Craft Beer in Japan – Independence and Ownership
Going back to the history of craft beer, some breweries – there is no exact number – are offshoots of sake breweries, for example, Shonan Beer from Kumazawa Shuzo, Hitachino Nest from Kiuchi Shuzo, Shiga Kogen from Tamamura Honten to name but a few. How does this fit into the realm of independence? If we follow the guidelines from any of the countries above, then these could be considered to not be craft beer.
One thing that could be factored into this independence then is if the sake brewery itself is a member of the Japan Sake Brewers’ Association which means they brewery has been certified by that organisation. If the beer brewery is not an offshoot of a brewery, for example Baird Beer, then that’s different and would fall under the same ideas as breweries overseas.
How about other subsidiaries, such as Sakaya Okadaya and Y Market Brewing or Chateau Kamiya that is owned Oenon Holdings, Inc that aren’t part of an alcohol industry member? That would also stop them from being part of the Brewer’s Association ideals but fine with the concepts that is from SIBA and IBA. For these purposes it would have to be looked at – are these breweries being run by the parent company to obfuscate people into craft beer or are they being transparent with their holdings and influence?
The JBA’s description of what independence is perhaps the only thing clear about what breweries are independent – anything that came after 1994, regardless of size and are not controlled by the big macro breweries.
Craft Beer in Japan – Size
The phrasing of how craft beer is measured in Japan is also intriguing. Rather than setting an actual annual production, the JBA’s method is to measure the amount of wort produced in one go, in this case it has to be less than 20kL, or 20,000 per batch. Now if you can brew 20,000L EVERY DAY, perhaps twice a day, on multiple systems, then you are still considered to be craft beer.
It’s unlikely that craft beer breweries in Japan will get to that size soon, but it does seem unusual to say whether a craft beer brewery is one or not based on how much beer they can produce in one batch.
The only breweries that have that capability right now are the big macro breweries, who also make some alternative beers in their series such as the Tokyo Craft and Kirin’s range of beers. So from this explanation they are not craft beers.
Craft Beer in Japan – How It’s Made
The final point – and for me the most vague out of the bunch – is how the beers are made, or what they use.
It’s worth breaking this down into its separate parts.
“Manufactured by traditional methods”
With this method, it’s interesting to see what the JBA think are traditional methods.
Do they mean decoction mashing, a step mash that is performed by removing a portion of the mash, boiling it and returning it to the main mash. Traditionally, decoction mashing was used to get the most out of malt that was not produced to today’s levels of modification. In the past, malt was both less modified and more variable with respect to degree of modification?
Do they mean a single infusion method of mashing, where room temperature crushed grains are combined with a premeasured amount of hot water at a fixed temperature. By accurately calculating the volume and temperature of the water, one can reach a target temperature for the combined mash in the 64.5-70C range?
Do they mean temperature mash where a known quantity of hot water, the mixed water and grains are simply raised to the target mashing temperature and held at that temperature until the starch conversion is complete?
Or perhaps a step mash where infusion, temperature and decoction steps may be combined to achieve multiple step mashes. For example a complex three step decoction mash might start with an initial infusion step to an acid rest at 41c, followed by a protein rest at 50c, and a saccrification step at 68c. In many mash profiles, a mash out step is used to raise the temperature of the entire grain bed in preparation for sparging?
But then how about if the beer is made by hand or by machine? How do you define traditional methods? Do breweries have to follow the reinheitsgebot law, so all adjuncts are banned and only water, malts, hops, and yeast are allowed? When you start using the phrase “traditional” in a brewing capacity, it starts to make things very difficult to pick from.
“producing distinctive beers from regional specialties”
Well a lot of breweries, both now and in the past, have produced beers rooted in their local regions – Aomori Black Garlic Beer anyone, or one of the numerous citrus beers made in Japan, but how does this really determine if a brewery is craft or not? The main component for including this stipulation is that breweries would help local business become more known across the country.
There are numerous breweries in Japan that do not use locally sourced products in all of their beers, perhaps one or two of their beers do? So if they do not include any local products, such as yuzu or malts, then again, are they a craft beer brewery?
“And it is rooted in the area.”
When a brewery applies for a licence, they have to show that they have people willing to buy their beers – so what better way to do it than to ask local shops, bars, and restaurants to sell their beers? This isn’t even a legal stipulation too – once the license has been obtained then there is no necessity for the bars to even buy the beers from the brewery.
How far do you extend this rule too? Do you have to employ someone from the local area as the head brewer or someone in the higher echelons of the company too?
An Analysis of Craft Beer Stipulations
With these ideas now analysed, it seems that there is a lot of grey area of what is, or isn’t a craft beer in Japan. No one country’s rules seem to blanket apply to the craft beer industry in Japan, so we’ve come up with some that we feel suits the industry best.
- Size. The annual capacity of the brewery can be no more than 20,000,000 liters of beer per annum. This gives breweries plenty of space to grow over the next few years.
- Formation. The brewery has to have been formed as a direct result after the government changed the laws i.e. post-1994. The laws were changed to directly allow smaller breweries to open and grow.
- Ownership. Not a subsidiary of a larger firm with other subsidiary beer brewing interests. This allows sake breweries, who were among the first generation of breweries to open.
- Independence. Less than 20% of the brewery can be owned by a larger brewer. While it makes sense for breweries to work together, as soon as another brewery buys into another, then it affects decision making, be it large or small.
We’re going to be following these rules from now on – while it may mean that breweries in the past we’ve included may no longer be reviewed or covered on the site, their past contents will stay on the site for posterity’s sake.
