Craft Beer in Japan

Whoa, is that a tasting glass? I want to know that, too. They taste like soy sauce. All right, we're going to get through it. We're going to get through this. It's so sour. It doesn't have a bubble. Now I'm drinking, ah. This is the next step in beer in Japan. What's up? Hi, I'm Yuka from Vice Japan. We're here in Tokyo to check out craft beer culture. And this is? Hello, I'm Ogi. Craft beer is called Jibiru in this country. Back in 1994, strict laws changed. And before that, you needed to brew two million liters of beer in order to get licensed. But since the law changed, now the craft beer culture is pumping and pumping. So today we're going to go check out, get drunk, and just basically have fun. Yeah, it's a really nice neighborhood. I never really hung around in Nakano. There's all these little bars and little nice shops. And it's a good vibe. We're at Nakano Beer Kobo, and we're about to go check out the Tokyo's DIY craft beer. Let's go. Konnichiwa. Oh, it's really nice. Like, everything is super DIY, no? Did you make everything by yourself? Yes, we made everything by ourselves. So you guys obviously make beer right there, right? OK, can I see? Yes. Wow, it smells really nice. It smells like wheat. We haven't added anything yet. OK, so how many stages to make a craft beer? Yeah, it smells like wheat. It smells like wheat? Did you just say that? Can we try some of your beer? All right, let's get drunk on first beer of the day. All right. I want to try everything. That's actually a good idea. I might do that as well. What is cream? OK, OK. Whoa, is that a tasting glass? Oh, wow. It actually does taste like fashion food. So what's the normal alcohol percentage of the Japanese beer? I think lagers are about 5, 5%, 5.5. 5.5? OK. So, and this one is 6.1, so it's slightly higher. I want to try beer first. How is it? I don't know how to comment on drinks. Oh, it smells like chocolate. This is how you comment on drinks. Oh, OK. I want to try IPA. Yeah? Yeah, IPA smells like that Cascade pop that we just tasted. OK. Can you get these beers anywhere else in Tokyo, or is this the only place that you can drink this beer? Just here. But it's really reasonable, though, because the amount of work they put into that. This glass of beer is only 500 yen. I think I like Pale Ale. This is Pale Ale, no? I think that's IPA. Yeah, it is IPA. And this is the Pale Ale? No, that's cream. Oh, this is cream. This is a nice dating spot. All right, let's get out of here. And we've got more places to check out. Gochisosamadesu. That was awesome. I'm already drunk. I know, me too. Well, we've got another place to go, so let's go. Next stop, we're going to Watering Hole in Yoyogi neighborhood. It's actually one of the only bars in Tokyo that specializes in domestic craft beer. All right, let's go. Wow, a lot of beers. Can you tell us a little bit about this place? How many kinds of beer do you have here? When did Japanese people start drinking beer? Hmm. I really like your t-shirts. That's it. She's going to sign the t-shirt. Okay. Can we get every single one of the tastings? Let's do it. Let's go. The epic beer tasting. So they have what? Wow, sweet. Hey, come on. Cheers. Thank you. Did you drink water? So this is like, what, 8%? How's that? It's bitter, but it has a real, I don't know, like it has a really nice, how do you call it? Like flavor? Aroma? Yeah, aroma. Yes, yes. I'm sorry, no flavor. Aroma. We can't waste it. Whoa, that's really strong. Oh, wow. You finished it. We made it, we made it, we made it. We ******* did it, yo. High five for that. Damn. We did it. Let's go. Thank you very much. So now we're going to Ushitola in Shimokitazawa neighborhood, and they call themselves beer otaku, which literally means beer nerd. So let's see what they have to tell us and what they have to teach us. I've never tried hand-pumped beer. Yeah, me neither. Really? Okay, let's try it. This is something new. Oh, wow. Beautiful. Tokyo block. Cheers. Wow, it's really interesting. It doesn't have a bubble. What's the difference between hand-pumped beer and a normal beer? Hand-pumped beer is more refreshing, and the carbonic acid stimulates the flavor of the beer. Hand-pumped beer is better when it's chilled and has a lot of gas in it. Hand-pumped beer has a lot of flavor, but when you drink it, you can taste