Yuitriere

Huîtrière means 'a place where oysters grow' in French, and as the name suggests, they use Akkeshi oysters in their beer.

Their signature AKKESHI OYSTER LAGER is flavored using 100% Akkeshi oyster shells. The key is that it finishes as a lager with a strong smoked-malt character. Oyster-shell beer overseas is usually made as a stout or other dark beer, but this is said to be the first lager of its kind in Japan.

At first you get a strong beer flavor, then a sweetness and smoothness from the oysters spreads out. The smokiness and briny notes apparently work together beautifully.

Co-founder Mr. Shibata is from Akkeshi; he returned home during the pandemic and came up with the beer business with the idea of 'creating a place where people gather in this town.' Head brewer Taichi Hasegawa left a job at a produce shop in Tokyo to chase his dream of brewing beer, then trained for two years at a brewery in Fukuoka.

Yes, Shibata's daughter and Hasegawa were classmates, and that's how they reconnected. Their other lineup is adventurous too, like the red saison 'ROUGE' made with eastern Hokkaido beets and eleuthero, and the hazy IPA 'WHITE FOG.' At the Japan Great Beer Awards, they won four entries, including two gold medals, so they're a seriously capable brewery.

And it's the easternmost brewpub in Japan. It's right near Akkeshi Station, and in the spring they even released a new MIMOSA SAISON. It comes in a 750 ml large bottle for 2,200 yen, and it's said to be a champagne-like saison. There's nowhere else where you can drink beer alongside oysters like this.