Note: Jeremy is an invited blogger to Atlanta Beer Snob. He normally posts at iTooglefm on issues related to music, information retrieval, signal processing, and science.
Japan does not have a very long beer-brewing tradition and many past laws make it difficult for new tastes to emerge. Japan is dominated by four major breweries: Asahi, Kirin, Suntory, and Sapporo, which also makes Yebisu. Beyond these four, choices are rare to come by for a couple reasons. First, until a few years ago, laws prevented anyone from establishing a brewery unless they could produce on a large scale, which meant a significant investment was needed to have a full-fledged operation. Second, home-brewing is almost non-existent (again, in large part due to laws). However, Japan does have an upside: very liberal drinking laws. Beer is sold anywhere, including vending machines in train stations, etc. Just don't drink and drive (but if you are in Tokyo, you shouldn't drive anyway). Most restaurant
s will serve only one type of beer, but this trend is decreasing now that American restaurants are starting to serve a better variety in Japan.Probably the one Americans are most familiar with is Asahi. For this review, I'll give my thoughts on Asahi Super "Dry." I'm not really sure why Dry is quotation marks and Super is not in quotation marks. For that matter, I'm not really sure Super applies. Like most Japanese beers, it's a fairly generic take on beer. Ask a general beer drinker to picture a beer and you'll probably get people thinking about this beer. Lots of head, light yellow color, clear complexion. Probably not bad if you are sitting out on a deck watching football, and just want to have beer without thinking about it. It's kind of amazing that this was the best result of the Dry Wars. However, it was the beer that drove Kirin from a virtual monopoly. This also paved the way for the microbrews that are now just starting to take hold in The Land of the Rising Sun.
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