What are your favorite 10 Japanese breweries (ranked)?

5) Yorrocco. This was tough. I have them, thrash and kyoto similar. Thrash ahs really upped their game, these last few batches and so has yorocco, now the new system is tried and tested. some of Akio’s beers do nothing for me and some i find hard to drink, to be honest. The latest citrus porter, for instance i didnt care for but the latest skywalker ipa is excellent, as are so many of his beers, cultivator, dubby stout, etc.Shame hs only has a tiny system and doesn’t seem interested in expanding. love the guy, his philosophy and his beers.
4) Kyoto. Haven’t made as tinker but a few beers that did nothing for me but they are always clean and someone likes them. A few of their beers I’ve really enjoyed and would drink again, if I could just remember what they bloody were. The fancy names do me in and they all look the damn same.
3) Devil Craft hit the ground at a slow walk and have been picking up speed ever since. I don’t care for all their beers but they are paying attention to improving. I’ve been part of one of their tasting panels, getting feedback from varied sources (I wish more breweries here would do that) and man, they are really working hard on improving, across the board. They are still working out their system and yeast, etc and look to them bringing out some cracking beers this year. I put them on here more as I see them being really good, this year. Watch this space.
2) YMarket. They have cornered the hoppy market certainly but they dont do bad in other areas too. their smoky strong stout/porter i thought was crap as have been a few of their beers but they are more hit than miss and when they hit, they really hit. the American red i thought was excellent last year. id like to hit their anniversary, coming uo soon but nagoya is bloody miles away. I feel they have taken their foot off the accelerator recently and i hope they get back on it or they will drop a few places. ooooh!
1) Shiga kogen. Yes. I have to.
Smoky brown did nothing for me but sono Ju clinched it for me. Plus sexy brown, the original unaged doggie claws, strangely, plus a couple of others, mainly in harvest brew form. the variety is great to see. not a huge fan of sake or rice in beer but the yamabushi series have been a great success. Just consistent and came out with a few new winners. House is basically now a lame duck but sono ju has taken over that mantle and yes, i do basically see it as a double ipa.

honroablementions to shonan, bayernmeister, isekadoya, iwate kura, kure, outsider, ohlaho, baeren, tazawako, otaru, hideji, loco, gotenba kogen (for their contracted beers, not their house beers which IMO have suffered), and many more.
Phew! Might need another beer.

Guess again Chuwy. I thought it was pretty obvious who Chipandmo was, but maybe it isn’t.

Originally posted by shoulderbroken
Guess again Chuwy. I thought it was pretty obvious who Chipandmo was, but maybe it isn’t.

Planning to hit Y. Market this Sunday for the 2nd anniversary.
Last year was awesome. Good list of beer this time too:
·
·Smooth Trap ESB
·Liver Detroyer
·Brocade St.
·La Mosaique
·Holy Shitra
·Break Shot IPL
·Decorian
·Secret Mission PA
·Kutsurogi PA
·Meitei King
·Ghost Writer IPA
·Smokin’ Dark
·Tremelo IPA
·Purple Sky
·DelayIPA
·YMBP
·Irodori Kolsch
·Akisora Session IPL
·Wheat Wing
·Gypsy Lager
·Ardennes Red
·Black Crown
·Gambit Pils
·Yellow Sky
·Hibiscus Abbey
·Hop Monochrome Amarillo
·4 secret beers

This is my list. No order whatsoever. I had to sort out between all my 4-5 stars ratings in Untappd. Of course, still haven’t tried Yorrocco or Kyoto Brewing.

Johana Beer
Locobeer
Minoh
Swan Lake
Fujizakura
Iwatekura
Shiga Kogen
Y.Market Brewing
Atsugi Beer Co/Thrash Zone
OH!LA!HO Brewery

Johana beer making anyone’s top 10 (besides someone who hated beer and only loved sweet cocktails) was unthinkable until very, very recently. They have made great strides in the last 2 years. Used to be simply horrible.

KL, yep, you got it. And that list looks good!
Beercation, I think Will is going to hassle you to order those otherwise it will mess up his scoring system. I am excited to see the results. Guess we probably should wait for the scores from Jinroh first though.

I was thinking at first that there are too many breweries from where I have had only a few beers but when I started composing this list on paper, it actually became clear that I want to mention more than ten. Anyway, here it is:

1. Shiga Kogen
2. Y. Market
3. Zakkoku Kobo
4. Fujizakura
5. Baird
6. Sankt Gallen
7. Swan Lake
8. Baeren
9. Kiuchi
10. Yo-Ho

Ranking could also be different, right now it just happened to be like this. Wanted also to include TrashZone, Devil Craft, Yorocco, Kyoto etc. but I haven’t really had enough beers from them. I think I have had several - and even rated quite high from Minoh but not recently and when thinking back I can’t really recall anything too spectacular. Aqula and Daisen G are also usually decent, so is Nihonkai but well, compared with others I haven’t had them that often also.

1 Shiga Kogen
2 Daisen G
3 Fujizakura
4 Kyoto Brewing Company
5 Shonan
6 Swan Lake
7 Ushi Tora
8 Y. Market
9 Outsider
10 Tazawako

Popped in to Gremlin and asked him for his top 10.

1. Shiga Kogen
2. Kyoto
3. Noboribetsu
4. North Island
5. Loco
6. Y Market
7. Ise Kadoya
8. Hideji
9. Hidatakayama
10. Shonan

I have photographic evidence if people want me to prove it.