Home brewing in Japan

[mpearce]

Here is a copy of the latest Beer Education email here in Japan. I am going to try to go to a couple of these but don't know which yet:

As always, the Fall is a busy season for beer events. Please note the following upcoming upcoming events.

Starting tomorrow until Sunday night is Ant N Bee's 2nd Anniversary party, which will have a ton of one-off special/rare beers. I went to the first Anniversary last year and it was a blast. It seems some of the special beers were already put out tonight.
http://ameblo.jp/roppongi-beerbar-antnbee/


Wed November 14th is a Shibuya Double Whammy -

The Silver City (Washington state) Japan Release Party at Faucets from 5pm. http://www.silvercitybrewery.com/brewery_website/index.htm
There will be eight beers from Silver City on tap, https://www.facebook.com/events/440601289321153/

Also in Shibuya, Craft Heads is kicking off its Strong Beer Festival with 12 beers, both domestic and imported, over 8% ABV on tap https://www.facebook.com/events/358850757542870/?suggestsessionid=6016262141352294997


Seems like a great night for a Shibuya Crawl.

Mark your calenders now for December 9th when Hop Revolution takes place in Shibuya. Numerous brewers/CEO are attending from overseas (http://www.hoprevolution.com/breweriesE.html).
The venue can hold up to 500 people. The day will be split into two sessions, first during the day time there will be sampling and seminars on Craft Beer. In the evening a DJ will perform and it will be much more of a party atmosphere.
http://www.hoprevolution.com/aboutE.html

This looks like a really top notch event with some top notch brewers attending.

 

[mpearce]

I went to Goodbeer Faucets the other night for the first time. Great beer on tap. Something like 40 craft beers on tap.

 

[WhoZiT]

PM me with your email address and I'll forward the order form. Looks like it's mainly fax and bank transfer.

 

[WhoZiT]

Sakeland used to sell a bottle tree, but stock is unpredictable.

For me, I just went to the hardware store and bought one of those wooden racks that lay in front of shoe changing areas-I think they're called sunoko. It was 2-300 yen, very cheap. It's basically a few boards lined up with a nice big space between them, tacked together by some beams below that sit on the floor.

I cut out triangular notches in the boards along the open spaces between the boards, both sides of where a bottle would fit. I attached some legs with some scrap wood, and boom! Great drying rack.

I'll go take a pic this evening.

 

[WhoZiT]

 

[mpearce]

How much space does it take up? Looks good though. Interesting how living here brings out the McGyver in us all.

 

[WhoZiT]

Space wasn't really an issue. I live in the countryside and have plenty of room. Cost was the biggest factor at the time.

I guess it would depend on how many bottles you needed. I made two, and each held 28 bottled I think. Didn't matter whether they were small, med, large, corona, whatever.

Also keep in mind that the plastic cases/carriers that the bottled come in have built-in drying racks. This worked for Asahi bottles. A case of 20 flipped over has perfect spots for 12 bottles, with the neck resting slightly above plastic parts below it, so no contact with sanitized areas of the bottles.

 

[tektonjp]

A couple of things.

1. Asahi Malt. They do sell to individuals. I live 30 minutes from there and very convenient! However, if you are having it shipped, price per kilo is not any different than getting from Take****a-san at Ohnishi Shoji in Tokyo, and he has a much wider selection. His bags are usually 25k, while Asahi is 20k. With Asahi, you send a fax with your desired number of bags, they fax back a mitsumori, you send the money. If you need that info, perhaps I can get it posted somehow to the group.

2. Bottle drying. Like whozit, I use the crates, but I bought a SS wire grid the same size as crate at the 100 yen store. Bottle necks fit right in. Easily purchased and stored.

3. Kegs. Getting Corny kegs from CocaCola is very very hit or miss. I know of only one person managing to score some. Easier would be to get chummy with local beer distrubutor, and see if they have any of the old style chuu hai kegs, which are corny. New ones are sankey, but the old ones pop up on Yahoo on occasion.

4. Bottles. Green Heartland bottles are easiest to clean, they only have a neck label. Lately, Costco has been selling Kirkland "craft" beer. These 12oz babys clean up well after soaking.

Cheers from Kansai!

