Home brewing in Japan

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Sorry. I meant a dozen or so craft beer companies. There is usually two or three offerings from each company. Some are pretty poor though to be honest... I'm always sad when I buy something that I can make better at home :)
Even though I live in a pretty rural area for Japan we have quite a few craft beer breweries in this area. Baird, Kaze no tani, Izu Kogen, Gotemba Kogen, Fuji Sakura, etc are all within a short drive from my house. In fact, I'm off for a surf now and I'll pass three of those places along the way!
 
OppamaBrendan said:
Have you seen the recent posts from Baird's new brewery build? It is going along nicely from the looks of things! Someday we should all meet up there if we can manage to get a tour :D
Click to expand...

I'd love to take a look around there. I've heard they're growing hops and doing all kinds of beer-related stuff, so I'm sure it would be really interesting.

I finally got the materials together to do my next brew today! It's a 1.068 OG Irish Red, and thanks to everyone's advice, I managed to hit my OG dead on! Definitely psyched!

Even bigger news, though, is that the head of my company's "Business Expansion Division" drank some of my homebrew at a party:tank:, and after discussing it for a while, decided we might get into the microbrewing business. In other words, he wants to fund me to go pro, after just 3 months homebrewing! :rockin: We'll see how that works out, or rather doesn't.
 
Fencdar,

I'd love to get to the Baird Brewery, but it's a bit of a hike from Kyushu.

I too brewed for (50L of draft) for my University's year end party. The apple cider went really fast as did the Citra SMaSH, the Northern Brewer SMaSH was
less popular. It tasted a bit oxidized- hard to say why- as I used the same method to transfer them to the keg- I asked the bar to keep three kegs back to use- I didn't want to take bottles and they didn't want to use my corny keg hoses.

That is great news that they may back you in making beer. I think that would be my dream job- just enough manual work to keep me in shape and
enough mental stimulus to keep me sane.

GB

P.S. Happy Brew Year everyone!
 
Hey guys,
Newboy on the forums who has been extract and partial mash brewing in Japan for a while (on the down low). Am very excited to stumble across this incredible thread with so much info sharing!
I'm excited to step up to All grain, but have been stopped at the first hurdle - ordering from AsahiBeerMalt. Are they OK to deliver to domestic addresses? On the inquiry form it asks for company and boss' name! Can you just call them and put the order through (or fax them)? Looking to get my first 20kg of English Ale Malt (crushed) and more than halve my brewing costs...
All help appreciated if any of you has had success ordering from them before!
 
Welcome to the thread and forum!
Me and Surume split a bag of English ale malt in the spring. He ordered it so I am not sure what difficulties he had if any.
I believe he ordered to a domestic address.
Heads up that the crushed malt we received was quite finely crushed, lots of powder. It will be good for efficiency but you may have more difficulty with a thick mash, good to be prepared for that.
Cheers!
B
 
brewingpowder said:
Hey guys,
Newboy on the forums who has been extract and partial mash brewing in Japan for a while (on the down low). Am very excited to stumble across this incredible thread with so much info sharing!
I'm excited to step up to All grain, but have been stopped at the first hurdle - ordering from AsahiBeerMalt. Are they OK to deliver to domestic addresses? On the inquiry form it asks for company and boss' name! Can you just call them and put the order through (or fax them)? Looking to get my first 20kg of English Ale Malt (crushed) and more than halve my brewing costs...
All help appreciated if any of you has had success ordering from them before!
Click to expand...

It should be fine. They have a different price structure if you are a licensed brewery so they ask for information about your company.
 
OppamaBrendan said:
Welcome to the thread and forum!
Me and Surume split a bag of English ale malt in the spring. He ordered it so I am not sure what difficulties he had if any.
I believe he ordered to a domestic address.
Heads up that the crushed malt we received was quite finely crushed, lots of powder. It will be good for efficiency but you may have more difficulty with a thick mash, good to be prepared for that.
Cheers!
B
Click to expand...

If it's pretty fine, then pick up some rice hull (nuka) and throw some in as well.
 
Tektonjp, where do you get rice hulls from? I have seen them listed on AB but always listed as sole-out. Have you got another source? I would have thought they would be easier to get in Japan.
 
brewingpowder, welcome to the community.

I believe that brewland gets their 20kg bags from Asahi- it doesn't say so on the bag, but the styles are exactly the same as Asahi's offerings, and it's listed as "domestic" malt, so...

They're around 7000JPY/bag through brewland, and it requires no BS ordering by telephone/fax/carrier pigeon. Brewland also carries full bags of Weyermann malts, too.

