Beer and the Jizake Breweries

Beer came to Japan from the West and was brewed there only in the nineteenth century, when Western brewing methods were adopted and large breweries were established. From those houses beer spread across the country, and it became the most popular alcoholic drink in Japan by a wide margin, although sake is still called the national drink. The major brewers set the accepted style of Japanese beer, while many small brewers now work in a variety of styles beside them.

Beer in Japan, in the usual sense of the word, means a pale, bottom-fermented lager brewed by one of the large houses, and its character is gathered in a single word: dry. Asahi Super Dry, Kirin Ichiban and Sapporo stand as the names that fix the style for the drinker. Small modern breweries make beers in every manner, and in this chapter they sit alongside the jizake breweries, the local makers of sake, as the other regional craft of drinking.

Beer is drunk throughout Japanese eating: in the izakaya, in the ramen shop, and at the gyoza specialist, where the menu may list only gyoza, pickles and beer. A crisp Japanese beer is held to be inseparable from a dish such as reba nira, and it suits fried and savoury food, including pan-fried dumplings and quickly stir-fried steak, with rice alongside. The structural reason is that a dry, cold, lightly bitter beer cleans the palate of oil and salt and leaves it ready for the next mouthful.