Get ready for Shibuya Beer.
We already have Tokyo Black, made by the same people as Yona Yona, as well as Tokyo Ale.
So why not a craft beer for one of Tokyo’s most vibrant neighborhoods?
Shibuya Beer will go on release on “Shibuya Day” on April 28th. It will be served at Udagawa Cafe and six other restaurants in the Shibuya area.
This being a Shibuya-themed drink, the ingredients are understandably colorful. It features grapefruit and also Peruvian “superfood” maca, which is apparently a world first. The 5%-proof beer comes in 330ml bottles.
No surprise here that the drink is made by the always inventive Sankt Gallen, who recently gave us a cherry blossom-tasting brew.
Actually, scratch that: this is a bit of a surprise, since Sankt Gallen is not Shibuya-based. It’s located out in Kanagawa Prefecture! (But hey, Yo-Ho Brewing make “Tokyo Black” but they are based in Karuizawa, Nagano.)
Sankt Gallen’s frequently sweeter beers are popular with ladies. Part of the growing craft beer trend in Japan, which has manifest itself in an explosion of snazzy bars around Tokyo and beyond (including the much-publicized arrival of BrewDog), as well as lots of beer events and publications, has been the marketing of craft beer as an ideal drink for dates.
In the same way that Japan’s main beer makers have tried to experiment with “cool” beers and other special drinks and bars to appeal to a young demographic in the face of reduced sales, the craft beer brewers and bars have discovered that their offerings have a lot more versatility. They can use all kinds of interesting flavorings to make summer-themed and girl-friendlier brews, plus, being a little pricy anyway, they can also splash out in serving nice cuisine. The result is that craft beer bars in Tokyo are massive date night locations, and we don’t just mean for foreigners to take their latest squeeze. You can always find plenty of younger Japanese couples there too, looking forward to enjoying some nice food and unusual beers.
There is even a magazine for girls and craft beer.
