The Asian Hub for Microbrews Crafting Select Beers in Japan
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Beer aficionados who move to Asia discover quickly that they need to scale back their expectations. Major cities offer a fair selection of British and Belgian ales and German Pilseners, but outside of the occasional brewpub, such as Brewerkz in Singapore, there is little in the way of fresh, flavorful beers. And once you head outside of those major cities, your choices often become limited to a Heineken, Tiger or the local Pilsener.
Beer aficionados who move to Asia discover quickly that they need to scale back their expectations. Major cities offer a fair selection of British and Belgian ales and German Pilseners, but outside of the occasional brewpub, such as Brewerkz in Singapore, there is little in the way of fresh, flavorful beers. And once you head outside of those major cities, your choices often become limited to a Heineken, Tiger or the local Pilsener.
But there's hope brewing in Japan. Thirteen years after it legalized microbreweries, the country has produced craft brewers who can hold their own with the best that the United States and Europe have to offer. Their pale ales are as refreshingly hoppy as Sierra Nevada, the benchmark in the United States; their whits are as fruity and fresh as Belgium's Hoegaarden; and their barley wines match up with England's Thomas Hardy's Ale in their ability to mellow and mature over the years into a syrupy, portlike digestif.
That doesn't mean Japan's beers are clones of those from other countries. At first, their craft beers remind you of American microbrews in their wide array of styles and with the fresh, bold taste that's missing from bottled European beers. But try a few more and you'll notice more subtlety in the flavors; while a beer may smell citrusy and hoppy, the bitter hops flavor fades after the first sip and the sweet malt flavors step forward. You notice multiple flavors of caramel, fruit, ginger and other spices, all playing off each other. Subtlety is the hallmark of the better Japanese microbrews, whereas most American craft beers embrace an onslaught of flavor with all the nuance of a sledgehammer.
"The most important point is balance," said Toshiyuki Kiuchi, the general manager of Kiuchi Brewery in Naka-city, about an hour north of Tokyo.
Microbreweries were legalized in 1994, when the government lowered the legal limit for a brewing license to 60 kiloliters from 2,000 kiloliters. While that opened the door to smaller brewers, most brewed German-style beers, such as weisses and Pilseners, often emulating the offerings of the large Japanese breweries, said Ryouji Oda, chairman of the Japan Craft Beer Association.
Craft beers met with an initial wave of success, Oda said, with a peak of 310 microbreweries in 1999. But then dozens closed in a crash at the start of the decade, many because they were only offering staid German-style beers, Oda said. Many consumers decided the only noticeable difference between the microbreweries and the Asahis and Sapporos was the higher price tag from the smaller breweries, and support lagged.
"When they first started, they tried to be mini-industrial beers. That's why they failed," said Bryan Baird, the brewmaster of Baird Brewing Co. in Numazu, a coastal fishing city about an hour southwest of Tokyo.
Another problem was that the microbreweries brewing different styles of beers a decade ago weren't tuned in to the Japanese palate, said Kiuchi, whose brewery first started making its Hitachino beer in 1996.
"Thirteen years ago, everybody brewed a Pilsener, but people wanted more hops," he said. "Then they added a lot of hops and malts, too much, and they closed."
There are about 280 microbreweries today, Oda said. While their market share is small, about a half of a percent, Oda, Baird and Kiuchi all see hope and growth potential for one big reason: the overwhelming majority of people drinking craft beers, especially the new ones, are all younger than 40. That's vital because they're wired into the Internet and their I-mode phones, allowing growth in a way that wasn't possible 10 years ago.
In fact, many of the microbreweries in this technologically- savvy country depend on Internet sales for the bulk of their revenue, Oda said.
"When you go to a beer festival, you see more and more young people," said Terasaki Akio, a co-owner of Ushi-Tora, a stylish bar specializing in Japanese craft brews in Tokyo. "When one person finds this thing they want, they want to share that. One person knowing this will bring in more people."
Craft brewers are also benefiting from the trend of younger Japanese embracing non-native cuisines, Akio said.
"The food style is changing here in Japan," he said. "People eat more meat, the style is getting Westernized. So if they want some spirits to go with that food, they would pick beer, compared to sake or shouchu," a distilled alcoholic beverage.
While these trends are driving growth, Akio said he thinks craft beers aren't a fleeting passion. The quality among the top brewers has improved since the crash, and the choice has broadened in the last decade, he said.
"There was another change that made it popular—those pursuing taste came into existence," Akio said.
In addition, brewers and bars and restaurants are now focusing on educating people about craft beers, which both keeps customers and draws in new ones, Akio said.
It's all about informing people what makes a good beer good and telling them about the different styles of beer - the types that the big breweries who concentrate on Pilseners don't make, Baird said. "That connection to Germany, we had to overcome it," he said.
Baird, an Ohio native who fell in love with Japan after college and now has a family in Numazu, sees a lot of opportunity for craft beers to grow in Japan. His company is opening up a second bar in Tokyo soon, and he has dreams of joining Hitachino as the only Japanese microbrewery to export.
He's quick to answer the question that craft beer fans ask: Why aren't there better beers in Asia? Why does Japan have a microbrewing scene when its neighbors don't?
"Japan is a society of craftsmen. They're great manufacturers," Baird said. "The Japanese like craftsmanlike stuff, and they're willing to pay a premium for it."
About 90 percent of his sales come from the Tokyo area, Baird said. "They're highly educated consumers and the most affluent, a demographic dream. The consumer base is here.
"Marketing is meaningless in craft beer. Bikinis and chicks don't work. Craft beer is all about the product.
"If you make good beer—if you do that, they'll come out of the woodwork."
(C) 2007 International Herald Tribune. All Rights Reserved
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