brewing in Tokyo japan

[superrican]

hey whats going on , well I just got stationed in yokota ab in Tokyo japan . and after doing some research its damn near impossible to find brew supply stuff . I was wondering if any of you are stationed/living near Tokyo fussa area? just trying to reach out to my local brewers or if maybe your stationed on post hit me up .... ive been contemplating scaling down my operation lol and going back to my trusty old Mr.beer kit while I figure out japans brewing community , cheers

 

[JStutz82]

Hey there I just got here myself at the beginning of March, I came from Incirlik Turkey. I have all my gear here but have also had problems finding ingredients. Looks like ill be ordering.

 

[Ambrozyne]

I'm brewing in Japan too. I'm in Kansai area and order everything I need online. It's all a tad overpriced but what the hell. I just wanna brew! The 2 shops with the best selection are 'advanced brewing' (advanced- brewing.com) and brewland ( sakeland.net) good luck!


Sent from my iPod touch using Home Brew

 

[ElBeerador]

this thread is over a year old, but im a homebrewer at yokota! Seems like homebrew is dead over here. pm me!

 

[Nomofett]

I brew in Kansai and there's a group of us. I get most stuff at Sakeland or Advanced Brewing, not a huge hop selection, but the basics are taken care of

 

[worlddivides]

I lived in Japan for about 10 years (7-8 years of that in Tokyo) and, just so you know, homebrewing is illegal in Japan. That doesn't mean that there aren't people who do it. One of my friends brewed about once a month, making ciders and red ales "semi-secretly" while he lived there. I do remember a few Japanese websites that did sell homebrew supplies online, but I remember their selection was limited and the prices were higher in comparison with the US.

As far as I know, homebrewing is one of those things that is illegal but that the police do not actively go looking for. If you did get caught, it'd be up in the air whether you would get prosecuted or not. I always looked at it as kind of like how states like California deal with marijuana. In California, smoking marijuana is illegal, but the police do not actively go after people who do it. You could smoke marijuana in front of a policeman and he wouldn't arrest you. However, if the policeman arrested you for something else and you also had marijuana, that would be an accessory charge. I think that might be the reason why online homebrew shops exist in Japan and aren't shut down. I AM, however, almost positive that there are zero walk-in LHBS anywhere in the country. Very few Japanese people do something that's illegal, even if it's something the police will look the other way about.

Anyway, this is the website my friend got his homebrew stuff from when he lived in Japan:
http://advanced-brewing.com/0_e_set.html

I don't think there are any English websites, so if you can't read Japanese, you might want someone to help you out.

 

[Dirty25]

I order a lot of stuff APO love2brew and farmhouse have good APO rates. Big bulky items are gonna be expensive no matter what. APO to APO is free. If you need grain and stuff I can ship from Germany to you guys.

 

[Nomofett]

Technically it's legal as long as the beer is 1% or lower and the police have publicly said that they understand mistakes happen and people may "accidentally" go over 1%. The police I've known thought it was cool that I home brewed and even asked me for a sample, so it's like jaywalking to go over 1%.
Her used to be a LHBS here in Kobe but it closed down about a year ago, I thought that either Sakeland or AdvancedBrewing had a store closer to Tokyo but I can't find it online now. AdvancedBrewing has more stuff but Sakeland is a lot cheaper. advanced Brewing is easier to navigate if you don't know Japanese. The first time ordering is hard but then you get it.
If you're in a pinch for just basic supplies you can go to Tokyo hands, they have extract, hydrometers, bottle caps, fermenters, yeast, sanitizer, etc... they even have basic put together kits. I got my stuff at a home supply store, they have fermenters and stuff for pickling and making umeshu.

Here's an old article. I'm sure you've seen it, but just in case... http://beerinjapan.com/bij/486/homebrewing-in-japan/

 

[worlddivides]

Technically it's legal as long as the beer is 1% or lower and the police have publicly said that they understand mistakes happen and people may "accidentally" go over 1%. The police I've known thought it was cool that I home brewed and even asked me for a sample, so it's like jaywalking to go over 1%.
Her used to be a LHBS here in Kobe but it closed down about a year ago, I thought that either Sakeland or AdvancedBrewing had a store closer to Tokyo but I can't find it online now. AdvancedBrewing has more stuff but Sakeland is a lot cheaper. advanced Brewing is easier to navigate if you don't know Japanese. The first time ordering is hard but then you get it.
If you're in a pinch for just basic supplies you can go to Tokyo hands, they have extract, hydrometers, bottle caps, fermenters, yeast, sanitizer, etc... they even have basic put together kits. I got my stuff at a home supply store, they have fermenters and stuff for pickling and making umeshu.

Here's an old article. I'm sure you've seen it, but just in case... http://beerinjapan.com/bij/486/homebrewing-in-japan/

Yeah, that's something that's brought up quite often, but the reason for that is that anything below 1% ABV is legally considered non-alcoholic in virtually every country in the world -- including Japan and the US. For example, amazake is a non-alcoholic drink that little children love and you can buy it at tons of vending machines. It is typically between 0.5% and 0.9% ABV. And, although the drinking age in Japan is 20, no one would bat an eye at a 5 year old kid drinking it because it's considered non-alcoholic.

