Cheap "Beer" May Get Cheaper

[Mulboyne]

The "third beer" market emerged without me knowing anything about it. This article brought enlightenment.

Asahi Shimbun: Third-beer market on verge of price war

Just as the dust looked to be settling on the low-malt beer price war, a new battle appears to be brewing in an even lower-price segment-that of so-called third beer.
...The fear now is that the price war will spill over into the new segment, whose third beer retails for about 100 yen per 350-milliliter can, including tax. By comparison, happoshu sells for between 115 yen and 125 yen.
Sapporo Breweries Ltd.'s Draft One, a third-beer made from peas, went on sale nationwide in February.
...The two industry giants, Asahi Breweries Ltd. and Kirin Brewery Co., have yet to enter the third-beer market.
"If one or both of these companies were to wade into the battle, the overall market of alcoholic beverages would resemble a full-scale nuclear war,'' one industry source said. "At present, the market is in a Cold War state of uncanny parity.''

[Taro Toporific]

[Asahi Shimbun: Third-beer market on verge of price war
...The fear now is that the price war will spill over into the new segment, whose third beer retails for about 100 yen per 350-milliliter can, including tax. By comparison, happoshu sells for between 115 yen and 125 yen.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd.'s Draft One, a third-beer made from peas, went on sale nationwide in February.

Maybe that's a typo and they meant "made from pee," aka recycled beer.

For all you folks in the Real World, also note that 100 yen per 350-milliliter can of pee beer is cheaper than 120yen can of soda pop in Japan.

[Captain Japan]

I love this part:

Under liquor tax laws, Draft One, which does not use malt, is classified as a miscellaneous liquor, and Super Blue as a liqueur.

I think someone was having some fun here:

``If one or both of these companies were to wade into the battle, the overall market of alcoholic beverages would resemble a full-scale nuclear war,'' one industry source said. ``At present, the market is in a Cold War state of uncanny parity.''

For the dope on happoshu, check here.

[Mulboyne]

"Pea Beer" apparently has a (short) history
Nottingham Brewery - MUSHY PEA BEERS

We decided it should be a 4.2% golden coloured ale and it was to be brewed in the conventional way but with some mushy peas added in the mash and later further peas added to the copper at the same time as the hops. We used 5 boxes of peas on each occasion, they were not pre soaked as we felt that brewing process would achieve this.

The brew went well except that the residue of the peas clogged up the filter on the copper and it took Niven about five hours to transfer the wort into the fermenter instead of the usual 20 minutes.

The name of the beer "Double Jeopardy" came about when I was telling my fellow Notts County fans about it in the pub before a game. Like a flash one of our raucous crowd quipped "I know call it Double Jeopardy - if the beer don't get you, the peas certainly will!"

[Captain Japan]

The "third beer" market emerged without me knowing anything about it. This article brought enlightenment.

This potential "pea" boost is coming at the right time...

Japan's top 5 breweries' Aug beer, low-malt shipments down 5.9 pct yr-on-yr

TOKYO (AFX) - Shipments of beer and low-malt brewed alcohol made by Japan's top five brewers fell 5.9 pct year-on-year to 557,677 kiloliters in August, the Brewers Association of Japan and its sister low-malt liquor association said

[dimwit]

As a person who has some experience in microbrewing, I find Happoshu the antithesis of beer. No gainjin should be poor enought to be forced to drink that stuff. If getting drink cheaply is the goal, buy those huge bottles of cheap sake like all the park winos drink. As for "pee" beer, I shatter to think how bad it might taste.

[Taro Toporific]

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Tax hike threatens `3rd beer' products

The drinks that look like beer, taste like beer but aren't taxed as heavily as beer because of their ingredients have avoided the taxman's attention long enough, say government officials working on tax revisions for the coming fiscal year. So-called third beer products-Sapporo Breweries Ltd.'s Draft One and Suntory Ltd.'s Super Blue-are enjoying brisk sales, largely because of the low liquor taxes, which keep the prices down.
...Finance Ministry officials say their guiding principle is to levy the same tax rate on merchandise of the same kind. For that reason, they argue, higher taxes must be levied on third beers. Sapporo says the ministry is unfairly singling out the company for taxation. Tatsushi Iwama, president of parent Sapporo Holdings Ltd., says Draft One is "completely different" from beer and happoshu. "The product is the result of four years of development,'' he said. "If they decide to raise taxes, the tax authorities will be making light of such hard work." ...Since its debut in February, 15 million cases, or the equivalent of 300 million 633ml bottles, have been sold. The product now represents about 25 percent of the company's combined unit sales of beer and beer substitutes.
Suntory's response has been more subdued than Sapporo's, mainly because the brewer does not depend on Super Blue for sales as much as Sapporo does on Draft One. Super Blue is a happoshu mixed with shochu spirits and is classified as a "liqueur."
The Tax Commission is scheduled to finalize its recommendations for revisions by mid-December.

