Author: JBT Staff

By Chris Macomber, the Head Brewer at Libushi Bashamichi (part of Anglo-Japanese Brewing) in Yokohama. Growing up in Oregon was great for a number of reasons–lots of good people, easy access to a wide variety of outdoor activities, and a strong sense of community are just a few. As I got older all the great beer produced in Oregon was another aspect that has greatly influenced me throughout my life, inspiring me to become a professional brewer myself. By the time I turned 21 I had moved to Portland from my hometown of Salem, Oregon. Even in the mid-1990s we…

by Lars Marius Garshol  Saisons used to stand out as this odd style of beer that wasn’t actually made in a brewery, but was instead made by farmers for enjoyment on the farm. Over the last few years it has started to sink in that saisons are just the tip of the iceberg. People realized, for example, that Finnish sahti and Swedish gotlandsdricke are also farmhouse ales. Which is odd. How much does the Finnish countryside, a Swedish island in the Baltic, and western Belgium have in common? Not much beyond farmhouse brewing turns out to be the answer. This…

By Momoyo Kagitani, Brewmaster at LocoBeer in Sakura, Chiba. Kölsch is one of my favorite beer styles. Its birthplace is historic Cologne, Germany, a city along the Rhine River dotted with remnants of ancient structures from the days when the Roman Empire’s reach encompassed the area. Kölsch ranges from straw-colored to golden in hue. It must be completely absent of chill haze. Ideally, it should have a somewhat frothy head with substantial head retention. There should be little to no fruity esters. If present, there will be hints of pear, apple or Riesling, accompanied by a wine-like character. Noble hops…

By Chris Poel who is the Chief Brew Officer at Shiokaze BrewLab, Chiba City. Anyone who has known me for longer than a minute knows that I love hops. There’s nothing better than nice hoppy aroma and clean bitterness. I’ve never met a hop I didn’t like. Well, there are a couple that I don’t much care for, like Sorachi Ace or Cluster, but overall hops are the gods’ gift to mankind. Given my affinity for hops, you might naturally guess that my favorite beer style is IPA in all its many wonderful iterations. Well that’s not the case. For…