Echigo Beer: The Brewery That Only Exists Because of a Law Change

Japanese craft beer has a start date, and it is not a gradual one. It is a law changing.

The Number That Made It Possible

Before 1994, to hold a beer brewing licence in Japan you had to produce at least two million litres a year. That is not a rule small breweries struggle with. It is a rule that makes small breweries illegal.

In April 1994 the liquor tax law was revised and that floor dropped to sixty thousand litres. Ninety-seven percent gone, overnight. Everything people mean when they say Japanese craft beer comes downstream of that one number moving.

Echigo, in Niigata, went for it straight away. They were already a sake brewery, they took a trial brewing licence in July of 1994, held a full one by December, and were selling beer by February 1995.

They are usually called Japan's first craft brewery. The honest version is slightly messier: another brewery, Okhotsk, was granted a licence before them, and Echigo opened first. Both have a claim and both get called it. What is not in dispute is that Echigo was there at the opening of the door.

Niigata is a sensible place for it. It is one of Japan's great sake regions for the same two reasons that make it good for beer, soft clean water and serious rice.

What We Pour

Five of them, which is more Echigo than most places anywhere carry.

Koshihikari Lager is brewed with Niigata Koshihikari, the rice that region is famous for. I have described it on our own menu as the world's best most boring beer, and I stand by that. It is what Budweiser would taste like if Budweiser were good. Nothing about it is trying to be interesting, and it is the beer I reach for most often. Crisp, clean, faintly sweet from the rice, and it disappears next to fried food.

Flying IPA is an American-style IPA, citrus and pine, bitter without being punishing. Good against anything spicy or heavily sauced.

Red Ale is medium bodied with caramel malt and a citrus hop lift. It took a gold at the 2018 New York International Beer Competition, which is not why we carry it, but it is a fair summary of how well built it is.

Weizen is the German wheat style, hazy, with the banana and clove the yeast produces. Soft, easy, and the one to order if you want something with body that is not heavy.

Stout is the one people miss because they have decided a Japanese brewery does not do stout. Roasted malt, hop aroma, bitter and sweet in balance.

How to Drink Them Here

Start with the Koshihikari if you are eating. It is built for the job, and a rice lager against karaage or fries is not a pairing that needs defending.

Move to the Red Ale or the Stout when the food gets heavier, or the Flying IPA when it gets spicier.

And if you have only ever had Japanese beer as a cold macro lager with sushi, the Weizen and the Stout are the two that will tell you something you did not know.