German wheat beer

[frank321]

Hi,
does anybody know a shop that sells German wheat beer?
Or at least any other German beer that "Loewenbraeu"?
Thanks

[dipchick]

Try Yamaya. They have a website listing locations, and have good prices as well. I haven't looked specifically for German beers, but they do have a good and changing selection.

[stillnosheep]

Is it Edel- or Hefe-weizen that you are after?

[frank321]

I'm looking for Hefe-Weizen, or (even better) Kristall-Weizen, but this is more rare.
Yamaya doesn't have it, at least not in my local store.
By the way, I noticed that Yebisu also brews German style wheat beer, but I have not seen it anywhere except their museum in Ebisu Garden Place. Anybody knows where to get the Yebisu wheat beer?

[bdmp]

kirin is selling a beer that is basically what you are looking for. it is a tan can and has the kanji for komugi (wheat) on it. put a lemon in it and its great.

[smallworld]

Have you tried the basement of a large department store?
I think that the Tobu department store in Ikebukuro has the best import liquor shop of them all, with a good selection of European beers. Also lots of lesser-known Japanese beers. Some produce German-style beers, you might want to try one.

In particular, I like Ginga Kogen's Weizen. It's the one in the tall blue bottle with the reindeer on the label:
http://www.gingakogenbeer.com/lineup/vianchn.html
If you're strictly comparing it to German beer, you might find it a little Japanized (as in lightened up), but it's a nice beer in its own right.

If you can't make it to Ikebukuro, Isetan in Shinjuku is good.

Happy drinking.

[DF]

I used to do a lot of homebrew back in the states. Thinking about ordering some gear and doing it here because decent beer is just so insanely expensive in Japan. Anyone else homebrewing?

[richard]

You were asking about German wheat beer but Ebisu is a wheat beer and can be bought in almost any sakaya. It is a bit pricy when compared to other Japanese brands but I don't know how the price would compare to the imported beers however.
R.

[DF]

I've never tried Ebisu. It's not related to Yebisu is it?

[richard]

Data
Yup - one and the same. Sorry for my typo - I typed out the name of the station (original location of Sapporo Brewery in Tokyo) instead of the correct spelling for the beer. Yebisu also has a very good black beer too. Once again price is higher than normal but taste is......well....oh sooo goooood! Enjoy!
Cheers!

[frank321]

I've been to the Yebisu beer museum in Ebisu. You can taste all their beers there (but not for free). Indeed I prefer Yebisu over the other Japanese beers, and it's only about 30 Yen more expensive.

However, in the beer museum they also had "real" unfiltered Yebisu wheat beer. This was good! But I've never seen this is a shop so far, not even at Yamaya or in one of the big department stores.

[richard]

Frank
Thanks for info. I was speaking about the bottled beer only. I suspect that what you had was the "nama" and as far as I know, this is not bottled as it would lose its fresh taste over a period of time. I've never been to the museum but after reading your comment, will have to put it on my list of things to do!
Cheers once again!
R.

[DF]

I thought Yebisu was 100% malt which makes it *real* beer unlike all those crap breweries like Kirin, Asahi, Budweiser, Miller, etc, who substitute rice or corn sugar to the beer in an endless effort to "lighten" the flavor of beer while simultaneiously lowering the cost of production. Boy, what a mouthful.

Anyway, if the beer is 100% malt, then it ain't wheat beer which is about 30% wheat. In the real beer department, I actually prefer Suntory Malt's to Yebisu. I think Suntory has a nicer real beer flavor than Yebisu which seems just a wee bit acidic to me.

As for good wheat beer (also called "weiss beer" or "hefe weizen"), the best I've had in Japan is at the Kirin Plaza brewpub at the Dotonbori Bridge in Osaka. They brew some top-notch beer there including an excellent wheat beer. Maybe there's a Kirin Plaza in Tokyo too?