September is here, and the nights are getting a little cooler. For whatever reason, this time of year always has me craving beer. Inspired, I picked up a few Japanese craft brews this week, plus a diet beer from Sapporo.
I liked them all. So I decided to add them to my list of top Japanese beer brands.
Additionally, I also found some pretty cool articles about a revived and historic Japanese whisky, export shochu, and Japanese gin and absinthe.
Top 28 Japanese Beers
Best Japanese Beer Brands is one of my most popular posts. I review big-name brands like Sapporo and Kirin. And I also dive into craft beers like Hitachino and Echigo.
This week, I added four more beers to the mix. Each one is quite different, and it’s a lot of fun to taste through this growing category.
Click the button below to check out the top Japanese beer brands. And if you think I missed any, please share it in the comments. I’ll take a look and potentially add it in the future.
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Takamine Whisky and Honkaku Spirits
Koji whisky is here to stay. And if you thought it was a new concept, think again.
Dr. Jokichi Takamine came up with a method of using koji as an efficient fermentation starter well over a hundred years ago. And it nearly got him killed.
Get a history lesson from Forbes on Takamine’s whiskey, its resurrection, and new shochu imports from Honkaku Spirits.
Shochu Distillers Turning to Absinthe and Gin
Japanese gin is an exciting and growing category. And a growing number of shochu distilleries are jumping on board.
And some of them aren’t limiting themselves to just gin.
I think this is one of the cooler developments in the Japanese spirits world.
Learn about these cutting-edge shochu distilleries from Kyodo News.
Vegan Sake!?
I had to take a second look. Sake is made with rice, rice koji (a mold), yeast, and water. Additionally, sometimes a small amount of neutral spirits is added. All of these ingredients are vegan-friendly.
But occasionally, sake brewers will use a substance called isinglass to clarify their brews. If you’re really into wine or beer, you may have heard of it. Isinglass is a dried fish swim bladder. And it’s an effective clarifying agent.
Plenty of vegan alternatives to isinglass exist, and its use in the wine and beer industries is waning. And it’s never been a huge fixture in the sake industry.
So what’s “vegan sake” all about?
Marketing, of course. And why not? Sake isn’t well understood by the majority of drinkers, even in Japan. So promoting sake as a vegan option makes sense. Several kura are making it official by becoming certifying their sake as vegan products. And many more will probably follow suit.
Learn more about vegan sake, and sake’s other benefits from Prestige.
Large Growth Expected in Sake Markets Outside of Japan
While Japanese sake continues to struggle domestically, it’s booming in the West. OpenPR has some interesting data about this growth and growing trends within the industry.
It’s an exciting time to be a fan of Nihonshu.