Kure Beer

Kure Beer is located in the Kure (not just a clever name!) about 2 minutes from Kure station. That simple fact means extra points from the start. Just walk out of the station and take a right, you will see Kure beer on your right just after you cross the bridge.
Kure Beer is somehow associated with the Naval museum in Kure, but I am not exactly sure how. I know that somewhere that info is available, but it is probably in Japanese and will remain hidden from foreigners until I can get my girlfriend to read the site or I decide to start studying. Don't hold your breath for either of those to happen anytime soon.
All of the beers have a maritime theme, and many Japanese Navy goods can be purchased at the gift store inside the restaurant. They make four beers: an alt, a weizen, a kolsch, and a pilsner. The Alt and the Kolsch recently took home gold medals from a 2008 international beer competition and the Pilsner finished respectably with a bronze. Gold medals are usually a good sign of good beer, and this case was no different. The Alt was the best I have had in Japan, and the Kolsch was interesting and flavorful and made me change my opinion of Kolsch style beers somewhat. I stress somewhat. This Kolsch was very cloudy like a weizen but lacked the fruity punch. I didn’t have a chance to taste the weizen, but the pilsner was ordinary but still good—very well suited to the Japanese taste for beer.
The beers were served in custom glasses that were big. Finally! Full they held about 700ml, although when poured correctly is worked out to about 500ml beer and 200ml head—perfect.
We drank our beers with some very average food (we were there for the beer, but the food at Ebisu no Utage is MUCH better) and then took some pictures. While checking out we asked if the master brewer was in, and to our surprise we were asking the master brewer! Sasaki-san is extremely nice and let us take a picture with him while we all three wore the real medals that his beer won in the international competition this year!!! Amazing! We talked a bit about ji-beer in Japan and he was very excited to learn that foreigners would read this about his beer.
If you are in the area you must visit Kure beer. First, the beer is great. Second, because Sasaki-san is a badass who deserves our support. Stop in and ask for him. Tell him you read about his beer on this site. Maybe he will give you a free beer!
Kure beer is also a 5 minute walk to the harbor where there are Japanese naval ships that you can tour. If we had arrived ten minutes earlier, we could have toured a huge Japanese submarine, but we were a tad bit too late. The sub tour is free, and I’m not sure how much entrance is to the other ships. There is a huge department/supermarket near the submarine that sells Kure beer, but it is 80 yen more expensive per bottle to buy the beer there. At the restaurant the beer is 500 yen per bottle, and there are many gift packages that you can buy.
Kure beer is by far the best beer I have had in the Hiroshima area. The alt is very good, and you need to drink it. Their specialty now is HOT ALT. No joke. They heat the alt to 50 degrees Celsius and bring it to you in a mug. After you taste it first they put cinnamon sticks in the mug. After the second taste they add sugar to the mug. I opted to drink my Alt the cold original way, and passed on the Hot Alt. (Actually I was going to try it, but when we started talking to Sasaki-san I forgot all about it!)
Hot or cold, Kure beer is delicious. Add to it the fact that the beer is associated with history and it just gets better. Pile on that the Kolsch beer’s name is “Kujira Beer” or “Whale Beer” and you have a winner. Good beer with a good name.
It doesn’t get much better than that.