Author: JBT Staff

Matsuyama, the capital of Ehime Prefecture and the most populous city on the island of Shikoku, is a great destination for sightseeing, lessons in history, and culinary adventure. The city boasts Japan’s oldest onsen and one of its best preserved castles. Matsuyama was also home to some of Japan’s literary giants. Ehime as a whole is rich in natural beauty and is blessed with a mild climate common to the region. Its location at the nexus of the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific makes it a source for a varied selection of seafood, too. Among its many regional specialties,…

Lana Svitankova is the Ukrainian beer judge and advocate. If you have any questions about the style, please feel free to contact her at lana.svitankova@gmail.com, or if you decide to brew it, let her know, so she can add it to the map bit.ly/UGA_map  Beer styles are in abundance. Like the ocean, they ebb and flow in and out of fashion. They emerge from the depths or sink into the dark abyss of obscurity forever. Some are old, some are new. Some are fads that pass, some are here to stay (Forever? We’ll never know). But every now and then…

The World Beer Cup, one of the world’s largest, most prestigious beer competitions, is several months away, but registration is now open for 2025. Brewers, don’t miss your chance to enter this important competition to show the world (and Japan’s beer drinkers) just how good domestic craft beer is! Japan is a frequent medalist in this annual ‘Olympics of beer’. This past competition, Japan’s medal-winners included South Horizon Brewing, Minoh Beer, Spring Valley Brewery, Bighand Bros. Beer, Yokohama Bay Brewing, Beppu Brewery, Yokohama Beer, and DevilCraft. That haul included several gold medals. Some facts about the previous 2024 WBC: There…

Stories about how craft breweries start always involve adventure, but few seem as wild and unlikely as One Drop’s. The free spirits behind this small brewery in Botany, a suburb of South Sydney, Australia, certainly took some crazy risks and benefitted from turns of good fortune along the way. What would you be willing to do to get a business dream off the ground? Would you sell your family home? One Drop is run by husband-and-wife duo Clay Grant and Meg Barbic, as well as brewer Nick Calder-Scholes (hereafter referred to by their first names). The brewery’s name is a…

Late last year Kyoto Brewing Company faced a major transition that many breweries eventually experience if they operate long enough: the departure of a founder or long-time head brewer. In KBC’s case, it was Chris Hainge, who held both those titles. He left on amicable terms to explore new paths, leaving fellow co-founders Paul Speed and Ben Falck the task of finding his successor. They appear to have fulfilled that admirably by hiring an experienced American brewer in James Fox earlier this year. We sat down with Fox to learn more about his role in “Kyoto Brewing Company 2.0”, as…

For this article, we sat down for a discussion on the history of French hops with Sebastian Hohentanner of BET, which imports a variety of hops from France. Please give us a general overview of hop cultivation in France. When discussing alcoholic beverages in France, most people talk about wine country, but there’s a long history of beer production, too, especially in the regions that border beer countries like Germany, Belgium, and (across the channel) England. In the northeastern part of France, in the Alsace region bordering Germany, there’s also a long history of hop cultivation. Close to 99% of…

Shawn Ellis worked and lived in Japan for eleven years, and recently has worked professionally in the beer industry as an owner/brewer in the U.S. for four years. As an additional note from the Japan Beer Times: Japan has many good Belgian beer bars, and Konishi imports Cantillon Geuze. You are likely to find the beer at those bars, or you can order from their website (www.konishi.be). The website also has a search page where you can find Belgian beer bars.  Gently unwinding the wire and removing the cork on the thick, large glass bottle as the highly effervescent elixir…

Tom Ainsworth is the brewer and co-founder of Kyoto Beer Lab, a cheerful little pub on a quiet, shady back street of central Kyoto with a burbling stream running past the storefront and quaint buildings in the neighborhood. Hear his story of going from punk drummer to running one of Japan’s best craft beer businesses.  

From learning shamisen while a bomb-squad member, to English teacher then brewery founder, Gareth Burns’ life story is an interesting one. This short documentary, produced by the Japan Beer Times, gives us a peek into Burns’ past, his thoughts on life, and his relationship with Aomori.

Jonathan Newman is the Brewmaster at The Virginia Beer Company in Williamsburg, VA (imported to Japan by Cardinal Trading). He’s been brewing professionally in a number of breweries since 2011 and completed the American Brewers Guild Diploma for Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering in 2013. Twenty years ago, I spent a couple of months “studying” in Oxford, England during the summer after my sophomore year in college. Don’t get me wrong, I’d consumed plenty of cheap beer and more than my fair share of six packs of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at that point in my life, but when I…