Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Kirin beer goes retro again, bulks up

Kirin beer goes retro again, bulks up

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 6, 2008 at 12:06 am | In Marketing & Ad Trends |

It would be quite possible to regularly maintain a blog entirely devoted to new beer developments in Japan (I am sure it’s out there), but we try to be picky about which ones to cover. But with two new releases from Kirin this fall, and neither of them promising no sugar or sporting a fancy European name, we thought it was worth a second look.

You see, Kirin is Japan’s original domestic brew and was long synonymous with beer, controlling the post WWII market clear until the turn of the millennia when Asahi won the crown, mostly thanks to the overwhelming popularity of Super Dry. So it looks like Kirin wants to remind consumers of those glory days with the plan to re-re-release (they did it in 2006) limited edition beers recreating original Meiji and Taisho brews both inside and out, in honor of the company’s 120th anniversary.

Meiji Lager will have a “thick and bitter” flavor while the Taisho Lager will combine “richly bitter” and “mellow” tastes. Priced at an acceptable ¥217 we’ll have to sample them to figure out what those descriptions really mean. Both are available from December 10th.

Editor’s note: The Meiji Era beer is stil the best beer I’ve ever had in Japan, so I’m looking forward to tasting it again after the first re-release!

For more immediate gratification, Kirin has also launched Strong Seven, a “dai-san” beer weighing in at 7% alcohol content. Dai-san or “third category” beers are actually beer-like beverages made with little or no malt and spiked with an additional spirit.

These third category beers are taxed at a lower level and are thus cheaper—Strong Seven will set you back only ¥147 for all that alcohol and is available from the end of October.