[Captain Japan]

Asahi: Tax hike threatens `3rd beer' products

The drinks that look like beer, taste like beer but aren't taxed as heavily as beer because of their ingredients have avoided the taxman's attention long enough, say government officials working on tax revisions for the coming fiscal year.

We are safe...for now.

'Tax hikes on beerlike drinks shelved'
Archiveless Gomiuri Shimbun

A plan to increase tax on beerlike beverages similar to low-malt happoshu beer--so-called type three beers--is set to be postponed, according to officials of a Liberal Democratic Party tax panel.

The tax hikes were to be included as part of taxation reforms planned for fiscal 2005. But senior officials of the ruling coalition party's Research Commission on the Tax System hardened their position against tax increases at a meeting held Thursday.

Type three beers are excluded from the tax categories for beer and happoshu because they use unorthodox ingredients such as pea protein instead of malt, or mix beer and happoshu with shochu (distilled spirits). The best known such drink is Draft One, produced by Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

Sapporo has strongly opposed any plan to increase the tax levied on such beverages.

"The move to impose stiffer taxes on these drinks was aimed squarely at our Draft One," a Sapporo official said. "It would have meant all of our efforts (to produce the drink) would have been for nothing."

But the panel rebuffed claims that it was merely trying to levy taxes every time a new low-priced product was developed. Rather, the panel reached a general agreement to revise the entire liquor taxation system, rather than focus on individual beverages.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: Kirin to enter market for '3rd-category beer' this spring
Kirin Brewery Co said Wednesday it will join three other major Japanese breweries this spring in offering a product known as "the third-category beer," a beer-tasting alcoholic beverage that is in a lower tax bracket because of its ingredients. The beer-like beverage accounted for about 5% of sales of beer and the like in 2004, underlying a growing demand for the new beverage, said Kirin President Koichiro Aramaki.

[dimwit]

From Japan Today

Kirin to offer '3rd-category' beer in April

TOKYO — Kirin Brewery Co said Tuesday it will start selling on April 6 a beer-like sparkling alcoholic beverage, becoming the third among Japan's four biggest beer brewers to enter the so-called "third category" of the beer market.

story here

OK kiddies what exactly are the 3 categories of beer according to Japanese law?

My guess:
Category 1 crap
Category 2 dog crap
Category 3 Articifical dog crap

[goldenboy_ge]

From Japan Today

Kirin to offer '3rd-category' beer in April

TOKYO &#8212]

story here

OK kiddies what exactly are the 3 categories of beer according to Japanese law?

My guess:
Category 1 crap
Category 2 dog crap
Category 3 Articifical dog crap

You said it!

My guess:
Category 1 crap
Category 2 dog crap
Category 3 Articifical dog crap

[FG Lurker]

For mass-market beer I would say Kirin is good and Yebisu is damn fine. Certainly light-years ahead of mass-market beers in the US. Do people actually *drink* Coors, Budweiser, Miller et al?

[FG Lurkor]

The beer choice in this country sucks!

[FG Lurker]

o[/b]r]The beer choice in this country sucks!

Yah "This is a pen" you're a loser. Get a life. It's pathetic that you have to entertain yourself by pretending to be other users.

Wanker.

[Captain Japan]

Japan turns to beer alternatives
BBC

Beer and spirits are heavily taxed in Japan, driving breweries to search for alternatives.

Japan's long economic downturn helped drive the trend, as drinkers looked for cheaper opportunities to drown their sorrows.

Now, according to Asahi Breweries, the market for so-called "beer-like" drinks is set to grow 84% this year....the rest...

[Captain Japan]

Dissension brews over beer prices
Asahi

Producers and distributors want consumers to pay more, but retailers refuse to cooperate.

Retailers are resisting moves by beer producers and distributors to raise prices.

The ferment began in January, when four major domestic beer brewers stopped giving rebates to wholesalers.

The rebates, awarded according to sales volume, have been used to compensate wholesalers for lowering their prices in the aggressive sales campaigns of recent years.

Wholesalers responded to the withdrawal of subsidies by trying to raise their prices-a move that has run into strong opposition from major supermarket operators.

Large retailers say consumers won't pay more for beer at a time when brewers are posting record profits.

