Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai » Beer

Top 5 Japanese Father’s Day Presents

MoIppai — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:49:36 +0000

It’s Father’s Day in many western countries today, as it is in Japan and recently the Asahi Shinbun published a Father’s Day Special article where they asked 3277 dads (don’t know why it was that random number!) what was the best Father’s Day present…

Number one was : Appreciation From Their Kids

Which is nice.

Number 2 was a little bit more relevant to this blog, as it was Sake (alcohol).

So they then asked 488 dads what their Top 5 Sake presents would be….and the results in reverse order are…
(...)
Read the rest of Top 5 Japanese Father’s Day Presents (112 words)

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Post tags: Beer, Japan, Nihonshu, Sake, Whiskey, Wine

Smashed but not Smashed

MoIppai — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:55:27 +0000

Pint Glass

Prompted by the large number of injuries due to fights in pubs and bars in England (some 87,000 alcohol related glass attacks a year!), the shatterproof pint glass has been unveiled this week in Britain.

There are two types, one designed not to break at all (it has a protective coating on the inside) and the other has two thin layers of glass bonded together to prevent shattering, in the same was as windshields.

Apparently half of all violent assaults in Britain are due to alcohol and you’re 5 times more likely to be in a fight or attacked in or around a bar.

Although the new glasses don’t shatter, you could, if you so desired, hit someone over the head with them as a club.

You don’t see many drunken fights in Japan, or maybe I just don’t hang around the “right/wrong” areas. I have seen a couple of drunken salary man have a slapping match on the train station though.

Well, not much of a slapping match, the older man was slapping the younger mans face and in a remarkable show of deference to age and seniority, the younger man just stood there and took it.
I wondered at the time if the old guy was the other’s boss.

Still this is quite rare, at least from what I’ve seen in Kansai.

Image Source

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Post tags: Beer, Glasses, Pint

Beer and Coke – Not a Great Cocktail Idea

MoIppai — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:29:38 +0000

Beer and Coke Cocktail

I went to a local Izakaya last night (an Izakaya is kind of a cross between a tapas bar and a pub, where you buy lots of small plates of – usually – cheap food and wash it down with drinks. Japanese people tend not “just” drink, they nearly always eat food at the same time), and discovered something unusual on the drinks menu that I’d never seen before or even contemplated.

A cocktail of Beer and Coke. Or Beer Coke as they called it.

Why oh why would you want to mix these two drinks?? It reminded me of when I used to work at Heathrow airport in London, and there were a lot of Indian people working there who used to mix Coke and Milk with their lunches.
A bizarre combination.

Anyway, obviously I had to try it, as maybe I’d been missing out on some magic all these years…no.

To be honest it wasn’t as bad as I imagined on the first sip, but by the end of the glass, I was feeling just a little bit sick.

Switched back to beer and sake after that – a good combination!

Sake Bottle

(apologies for the bad photo but I only had my phone on me at the time, and I can never get a decent photo with that thing).

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Post tags: Beer, Cocktail, Izakaya

Winter Beer in Japan

MoIppai — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:47:38 +0000

Shiro Kirin - White Kirin

Well it would appear to be Winter soon in Japan.
I blogged a while ago about Autumn beers in Japan and how Japan and the Japanese people are very seasonal and like to celebrate the changes in seasons with, amongst other things, new kinds of beer.

The first Winter beers have hit the shelves! Despite it only being the beginning of November and still about 17degrees outside, it appears winter is here, or at least on it’s way.

The first one I saw was the Shiro Kirin (White Kirin) which is actually a Happoshu, the second category of beer – less malt, and less taste of beer.
But it’s got an almost Christmassy can design which I like, and to be honest it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Then just a few days ago, my wife spotted the Kohaku No Zietaku (Luxury of Amber) from Suntory, which actually looked like the Autumn beers with it’s red colouring, but has “Winter” written in Japanese on it.
Strangely this can was 330ml as opposed to the usual 350ml. Not sure why.
This beer was actually very good and I gave it a good review.

As always, will keep an eye out for more and report back when I’ve found some.

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Post tags: Beer, Happoshu, Japan, Japanese beer, Japanese lager, Kirin, Seasonal Beer, Suntory

Kirin Sales Down – Closing 2 Breweries

MoIppai — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:31:54 +0000

The Daily Yomiuri has reported that Kirin Holdings (recently reported to be the largest brewery in Japan in terms of output) intends to close 2 breweries next year due to poor sales.

Beer drinking in Japan is on the decline as many younger people are switching to wine and other drinks.

Kirin and Suntory also recently announced that they are planning a merger (Suntory is the third largest brewery in Japan).
Not sure if this a good thing for the Japanese beer market as, let’s face the top breweries tend to make a “generic” product anyway, will this give them the incentive to experiment or just “merge” the two brands of beers?

I have to say though, Suntory Premium Malts and Kirin Lager Beer are two of my favourite Japanese lagers though.

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Post tags: Asahi, Beer, Japan, Japanese beer, Japanese lager, Kirin, Suntory