Brewery Tours
The Kirin Brewery tour was next today. (Pronouced “kee-Ri-nn” long first syllable, flip the “r” and a really short last syllable. jon was corrected several times by helpful Japanese folk.)
Every half hour they led free tours that were ended with a quick beer tasting. I say quick because jon and I were literally kicked out after 20 minutes. Seriously, who can finish two full beers in 20 minutes!? Sheesh
Unfortunately, they had a strict no-camera policy which really stinks because they also had a lot of great visuals! They gave us a English brochure before the tour that talked a lot about their process and their social policies, etc. Very, very handy because the tour was all in japanese.
But that’s okay. It gave me an opportunity to play The Translation Game again!
Their brochure talked a lot about their environmental commitment, featuring Ecojiro, the environmental mascot who was created by the foam of beer. Personally, i think he looks like a cloud but i love that they tied him in to the whole theme. I also like that, despite being evil mega conglomerate, they made an effort to also be eco-conscious.
After that we went to another brewery that was on the same lot as Kirin (I believe it was the original location of the brewery) and had a quick dinner. Beer was so-so and seemed to follow that generic “I’m an asian beer” style.
On the way home we met some pandas.
And that’s all I’ve got for you. Jon just put his book away and turned off the light, so i suppose that means I should stop blogging and go to bed too.
Thanks for reading. Your comments really make my day.
A lot of Japanese people love beer foam. Perhaps more than the beer itself. A friend of mine who lived in Japan for 3 years says they had special beer mugs with rough sides on the inside to help the foam form. He was at a party one time and started to pour his beer into his glass at a 45 degree angle, at which point his Japanese friends “corrected” him and showed him how to pour beer at a 90 degree angle to maximize the foam.