Japan: A Japanese brewery intends to produce a tomato-based low-malt beer

A Japanese brewery, Echigo Beer Co., and a determined pub owner in Tokyo, Isamu Waki, have gathered forces to produce a tomato-based low-malt beer, Japanese media communicated on December 11. The new low-malt beer brand, Tomato Bibere, combines the sweet flavour of a tomato with the bitter taste of hops. One tomato is used in the production of each 330ml bottle of reddish beer.

Echigo Beer is producing beer from rice, pears and even green tea. "I was overwhelmed by Waki's enthusiasm for the project, so I decided to go for it," said Hirofumi Koda, president of Echigo Beer Co., who himself does not care for tomatoes.

The master brewer aimed at making a healthy drink, so all of the ingredients are organic. Since tomatoes are fibrous and have a low-sugar content, filtration and fermentation were especially difficult. The first trial product, which took five months to make, was watery and barely tasted of tomatoes. Koda called it vile. Koda and Waki tasted various trial versions of the beer by altering the amount of tomatoes and by increasing the sugar content to improve the beer they finally released.