Minoh Beer, Osaka

Imagine waking up one morning and finding out your parents have bought you a brewery? It’s a scene that dreams are made of – at least for beer geeks like me – but for Mayuko and Kaori Ohshita, that’s pretty much what happened back in 1997 when their father, a liquor store operator, decided to start a brewery and put them in charge of it.

Outside the brewery

Fast forward to the present day and the Ohshita sisters are running one of the most innovative breweries in Japan. Minoh W-IPA was one of the few Japanese double IPA’s and is multi-award winning. Minoh Cabernet is part beer, part wine, made with a significant portion of cabernet grapes. Past specials like Hemp High and Ganja High speak for themselves. And Minoh Stout recently one World’s Best Stout at the World Beer Awards 2009 – one of the many awards Minoh has received over the years (if you’re going to try Minoh Stout, definitely try the bottle over the hand-pump version). While other brewers are sticking to safe styles or trying to copy world styles, Minoh is out there experimenting, and they have a huge following in Japan.

Small bar in the entrance area

The brewery is located in Mino-o Osaka, about 30 minutes by train from central Osaka (official Romanisation of Minoh City is actually Minoh, but train and city signs still refer to it as Mino-o.) While there’s a small bar area at the brewery, it’s not an official “bar” as such – there are only two or three seats and only one tap. It’s mostly a place for people to wait while they are buying take-away bottles.

A newspaper cutting showing the Minoh sisters

Thankfully it’s not necessary to go all the way to the brewery to sample Minoh beer. Minoh runs two bars in downtown Osaka – Beer Belly and Beer Belly Edobori – that not only serve draught Minoh beer, but craft beers from other Japanese microbreweries. Both bars are featured in Beer in Japan’s Osaka listings.

The brewing area

The brewery itself is split into two roughly equal sections – the mashing, fermentation, and kegging/bottling area on the left, and a huge cool storage room on the right.

On the left there are two copper vessels. The front one is for mashing, lautering, and whirlpooling – the back one is the kettle, where the wort is boiled and hopped. Here’s the mashing, lautering, and whirlpooling vessel:

Mash, lauter, whirlpool tank - top section

Inside the top section

Bottom section

Inside the bottom section

Boiling capacity is 1000L. To fill their largest fermentation tanks, the sisters have to brew over two days.

Pipework linking to the boiler, with heat exchanger in the background

Here’s Mayuko Ohshita explaining the process of brewing and transferring the wort between tanks.

Ohshita-san explaining the brewing process

The tanks bears a striking similarity to those used at Harvestmoon (see caption “Mash tun and boiling tank”), though the control panel is significantly different. One day, if I can get the time and my Japanese improves, I’d love to follow a beer through from beginning to end and see what all those buttons and dials actually do!

Control panel

W-IPA is one of the beers that brought Minoh to my attention. It’s a very definite Japanese style double IPA, which means that it has a larger malt sweetness and more subdued hop profile than an West Coast Double IPA such as Coronado’s Idiot IPA. The closest comparison I can think of Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA. It’s also not a million miles away from a British double IPA (though a British double is quite a rare thing).

Taking a sample of W-IPA from the fermentation tank

When it’s on top form, W-IPA is fantastic – and you can’t get better form than direct from the fermentation tank!

One week old W-IPA

A week into fermentation and this was lovely and hoppy – I could have consumed it all day (or at least, until I fell over). While W-IPA is well known amongst beer geeks in Japan and was one of the first Minoh beers that I tried, Ohshita-san told me that it only really became popular after it was featured in a newspaper article in summer 2009.

The W-IPA was followed by a sample of Minoh Cabernet – again, direct from the fermentation tank. My first time to try Cabernet, I had little idea what to expect – crossover beers can be just plain weird – but the Cabernet was very nice indeed. So good that I bought a couple of bottles to drink on the train back from the brewery!

Cold storage room

Minoh is quite different from other Japanese breweries I’ve been to in that their cold storage room not only contains their keg, bottles, and hops, but also their conditioning tanks.

The back of the cold storage room

It’s a huge room, filled with 8 tanks for conditioning and 2 for bottling, and appears very chaotic – a lot like my apartment (though probably a little bit warmer than my apartment in winter!)

Looking towards the front of the cold storage room

In fact, quite a lot of the Minoh brewery is in organised chaos – something I liked a lot, because it highlights the family and fun aspect to the business.

Ohshita-san with a bag of freshly picked hops

Here’s Ohshita-san showing off some of the Japanese hops she picked from Shiga Kogen’s hop farm. I do like the way that a number of the Japanese breweries are friends with each others – a spirit of co-operation rather than a spirit of competition.

