Tuatara Travels to the Land of the Rising Sun

After a decade in the beer business, Tuatara is putting a real focus this year on getting our beers out to new markets and new drinkers. We are interested in getting into the huge Japanese beer market and so David Bernard went over to Japan to see if he could start opening up some leads for Tuatara.

The main purpose of the visit was to showcase Tuatara at the Yokohama Great Japanese Beer Festival, as well as making contact with possible outlets and distributers.

Eric Miller from the Japanese beer blog Beer+Food@Tokyo actually bumped into David at the landmark Popeye bar where they bonded over several pints and deep fried hops. Here is Eric’s description of the meeting:

“So there I am after my weekly group running/drinking club which happened to be in Ryogoku this week. Naturally, I skipped the after party in favour of a sojourn to Popeye’s, basically the destination for Japanese craft beer. I settled down for a pint and half way through the glass the dashing fellow in the middle of the photo comes in. We get to talking, have a few more pints and I learn a number of interesting things.

First, as it turns out he is David, is in town from New Zealand, and is the export manager for Tuatara Brewing. Second, the Tuatara, after which the brewery is named, is the last living dinosaur in the world, another reason why New Zealand is awesome. Finally, Aoki-sans home-grown hop tempura is delicious. I had a lot of fun and was even more excited to get to the festival and try out his and all the other beers.”

It was a fortunate meeting as David had got quite horrendously lost (several times) on the way to Popeye’s and speaks precisely no Japanese. Part of the problem was that the writing on the piece of paper he showed to eleven taxi drivers was not actually directions to the bar as he thought, but a phone number and therefore not overly useful. Somehow, he got there. Here is how he described events:

“I presented [Popeye owner] Aoki with a Tuatara t-shirt (not the one I was wearing silly) and a bottle of our fine APA. Aoki is a wonderful man and I can see why he is considered the patron of fine beer in Tokyo. Due ceremony and aplomb followed - and he can’t wait to try the Tuatara. If you are ever at Popeye’s, look out for the Tuatara t-shirt on the wall. It’s there. What a bar. What great people. Proud to be representing Tuatara!”

At the Beer Festival, David was fortunate to be working alongside Dominic Kelly from cult Wellington beer bar Hashigo Zake. Dom modestly described himself “the guy who once lived there and knows some people” but he actually has tonnes of Japanese beer experience and probably the best Japanese beer contacts of anyone in New Zealand. He wrote that his role was “helping Tuatara Brewery to spring their products on unsuspecting Japanese festival attendees. And a very successful venture it may prove to be for the local brewery.”

In his weekly newsletter, Dom later said the Tuatara APA “wowed all the industry types around us, while the civilian festival tended to be satisfied with Tuatara's IPA and Ardennes.” In his expert view, “Tuatara has taken a big step towards trading in one of the most vibrant beer markets in the Asia Pacific region.” Thanks for all your help Dom.

There are no guarantees in the export business but we are hopeful Tuatara will become a regular feature in the Tokyo beer scene. The humble Tuatara looks forward to playing with the mighty Dragons!

Kampai from the team at Tuatara