 

[WhoZiT]

100 yen wire grid is a good idea! I think I even have some lying around.

 

[mpearce]

Well got my materials today from Advanced Brewing (AB) for my wort chiller. Now just have to bend it to specs. Will probably try that tomorrow. I was very impressed with AB service. Right on time delivery no issues at all. They sent me an invoice and a statement when it would arrive. Happy with the price too. Their kit has everything I need except the hose and fitting for the sink. Looking forward to having it for my first brew at the end of the month.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Had a great night out, took girlfriend to Norah Jones Concert so drinking Yebisu through the park. After, we hoofed it across Chiyoda to Kanda and had a couple of pints at Devilcraft. SWMBO spent 2 blocks following about 10 feet behind me loudly calling "Sen En Massagey?" at me, through the crowded street.

Took a look at the Glassware store this morning in Kanda but it wasn't open, lots of cool stuff in there though. A little tip on finding the building, it has what appears to be a giant keg on top of it

Coming back to the house I ducked in and grabbed one of those wire grids at the 100 yen shop. Its exactly what I need, it stores a hell of a lot easier than a bottle tree would. I don't know if its going to support many bottles though, seems a bit flimsy. I might need a few of them together to do it.

 

[mpearce]

Sounds like a good time. I like the wire idea as well. You can always build a saw horse or something like that. That you can collapse and store when not being used.

 

[mpearce]

got my wort chiller made today. Turned out great! I am very happy with it. Looks good too. Now on to a brew so I can use the dang thing. Just a few more weeks until I get my brew kit...

 

[tektonjp]

Well got my materials today from Advanced Brewing (AB) for my wort chiller. Now just have to bend it to specs. Will probably try that tomorrow. I was very impressed with AB service. Right on time delivery no issues at all. They sent me an invoice and a statement when it would arrive. Happy with the price too. Their kit has everything I need except the hose and fitting for the sink. Looking forward to having it for my first brew at the end of the month.

AB is usually quite good and fast. I'm disappointed only by his grain selection. It's large, but he seems to be always out of some types of grain (ones I would consider essential), like he gave up keeping them in stock. 25k bags of specialty grain are not that expensive. Our group split up some caramel ones earlier this year, only slightly more than base malt (5000 a bag). And considering specialty grain will keep far longer than base, I don't mind have 4-5 kilos of 15, 40, 60 on hand. 5 kilos of black patent is another thing.

 

[WhoZiT]

I like the way AB packages everything. I wonder if their shop is as spotless as it seems.

AB takes a while, that's the only downside. The service is great, I think. If something is on back order, he'll often send the rest of the order ahead of time and often throw in a yeast packet or something to make up for it.

 

[surume]

I just received my list of prices (mitsumorisho) for grains from Asahi Beer Malt today.

"Brewing Malt (Canada)" : 20kg@3700yen
"Brewing Malt (Germany)" : 20kg@3740yen
"Ale Malt" : 20kg@3860yen
Munich Malt : 20kg@4040yen
"Caramel Malt C150" : 25kg@5250yen
"Caramel Malt C70" : 25kg@5250yen
"Clean Roast Malt" : 20kg@6620yen
Wheat Malt : 25kg@5125yen

Milled versions are about 200 yen more.

Malt Extract is 16016 yen, including shipping.

Hops are Nugget, Cascade, Saaz and Hallertau. They range from 2300 yen to 3600 yen, and they come in 2 bags of 10kg, or 8 bags of 2.5kg which cost 100 yen more.

 

[WhoZiT]

FYI,

I got the list of products at Ohnishi, too. They don't seem to have a cool order form like Asahi, though. You'd need to contact a rep. Pretty easy, though. There's a little more of a variety, but they don't offer crushed grains for those of us that don't have a mill. Prices were similar. They seem to be a distributor for Weyermann Malting.

 

[surume]

Regarding ABM's malts...

Munich Malt is fine, Clean Roast looks like Chocolate/Patent, Brewing Malt is US 2-Row and German 2-Row by the looks of it. But what is "Ale Malt"? Their website says it is produced in the UK, so would it be just "UK Pale Ale Malt" in general? I asked if they could name specific cultivars but they said they cannot reveal such details regarding their malts. But without any idea of what it consists of, I don't know which recipe to use. Bleh.

