- Your Round of Japanese Beer<\/a><\/li>
- Thirst-Quenching Quartet<\/a><\/li>
- Asahi \u30a2\u30b5\u30d2<\/a><\/li>
- Kirin \u30ad\u30ea\u30f3<\/a><\/li>
- Sapporo \u30b5\u30c3\u30dd\u30ed<\/a><\/li>
- Suntory \u30b5\u30f3\u30c8\u30ea\u30fc<\/a><\/li>
- Time at the Bar with Japanese Beer<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Having willingly sacrificed my youthful tastebuds (and sobriety) to such a distinctly British cloud of fruity and leathery fumes, I thought that my new life in Japan would be spent joylessly sipping insipid yellow lager while dreaming of the nut-brown and nutrient-packed ales that I had left behind in merry old England. How wrong I was.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your Round of Japanese Beer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Probably introduced to these islands by Dutch traders in the 17th Century<\/a>, beer made slow progress toward the ubiquity that it enjoys today as the the favorite (alcoholic) beverage of a country that can certainly be said to enjoy a tipple. Commodore Perry\u2019s gunboat diplomacy, which led to the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa<\/a> in 1854, not only opened Japan to the world, but also brought American beer to a grateful nation, with its very first review, offered by an evenhanded Japanese official, describing the taste of Perry\u2019s gift as “bitter horse piss.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"various](\"https:\/\/s3.voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/19102007\/Japanese-craft-beers-at-Bierhof-Gambarius-Marion-Pont-1024x702.jpeg\")
Bierhof Gambarius in Tottori Prefecture<\/a> is one of many beer bars and breweries that are making their mark in Japan\u2019s beer scene. Photo: Marion Pont<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n The wide-ranging reforms of the Meiji era brought, along with everything else western (for better or worse), not just more, and hopefully better received, beers, but also brewers and their essential know-how. This overseas expertise was paired with local innovation, giving rise to a mega-industry that continues to have (for better or worse) a significant impact on the everyday life of the country, with brewers in 2022 producing over 2 million kiloliters of Japanese lager beer in all its fresh crisp perfection.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirst-Quenching Quartet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\u201cA Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
– Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warhol\u2019s rosy-but-astute observation about the leveling potential of perfected mass-production applies neatly to the world of Japanese beer, where despite conspicuous differences in the surrounding decor, drinking vessel, and (most definitely) the cost, the beer you enjoy in an upscale eatery or a shitamachi izakaya, is likely to be one and the same. Wherever it is served this golden elixir, and free-flowing social lubricant, somehow equally suited to all seasons, dishes, and occasions, is, with very few exceptions, a product of Japan\u2019s fab-four brewing behemoths.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asahi \u30a2\u30b5\u30d2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Asahi\u2019s long and innovative history<\/a> began in Osaka in 1889 and takes in a multitude of firsts, including the creation of Japan\u2019s first beer hall and its first unpasteurized bottled beer. 1958 saw the launch of Asahi Gold, Japan\u2019s first canned beer; a breakthrough that came into its own a little over a decade later when the 1969 birth of the konbini<\/em> created the perfect conditions for a mercury-lit street-drinking culture that still draws shallow-pocketed epicureans like moths to a flame. <\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"Asahi](\"https:\/\/s3.voyapon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/19103449\/Tokyo-WiFi-Project-29-of-45-1024x727.jpg\")
The headquarters of the Asahi beer brewery in Tokyo’s Sumida-ku. Photo: Andrew Deck<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n In 1987, with the creation of Super Dry, Asahi had its pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance, a gluggable masterpiece nearly a century in the making<\/strong>. The beer\u2019s success led to the amusingly-named ‘Dry Wars’, as competitors tried, and failed, to match its moreish \u2018karakuchi\u2019 taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirin \u30ad\u30ea\u30f3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Originating from pioneering Norwegian-American brewer William Copeland\u2019s 1869 Yokohama<\/a>-based Spring Valley Brewery, the Kirin Brewery<\/a> was established in 1907. Produced with methods closely tied to European traditions, the rich (but not too rich), sweet (but not too sweet), readily-identifiable flavors of both Kirin Lager and Ichiban Shibori (brewed with 100% first-pressing malt content), are widely considered to be an ideal accompaniment to Japanese cuisine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Thirst-Quenching Quartet<\/a><\/li>