Series - Lager Love: Big Beers of Japan (part 1)

 Above, everyone's favorite beer landmark / architectural failure in Tokyo. Pictured to the left is the headquarters of Asahi. The building on the right-hand side is the lovely Asahi Beer Hall, with its famous rooftop sculpture. It's also called Super Dry Hall along with other nicknames, like the「うんこビル」   (image adapted from boomin diary, http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/boomin3/diary/200703190000/)


Tokyo, Japan. Big Beer in Japan is full of wonders. One Woman is about to dedicate a series of posts to the Big Four breweries of Japan. Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo (includes Ebisu), and Suntory are really what you will find everywhere in Japan. I hope to share a few things that I love about Japanese beer and Japanese beer culture. Lager Love.

Nothing beats the post-hike beer <3

But wait--each of these is part of a dizzying array of multinational corporate webs that can seem pretty impersonal, sinister, or sublime, whatever your take is. Still, to dismiss these monster corporations as only Big Evil networks is also to overlook what exactly makes them so attractive, and so powerful to the point of no return (the hole is still unplugged!!). It also ignores the fact that these corporations--like any other kind of culture--all have fascinating histories and deep, dark secrets that directly affected (and were affected by) the lives of towns and railways, laws, drinking culture, national image, wars, and all that stuff. What's clear is that the history of beer as we know and love it today is inseparable from industrialization and capitalism since the mid-19th century.

The other reason that I want to write about the Big Four is that among some US drinkers of Japanese beers, there seems to be a misconception about these "imported" Japanese beers. Namely, that they are on par with the average big American adjunct beer (i.e., kind of nasty). One Woman wants to put such judgments into context. Of the Japanese beers consumed in the US, Sapporo and Asahi are brewed in Canada by Molson. Kirin is made in the Anheuser-Busch facilities in Torrance, California. So, no wonder they taste like Molson, Coors and Bud. Suntory beers are imported from Japan in the US, but do not enjoy the wide distribution that the other three do. Suntory beers also suffer from transatlantic travel.

Temple of Beer or Temple of Doom?

The other question is, are these even "Japanese" beers? For example--Suntory is a huge beverages-and- mo' company that makes Midori in Mexico, imports and produces Häagen-Dazs ice-cream in Japan, manages Scotland's Morrison Bowmore Distillers, produces and distributes PepsiCo's brands on the East Coast (US), and so on. Big business. And so, it brings me to the musical pairing of Lady Gaga – selected by a classroom of college students as an example of a practioner of "global," "universal," and "international"music. "Poker Face." Okay, fine, I admit, I also spent way too long watching MichellePhan becoming Lady Gaga on youtube today. "Just having fun, replicating her style," as Michelle puts it, in her sassy, silvery voice. This one too (Poker Face).