Craft beer importer Easter Craft Trading has confirmed that it would be officially bringing in the award-winning range of Fujizakura Heights beers from the Yamanashi, Japan-based brewery.

Fujizakura Heights beers are so named for its brewery and restaurant located at the foot of the towering Mount Fuji, whose fresh spring waters go into the making of the German-style beers it’s known for. Fujizakura Heights is especially lauded for its smoky rauch beers, a distinctive style of beer using smoked malts most common in Bamberg, Germany, which it makes in an attempt to reflect the scent of the trees around the brewery and restaurant.

Among other awards, Fujizakura Heights’ Weizen won Gold for World Beer Awards Asia 2013 and a Silver at World Beer Cup 2013, while its Rauch obtained a Silver at World Beer Awards 2013.

Eastern Craft Trading – which carries marques such as Ibaraki’s Hitachino Nest, Osaka’s Minoh and Kinshachi of Nagoya – first got samples of Fujizakura Heights beers over three years ago, but never did manage to bring them in. “As the best before dates on the beers were at most three months, and the beer had to be chilled from brewery to customer, we felt it was a little too challenging at that time,” shared Jeremy Reynolds, director of Eastern Craft Trading. “The brewery, too, were unsure about exporting as they feared for the condition of their beer overseas.”

But over the years Eastern Craft Trading regularly ran into Fujizakura Height’s head brewer Miyashita Horimichi at beer events in Japan, and in 2013 he finally mentioned that perhaps the time was right to consider exporting to Singapore. By that time Eastern Craft Trading had  garnered three years of experience in cold chain logistics from Japan to Singapore – especially with Hitachino Nest – and the timing seemed right to finally bring the beers in despite the really tight best by dates of three months or less.

“And with Fujizakura Heights producing some of the best German style beers in the world, Oktoberfest seems like the perfect time to release them in Singapore for the first time,” added Reynolds.

The first shipment of the beers will arrive at the end of this month, and should hit shelves by early October.

Fujizakura Heights range

Fujizakura Heights Pilsner

Maker: Fujizakura Heights
Style: German Pilsner
ABV: 5%
Volume: 330ml

Fujizakura Heights Weizen Pilsner
Maker: Fujizakura Heights
Style: Weizen
ABV: 5.5%
Volume: 330ml

Fujizakura Heights Dark Wheat
Maker: Fujizakura Heights
Style: Schwarz Weizen
ABV: 5.2%
Volume: 330ml

Fujizakura Heights Rauch
Maker: Fujizakura Heights
Style: Rauchbier
ABV: 5.5%
Volume: 330ml

Fujizakura Heights Strong Ale
Maker: Fujizakura Heights
Style: Rauch Weizen Bock
ABV: 7.8%
Volume: 330ml

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