Last month I started work as a “Beer Smith” aka bartender at Fiction Beer Company, one of the many local nano-breweries. It’s been great being involved in the actual industry, and is a nice chance to learn and chat about the processes of brewing and serving craft beer. As befits the name everything in Fiction […]
I was concerned. Walking down the dark street with looming office blocks and shuttered shops, it did not seem like a likely place for a beer bar. The maps said it was just ahead, but maps can deceive. It was a holiday Sunday night in Osaka, and I was hunting for one of Minoh Beer’s […]
Tokyo is an immense city with countless drinking establishments, but the brewers at British Brewpub Campion Ale have been working hard to stand out from that crowd. Indeed Campion and it’s founder James Williams have been featured in articles in both the Japan Times and the Financial Times. Campion Ale is located a bit […]
Yo-Ho Brewing is at it again. Just a few weeks after their Lawson convenience store collaboration Boku Biiru Kimi Biiru they have released Getsumen-gaho (月面画報). This one is a collaboration with Amazon.co.jp,and is available only from the online retailer in eight or twenty-four packs. The eight cans is a shade under 3,000 yen while the […]
Baird Beer is certainly one of the most well known brewers in the Japanese craft scene. They have diverse line of year-round beers supported by a very wide variety of rotating seasonal and one offs. On top of that, the excellent beer goes really well with the quality food available at the Baird taprooms. The […]
I love brewery tours. Any time you get a glimpse behind the scenes there is potential to learn some pretty interesting things. While the basics of brewing are the same around the world, each brewery brings a unique spin to the process. I tried to visit Great Divide’s brewery/ taproom in downtown Denver some years […]
Drinking craft beer in Japan is little bit like an Easter egg hunt. Craft beer can be hard to find, but making the extra effort can be very rewarding. The other day I managed to find a cache of Sankt Gallen beer in the basement food hall of a local department store. Sankt Gallen’s founder […]
Founded in Scotland in 2007, BrewDog Brewery has brought an outlandish punk sensibility to the world of craft beer. Their beers have held (often briefly) the title of “world’s strongest beer” several times, and their marketing has been loud, in your face, and borrowed trouble with the authorities in the UK. Lately they have been […]
When Japan legalized microbrewing in 1994 there was an explosion of new breweries. While plenty of these brewers brought passion and a sense of craft to their wares, a great many companies and communities banded together to create something a little more local and a little less special. Ji-biiru (地ビール), which translates as “local beer” […]
