Brewing Your Own Beer in Japan
- Thread starter DrCoffee
- Start date
Keihan
Teacher Of The Year
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2019
- Messages
- 2,365
- Reaction score
- 4,598
I had an idiot hippy uncle who used to brew beer in his home, and just be aware that it can royally stink up the place. After all, you are encouraging a yeast fermentation process indoors, and as in other situations that I'll leave to your imagination, fermenting yeast can be quite unpleasant to the nose. Fortunately, with the advent of medical marijuana licenses this same uncle has now taking up growing weed, instead.
But if you are going to go ahead and try it, as I understand the process--and I've never tried home brewing before--the lagers are the most difficult to make and easiest to fuck up, while ales are quite a bit more beginner-friendly. Just order one of those kits online and you'll probably be fine. For me, personally, I see it as spending $30 for on a labor-intensive, multiple week project that in the end yields you a couple of gallons of warm brew that will probably taste like ass--I'd rather just cut out the work and pop into a good craft beer bar, of which Tokyo has quite a few.
It’s illegal to brew your own beer in Japan without a license, even just fur personal consumption. That’s why there are no stores that sell supplies.
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2011
- Messages
- 13,316
- Reaction score
- 36,378
It’s tolerated as long as you don’t sell it, and you can buy all the supplies at Tokyu Hands.
Yes, I checked with a policeman friend. Unless you are actively selling it they leave you alone. I plan to do it at my holiday shack and I realize it may raise a few eyebrow so I plan on being discreet.
One of my friends brews in Australia. The first few batches tasted foul but after that it was great. A bit labor intensive but it's one way to pass time in the boondocks.
Anyone else do it?
One of my friends brews in Australia. The first few batches tasted foul but after that it was great. A bit labor intensive but it's one way to pass time in the boondocks.
Anyone else do it?
NorthTriangle
TAG Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2019
- Messages
- 108
- Reaction score
- 151
Unless you specifically and absolutely need for it to be beer, if your goal is to get a decent percentage of alcohol with minimal fuss - and still have something drinkable - there are a lot of easy ways to make wine.
I know this as a recently failed attempt to make tepache ( a mildly alcoholic fermented beverage that uses pineapple rind ( and the yeast on it ), water , and a few cups of sugar / brown sugar … ) ended up as something stronger , and unintentionally pushed my little project into the wine category.
What happened was that there probably wasn’t enough yeast on those pineapple rinds, so primary fermentation failed to take off. So, I used simple baker’s yeast mixed into a slurry of warm water and a bit of sugar … slipped it in , and saw it take off with lots of CO2 bubbling as the yeast ate the sugar … farts CO2 and pisses alcohol. And, I added tons more sugar … the amount of sugar is a big factor in how much alcohol gets produced; there is no such thing as a low sugar , high alcohol output recipe.
After primary fermentation, I moved it to secondary a bit too early, and was nervous as my set up was likely to create a dangerous fermentation bomb if I insisted on using flip top bottles to seal in all that CO2 still bubbling up. But I monitored it like a son of a bitch , “burping it” all the time, and at the same time , avoided the wrong type of fermentation that gets you vinegar instead ( it’d still be a good vinegar for cooking ).
If I do it again, I’d get a proper inexpensive set of airlock stoppers that keep out the shit bacteria but let the CO2 escape.
And, if looking to get some CO2 in the bottle , use proper ones that can withstand enough pressure ( I had these bottled from IKEA that look like the Grolsch beer bottles but probably are lacking in pressure specs — you could use old Grolsch bottles but the green tint won’t let you monitor what’s inside ) , but also store them in a camping cooler ( Eskie) just in case a bottle does blow.
There’s this old bearded guy on YT who has a guide for making it with minimal equipment , yet isn’t prison hooch. It’s an easy way to get started , and after that , you can decide if you want to pursue more ‘proper’ methods:
Since you’re not distilling - there’s no risk you’ll be making methanol.
Another ghetto method of distillation - let’s say you have a fairly strong brew/wine at 20+ ABV ( you’ll know if by that time you bought a hydrometer ) , but want it stronger. As done with Apple cider, you can reverse distill or freeze distill it. I saw some guy freeze his wine / cider in what looked like a triangular sous vide bag, then let the thing drip out as the alcohol unfroze first into a funnel.
I know this as a recently failed attempt to make tepache ( a mildly alcoholic fermented beverage that uses pineapple rind ( and the yeast on it ), water , and a few cups of sugar / brown sugar … ) ended up as something stronger , and unintentionally pushed my little project into the wine category.
What happened was that there probably wasn’t enough yeast on those pineapple rinds, so primary fermentation failed to take off. So, I used simple baker’s yeast mixed into a slurry of warm water and a bit of sugar … slipped it in , and saw it take off with lots of CO2 bubbling as the yeast ate the sugar … farts CO2 and pisses alcohol. And, I added tons more sugar … the amount of sugar is a big factor in how much alcohol gets produced; there is no such thing as a low sugar , high alcohol output recipe.
After primary fermentation, I moved it to secondary a bit too early, and was nervous as my set up was likely to create a dangerous fermentation bomb if I insisted on using flip top bottles to seal in all that CO2 still bubbling up. But I monitored it like a son of a bitch , “burping it” all the time, and at the same time , avoided the wrong type of fermentation that gets you vinegar instead ( it’d still be a good vinegar for cooking ).
If I do it again, I’d get a proper inexpensive set of airlock stoppers that keep out the shit bacteria but let the CO2 escape.
And, if looking to get some CO2 in the bottle , use proper ones that can withstand enough pressure ( I had these bottled from IKEA that look like the Grolsch beer bottles but probably are lacking in pressure specs — you could use old Grolsch bottles but the green tint won’t let you monitor what’s inside ) , but also store them in a camping cooler ( Eskie) just in case a bottle does blow.
There’s this old bearded guy on YT who has a guide for making it with minimal equipment , yet isn’t prison hooch. It’s an easy way to get started , and after that , you can decide if you want to pursue more ‘proper’ methods:
Since you’re not distilling - there’s no risk you’ll be making methanol.
Another ghetto method of distillation - let’s say you have a fairly strong brew/wine at 20+ ABV ( you’ll know if by that time you bought a hydrometer ) , but want it stronger. As done with Apple cider, you can reverse distill or freeze distill it. I saw some guy freeze his wine / cider in what looked like a triangular sous vide bag, then let the thing drip out as the alcohol unfroze first into a funnel.