Land of the rising sun

Although the big brewers still dominate, new regional brewers are springing up all the time, reports Andrew Burnyeat

The growing popularity of beer and football is spreading peace and harmony across the world.

Not since fish and chips have two cultural pillars so perfectly complemented one another.

At the recent World Cup in Germany, Japan supporters could be seen in the streets of Munich highfiving with Ivory Coast, Brazil and Australia fans.

In the bars, there were at least two subjects for peoples of nations divided by many thousands of miles to communicate about, without necessarily knowing a word of each other’s language.

“Asahi is like German beer. We feel at home here,” was the inference drawn from the communicative efforts of one group of Japan supporters in Munich’s famous Hofbrauhaus.

Another was: “Next time we must wait later in the game before scoring against Brazil,” but that’s another issue entirely.

The fact is that a lot of Japanese beer does resemble German beer, and particularly the beers of Bavaria. Many are brewed using German hops and to the specifications of German brewing, which rule out additives, fruit and pretty much anything except that without which beer cannot be beer: hops, malt and water.

Beer has existed in Japan for less than 150 years. If your staple food is rice rather than wheat, beer just isn’t going to happen until it’s brought to you by the wheatgrowing nations of the world.

Which is what happened – in around 1870, American William Copeland founded Japan’s first brewery to supply Westerners. His brews caught on locally and it wasn’t long before.....

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By Andrew Burnyeat

Section : International Focus

Page number : 26