New Brewer in Japan looking for local info

[colincbn]

Hi,

My name is Colin Kawaguchi, and I live in a smallish town just outside Nagoya Japan. I am currently fermenting my first 19L batch of an extract+hops IPA (using Blackrock Ex). I am looking for good homebrew suppliers and/or shops in Japan. Reading and communicating in Japanese is not a problem. If there is a thread or specific forum for Japanese brewers on HomebrewTalk I would like to check it out.

With the ambiguous legal situation of brewing in Japan it seems like it might be hard to arrange clubs or beer swaps here. But if anyone has info on that kind of thing I would love to hear about it.

So far I have used the 'Advanced Brewing' site for purchases (I'm not sure about the rules for new users posting URLs so I will refrain for now, but if anyone is interested I can give you the link). But some of their equipment etc. seems to be priced much higher than necessary. If anyone knows good suppliers please drop me a line.

Of course if anyone has questions about brewing in Japan I will do my best to answer them. I have very little experience homebrewing here, but I do have a lot of experience visiting and talking to the owners and brewmasters at many of Japan's micro-breweries.

Thanks,
Colin

 

[colincbn]

My fist batch is bottled and my second is fermenting.

For the second batch I went with a pilsner hopped extract with steeped carapils, and added Irish moss and saaz hops for a 10m boil. But I have to ferment it at 20*C so I went with US-04 yeast. I'm hoping it turns out as a good light blond ale, but we will see.

I also built a counterflow wort chiller that works pretty good (even though it looks kind of shoddy). I had to supply the cooling water from a pump in a bucket of ice though. The water from the tap was coming out at 27*C (80.6*F), yes, it is that hot around here right now!

My next batch is going to be BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde. But since I can't find Nottingham yeast I will go with US-05.

I have spent some time over the last few weeks finding homebrew suppliers in Japan with some success. So if anyone ends up here and needs help navigating the Japanese websites just let me know.

Cheers.

 

[passedpawn]

Great posts Colin. Good luck with your brewing.

 

[theveganbrewer]

Welcome! If you ever get down to the Kiuchi Brewery, try to figure out everything you can about the recipe for Hitachino Nest White Ale.

 

[colincbn]

Funny you should mention Kiuchi, I am planning a trip up there next month to use their "brew on premises" service.

I will ask them about it while I'm there.

Cheers.

 

[theveganbrewer]

That is awesome, I was actually going to recommend you try the brew on premise. What do you plan to brew? I've not been but will go next time I'm in Japan/Korea. I have tried to clone the White Ale twice (drinking #2 now) and am very close. I have emailed the head brewer there twice and he's been very helpful with the recipe. I think it's down to the brand of OJ and it'd be cloned. How is typical store bought orange juice in Japan? I know in Korea it's much sweeter than in the US.

 

[Cromwell]

Welcome to the forum and the hobby! I was just in Japan 3 months ago, and I see that there are starting to be a few craft beers available there. But I happen to be a pretty big fan of Sapporo anyway, and prefer it any day over Bud/Miller/Coors. If you're finding suppliers, that must mean it's legal?

 

[colincbn]

I'm planning on making a Murphy's Irish Stout clone and having them label it for a friend of mine's birthday. His last name is Murphy so I will make up a spoof of the real Murphy's label and call it Murphy's (not quite) Irish Stout.

I think the OJ here is both sweeter and 'thicker' than in the U.S. Like maybe it is not made from concentrate, or made with a higher concentrate percentage. I will see if I can get the exact brand name they use and post some pics of it.

 

[theveganbrewer]

Good luck brewing down there, sounds like a great birthday gift you're making. Look forward to hearing about the White Ale and how the Stout came out

 

[colincbn]

If you're finding suppliers, that must mean it's legal?

Well, it is ‘kind of’ legal.

You are allowed to brew and drink your own without a license, but only if it is 1% ABV or less. But they don’t have any system for checking, nor have they ever enforced that rule. So the people who do brew here pretty much just ignore it. But we operate under a cloud of knowing that if some politician wanted to crack down our hobby would be screwed.

Also getting a license to start a micro-brewery used to be almost impossible, but I have heard they are starting to lighten up a bit. Most of the micro-breweries seem to be grandfathered-in Sake breweries.

 

[colincbn]

I live in Korea and get my hops through www.bruhahops.com
May be coming to Japan in January.

Will you be in the Nagoya area? If so I'll load up on some extra malt for you to bring back to Korea. Our selection is damn limited too, but we have more than just pils.

 

[GangnamStyle]

That would be sick. We will most likely be taking a ferry to fukuaka or flying to tokyo.

Have you shipped to korea from Japan? I could potentially send you some hops in exchange for malt. Would be a good experiment and I'll send some hops off first