Shizuku Premium Lager

TASTING NOTES

The flagship offering from Shizuku Brewing is a faithfully created Japanese Lager, brewed according to German Purity Law in Western Australia using the best of Australian malts. A beer that adheres to a distinctively Japanese flavour profile, Shizuku Premium Lager was jointly developed by Jeremy Randall, owner of D’s Authentic Japanese in Connolly & partner Koji Harada, chef of D’s Authentic Japanese and formerly of Nobu Perth. Over a span of 3 years, the flagship brew had been through 25 iterations before realising its final form. Being of German Purity Law, the beer is created through the usage of only four ingredients – Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast and Water. That means no artificial colours, preservatives, sweeteners, or added sugars. Just Pure Beer.

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

Shizuku exists today simply because a couple picky restaurateurs couldn’t find the beer they wanted on the local market.

Those picky restaurateurs are Japanese Chef Koji Harada and Jeremy Randall of D’s Authentic Japanese in Connolly, Western Australia.They needed a clean, crisp yet wholesome Japanese Lager they could serve from the tap at the restaurant venue. At the time, the only imported Japanese beers available were common examples containing rice or corn as malt alternatives. To Jeremy and Koji these were not true beers, so the quest to develop a worthy Japanese style lager began. Jeremy, a casual homebrewer since he was first of drinking age took it upon himself to develop an authentically Japanese style lager in order to solve this problem. Starting at home, the very first iterations of the recipe were brewed with not much more than a big old soup pot and a nylon bag to mash in.

Jeremy knew he had to get this right. Only the best example of a Japanese style lager would be worthy of serving to his valued patrons, and he had Koji’s highly trained sense of taste to draw upon.
Before too many iterations of the recipe, the beer was inching closer and closer to where it needed to be. The most difficult problem to overcome however was consistency. Being rather difficult to achieve consistent results on budget homebrewing equipment, Jeremy sought out some help. He contacted a local university with a request to make use of their expertise and brewing equipment so that Shizuku’s recipe may be refined further. To his great surprise, the university eagerly agreed to help!

Shizuku Premium Lager (or D’s Premium Lager as it was called at the time) was refined further, and a solid recipe finalised. Moving forward a couple years, Shizuku is now being brewed in Koji and Jeremy’s very own brewery, with an incredibly capable brewer, Florian von Guttenberg at the helm to ensure a consistent result every time. With exports to Japan and other interesting projects on the way, there are exciting times ahead for Shizuku!