Behind Ohshita-san you can see a tank with some string tied to the opening – this is how Minoh do dry-hopping. Bags are filled with hops – Minoh mostly use pellet hops – and tied inside the conditioning tanks.

Dry hopping

Bottling at Minoh is done by hand. While this new machine from the USA adorns the brewery…

New bottling machine

…at the time I visited the brewery, bottling was still being done using this smaller bottling machine…

Existing bottling machine

…and capped using something every homebrewer will be familiar with…

Hand capper

Yup, a good old hand capper.

Ohshita-san at the labelling area

As well as being capped by hand, bottled are all labelled by hand also – in fact, while I was touring, a customer came to the brewery to buy some beer and Ohshita-san had to quickly label some bottles for sale:

Bottles are labelled by hand

The reason for the hand labelling is Minoh’s distinctive labels – while the back labels can be done automatically, the shape of the front labels means that they can only be done by hand.

Distinctive Minoh labels

Minoh’s beers can also be ordered with original labels for company events, weddings etc. Quite a few different designs were hanging around – even MTV has ordered beer for events from Minoh.

Original beer labels

Of all the labels hanging around, this has to be my favourite:

Father's day beer with a touch of humour

Was this a personal beer made for their father?

Brewery tour finished, it was back to the “bar”. On the single tap was Minoh Weizen –  a good standard weizen. (I used to drink a lot of weizen in the past, but these days I rarely drink weizen at all.)

Weizen on tap

Minoh make a number of seasonal beers and special beers. This “monkey beer” was a peach beer, exclusive to Sogo department stores. Peachy it was – tangy, not sweet. Fruity beers are made by a number of breweries in Japan, with varying results. I enjoyed this one.

Peach monkey beer, exclusive to Sogo

The seasonals are produced in limited quantities.  The record for the fastest ever sell-out was a release of their February Valentine’s Imperial Stout which, after a TV station mentioned the beer, was sold out within 30 minutes of the brewery opening on the day of release.

W-IPA

Final beer of the visit was the W-IPA which, true to form, had that malty Hercules style profile.

As work continued in the brewery, it was time for me to return back to Osaka – not without buying some bottles to drink on the train back of course!

Work continues in the brewery

Minoh’s website is here. Their current beers, including seasonals and boxed sets, are listed on this page. Beer Belly and Beer Belly Edobori are both near Higobashi station – details here, map here. If you’re intending to visit the brewery because you’ll be in the area, I’d advise contacting them first – the Beer Belly bars are better places to try the beers though, because they have a large range of Minoh beers on draught.

My opinion? I was given a very warm welcome at Minoh by Ohshita-san, and it was awesome to see inside the brewery and talk about the operations with her. Minoh has been a stand-out brewery for me in Japan and I’ll be continuing to watch for new releases and keep enjoying the beers. By coincidence, as I write this now, I’ve just found out that today Cat and Cask has Minoh’s 2010 limited Valentines Imperial Stout on tap. I’ve already ordered one of the limited 200 sets for delivery this weekend, but I can think of nothing better than finishing this review and heading to C&C for a pint of it on draught!

Inside Craft Beer Moonlight

In fact the homebrew comparison isn’t that far off, because the beer I had tasted very much like kit-made homebrew, having a slightly sweet LME-like tinge to it. While that means it ain’t the best beer in the world to me, a lot of Japanese craft beers, particularly pilsners, have a sweetness to them and the locals seem to like the beers.

Pale Lager

Moonlight has 10 taps, featuring a selection of their regular beers and specials. Most of the time not all 10 taps will be used though – specials in particular can run out fairly quickly, and whether they are replaced depends on something else being ready and the staff having time to change over the keg. Last time I was there, the day started with five specials, three of which ran out and were replaced with two others.

Regulars are Porter, Stout, Strong Ale, Bitter, Pilsner, Lager, and Pale Lager and cost 300 yen each. Specials are more expensive, in the 500-800 range, but can also be more flavoursome – some specials I’ve seen are Cherry Beer, Ginger Beer (the alcoholic kind, not the soft drink), Christmas Ale, Old Ale, and Weizen. Moonlight serves beers direct from the kegs they are fermented in.

Porter

The bar also sells some homebrewing equipment, yeast, hops, grain, and malt at cheaper prices than Tokyu Hands – it’s not on display and range is limited (it’s a subset of what’s available online here) so contact the bar in advance first if you are making a trip for something special.

As well as beer, there’s food available – and it’s pretty good for the price. You don’t expect much for 100-300 yen, but these 300yen dim-sum and gyoza were lovely:

I'd go back for these alone!

