Okinawa Ishigaki Jima Beer

Well, the fun is over. I'm back at school today with a long list of meaningless tasks to do and new teachers to meet. I'm old news now though!
Okinawa was great--the weather could have been better--but what can you expect when you visit tropical isles in spring? We had a few days of rain and clouds, but the place was still amazing. I'll keep this blog mainly about booze, but I will tell you that it was on the first day there that I found myself swimming about a foot away from one of those poisonous sea snakes. If there's one thing that this KY boy don't know nothing about----it's sea snakes.

However, this KY boy does know a little bit about Ji-beer.

Okinawa does a great job of promoting its selection of craft beer. From my research on the net and my souring of the stores, I found three Okinawan Microbreweries: Okinawa Ishigaki Jima Beer, Helios, and Nihide Beer. Since I spent most of my time in Ishigaki and Iriomote, Ishigaki beer was the most readily available.

Ishigaki Beer is available at most Izakaiyas, Restaurants, and liquor stores on Ishigaki Island (and Iriomote--but there aren't many to choose from on that remote isle!). Just about every Izakaiya has a flag out front promoting both Orion and Ishigaki Beer. Orion is always a decent island standby (easy to drink light lager) and the other Ishigaki Beers were similar in price--however a bit more expensive. Most bars and beer joints sold the Ishigaki beer in bottles, but there were several bars and vendors on the street that sold it on draught.

Ishigaki makes a weizen (flagship?), pilsner, White Beer, Black Beer (dunkel), and Marine Beer. They all were pretty decent, but the red label weizen for sure was the best and the most drinkable. Being in Okinawa made drinking a fruity, malty weizen very easy--and this beer was well made. The Black Beer (dunkel) was good, and the white didn't disappoint although it's no secret that white beers aren't my favorite style. The Marine Lager was a little strange; I remember it being a little seawateryish--but I was about 4 beers deep when I tried it.

Okinawa Ishigaki Jima Beer is made near the port, so me and the girl rented a car to go visit the brewery. We arrived to find an open brewery, flags a waving, welcome sign beckoning us to enter the open back door--and not a soul in sight. We knocked on doors, yelled, "Hello!" and waited for quite a bit--but we never saw a soul. The brewery is next to a Coke warehouse and a cattle pen--nestled right in the middle of nowhere. I did notice that the brewery looked a little run down and knowing how laid back the island people are--I wasn't too surprised. I would have liked to have taken a tour and met the brewer, but I assume he was drinking his beer relaxing on the beach somewhere--'cause that's what I would have been doing.

As I said before, the Okinawan people are proud of their beer, and it shows. They don't associate themselves too much with the mainland Japanese (and its beers) so it's easy to see why they would promote their own products as much as they do. I wish that the local bars and stores (AND PATRONS!) around our microbreweries would take as much pride in their products as the Okinawans do. Everyone I asked on the island knew about Ishigaki Beer- and all had great things to say about it. I am sure you could be outside of Beer Circus in Sakae and 8 out of 10 Japanese folks you meet wouldn't have a clue what Kinshachi Beer is. (We toured the factory this weekend by the way--another post all together!)

I did have one Ishigaki taxi driver tell me to mix Ishigaki Beer with Awamori--he said it's a great island drink. I didn't heed his advice.

If you find yourself in the Island Paradise that is Ishigaki--you won't have any problem finding and trying these brews. However--stay away from Nihide Beer...nasty.


















PS- I just found a few more great pics I took: One is of the Ishigaki Jima Beer Brewery, and the other is the sign at the brewery describing their line-up. Enjoy!