Best Beer

Best Beer Japan株式会社 is a Japanese startup addressing operational problems in the alcohol trade, with a focus on craft beer. It operates three service lines. The "Craft Beer Platform" (クラフトビール・プラットフォーム) is a business-use online wholesale site for restaurants and licensed liquor retailers, offering more than 350 brands and a constant catalogue of over 4,000 products — including limited releases and categories beyond beer such as craft gin — at wholesale prices, with orders and invoicing consolidated into a single invoice and single bank transfer. A separate keg-return service (樽回収サービス), operated in cooperation with Yamato Transport, lets platform-using venues send back beer kegs without preparing waybills or bundling, from a single keg upward, cutting return shipping costs by up to 70% versus previous methods.

For breweries, the company sells an inventory management system covering keg, bottle and can stock, keg status tracking, filling and shipment records, and liquor-tax report output, accessible from staff devices; the company states it reduces brewery administrative work by 88%. Its "レン樽" (Rentaru) offering shifts kegs from purchase to rental, with long-term rental and keg-sharing plans. The company also runs a free information site publishing new craft beer release information from more than 80 participating breweries for restaurants, where transactions themselves remain direct between venue and brewery.

The company is headquartered in Asaka, Saitama (1-8-7 Honcho, 351-0011), was established in May 2018, is led by Representative Director Peter Rothenberg, and reports capital of 100 million yen.

Business model

Best Beer Japan sits between breweries and on-trade/retail buyers. Breweries can list on the wholesale platform, which handles order-to-invoice workflow and auto-generates waybills, delivery notes and invoices, and can subscribe to the inventory management system and keg rental plans; restaurants and liquor retailers register free (retailers must upload a liquor licence, with approval in about one business day on average) and purchase at wholesale prices with consolidated billing. A logistics-based keg return service is offered to platform-using venues.

Traction

Over 350 brands and more than 4,000 products listed; more than 350 breweries using its services; platform listing described as reaching over 6,000 stores; an affiliated release-information site has over 80 participating breweries. Customer testimonials cite monthly liquor-tax calculation reduced to under 30 minutes (Repubrew) and reduced workload at small breweries (Nomcraft Brewing).

Latest developments

Launch of a Yamato Transport-linked keg return service cutting keg return shipping costs by up to 70%; publication of liquor-retailer pricing enabling bulk purchasing from 300 breweries; selection for Nikkei Cross Trend's "100 companies building future markets 2026"; limited-edition coffee and tea beers released for Valentine's Day and White Day; and a one-day comparative tasting event in Osaka on 7 April featuring 110 companies and over 300 craft beers.