Cans,Bottles,Kegs!
This next post I am writing out some of the container situation I have observed in Japan. I have only got Canada to compare against in my experience but there are quite a few interesting differences that I want to make a note of for others (and to document them for myself).
Cans (aluminum bottles): A lot of the beer in Japan is sold in cans, and most of the market is for light lagers as is the case pretty much everywhere. Asahi sells big aluminum 2L bottles with a twist cap, I have never reused them but I think it would be fairly convenient if they can hold the pressure of bottle conditioning (do a test first, I have seen videos of people conditioning in mini-kegs that ballooned under pressure). The 2L aluminum bottles have a handle, which is pretty cool. I have seen them in Canada as well as Japan, so check out your beer store if you are interested and in another country. There are lots of twist-lid aluminum bottles used to sell cold coffee in stores as well, so you could theoretically collect a bunch of them and use them instead of glass bottles?
Here is a link to the product page of the coffee I have, (made by one of the big beer companies too haha!) its nice that it has stout body, a wider mouth, holds 400 ml, and of course beer will never get light-damaged in a metal can. You could spray paint your aluminum bottles to hide the manufacturers logos if you want.
Bottles: Called "bins" in Japanese, glass bottles are an interesting lot. The places that a lot of bottles are consumed is at restaurants and bars/izakayas/snacks(these are old style bars with old women bartenders). At craft beer bars you will find a lot more selection and often bottles of local brews for take home. Some of the local breweries may only sell bottles onsite. I have yet to see any growlers in use anywhere in Japan, but I am not so well versed in the bar scene as I do not have much money at the moment (1 pint of craft beer usually costs about $10 unless it is on special).
There are 2 systems for bottles that I have noticed in Japan.
1. The first one is for the big bottles brewed by the big 3 breweries. I don't remember the exact size, 750 or 1000ml? Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo each have their own big bottles with their logos molded directly in the glass, usually sold at restaurants for consumption on premises. The breweries reuse these bottles (only their own of course), and there is a collection system based on 3rd party bottle collectors who buy the empty bottles by the crate from the businesses and then sell them back to the breweries. You can buy these bottles for quite cheap, they take crown caps and have paper labels with an easily removed adhesive. Filling a batch of beer in them is going to require less bottles, and you can buy the crates that are designed for storing them at the same time. Just talk to a business that has some sitting outside their bar, they have generally been rinsed out so that they don't create a smell or attract flies while waiting for a bottle vendor to come get them. It's not cool to just take them, even though they appear to just be sitting out with the garbage; the business owner gets a few dollars for each crate and you can afford to give that to them. Obviously you should give them a real good cleaning, they may have baked in the summer sun! You can buy unscented bleach and bottle brushes at the 100 yen shops as stated in the above post about cleaning supplies.
2. Craft beer bottles are not collected by the breweries as the craft brewers are too small to afford a collection fee and their bottle distribution would be so insignificant that it would be unreliable. Due to this, pretty much all the craft bottles actually COST the business owner money to dispose of them. The money they make on the big 3 offsets the cost of recycling the craft bottles. In addition the municipality (at least in my case) may require residents to take glass bottles to the beer/liquor store for disposal. That means a small beer store might have a bunch of craft beer bottles brought to him that he may not have even sold in the first place, but is required to pay for their disposal! That was the case at the liquor store I visited in Kamakura for my bottles. The owner was quite happy to give me ALL his craft beer bottles for free, even taking the time to bag them up for me and calling me a week later to make sure the offer was open at anytime! This meant more money in his pockets so it seems to be a mutually beneficial arrangement! Now for the bad news; because they are not reused, the craft bottles are usually loaded with that super-adhesive to hold their labels on. I mean, really strong stuff, I tried Nail polish remover (Acetone), Vegetable Oil, WD-40, and a lot of scrubbing with the coarse side of sponges to get that stuff off. It was not at all easy to do, and I don't want to do that very often! I have Oxiclean now and have heard that works pretty good... Anyway, all the craft bottles take crown caps except for the Australian imports like (Tooheys and VB are twist-offs).
With either option, you can collect enough bottles for a batch of beer cheaply and quickly. In my case, I got the bottles AFTER I started brewing my beer.
Kegs: Most places that you can consume beer will have a draft beer "Nama Beer" dispenser for at least one of the major brands (Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo). There is a lot of variety of kegs in use here, in valve types (plenty of imports), and in volume (mostly domestic - Asahi started using 7L kegs all the way back in 1977). This is actually pretty damn cool in my perspective, I have seen kegs sized from full 55 Liter to 7 Liter! (those sizes are based on memory so please correct me if I am wrong). Theft is uncommon so I often see tons of kegs piled up outside bars unattended, often there are even full kegs just sitting around on their own like that! I am not saying you should take them, I am just pointing out how there is a nice atmosphere of trust in this action, it makes me feel good to see that trust level. You can rent keg dispensing equipment at liquor stores, and of course the kegs of beer are there as well. The deposit on a keg is pretty small here, something like $10-$15. I bought a dented 15L keg from a liquor store a few years ago, the owner assured me (I asked 3 times with my girlfriend translating) that it was not part of the brewery's "stable" and it was retired due to the tiny bit of damage. I disassembled the keg and brought it back to Canada as carry-on luggage, with a few strange looks of course
That keg had a "G-system" valve, but I see lots here with sanke and D-sytems as well. I am happy to see that corny kegs are quite actively being used as I see them outside bars and restaurants all the time, often in equal proportion to the regular beer kegs parked there. I do not know if these are being used for beer or soda, or both. Due to the space restrictions a lot of Japanese businesses have, the sizes of kegs are quite small most of the time. That's good news for me, when I switch to kegs again it will be nice to have little kegs; 2 to a batch of beer, or 1 and some bottles, etc... I don't need to brew a giant batch and have to have it on tap for a long time, and I can cool the smallest kegs in the fridge and take them out to the beach or the cherry blossom festivals! I still have to see about how to obtain the kegs legally here though, for now I just want to post info about the sizes/shapes/valves I have seen since it interests me.
Please comment if you would like to make a correction or add to this information, I can edit the posts I make.
Cheers!