27-04-2025
Craft breweries in Japan's Shizuoka push definition of beer with high-alcohol bevvies
MISHIMA, Shizuoka -- Two breweries in central Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture have joined forces to brew and begin selling a duo of hard-hitting beers with definition-pushing levels of alcohol.
The goal of Numazu-based Repubrew and Izunokuni's Hansharo Beer Brewing with their "Heaven's Door" brews was not to create refreshing beers to gulp, but to show the diverse ways that craft beer can hook people. Their products are 24.5% and 19.5% alcohol by volume, respectively.
The high alcohol content is impossible with yeasts usually used in beer, but the breweries used types developed by companies in the United States that are highly resilient to alcohol, along with five times the usual amount of malt.
Repubrew's version is brown and bitter, with fruit and hop aromas. A 330-millileter can is sold for 3,300 yen (approx. $23). As Japanese law defines beer as being below 20% alcohol, the product is categorized as a spirit. Shoma Hata, Repubrew's 34-year-old president, said, "This taste hits the spot. It's a beer I'd like you to try."
Hansharo's Heaven's Door, meanwhile, is darker, with a hoppy scent and malty aroma. A 330-mL bottle goes for 2,800 yen (around $19.60). Head brewer Junpei Yamada said, "It's an expansive-feeling beer with a sweetness you can also sense inside the bitterness."
Each of the drinks is being sold in limited quantities of 100 on the companies' own websites. Repubrew's version can also be had at two of their stores, in Numazu and Mishima.
(Japanese original by Hiroshi Ishikawa, Numazu Local Bureau)
