Home Brewer In Japan

[FatherJack]

Hey Everyone!

I joined yesterday, posted a quick question, and thought I would introduce myself today.

I am 29 years old, from Vermont, America, and currently live in Japan. I just started home brewing last Friday. I bought a Brew Cellar kit online from one of the few online resources available in Japan for home brewing. I followed the relatively simple instructions of combining hot water, liquid malt extract and sugar, pitched my yeast and made my first "lager" style beer.

Looking forward, I want to experiment with malt extracts for a while, mix and match different types of sugars and spices and eventually move to partial grain brewing. My next task will be making Morgan's Dockside Stout with a can of Roasted Dark Malt in place of dextrose. Unless I hit upon something that really tickles my fancy, I don't plan on making/doing the same thing twice so I can spread out and learn as much as possible.

Already people have been supportive here and I'm looking forward to learning a lot from everyone.

Many thanks in advance!:cross:

-Geppu

(Geppu, in Japanese, means "belch". I chose this name after watching my fermenting bin happily belching away about 4 or 5 hours after I pitched the yeast of my first brew. Now, I call the bin Mr. Geppu:cross

 

[HalfPint]

Welcome. Be careful, this hobby is addicting.

 

[vicratlhead51]

Welcome. Be careful, this hobby is addicting.

Super addicting! Especially when you start getting good feedback from friends and family. There's a lot of work involved but it still doesn't feel like work, just fun I was kinda curious, do they have much of a home brew culture in Japan? From what I understand their popular beers are pretty similar to the light lagers in America, I was just wondering if they seem to have the same subculture we do.

 

[HerotBrewer]

Welcome. I just started yesterday.

 

[Folken]

Where at in Japan, if you don't mind me asking? I've lived there too. Once for studying abroad in Sapporo, and another time for a job in Ota City, Gunma-ken.

 

[Chap]

Welcome to the addiction. My family and I are moving to Okinawa next month. My brewing equipment has been sitting in a warehouse in Oki waiting on me since July. Can't wait to get on island and start brewing again.

 

[FatherJack]

Super addicting! Especially when you start getting good feedback from friends and family. There's a lot of work involved but it still doesn't feel like work, just fun I was kinda curious, do they have much of a home brew culture in Japan? From what I understand their popular beers are pretty similar to the light lagers in America, I was just wondering if they seem to have the same subculture we do.

There isn't much of a home brew culture here, as far as I can tell. A lot of stuff here doesn't seem to be much of a do it yourself kind of thing. I'm not sure why it is, but it is. Japanese beers are OK, but they kinda taste the same with slight variations.

 

[FatherJack]

Where at in Japan, if you don't mind me asking? I've lived there too. Once for studying abroad in Sapporo, and another time for a job in Ota City, Gunma-ken.

I'm on the western side of Japan, in Ishikawa prefecture. It's kinda backwater "country" territory with our biggest city ONLY having about 500,000 people. :cross:

When you studied in Sapporo did you get to drink a lot of beers?

Where do you live now?

 

[FatherJack]

Welcome to the addiction. My family and I are moving to Okinawa next month. My brewing equipment has been sitting in a warehouse in Oki waiting on me since July. Can't wait to get on island and start brewing again.

Conversely, welcome to Japan! Let me know if there's any advice I can give you about life here!

Can you speak Japanese?

Also, here are some links in case you want to order stuff:

http://www.sakeland.net/ (I use this one)

http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/brew/ (haven't used this one, but I check their prices often)

If you know of anything for brewing in Japan that I don't know of, please let me know!

Good luck!

 

[FatherJack]

Hey everyone! Thanks for your responses!

I'm hoping I'll have some time to browse through forums and intros this week once my work chaos settles down.

I know what everyone means about it being addicting! I constantly watch Geppu and see how his belching is going. I like to smell the air valve when it burps to smell the sweet brew inside. I cant wait to bottle the stuff!

Thanks for the support and I look forward to getting to know everyone!

 

[Folken]

I'm on the western side of Japan, in Ishikawa prefecture. It's kinda backwater "country" territory with our biggest city ONLY having about 500,000 people. :cross:

When you studied in Sapporo did you get to drink a lot of beers?

Where do you live now?

Ahh, Ishikawa, you really are in the sticks, then, aren't ya. Although despite only about an hour ride to Tokyo, Ota felt pretty much the same way.

When I was in Sapporo I drank a lot of things...beer may have been one of them! XD I probably made and lost more memories in Susukino than in a lifetime, heh. My favorite drink of choice when I was in Japan was probably chu-hai. Though it wasn't my favorite I, for some reason or another, kept drifting to the yuzu flavored ones.

I'm back in the states now, in Indiana. I was working in Ota, but well, let's just say as far as English conversation schools go, Nova was a poor choice, and now I'm broke as all hell.

 

[yoshiie]

Hi Geppu,

I just joined this month as well. I live in Chiba (work in Tokyo), but SWMBO is from Ishikawa, great seafood there!! I've homebrewed off and on for a little, but the past two months I've trully been bit by the bug! Look forward to getting to know you and everyone else on the forum too (especially the guys in Japan- and trade notes!!)

 

[FatherJack]

Yoshiie,

Nice to meet you! Where do you get your brewing supplies from?

I've found a couple of decent web sites, but is there anything available in Tokyo that I may not know of?

What have you brewed so far here?

 

[yoshiie]

I've gotten everything so far from sakeland, brewpot from yahoo auction, and most of my mashtun from auction and the local home center.

So far I've mainly made blackrock kits, slowly upgrading to all extract, steeping some specialty grains and extra hop additions. (as you know kitchens here are so small, you get your technique and timing down fast!!) bottled a stout 2weeks ago, a nut brown ale is to be bottled this weekend and with the mashtun build done, this weekend starts the allgrain adventure!

 

[Namako]

Ohayo gozaimasu!!! Just thought I'd do a quick search and see if there was anyone homebrewing in Japan and lurking on the board. I see there are a couple!!

I've been homebrewing for about 6 years, staring in Okinawa, continued for a few years in Germany, and I now continue the obsession in the Yokosuka area (south of Yokohama, on the bay).

I know there's a homebrew club up in Tokyo, and though I've been meaning to get to it, their schedule and mine just haven't worked out for the past 6-8 months.

I'm curious where you all get your supplies. I brought several hundred pounds of grain with me from Germany (Weyermann) and England (Crisp), as well a several kilo of hops, but I'll eventually burn through that and need more. I'd been planning on waiting until I get a business trip back to the states and just bring a bag or two with me as checked baggage (I have a 3-bag/70-lb each allowance on United).

I'm also continually curious about the legality of homebrewing in Japan - I've "heard" that we're not supposed to brew anything greater than 1% ABW, which pretty much means I can't brew anything to me. Has anyone else run across this?

Looking forward to more discussion...

Ja matta!!

 

[WhoZiT]

Oops.

 

[WhoZiT]

Didn't realize this was really old, sorry...

 

[Revvy]

You may want to check out the thread, "homebrewing in Japan". 19 pages of useful info.

Bulk grain fro Asahi Malting, specialty grains either in a group buy or from Advanced Brewing.

There are a couple online shops that will send pellet hops, 3.5-4 pounds, for 18-19 USD.

You bumped a 2 year old thread to mention a more recent thread???

 

[WhoZiT]

I was looking at search results when coming along this thread. I mistook it for a search of recent threads. Confusing, yes! Brain fart...

 

[Revvy]

Lol.

 

[Namako]

But nonetheless appreciated... I'm still homebrewing in Japan!!