Japanese beer companies are making beer out of peas and soy beans. They don’t taste as good as beer made with malted barley so why do they do it?
According to BeverageDaily.com it’s about tax. When the Japanese government decided to tax beer it defined it in terms of its malt content. Beers which contain less than 67% malt are classified as “happoshu” and are taxed at ¥47 yen a can. Beer-like drinks which contain no malt are taxed at ¥25 a can. The first of these "third category" beers was Sapporo’s Draft One. Within a year Sapporo sold 18.15 million cases. This month, Asahi will launch its category three beer, Shin-Nama and Kirin, will launch a product called Nodogoshi Nama.
Draft One is made using peas. Asahi’s and Kirin’s products are made with soy proteins. Beer connoisseurs argue that the brews don’t taste as good as those made with malted barley. But company spokesmen refuse to concede that the product is inferior. Sapporo marketing manager Naoki Hayashi says that Draft One is a good choice for "housewives having a tea party. They can drink Draft One instead of tea.”
If beer drinkers continue to switch to these low tax beers then Japan’s finance ministry is likely to raise the tax.
Japanese regular beers are not crash hot, so I think these beers have buckley’s of straying from the Ginza. Maybe they are designed to be drunk when well and truly pissed, when the taste buds and everything else doesn’t function too well.
You kept a straight face, or that would have taken hours to write.
Peas in beer. Strewth. The pun is obvious but I can’t cough up a killer version.
Draft One is a good choice for “housewives having a tea party. They can drink Draft One instead of tea.”
‘Yes milk and sugar, lovely.’
‘iced vo-vo anyone?’
Yummo, can’t wait to slam some bean beer down!
If you drink too much bean beer, do you get mungover?
I would like to see Bazza Mackenzie’s reaction to some of these exotic beers.
Actually Sapporo and Asahi are two of the better imported beers. I’m not sure what their local brands are like.
Actually, this could be a good alternative for people who have Celiac disease and can not ingest barley. Beer is the thing I miss the most since I was diagnosed and if there’s no malt in this beer, I’m willing to give it a try. Soy beer is better than no beer.
‘Draft One is a good choice for “housewives having a tea party.’
On the way out they could say Soyonara.
Wicking’s cartoon blog’s introductory blurb (http://wickingtoons.blogspot.com/) says “Um, I’m a cartoonist. I think I’m funny but my wife doesn’t.” Does the preceding comment give you any clues?
I drank all the different kinds of Beer and “not beer” while I was in Japan. Sapporro Draft One is cheap and nasty, most foreigners don’t realise it isn’t “real beer” – My friend Nori had to point it out to me.
The non-beers are about 70 yen cheaper per 500ml can than the regular beers. It reminds me of the beer/malt liquor dichotomy in the US.
This is either gonna be major fart fuel that’d empty a Osaka resturant booth during serious discussions about mineral sands and/or a signpost for the Japanese developing a clean green burpy way forward for their rocket program.