer Festival was winding down.

Besides the buzz from a day of sampling craft beers, we also could hold our heads high knowing that on Monday evening, we would take in a Hanshin Tigers game. The Tigers, in second place in the Central League just behind the powerhouse Giants, were in a much better position to come out ahead over the slumping Carp of Hiroshima.

Back upstairs, in the curving Sky Hall, beer enthusiasts of all stripes were finishing the day, some in better shape than others. Security staff in orange shirts kept the peace by making sure people did not sit -- or even squat -- on the floor. Tap operators in Official Orange Shirts were either lonely or busy, since at the late hour of the event most people had identified winners and losers and were heading for one last sip of their favorite.

Not that you could reasonably expect to have tried every beer available in one day. With well over 100 choices, we decided early to approach with caution and some level of discrimination. We tried some fruity stuff, but I quickly scanned for IPAs. Then we started finding brands we knew, including some from back home. Then, we found the Minoh taps. Until yesterday, I had only heard of Minoh, an Osaka-based brewery. The Minnoh menu included a Weizen, a Pale Ale, a Stout, a Real Ale Coffee Stout, a Real Ale Lucky 13 IPA, and a potato beer called "Spud Suds." All were pretty good, but of course I'm a sucker for IPA.

END OF PART 1
(since it is almost time to head toward Koshien for the Tigers game.)

Drink the culture

My father's visit to Japan has already included a lot of drinking. Here's a rundown:

Monday: Beer, wine and nihonshu with a colleague
Tuesday: Beer (not craft beer) with friends
Wednesday: Ise Kadoya's nomihoudai

So today, Thursday, we're taking it easy. We've decided not to drink. But that plan might change, as I collected a few beers as birthday presents and they're right there in the fridge.

But I could let those fridge beers linger there a little longer and re-charge, since the Great Japan Beer Festival in Osaka is just around the corner. My father and I, along with a friend, are hitting up the festival on Sunday. If anyone out there is going to be around, leave a comment and perhaps our paths will cross amid the taps.

Price Check

I just called and confirmed our (large looking) group reservation for the Ise Kadoya nomihoudai next week, and learned that they've upped the one-hour price to 1,500 yen. Still a very good deal, and it also appears that a second hour is still only 900 yen. I'll try to confirm that next week when I slide into hour two with a hour-drunk-confidence that I'll be fine at work on Thursday.

So to be clear, it's 1,500 yen for one hour of unlimited drinking, choosing from Ise Kadoya's four main offerings, plus a rotating roster of guest beers from around Japan. Can't beat this deal.

Still here

As I write this I'm sipping on a Yona Yona Ale, one of the few micros widely distributed across Japan. Here in Ise, it's sold at a few grocery stores and even one convenience store.

I've neglected this blog for a few weeks, during which I did not really try anything new in the beer world, even from the Big Five. I saw some chatter about a decent offering from Sapporo, but several scans of area store shelves turned up nothing. Perhaps it didn't make as far as Mie.

But my vacation from Good Beer should be coming to an end soon. First of all, the Ise Kadoya nomihoudai night should be going next Wednesday, meaning an hour or two of all-access taps including a line-up of guest beers.

Then, I'm hoping to hit up the Great Japan Beer Festival in Osaka, which takes place over the three-day weekend this month.

Along for the ride will be my dad, who gets into Japan on Monday for a short visit. Besides sampling quality beer, we hope to take in a Hanshin Tigers game and perhaps visit some touristy spots around the Kansai area.

Now that things are picking up again, I'll try to be on the blog and on Twitter with any relevant updates.