On Friday, May 22, the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo held an event to announce that Swedish craft brewers will be throwing their collective hats into somewhat crowded Japanese craft beer market. Ambassador Magnus Robach opened the event with a warm welcome to the guests and led the group in a toast to the tasting session that followed the presentations.

The keynote speaker was Pelle Stridh, editor-in-chief of “℅ HOPS” magazine, the king of craft beer journals in Sweden. He spoke to the attendees about the history of Swedish beer and the current craft beer scene. According to Stridh, Sweden has a long brewing history that experienced a boom in the mid 1800s. In 1890 the country boasted more than 500 breweries. Sadly, similar to America, the foolishness of prohibition caused the death of nearly all of them in the early 20th century.

Over 100 years later, in 1988, there were only 9 breweries in the entire country–none really doing anything craft-like. But as has happened in quite a few countries around the world, there were changes in laws that allowed for an eventual craft beer boom to get underway. From 2000-2012 the number of breweries increased by 400%. In the short span between 2013 and 2015 the number took a massive leap from 70 to 170. For a country of less than 10 million people, that’s a rather impressive number.

Breweries present at the event included Dugges, St Eriks, Beer Studio, Sigtuna Brygghus, Flying Brewery, Mora Bryggeri and Solsidan. CAP Brewery, which is already imported to Japan through Whisk-e Limited, joined in the tasting session as well. The warmth of Swedish hospitality was on full display, as members of the embassy mingled with guests to chat about beer and their homeland well after the scheduled ending time of the event.

While their beers were of solid quality, one has to wonder if they can compete in the Japanese market with local brands, not to mention with those from America, Belgium and other countries with strong footholds and a pricing advantage. Trying to achieve this with Swedish-brewed American pale ales and wit beers will be an uphill battle indeed. Sweden, wow us with something unique from your beautiful country and that hill may be a little less steep! We are waiting with anticipation and, of course, cheering for your success. Skål!