 

[WhoZiT]

A friend described the ale malt as being Maris Otter-like.

 

[surume]

WhoZiT, that's good to know! Thanks

I think I'll order a bag of the ale malts, get me some fuggle, EKG or willamette and start making some SMaSHs...

 

[WhoZiT]

That's a lotta fuggle.

Are you going to smash compare the different malts? Whoa. Good to know.

 

[WhoZiT]

Ok, hops from somewhere else, right? Gotcha.

 

[surume]

Yeah, hops from elsewhere. I'm still at the stage where I need to get familiar with the brewing techniques/process and messing around with recipes isn't going to be as effective as making a SMaSH with the same hop and malts each time and comparing the results.

 

[surume]

Ok, currently building a magnetic stir plate prototype.
The materials used costs 1391 yen, excluding super glue (which I had to buy, but I think most people should have around the house) and the external power supply (because this one runs via USB power and so you can just plug into a pc for power).

Posting vid here.

http://s1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj561/surumesmellman/?action=view&current=00208.mp4

The problem is that the stirring rod/bar is also a magnet and I'm not sure if its okay to be sticking magnets into what would be going into your mouth.

Also, the whole thing is rather unstable and I need to fine tune magnet positions as well as buy some screws and washers to keep the fan in place. Total budget should come down to around 1600. I also bought steel rods to experiment with, but couldn't get them to spin properly.



EDIT: I got a bottle of the Sankt Gallen brewery's 2012 Barleywine, just released today! ;D 1050 yen, ouch.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Nice. You just reminded me to make one too. I did from stuff lying around the house (usb fan & daiso magnets and super glue, probably around 1000 yen). I want to have a variable resistor on it though and have nothing I can use at the moment. What kind of stir bar is that? Its moving a bit too fast I have a bunch of tiny powerful nickel plated magnets from Daiso. Maybe if I jammed them in some tubing that would work. I should be able to boil that to sterilize. Nickel plated magnets are OK in my opinion, I don't believe there will be enough dissolved into the starter culture to be a risk.

Baird's Country Girl Kabocha is out today too, Im looking forward to trying it and comparing my own kabocha ale which just finished carbonating in its bottles. I am itching to start another beer but don't have a lot of free time at the moment so my next will be an extract pilsner with some pellet hops added.

 

[yoshiie]

I've heard of people making a stir bar out of tubing, but that usually is a last resort. You can buy lab grade ones here for 2-300 yen.
http://www.tech-jam.com/science-equipment/stir/index.phtml

This is where I got mine, and you can even boil then in the starter wort to make sure they're sterile. Easily worth it even paying for shipping.

 

[mpearce]

Ok, currently building a magnetic stir plate prototype.
The materials used costs 1391 yen, excluding super glue (which I had to buy, but I think most people should have around the house) and the external power supply (because this one runs via USB power and so you can just plug into a pc for power).

Posting vid here.

http://s1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj561/surumesmellman/?action=view&current=00208.mp4

The problem is that the stirring rod/bar is also a magnet and I'm not sure if its okay to be sticking magnets into what would be going into your mouth.

Also, the whole thing is rather unstable and I need to fine tune magnet positions as well as buy some screws and washers to keep the fan in place. Total budget should come down to around 1600. I also bought steel rods to experiment with, but couldn't get them to spin properly.



EDIT: I got a bottle of the Sankt Gallen brewery's 2012 Barleywine, just released today! ;D 1050 yen, ouch.

Wow, great job!

 

[surume]

Hmm, looks like I should get a proper stir bar instead

Yeah, I know its spinning too fast, but I can't find a speed controller for the right price at the moment

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Thanks yoshiie, I'll get a real one (probably a couple in case I lose one).

Surume my motor goes way too fast right now so I will probably just go to the 100 yen store and look at electronic toys until I find something that has a variable resistor (a volume control on a speaker would probably work). I will let you know if I find something good.

 

[surume]

Thanks Brendan.

By the way, I'm going down to Bashamichi Taproom in a few hours to get a pint of the pumpkin ale, if anyone cares to join me