But I do think you have brought up another good point as to why the homebrew websites don't get shut down. They can just point out that "homebrewing" is legal right up to 1% ABV, but becomes illegal at that point.

And, as I posted before, homebrewing is one of those things that is illegal but that police always look the other way about. It's just one of many reasons why homebrewing is so uncommon and unpopular in Japan. The Japanese adore their beer and that might also make the police even less inclined to try to stop anyone from doing it. I had a friend who worked for several of Japan's big beer companies before switching to the video game industry and he pointed out that Japan's macrobreweries are one of the main reasons that microbreweries have such a difficult time getting started and even mentioned that macrobreweries also contribute to why homebrewing is so tiny in Japan. I think US macrobreweries would love to stop homebrewing and severely hinder the craft brewing industry, but they just don't have enough power to do that.

Also, good point about Tokyu Hands. Umeshu, since it is basically making liqueurs and does not involve fermenting or distilling, is legal in Japan and is one of those activities that most Japanese are familiar with. Almost everyone's grandma makes umeshu. I had seen stuff for making umeshu at Tokyu Hands, but I had never seen any homebrewing equipment.

 

[Nomofett]

Yeah, it's funny because lots of places will sell kits with yeast and then on the kit it will say not to add the yeast because that will make the alcohol, it's kind of like how gambling is illegal but there's pachinko everywhere (although obviously not as widespread)

At Tokyo hands it's pretty varied, in Osaka only one store that I know of has the full kits put together. But it really surprised me because I had gone so many times and never seen it, then I finally saw tucked away next to the stuff for smoking meats. It's nice to know just in case your in a pinch for yeast or some basics. You can pretty much get anything that you need except for the hops and grain. They have extract stuff but.... meh. I'm not sure where you're at but it might only be big city Tokyu Hands

 

[worlddivides]

Yeah, it's funny because lots of places will sell kits with yeast and then on the kit it will say not to add the yeast because that will make the alcohol, it's kind of like how gambling is illegal but there's pachinko everywhere (although obviously not as widespread)

At Tokyo hands it's pretty varied, in Osaka only one store that I know of has the full kits put together. But it really surprised me because I had gone so many times and never seen it, then I finally saw tucked away next to the stuff for smoking meats. It's nice to know just in case your in a pinch for yeast or some basics. You can pretty much get anything that you need except for the hops and grain. They have extract stuff but.... meh. I'm not sure where you're at but it might only be big city Tokyu Hands

Pachinko is an interesting issue because pachinko itself is legal, but it's illegal to exchange those balls that you get for money. So, inside the pachinko place, you can only exchange the balls for "prizes." Then, outside of the pachinko place, they will oftentimes have a separate location that will BUY those prizes with money. In a lot of places in Japan, they have to make that very difficult to understand since certain areas will crack down on the pachinko parlors since people don't go to pachinko parlors for "prizes." They go there to win money.

I've been to a lot of Tokyu Hands, but mainly just ones in Tokyo (I've been to a few in Saitama and Chiba, but they were kinda shabby compared to the ones in Tokyo). The one in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro is the one I went to most often and I did see the umeshu kit there, but I never saw any homebrew equipment (I imagine they might have shied away from it).

In my mind, if you want to do homebrew in Japan, websites like AdvancedBrewing and Sakeland are the only real decent options. The illegal aspect is just something that I think everyone should know about before deciding to get into it. Since the OP is on a military base, he's mainly going to be under US law, so it should be even less of an issue, but just wanted to get that info out there.

 

[animan]

macrobreweries are one of the main reasons that microbreweries have such a difficult time getting started

You also need to brew minimum 20,000 litres per year to get a license!

 

[worlddivides]

You also need to brew minimum 20,000 litres per year to get a license!

Really? I had heard it was 60,000 liters. I remember that the law for the longest time was that a brewery couldn't get a license unless it made at least 2,000,000 liters a year, which was no problem for Asahi, Kirin, Yebisu, Sapporo, Suntory, etc. but would be a huge problem for any microbrewery. If I recall correctly, the requirement was dropped from 2 million to 60,000 sometime in the 90s.

I'm guessing that must mean the law was changed again recently, dropping the requirement to 20,000 liters, which is only 1% of the original 2,000,000 liter requirement.

 

[aprichman]

Really? I had heard it was 60,000 liters. I remember that the law for the longest time was that a brewery couldn't get a license unless it made at least 2,000,000 liters a year, which was no problem for Asahi, Kirin, Yebisu, Sapporo, Suntory, etc. but would be a huge problem for any microbrewery. If I recall correctly, the requirement was dropped from 2 million to 60,000 sometime in the 90s.

I'm guessing that must mean the law was changed again recently, dropping the requirement to 20,000 liters, which is only 1% of the original 2,000,000 liter requirement.

20,000L isn't too bad - if you were running a 1BBL brewery you would only need to brew ~160 batches a year to hit that.

 

[animan]

true but youd need instant market success, kind of stressful way to start a business rather than let it grow organically