On a completely different topic, one of my homebrewer friends was saying that the government either is considering or recently lowered the legal limit for licensed brewing- somewhere around 10,000L/year, he said. Has anyone else heard anything about this? He may have been full of crap.
 
Hey everyone, I introduced myself before but got sidetracked with trying to take the JLPT and other things and have really neglected posting anything or getting too involved at all. I'm hoping to try to get a bit more involved although I never seem to manage to commit very much to online forums. As I have mentioned before I am living out in the countryside of Nara on the JET program. Thinking this year will be my final year and thinking of trying to make the leap to professional brewing after some brewing school etc.

I recently made my first all grain beer, a winter warmer (a bit late I know but I had issues with getting the liquid yeast I felt I'd need for a slightly higher volume beer) after finally wrangling a set up together. I was curious if anyone knew of a way to get their hands on rye malt at all. Also any better sources for liquid yeast than Advanced Brewing? The wait time with them is kind of insane sometimes.

Lastly I was curious if there are any home brewers in and around the Kansai region? I've heard of a Kinki Home Brewers Association but haven't done enough research on the subject etc. Well thanks for everyone's great information and help so far.
 
I just bought some rye malt from Brewland. I've had a lot fewer reliability issues with them vs. advanced brewing.

For liquid yeast I recommend Hop and Grape out of the UK. Someone (Guzzibrew maybe?) introduced them earlier in this thread. It's a bit of a wait but their shipping rates are much better than any of the US sites.
 
Fencdar said:
I just bought some rye malt from Brewland. I've had a lot fewer reliability issues with them vs. advanced brewing.

For liquid yeast I recommend Hop and Grape out of the UK. Someone (Guzzibrew maybe?) introduced them earlier in this thread. It's a bit of a wait but their shipping rates are much better than any of the US sites.
Click to expand...

Oh really? I've never noticed any malt on Brew Land. Thanks! Yeah I've been ordering from both Brewland and Advanced Brewing for almost a year now and my Advanced Brewing orders always take much longer to arrive even though it's geographically closer to me than Brewland...
 
OppamaBrendan said:
Tektonjp, where do you get rice hulls from? I have seen them listed on AB but always listed as sole-out. Have you got another source? I would have thought they would be easier to get in Japan.
Click to expand...

I get them from the rice farmers in my neighborhood. They usually burn them off after harvest in the fall. I grab a trash bag full for the year.

I've also seen them in the gardening section of the DIY store.
 
Fencdar said:
brewingpowder, welcome to the community.

I believe that brewland gets their 20kg bags from Asahi- it doesn't say so on the bag, but the styles are exactly the same as Asahi's offerings, and it's listed as "domestic" malt, so...

They're around 7000JPY/bag through brewland, and it requires no BS ordering by telephone/fax/carrier pigeon. Brewland also carries full bags of Weyermann malts, too.

On a completely different topic, one of my homebrewer friends was saying that the government either is considering or recently lowered the legal limit for licensed brewing- somewhere around 10,000L/year, he said. Has anyone else heard anything about this? He may have been full of crap.
Click to expand...

The limit for the happo-shu icense was dropped to 6,000 liters a few years ago. That started the ji-biru boom which introduced a lot of crappy beer to the Japanese, which today's craft brewers are striving to turn around.

The tax department views that license as a stepping stone to the beer license, which is of course bigger production. 6000 liters is really only about one bucket of home brew every day (20l x 300 days)

And ordering from Asahi is only challenging the first time, if at all. It's worth it to buy direct. Their shipping is likely less than Brewland as well.
 
I suppose it is a little more convenient but ordering from Brewland means paying at least 2000¥ more per bag. All it takes to order from Asahi is faxing the order which costs 20-50¥ at any convenience store.
Thanks again Tektonjp!
 
Thanks again for your help all! I've got the order form from Asahi - took a while for them to reply after doing the form on their website. For those who have ordered from them before - for crushed should I go for the "Arabiki" option?
Next stop Rakuten for some damn big pots...
FYI for people not using them, it's 3860 for 20kg of whole ale malt, crushed looks like 400 yen extra; delivery on top.
 
I just got 20kgs from them, crushed. It looks good. I think all in, including crush, delivery, fax and furikomi cost I paid about 5200¥
 
I have only ever brewed 2 gal mr. beer batches and have just started my first 5 gal batch. My concern is that my wort is in the primary and has a S-shaped airlock. It says it is suppose to bubble when it starts fermenting, which makes sense. Mine has been in for 2 days and no bubbles but the sanitary solution from the wort side chamber has been pushed into the open side chamber. I opened the lid and a krausen has formed so the yeast is active but why are there no bubbles? Any help is appreciated.
 
