This is the Next Craft Cola!
Craft ginger beer made by Chomage brewers.<Part 1>.

In the non-alcoholic craft drink market, this year Doripura is focusing on ginger beer, the original ginger ale.What does this locally produced "fermented ginger ale" made by Saitama Prefecture's Chonmage entrepreneurs taste like?

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

Once you see it, you will never forget it!Mr Shuto is iconic in his chonmage and kimono.He has been wearing a chonmage since July 2020 and is the Chonmage Saitama representative.

Ginger beer, from Saitama to the world!

You like to drink, but want to sober up today, or you like it but want to enjoy it in smaller quantities.Or you like alcohol, but want to enjoy it in smaller quantities. ...... The demand for non-alcoholic and low-alcohol drinks is increasing due to diversifying lifestyles, and ginger beer is the up-comer in the non-alcoholic market.

Introduced this time is GINGER SHOOT, a made-in-Japan ginger beer or "fermented ginger ale".

Why ginger beer in Saitama?The key to the answer lies with Koichi Shuto, the impressive representative of Shoga-no-Mushi, with his chonkamage and kimono.

The company he founded, Ginger No Mushi, was the first in Japan to specialise in brewing ginger beer (fermented ginger ale).

GINGER SHOOT honey bee is made from longan flower honey with a gorgeous fragrance reminiscent of lychee.

A drink enthusiast by nature, Zhou Dong worked for a major liquor shop after graduating from university.

After several years as a company employee, he was unable to stop himself from exploring the world, so he became a sake taster and moved to Taiwan.He even worked as an exclusive sake taster at a local Japanese restaurant.

Mr Zhou Dong's first foray into the world of craft drinks was when he served homemade ginger beer at his wife's parents' home in Taiwan.

His parents had a large surplus of ginger given to them by a neighbour, so he searched for a ginger beer recipe that would allow him to consume it.

Since home-brewing is not illegal in Taiwan, I made an adaptation of the recipe and brewed ginger beer with alcohol, which turned out better than expected.

My in-laws were so pleased that they started distributing it to their neighbours, which was well received!To their surprise, their neighbours started making it as well.

In addition to the great taste, the power of herbal medicines to warm the body from the core seems to match the winters in Taiwan, where there are no heaters.

In a ginger field using fallow land in Minuma Ward.

Local ginger-growing started on fallow land.

After returning to Japan, Shuto says that he could not forget the feeling of being able to make people happy with something he had created.

One day, when he was still feeling this way, he bought vegetables and eggs directly from a farmer in the city.At the time, Mr Shuto was buying vegetables and eggs directly from farmers in the city, but on his way to the farmer's as usual, his eyes suddenly caught sight of the fallow land around him.

'I looked it up and found that ginger cultivation used to flourish here.

I wondered if something could be done with the fallow land and ginger, and the dots were connected to form a single line of locally produced ginger beer."

Brewery in a converted empty house found in Saitama City.

Here is a brief review of ginger beer.

Ginger beer is a drink that originated in 18th century England and is made by fermenting ginger, spices and sugar.

It is a fizzy drink that uses natural gas produced during the fermentation process.

It is now established as a non-alcoholic drink, but in the past it was also known as Ginger Beer, with an alcohol content of 10% or more.

During Prohibition, non-alcoholic versions were produced and were not only drunk as a substitute for alcohol, but were also useful as an ingredient to make bad moonshine easier to drink.

As we know, various cocktails were subsequently created.

Incidentally, not a few families in modern Britain also make their own homemade ginger beer by hand.

The main difference between ginger ale and ginger ale, which is made from concentrated syrup and carbonated, is whether or not it undergoes a fermentation process.

GINGER SHOOT, which is fermented to give it a deeper flavour, follows traditional production methods and has a very authentic taste.

GINGER SHOOT can be drunk straight and has great potential as an additive to mocktails.

And of course, we also recommend it for cocktails.As you know, Moscow Mules and Shandy Gaffs were originally made with ginger beer.

Modern recipes have replaced them with ginger ale, but we would love to give you a taste of classic cocktails with recipes using real ginger beer.

So, what base spiritsand what ingredients do they work well with?

In the second part, we asked Yasuhiro Yamashita, owner-bartender of the Omiya cocktail bar The Bar Vieux Carre2 (formerly The Bar Sazerac), to help us examine the compatibility of GINGER SHOOT with a variety of spirits and styles.and the compatibility of GINGER SHOOT with a variety of spirits and styles.


Continued in Part 2.