The revolt is now picking up a head of steam as other retailers are set to defy wholesalers.

The fracas in the beverage industry has underscored how deflation and price-cutting have shaken up the country's once rigid distribution system....the rest...

[dimwit]

It is really sad when the tax system dictates how good (or more often bad) a beer tastes. It is even sadder when a population buys into shit beer because it is cheap. It makes it hard to take anyone seriously when they talk about the great culinary tradition in this country.

[Taro Toporific]

It is really sad when the tax system dictates how good (or more often bad) a beer tastes. It is even sadder when a population buys into shit beer because it is cheap. It makes it hard to take anyone seriously when they talk about the great culinary tradition in this country

Pee beer.... I just can't wrap my brain around that idea.


Beer...isn't it? / Japanese drinkers develop a thirst for brews made of peas and beans
Julian Satterthwaite, Daily Yomiuri, March 5
They look like beer, they smell like beer and they taste, well, not entirely unlike beer. But they're made from peas or soybeans and, perhaps most importantly, they're cheap. This new generation of beer-flavored drinks may not be the real thing, but are they the future of Japanese drinking?
It's a question that is about to be asked in earnest, with Asahi and Kirin on the verge of jumping into a market that Sapporo has had almost entirely to itself.
Like happoshu before them, these so-called third-category beers take advantage of a preferential tax rate to deliver beerlike flavor without the price tag of a regular lager.
The emergence of the new drinks owes much to the drop in demand for happoshu--the low-malt beer that was the brewers' first attempt to circumvent Japan's alcohol taxes--when its price went up after a 2003 tax hike.
Third-category drinks take advantage of a new way round Japan's alcohol taxes, and are selling so well that all the big brewers have had to enter a market created last year with the launch of Sapporo's Draft One--a beerlike drink made from peas, rather than the malt and hops used in normal beer. ...more...

[Captain Japan]

With premium 'happoshu,' low-malt no longer means low-end
Asahi

Brewers are putting a premium twist on happoshu low-malt beer with an emphasis on body and flavor, in an attempt to distinguish the drinks from lower-priced third-beer products.

In February, Kirin Brewery Co. released Enjuku, its first new happoshu in nearly a year. Sapporo Breweries Ltd. launched its new happoshu, Shizuku, in May.

Both products are intended to compete on quality, rather than price.

Enjuku uses six kinds of barley and wheat. Sapporo said Shizuku offers an excellent malt taste because of the long time taken for wort filtration.

In August, the year-on-year decline in happoshu shipments was 3.8 percent, substantially down from about 20 percent in recent months....more...

[FG Lurker]

"Near-beer" is crap and gives horrible hangovers. I bought a couple of cases last summer but never again!!

[CrankyBastard]

"Near-beer" is crap and gives horrible hangovers. I bought a couple of cases last summer but never again!!

I'll second that.
Whenever I'm on happoshu I'm always so glad when I've had enough.
That stuff's so bad it gives a whole new meaning to alcohol abuse.

[Mulboyne]

Here's a new "third beer", on sale from next month. It includes spirits so is classified differently from other beer products and attracts a lower tax. The Asahi is calling it a "fourth beer" (Japanese). It will sell for around 135 yen for a 350ml can.

[FG Lurker]

I've returned to Yebisu.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi English translation here

Suntory's Kin-Mugi is expected to hit the market June 19 while W-Dry from Sapporo Breweries will be launched June 27. Some have dubbed the new beer a "fourth-category" beer because it uses an entirely new method to produce the drink, but under government stipulations it is still classified under the third category. Although the new products are based on happoshu that has lower malt content, they are considered third-category beers because they are mixed with distilled barley.

[IkemenTommy]

The new Kirin -- the Gold isn't too shabby.
Oh wait, that's real beer though!

Just love that Abacuba song they play in the commercial.

I will not touch any beer less than <200 yen for 350ml. That is my threshold of tolerance when choosing beer.

[Captain Japan]

The new Sapporo Sugomi is 6% alcohol. I am not sure if it is third beer though. The can says happoshu.

[dimwit]

The new Sapporo Sugomi is 6% alcohol. I am not sure if it is third beer though. The can says happoshu.

If it doesn't say beer on the label it is happoshite.

[Mike Oxlong]

I can confirm...it is shite

[Visitor K]

The major Japanese breweries make some decent lagers (better than their American counterparts, in my opinion), but when it comes to a nice ale (pale ale, esb, porter....) i prefer to brew my own.
here's a good shop in kobe that sells everything you need to do the same:

http://www.bcjkobe.com/english/index.htm

anyone else here a home brewer?