Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai » Kirin http://www.moippai.com/blog Wine, beer, whiskey and more... Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:55:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= New Japanese Beers for the Summerhttp://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/08/new-japanese-beers-for-the-summer/ http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/08/new-japanese-beers-for-the-summer/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:32:30 +0000 MoIppai http://www.moippai.com/blog/?p=2755 Like my blog? Why don't you follow me on Twitter


Related posts on MoIppai]]> This Summer saw the release of three new Japanese beers from the main Japanese breweries, Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo. Although only Kirin released a real beer.
The other two opted for the cheaper option of beer-like drinks (daisan).

Asahi Blue Label

Asahi Blue Label



First came the Asahi Blue Label which, inevitably, being a fake beer from Asahi, was pretty disappointing.

It was however drinkable, and on the plus side, it’s only 27kCal/100ml and has 0 sugar.

(...)
Read the rest of New Japanese Beers for the Summer (174 words)

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Asahi, Japanese beer, Japanese lager, Kirin, Sapporo

]]> http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/08/new-japanese-beers-for-the-summer/feed/ 0 Kirin To Reopen in Sendaihttp://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/kirin-to-reopen-in-sendai/ http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/kirin-to-reopen-in-sendai/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:56:52 +0000 MoIppai http://www.moippai.com/blog/?p=2681 Like my blog? Why don't you follow me on Twitter


Related posts on MoIppai]]> Some more good news from disaster hit Sendai, after the news back in May that Asahi restarting beer shipments from it’s brewery in Fukushima, and Miyagikyo Distillery reopening it’s tours, it seems that Kirin Brewery Co. will be resuming work at it’s Sendai plant in September and will start shipping beer from there in November.

Operations will remain at 60% of it’s capacity, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports, for the time being at least.

Kirin are also planning on using hops from Tono, in Iwate prefecture to make the beer in order to help with the recovery of the Tohoku region.


Related posts on MoIppai

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Earthquake, Kirin

]]> http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/kirin-to-reopen-in-sendai/feed/ 0 CanBot! It’s a Robot…Disguised as a Beer Can!http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/canbot-a-robot-disguised-as-beer-can/ http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/canbot-a-robot-disguised-as-beer-can/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:07:26 +0000 MoIppai http://www.moippai.com/blog/?p=2582 Like my blog? Why don't you follow me on Twitter


Related posts on MoIppai]]> This Japanese guy decided to make a robot out of a Kirin Tanrei Happoshu can!
(Guess it’s better than drinking the stuff!)

Pretty cool, (in a very geeky otaku way). He’s even hooked it up so it can be controlled
by a Wii controller!


Related posts on MoIppai

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Happoshu, Kirin, Robot

]]> http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/07/canbot-a-robot-disguised-as-beer-can/feed/ 0 Japanese Brewers Give Up on Happoshuhttp://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/03/japanese-brewers-give-up-on-happoshu/ http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/03/japanese-brewers-give-up-on-happoshu/#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:32:43 +0000 MoIppai http://www.moippai.com/blog/?p=2182 Like my blog? Why don't you follow me on Twitter


Related posts on MoIppai]]> Sapporo Happoshu

A Sapporo Happoshu

Ok, this news is a little bit old, as the Daily Yomiuri reported it back in January, but I’ve been busy and not
had time to put this post up.

Basically it seems that some of the major Japanese brewers, Suntory and Sapporo to be precise, are essentially stopping their production of Happoshu (low-malt beers).
They will continue to make seasonal and regional happoshus apparently, but in-principle at least, they are stopping production.

Asahi is also reducing it’s production by 20%, but Kirin (who make the very popular Tanrei happoshu) have no plans to reduce their happoshu range.

The reason behind this is it seems happoshu become popular as a cheap alternative to regular beer (as they are taxed less due to quirks in the Japanese alcohol tax system that sets a tax rate based on the amount of malt in the drink).

The problem is, the tax has increased twice in recent years making it not really noticeably cheaper than regular beer, and also the introduction of Daisan (or third-category beer) which uses even less malt, and therefore is even cheaper has reduced the desire amongst consumers for Happoshu.

Although a news report I blogged about back in December, talked about the Japanese government considering raising the tax on Daisans aswell.

So who knows, maybe in the not too distant future we’ll just be left with regular beer here in Japan.


Related posts on MoIppai

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Asahi, Daisan, Happoshu, Kirin, Sapporo, Suntory

]]> http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/03/japanese-brewers-give-up-on-happoshu/feed/ 0 Recession Hits Japanese Newspapers – No Free “Real” Beer This Yearhttp://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/01/recession-hits-japanese-newspapers-no-free-beer-this-year/ http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/01/recession-hits-japanese-newspapers-no-free-beer-this-year/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:20:12 +0000 MoIppai http://www.moippai.com/blog/?p=2050 Like my blog? Why don't you follow me on Twitter


Related posts on MoIppai]]> Update Notice : Looks like I spoke too soon with this post…check the update at the end for what arrived the following day.

Last year when my wife re-subscribed to the Asahi Shinbun, we received a free case of Asahi Super Dry. When she re-subscribed for this year, she requested to receive Kirin (there was a choice), hoping to receive some Kirin Ichiban Shibori or maybe the Kirin Classic.

Well it looks like the recession has definitely hit at the Asahi Shinbun when this arrived this morning…

Kirin Tanrei

Free Kirin Tanrei


A gift box of 12 Kirin Tanrei. One of Kirin’s Happoshu range. (Happoshu is a low-malt, less than 25%, cheaper, beer alternative.)

Ok, so it was free, and you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and to be fair it’s one of the better happoshus on the market, but to be honest, I was a little disappointed.

I’m sure it’ll get drunk though…

Updated 19th Jan 2011 :
Looks like the recession hasn’t hit the Asahi Shinbun as hard as I previously thought.
This was waiting for me when I came home from work tonight…

Asahi Gift Set

Asahi Gift Set

An 8 Can Gift Set of Asahi Super Dry. Nice.
Ok, so maybe some people might argue that Asahi Super Dry doesn’t constitute “real” beer either, but I wouldn’t be that harsh…


Related posts on MoIppai

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Asahi, Asahi Super Dry, Free beer, Kirin

]]> http://www.moippai.com/blog/2011/01/recession-hits-japanese-newspapers-no-free-beer-this-year/feed/ 1