Food really was a surprise – I wish other places would take note that bar food can be cheap and tasty. The only problem is that the menu currently is Japanese only, though I’m told an English menu is being prepared.

The Craft Beer Moonlight website is here - it’s updated daily with the current beers, and though it’s Japanese only and beers can change throughout the day, it’s good that they make that effort. Phone number is 044-930-1018. It’s open from 11:30am to 10pm every day except Tuesdays (or the next day if Tuesday is a national holiday). Craft Beer Moonlight is a non-smoking bar.

Only a few small signs reveal there's a bar inside

Google maps link for Moonlight is here. The closest station is Mukogaokayuen – 21 minutes from Shinjuku on the Odakyu line. Come out the north exit and walk up the street in front of you to the right (running along the left of the bus area). Keep walking until you get to a four way crossing with traffic lights and turn left there. Immediately you’ll pass a Kains supermarket. Keep walking a good few blocks and you’ll find Craft Beer Moonlight on your left.

My opinion? This is definitely an interesting little place – I enjoyed the food, and it was superb to see local Japanese choosing craft beer rather than generic Asahi/Kirin, both to drink in the bar, and take away in PET bottles. The bar is also sticking its neck out and selling homebrew supplies – the only other place selling homebrew supplies in Japan is the high street chain Tokyu Hands. For those reasons, I think the bar is worth supporting. Hopefully beer will improve over time – the place is so new that you can still see the “For Rent” signs on Google Maps! – but it’s a unique place, and what do you expect for 300yen, eh?

Sal’s owner Koji – or Michael as he sometimes calls himself – is famous in the Japanese Craft Beer community for two things: that he used to import craft beers unofficially before official imports came along, and that, despite speaking fluent English, he has a dislike of foreigners visiting Sal’s. So when news came that Koji was opening a second bar in Shibuya, it raised a few eyebrows – you might be able to keep yourself away from foreigners when your bar is out in Kawasaki, but right in the heart of Tokyo?

Outside Craftheads

Fast forward to January 2010 and Craftheads has been open for just over three months. I decided to make a visit with some friends to try some of the Three Floyds on tap, meet Koji, and see how welcome we’d be. As it turns out, I bumped into Koji on the street as I was looking for Craftheads. He saw me looking around and asked where I was looking for. “That’s my bar!” he exclaimed when I said Craftheads, and he continued to be talkative inside the bar. It was a surprisingly warm welcome.

Koji no longer imports his own beer, instead sourcing from Japanese craft beers and the various importers. When I visited there were 16 beers on tap – a mixture of Japanese breweries such as Minoh, North Island, and Shiga Kogen, with international offerings from the likes of Green Flash, Bear Republic, Coronado, and Fuller’s. (Is Fuller’s craft beer?)

There are no pints at Craftheads – most beers are sold in 200ml and 350ml sizes, with some in 300ml sizes.

200ml servings

At 200ml, that’s less than half a US pint. The beers were poured with no head, but they don’t fill the glass – I’m told that’s deliberate, Koji having precisely measured a 200ml line so that drinkers get exactly 200ml every time and are not short-changed with pours that have lots of head.

The cheapest draught beer on the menu was Miyama Blonde at 500yen for 200ml, 900yen for 350ml. At those prices, a US pint of 470ml is around 1175yen. Three Floyds Alpha King IPA was one of the more expensive at 800yen for 200ml, 1300yen for 350ml, giving a price of around 1750yen for a US pint, or 1880yen based on the 200ml price – quite possibly grabbing the award for the most expensive pint in Tokyo.

Craftheads definitely ain’t cheap when you compare pint prices. On the other hand, the small sizes do allow you to taste a range of beers. Bottles are also available – they can be pretty expensive.

The Craftheads website, blog, and twitter are mostly Japanese only – especially event details. That’s not uncommon in Japan, but when I asked Koji for an email address so that I could get event information and clarify details when writing Beer in Japan listings, he flatly refused. Given the warm welcome we received when we came to the bar, it was surprising. Koji’s explanation is that he wants to communicate with people one way via his twitter, website, and blog – which means reading Japanese for events. I got the definite impression that foreigners are welcome there, but that they have to “prove themselves worthy” by ploughing through the 日本語. Very Arrogant Bastard, right?

Inside Craftheads

Craftheads is located on a back street just up from the Apple store in Shibuya. The website is here, blog here. Google maps link here. The bar is closed Mondays and closes early on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. It’s non-smoking and there’s free WIFI  (it’s hidden but the network name is “craftheads”). There is food but I didn’t try it.

