If you are a fan of
Japanese beer, then a trip to the Kirin Beer Park in Biwajima just one stop on the JR Chuo Line from
Nagoya Station might be for you.
Turn right out of Biwajima Station and a regular free bus will ferry you to the brewery.
The rather long-winded tour (in Japanese) introduces the visitor to the main ingredients of beer, plus the history of beer and the production facilities at the Nagoya brewery, which supplies the whole of the Chubu area.
The highlight of the tour is how to learn to pour a perfect glass of Kirin in three easy stages.
Participating on the tour allows the visitor two free draft Kirin beers. There is also a shop and a restaurant on the premises.
Kirin Beer Park
Kiyosu
452-8562
Tel: 052 408 2000
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クラフトビア
Japanese "Craft Beer" or real ale is undergoing something of a boom in a country for too long dominated by the uniform brews of the
big four Japanese beer producers: Kirin, Asahi, Suntory and Sapporo.
Toshi Ishii, who has studied brewing in the USA, Czech Republic and Norway is a leading light in the Craft Ale revolution with his own company Ishii Brewing.
Some time back Toshi e-mailed Stone Brewing Company in California as his name translates as "stone" and was taken on as a 3-year intern, thus beginning a long journey to becoming a master brewer.
Toshi's prize-winning "Amber Ale" is his trademark beer on the foreign circuit. Back home in Japan Toshi was responsible for the popular Yona Yona Ale, an American style golden pale ale, brewed by Yo-Ho Brewing in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.
Craft Beer is not cheap in Japan, I recently paid 1,100 yen for half a wine glass of a top beer in Nagoya, but by god, it did taste great.
Some recommended bars to sample craft beer in Nagoya city include
Bar Cask (Tel: 052 752 8200) not far from Kakuozan Station on the Higashiyama Line of the Nagoya subway,
Craft Beer Keg (Tel: 052 971 8211) near TV Tower in Sakae and
Cafe Lembeek (Tel: 052 734 8558) near Motoyama Subway Station also on the Higashiyama Line.
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キリンフリー
Japan's second biggest
beer maker Kirin has been having success this summer with a new product that claims to be the world's first totally alcohol-free beer - Free. Sales of Free are predicted to increase to 1.6 million cases this year -way above initial expectations.
Free is advertised as 0.00 % alcohol and seems to be a hit with truck drivers, pregnant women and even hospital patients, according to an article in the Japan Times.
Kirin's Free is low on calories (only 14) and price (just 147 yen) in my local convenience store.
As interest has seemingly waned in cheaper alternatives to beer called happoshu ("sparkling liquor"), that bears a passing resemblance to real beer and due to Japanese tax laws retails for considerably less, Kirin sought a product that would appeal to beer drinkers who still wanted to drive. More stringent penalties have recently been introduced for drunken driving in Japan including fines for passengers for riding with a driver over the limit.
Free's zero alcohol is produced by omitting the usual yeast fermentation process plus some still-secret new technology. Well, how does it rate?
Open a can and it smells like beer - slightly flat beer - and it's first taste is a bit like shandy (a beer and lemonade mix). Finish the can and well, it rather underwhelms with a slightly chemical after-taste. Like real beer, though, it does make you burp.
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金のうんち
One of Tokyo's most recognizable buildings is the Asahi Beer Hall on the east bank of the Sumida River opposite
Asakusa. Designed by French architect Philippe Starck, the golden flame is supposedly beer foam rising from the beer mug-shaped building below.
Affectionately nicknamed the "Golden Turd" (
kin no unchi) the hollow stainless steel structure weighs over 300 tons and was completed in 1989 at the height of Japan's pretentious "Bubble Period".
Asahi Breweries HQ is situated nearby. Paricularly good views of the building are to be had from the
Tokyo water bus on the Sumida River.
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