Hasta La Gadget!

As beer becomes increasingly popular around Asia, the demand for better quality, premium beer is likely to rise. Our friends over at COEDO have done an incredible job pairing great beer with modern Japanese design and getting global accolades, so it’s great to see more of it coming out of Japan.

Image via draftbeer.jp

Recognising this trend Nippon Craft Beer began offering Kagua, a luxury craft beer; is actually brewed in Belgium by the Japanese creators, but infused with Japanese herbs and special yeasts, designed for high-end dinning.

Launched in March last year (2012) at Toyoda and Gora Kadan in Tokyo’s expensive Ginza quarter, Kagua is now sold in over 170 haute-cuisine restaurants and bars across Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

After restaurant dinners requested to buy the beer to drink at home or to give to friends as gifts Nippon Craft foods began selling the beer at Matsuya department stores in Ginza and then offered limited quantities of Kagua online in cases of six, which all became sold out after just a couple of weeks. From March 2013, Kagua will also be sold in cases of twelve to celebrate the first anniversary of the beer. One 330 ml bottle of Kagua costs 630 Yen (US$6.8).

In an interview with Nikkei’s Trendy magazine, Mr Shiro Yamada of Nippon Craft Beer commented that the growth in demand for craft beer is extremely fast paced and overtaking the boom in popularity for traditional Japanese shochu and sake. The Video bellow features a presentation by Mr Yamada in English.

Kagua’s unique taste is supposed to derive from the mixture of  Japanese herbs such as yuzu citrus and sansho pepper, which are seldom used in beer production and the use of high quality yeasts specially selected from some of the world’s best beers. In order to ensure smooth production, Nippon Craft Beer teamed up with an experienced Belgian brewer as (according to Nippon Craft Beer) there are no facilities in Japan which can accomodate Kagua’s original recipe.

There are two varieties of Kagua beer; Blanc and Rouge (pictured bellow).

In Kagua Blanc (above left) , flavour is dominated by the yuzu citrus and yeast. Kagua Rouge (above right) is a mix of spicy sansho papper and roasted malt.

Image via draftbeer.jp

To fully appreciate Kagua’s original taste, it is recommended to drink it from a wine glass.

In Japan’s highly competitive beer market, Kagua has differentiated itself  as exclusively a luxury, high-end beer suited for restaurant dinning. As the beer was only launched a year ago it will be interesting to see how the popularity for the beer develops in Japan and across Asia among the wealthy who’s tastes and demand for beer becomes more sophisticated.