My opinion? Inside Craftheads is a very nice bar – I like the decor a lot. If there were pints available at a reasonable price then I might go there more often, but given the expense of drinking there in quantity, it’s a place to “dip into” to try a hard-to-find beer rather than a place to spend all evening. The question is: Are you worthy?

Outside Baird Brewery, Numazu

Today, December 18th 2009, is the commercial release of Chris Poel’s award winning homebrew recipe Bakayaro! at Baird’s Harajuku Taproom.

Chris is a brewer I have deep respect for. A homebrewer turned commercial brewer, Bakayaro! is even listed as a kit available from More Beer in the US. As homebrewers go, could there be anyone else more “living the dream”?

To celebrate the launch of Bakayaro! I contacted Chris and asked him for the recipe. While not exactly the same as made at Baird Brewery (adjustments have to be made for commercial brewing equipment efficiency, brand of grain, etc), it is the same as Chris made it.

Chris will be at Harajuku Taproom tonight, 18th December, from 5pm to 8pm to share his joy. Photos are of Chris touring people around the Baird Brewery in Numazu. Baird also has taprooms in Nakameguro (which serves import beer also) and Numazu.

Malt tasting

Bags of fresh leaf hops in the freezer

Chris makes a lot of people hoppy

The beer making equipment

Chris at the mash tun and kettle

BakaYaro! – The Recipe

Here’s the recipe, the last version I did at home, which turned out pretty damn good. Similar but not exactly what we did at the brewery.

21 liters
OG = 1.080
FG = 1.016-1.020
SRM = 20-25
IBU = 80
Mashing Efficiency = 80%

Grains
• 2000 g Crisp Maris Otter (28.33%)
• 2000 g Weyermann Munich I (28.33%)
• 2000 g Weyermann Lt Wheat (28.33%)
• 425 g Dingemans Special B (5%)
• 425 g Dingemans Aromatic (5%)
• 425 g Dingemans Biscuit (5%)

Hops [estimated 80 IBUs]
• 36 g Centennial whole hops (10.0%) (first wort hops)
• 29 g Zeus whole hops (15.4%) (60 min)
• 28 g Chinook whole hops (11.8%) (50 min)
• 43 g Centennial whole hops (10.0%) (hopback)
• 43 g Centennial whole hops (10.0%) (whirlpool)
• 25 g Centennial whole hops (10.0%) (1st dry hops) for 5-7 days
• 25 g Centennial whole hops (10.0%) (2nd dry hops) for 5-7 days

Yeast/Other
• 12 g gypsum in mash
• 1 Servo capsule (10 min)
• 1 whirlfloc tablet (10 min)
• US-05 or WLP001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash @ 64-65C for 60 minutes
Boil for at least 75 minutes
Ferment at 20-21C
If you pitch enough healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in 5-8 days.

Lost in a sea of fermentation tanks

Chris explaining about the conditioning tanks and dry hopping

Chris explains about the bottling equipment

Chris shows off the sugar used for carbonating Baird's bottled beer

This pub is smokin'

If you like to smoke when you drink, here’s something you should think about: For every drag of your fag, that’s another 5 seconds of your life gone where you could have been drinking beer instead. If that reality doesn’t hit home to you – well, you may as well just go and drink superdry.

The smoke-free movement in Japan is something which I wholeheartedly support. To bring to people’s attention that there are a fair number of craft beer bars which are smoke free and still successful, here’s a rundown of the bars from Beer in Japan listings which are smoke free (some may allow smoking outside the bar, but not inside).

Tokyo:

• The Aldgate, Shibuya
• The Cat & Cask Tavern, Kanamecho
• Craftheads, Shibuya
• Craft Beer Moonlight, Mukogaokayuen
• Dry Dock, Shimbashi
• Gambrinus, Kokubunji
• Kimono Wine Bar, Nishi Azabu
• Kura Kura, Kanda
• Popeye, Ryogoku
• Taproom, Nakameguro and Harajuku
• Towers Standing Bar, Tokyo/Kyobashi
• Ushi Tora 2, Shimokitazawa

Yokohama:

• Cheers, Yokohama
• Craft Beer Bar, Kannai
• Thrash Zone, Yokohama

Outside Tokyo:

• Beer Cafe Barley, Nishinomiya
• Taproom, Numazu

Thanks to Beer in Japan reader John for suggesting this feature. For those who can read Japanese, the Kinen Style website is an excellent resource for non-smokers, covering a range of categories nationwide.

In order to get a photo of a smoking cigarette for this feature, I had to invite out a friend who is a smoker and go to a non-smoke-free bar. Is that dedication or what? ;)