The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 1990–2009
Kirin brewed beer only from the first press of the wort and named the brand after it
Brewers normally blend first and second pressings; Kirin used only the premium first wort and turned a costlier process into the brand itself.
Kirin Brewery Company
the move
Kirin launched Ichiban Shibori ('first press') beer in March 1990. Normal beer blends the first and second pressings of the wort, but the development team wanted a beer made only from the clear, first-run wort, which carries the finest flavour of the malt.
The process is deliberately lavish: for a national brand built on mass production, discarding the second press and adding extra handling steps was almost unthinkable on cost grounds — German brewers called the method 'crazy', because blending is the industry norm.
The concept matched Japan's food culture, where dashi is made by drawing only the finest extract from bonito and kelp. The brand became a long-running hit, and when Kirin renewed it to 100% malt in 2009, sales rose 3.1% while the beer market fell 5.5%, passing 400 million 350ml bottles between February and June, with production raised 10%.
why it works
- First-press wort is the cleanest, richest fraction — no blending, no off-notes.
- The process is self-explanatory; the brand name tells the story.
- A deliberately wasteful step becomes the premium justification.
- It echoed Japan's dashi tradition of using only the best extraction.
what transfers
A process that deliberately wastes yield can be the clearest product story: when the costly step makes a taste customers can feel, charge for it and name the brand after it.
what came after
Ichiban Shibori became Kirin's flagship beer and a long-running pillar of the portfolio; in its 30th anniversary year, 2019, sales of the canned version reached their highest in eight years, and the first-press-only process remains the brand's core story.
references
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