Its probably doing just fine. The question you pose is the most common query on this site I think, if you check out those threads you will probably find the reassurance to let you sleep.:)
Cheers!
 
Fastforwardx2 said:
I have only ever brewed 2 gal mr. beer batches and have just started my first 5 gal batch. My concern is that my wort is in the primary and has a S-shaped airlock. It says it is suppose to bubble when it starts fermenting, which makes sense. Mine has been in for 2 days and no bubbles but the sanitary solution from the wort side chamber has been pushed into the open side chamber. I opened the lid and a krausen has formed so the yeast is active but why are there no bubbles? Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the airlock. That is only an indicator not a standard. If you saw a krausen then all is good. It is just going very slow probably. What is your temp? Also what kind of fermentator
Are you using? It might not be air tight and the CO2 is escaping out elsewhere.
 
mpearce said:
Don't worry about the airlock. That is only an indicator not a standard. If you saw a krausen then all is good. It is just going very slow probably. What is your temp? Also what kind of fermentator
Are you using? It might not be air tight and the CO2 is escaping out elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I am using a 6.5 gallon bucket. and it is about 68 degrees.
 
As for Asahi, there is also an email option. PM if you want the contact addresses and names.
And if anyone is interested in joining the Kinki Homebrewers Facebook page you can friend me at Robert Scott Murray and I'll put you in. We keep it closed because some of our members have trouble keeping their beer's alcohol content within said limits of regulations!:p
 
so I'm working on a fermentation chamber, and I need to figure out how to place my temperature probes. Most people recommend putting them in a bottle of water in the chamber, but that only works if the whole chamber is cooled, whereas I am directly chilling the fermenters. Leaving them dangling is asking for trouble, too, so I am hoping to find some thermowells to slap onto my fermenters. My search on monotaro and amazon only turned up some JPY3000+ glass 温度計保護管... does anyone have any idea where I can find a couple on the cheap?

Right now I'm thinking of getting some fine stainless tubes and getting someone to weld them closed at the tips, then run them through rubber stoppers.
 
Fastforwardx2 said:
I am using a 6.5 gallon bucket. and it is about 68 degrees.
Click to expand...


Does the lid fit tight on it? What yeast were you using? 68 is pretty high. It might have just attenuated out super quick. Do you normally use that temp? If so do you have any esters? Or alcohol bombs?
 
Fencdar said:
so I'm working on a fermentation chamber, and I need to figure out how to place my temperature probes. Most people recommend putting them in a bottle of water in the chamber, but that only works if the whole chamber is cooled, whereas I am directly chilling the fermenters. Leaving them dangling is asking for trouble, too, so I am hoping to find some thermowells to slap onto my fermenters. My search on monotaro and amazon only turned up some JPY3000+ glass 温度計保護管... does anyone have any idea where I can find a couple on the cheap?



Right now I'm thinking of getting some fine stainless tubes and getting someone to weld them closed at the tips, then run them through rubber stoppers.
Click to expand...


I tape my probe to the side of my carboy then cover it with a few layers of bubble wrap to keep the ambient air/chamber temp off of it. I only cover the probe though. Works like a charm for me.
 
mpearce said:
I tape my probe to the side of my carboy then cover it with a few layers of bubble wrap to keep the ambient air/chamber temp off of it. I only cover the probe though. Works like a charm for me.
Click to expand...


Are you sure it is consistently the same temp as your beer though? That's my biggest fear, but if that gets a decently accurate reading then I'll give it a try.
 
Fencdar said:
Are you sure it is consistently the same temp as your beer though? That's my biggest fear, but if that gets a decently accurate reading then I'll give it a try.
Click to expand...


If you know what you pitch at and then put the probe on it should read the same. I will see that then cover it and set my temp. As long as it doesn't jump temp too quickly any one way you are good. After all it will take time for the mass to uniformly level out temp wise whether you have the probe inside or out. One thing I like about it outside is it will change slower. It it is in the middle of the carboy then the cooler it heater will be working a lot longer to reach the middle. By then your temp will be too high or low and it will have to reverse to get balanced at your temp. For me it works great no problems and no off flavored. I can keep it within .3 C at all times.
 
And it is just one more way to introduce bacteria into the beer. You have to sanitize it and all that and put it in your beer. I don't like that. Once I pitch I don't want anything to touch it.
 

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