While most of my beery pals are off enjoying beery things in San Diego at the National Homebrewers Conference, I'm stuck here in rainy St. Paul. On the up side, I'm enjoying the fact that a horrible schedule and a limit to entry numbers meant that I have absolutely nothing invested in the AHA competition this year. Instead, I'm enjoying my still really insanely good brown porter, my really awfully good English cider, and my pretty good if not quite perfect IPA in relative peace. And looking forward to that open-fermented Helles, which is now kegged, carbonated and ready to go on tap next, along with a nice schwartzbier. A lagery July is in order then!
Meanwhile, Mark Garrison has written a nice love letter to Japanese craft beer. A few interesting points deserve mention, though the full article is definitely worth a read. First, it's early days yet for the craft beer scene in Japan. Despite the back and forth in the US over whether the term "craft beer" really means anything anymore, it clearly did in an earlier era when the scene was getting off the ground. So it does in Japan, where beer lovers complain in similar terms about the "big 4" of Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo. Moreover, while craft beer bars are popping up, Garrison reports that a shocking 40% of all craft beer gets to customers through mail order. That's dedication!
Second, the Japanese craft brewers tend to be also sake-makers (as is true with Hitachino Nest, widely available in the US), so despite the fact that it's still early days in the movement, the quality is quite high. And the brewers tend toward a very Belgian-like relationship with spices and flavorings such as ginger. My only reference point for this is Hitachino Nest, but if half the brewers are doing this half as well as they are, Japanese drinkers don't know how good they've got it.
