Sign inmap.beer

AtlasJapan55 on record

Japan

East Asia

Japan's oldest breweries predate most American craft brewers by a century. Sapporo dates to 1876, Yebisu to 1890. Japanese brewing took German lager technique and applied a level of process obsession that produced beers engineered for a particular meal rather than a particular mood.

Beers on record

55

Brewing since

1876

PlateJapan18 towns

Fig. 2. Circle area is beers on record for that town. Labels appear as room allows, so zooming in reveals towns rather than enlarging them. Only towns whose coordinates could be sourced are drawn, so an unmarked town means a missing coordinate rather than a town without beer. Tiles from OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles, data from OpenStreetMap.

Towns as a table18

Towns in Japan with beers on record
Town	Beers
Karuizawa	16
Tokyo	8
Ibaraki	7
Niigata	5
Osaka	2
Hōki-chō	2
Naka	1
Nago	1
Kawagoe	1
Yokohama	1
Numazu	1
Atsugi	1
Yamanouchi	1
Nagoya	1
Uji	1
Kanagawa Prefecture	1
Onuma	1
Mitaka	1

The colour of these beersSRM 4–40 · median 6

Styles here

On the recordcounted from 55 beers

Strength

The median is 5.3% ABV. Half of them fall between 5.0% and 6.6%. Measured on 48 of the 55; the rest carry no strength.

Strongest Beer Ball16.0%
Weakest Kirin Light3.2%

The record here

Breweries23
Towns19
Styles18

Oldest brewery with a sourced year: Kiuchi Brewery, 1823.

Oldest beer with a sourced year: Hitachino Nest Beer, 1996.

These are facts about this record, not about the world. They are counted from the beers on file, and the atlas is only as deep as its sources: 74% of everything it holds is American or Dutch, because that is what the bulk import reached, not because that is where beer is. So the styles most often recorded in Japan are not necessarily the ones most often brewed there, and a country with few beers here has a thin record rather than a thin brewing scene.

55 beers

Yokohama, Japan

Sapporo Black Label

Asahi Super Dry

Baird Rising Sun Pale Ale

Karuizawa, Japan

Hitachino Nest White Ale

Suiyoubi no Neko

Karuizawa, Japan

Beer Ball

16%

Dōjimahama, Japan · 2022

The Premium Malt's

Shiga Kogen House IPA

Yamanouchi, Japan

Sankt Gallen Sweet Vanilla Stout

Aooni (インドの青鬼)

7%

Karuizawa, Japan

Beer Works Ale Golden

Nagoya, Japan

Boku Beer Kimi Beer (僕ビール君ビール)

4.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Busby Stout

Uji, Japan

English barley wine

Daisen G Barley Wine

9%

Hōki-chō, Japan

Daisen G Weizen

5%

Hōki-chō, Japan

Draft

11%

Tokyo, Japan

Edomae

Tokyo, Japan

Existing Is Exhausting

7.4%

Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Flying IPA

5.5%

Niigata, Japan

Hitachino Nest Celebration Ale 2006

9%

Ibaraki, Japan

Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout

7.5%

Ibaraki, Japan

Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale

7%

Ibaraki, Japan

Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Brew

8%

Ibaraki, Japan

Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout

4.5%

Ibaraki, Japan

Hitachino Nest XH

8%

Ibaraki, Japan

Imported Black Stout Draft

Tokyo, Japan

Ise Kadoya Stout

5%

Japan

Karuizawa Beer Craft Saurus (軽井沢ビールクラフトザウルス)

5.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Karuizawa Kogen Wild Forest (軽井沢高原ビールワイルドフォレスト)

5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Kirin Light

3.2%

Japan

Kolsch

Onuma, Japan

Koshihikari Echigo Beer

5%

Niigata, Japan

Kuronama

Tokyo, Japan

MITAKA ALT

4%

Mitaka, Japan

Premium Red Ale

5.5%

Niigata, Japan

Sorry Nippon Citrus Ale

4.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Sorry Sakura Mochi Stout

6%

Karuizawa, Japan

Sorry Umami IPA

6.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

SunSun Organic Beer

5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Tokyo Black (東京ブラック)

5%

Karuizawa, Japan

New England IPA

Uchoten Aliens (有頂天エイリアンズ)

6%

Karuizawa, Japan

Uradori no Dondabada (裏通りのドンダバダ)

6%

Karuizawa, Japan

Weizen for a relaxing time

5%

Niigata, Japan

Yama no Ue New'ee (山の上ニューイ)

4.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

American Pale Ale

Yona Yona Real Ale

5.5%

Karuizawa, Japan

Zenryaku Konominante Kiitenaize Sorry Session Yuzu Ale (前略好みなんて聞いてないぜSORRY セッション柚子エール～あら塩仕立て～)

4%

Karuizawa, Japan

Hitachino Nest Beer

Ibaraki, Japan · 1996