the smoothness of the beer, the fruitiness, the bitterness, and the richness of the beer. You can really feel it. Oh, wow. It's Japanese pickles. Sour. And it's yummy. Session IPA. Where does all this passion come from? I'm drunk. Yeah, those guys are pretty serious about their beer serving. And they're really passionate about it. Yeah, it's got all these uniforms. Yeah, and they look really legit. They just love beer. It's a good vibe. It makes sense that they call themselves otaku. Totally. Yeah. We're here at Bremer Beer Box, and I've never been here before, but now I see it, and it just looks like a shipping container. Let's go check it out. Yeah, I know. And this is our last stop, so I'm going to go ******* drunk. It smells like popcorn. Obviously, I've never drunk in a shipping container. It's a new concept. Originally, our store's concept was to bring a lot of shipping containers to Japan for the small locations that you can't really build a building. So... Yeah, what do you guys want? Yeah. All right, so what would you recommend? I'll take whatever you recommend. Oh, my God. It doesn't really matter what we usually drink, because we've been drinking from 10 o'clock. So, you're a bit behind. I should've been drinking from 8 a.m. What do you mean? Wake up and joke. **** you. I love where this is going. Okay. The Porter, which is our black beer, and this won in 2013 the All Japan Craft Beer Selection, which is kind of an NPO that works in Japan. It won the Grand Champion Award. It's a nice mix of caramel, chocolate, and coffee. Then today's specialty is red ale. It's got a little bit of caramel malt, some, I think, pale malt as well. It's less hops than the pale ale in there, so it's got some different hops to balance out with the malt. I usually don't like dark beer, because it tastes like soy sauce. I kind of noticed that, too, actually. Do you drink a lot of Japanese dark beers? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, a lot of them are very much, they taste very salty almost. It's weird. Everybody says the craft beer thing in Japan is really booming right now. What do you guys think that has changed since 10 years ago? Before 1994, you had to prove that you had a factory capable of making 2 million liters of beer. That's a large investment. So after 1994 changed, it was 60,000 liters. So you have to prove that you can make it. The years following 1984, once the law changed, there's about 400 companies that got the license. But a few years later, more than half of them kind of went out of business. Craft beer in Japan, I think in 2013, it was less than half a percent of the total beer market in Japan is craft beer. Okay. So less than 1%. I heard that it's something like 96% of beer is all major mass-produced. Yes, all major mass-produced stuff. I thought the literal translation of craft beer in Japan is Jibiru. It can be. But you have a different opinion, right? So Jibiru can just be anyone makes it. But craft beer, that's the stuff that you want. Also, I think from 2010, there's been less usage of Jibiru as a general blanket term, and there's more usage of craft beer. Interesting. So that craft beer is totally different. Each brewery has its own specific mantra. Now I'm drinking after. That's beautiful. It makes me satisfied. So my hope is someday I will have a baby. So the baby is going to be grown. I really like a playful guy. My mustache is going to be here. When he wants a beer, I'd like to say, you shouldn't drink Asahi beer. Let's go to Urima beer. So here's my goods. What do you think is the future of craft beer scene in Japan? Definitely it's going to be big. It's going to be bigger. But it's going to be commercial. So Japan is kind of, they're working on their own thing now. So that's pretty cool. And now we're looking at evolution. So this is the next step here in Japan. Especially for local small breweries. We're going from local to craft beer. I didn't come for you. So I'm officially a beer head now. We have learned so much about Japanese craft beer. Yeah, we've learned so much about Japanese craft beer today, I feel like, since we've been drinking for 12 hours. But honestly, I don't know if I can remember any of that, all the knowledge I got today. Because I'm actually very drunk. And I think we need to get ourselves in the cab. And go home. Let's go home.