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

Top 5 Japanese Daisans (Third-category beer)

MoIppai — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 07:52:53 +0000

After ranking my Top 5 Japanese beers and Top 5 Japanese Happoshus here are my Top 5 Japanese Daisans.
Daisans are very low malt content alcoholic drinks (sometimes called “Third-Category Beers” or “Liqueurs“).

Japanese tax on alcohol varies depending on the malt content for some reason, and this type of drink has become very popular in the past few years as it has a very low malt content (they have to have less than 50%) they are much cheaper than regular beers and even Happoshus.

More information about this tax system can be found in my previous posts :
What is Happoshu? and Daisan to Face a Tax Hike?.

When I first tried Daisans in Japan, 4-5 years ago, I was shocked at how bad they tasted. But recently there has been some passable “beer-like drinks” coming out (or perhaps my tastes have changed along with my budget)?
Many daisans are more drinkable than happoshus in fact (which should technically be nearer to beers in content than daisans).
I mean, some Daisans are made out of corn and peas instead of barley and malt!

Out of all the Daisans I’ve tried this far, here are my Top 5:
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Read the rest of Top 5 Japanese Daisans (Third-category beer) (298 words)

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Post tags: Daisan, Third Category Beer, Third Kind Beer

Barreal – ￥88 Fake Beer from Aeon

MoIppai — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:38:42 +0000

Aeon Supermarket, Japan

With the on-coming onslaught of the unbearably humid Japanese summer Beer manufacturers in Japan are finding ways to maximise their sales, and big supermarket chain Aeon recently launched a ￥88 ($1) daisan (beer-like drink) onto the market.

Tax on alcohol is (compared to say the UK) very cheap, with whiskeys and other spirits in off-licenses being usually around half the price of English prices, but due to the strange Japanese beer tax system where the tax relates to the amont of malt in the beer, canned beer itself can be quite expensive.

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Read the rest of Barreal – ￥88 Fake Beer from Aeon (162 words)

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Post tags: Asahi, Daisan, Happoshu, Happousei, Japanese beer, Japanese lager, Kirin, Suntory, Third Category Beer, Third Kind Beer

Two New Daisans From Orion Brewery

MoIppai — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:12:54 +0000

Orion Rich from Japan

I came home from work the other day and found two new daisan’s (Japanese third-category beers) from Orion Brewery in Okinawa in the fridge.
Actually my wife found them in the supermarket that day, Orion Brewery didn’t send me them unfortunately, which would have been nice.

Orion beers in mainland Japan are distributed by Asahi so more than likely they’re actually made in the Asahi brewery as opposed to the Okinawan one and imported here.

Going by some of Asahi’s other Daisans I wasn’t expecting too much, but there was a glimmer of hope as the Orion Beer is pretty good.

The two daisans are the Orion Rich and the Orion Southern Star and were fairly disappointing, although the Orion Rich is possibly worth trying, especially if you haven’t tried
a daisan before as it’s one of the better ones.
They’re both very cheap too at ￥128 ($1.40).
Click the links above for more detailed reviews.

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So Just What is Happoshu Anyway?

MoIppai — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:39:22 +0000

This question bugged me for quite a while when I first discovered that Japan has 3 categories of beer, and I don’t mean lager, beer, bitter, etc.

Japanese Happoshu

Thankfully, an article in the Daily Yomiuri yesterday cleared it up for me.

The reason Japan has 3 different categories of beer is essentially for tax reasons.

Regular beer which must contain at least 67% malt is taxed at the highest rate.

Happoshu (which means “Sparkling Spirits” 発泡酒 in Japanese) contains less than 25% malt and is therefore taxed at a lower rate (which obviously means it’s cheaper to the customers).

There is a Third-Category “beer” called 第三のビール (Daisan no Biru) which basically doesn’t have any malt and is made from “other” ingredients (I believe corn, peas, soy, etc), which has an even cheaper tax rate.

Partly due to the global economic crisis, sales of Happoshu and third-type have been increasing year on year in Japan and Japanese breweries are planning to increase theis sales to more than 30% of the total beer market for the first time this year.

White Kirin

Unfortunately, the Happoshu’s and particulary the Third-category “beverages” are not very tasty, and often have an unpleasant metallic taste to them.

The best one I’ve had is Shiro Kirin (White Kirin) from, obviously, Kirin. This one is made from Malt, Hops, Barley, Rice and Corn and is actually fairly drinkable.

The best Third-Category I’ve tried is Suntory Jokky Nama and despite being a huge 8% is actually quite light and for a Third-Category beer, fairly drinkable.

Each of the main breweries have announced new beerlike beverages for this year,
1000 from Kirin, which uses hard water, Strong Off from Asahi with 7% alcohol and 60% less carbohydrates, and finally Relax from Suntory, made from seven types of hops.

Although Sapporo don’t have a new drink in the pipeline, they are reducing the price of their
Draft One happoshu.

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Beerlike drinks in Japan hit new low price

MoIppai — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:18:05 +0000

Japan has three main kinds of beers:

Normal lagers (Kirin, Asahi, etc)
Happoshu (Low Malt beers – less than 67% malt and cheaper than normal lager as tax is lower)
Third Category Beer (These are “Beerlike” drinks as they are called and the ingredients are soybeans, corn and peas as opposed to malt).

The Third Category Beers are the cheapest of the lot, and as you can imagine, taste pretty much nothing like a real beer. However due to their much lower prices, ￥120 a can ($1.20) as opposed to around ￥200 ($2) for an Asahi, they are pretty popular here in Japan.

In fact, shipments of beerlike beverages have increased about 20% so far this year (while normal beer and happoshu have dropped).

Sales are likely to increase further with Aeon Co (a large supermarket chain here) teaming up with Suntory to produce their own brand of third-category beer, Mugi no Kaori (Aroma of wheat) – I love that name , set to retail for just ￥100!! ($1).

Following this announcement, another major company, Seven & i (who own 7-Eleven I believe) are releasing The Brew, for ￥600 for 6 cans.

This, funnily enough, is also produced by Suntory – I wonder what the difference in taste will be.

This could be the start of a trend, with ever decreasing prices Shame they taste so rough though.

The beers are due to be released late July, so will look out for them and let you know how they rate.