Nanakusa Nano Brewery

There’s a beer being made in a barn in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, by a former career bureaucrat. Nanakusa Nano Brewery.

The person is Hiroyuki Sekimoto. He and his wife Naoko were at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, but he wanted to become a farmer and moved to Fukushima in 2006. He started organic farming and even got organic JAS certification.

The trigger was the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He wanted to support Fukushima agriculture, so he had already gotten a brewing license by July of that year. Fast, right? He grows both barley and hops on his own farm, uses fruit from local farmers too, and brews with ingredients that are 100% from Fukushima.

And the equipment is amazing too. They don’t have refrigerated equipment for temperature control or sealed tanks, so they wrap the fermentation barrels in blankets to regulate the temperature. Completely handmade, unfiltered, unpasteurized, and bottle-conditioned.

The flagship brew, Thank You Beeya, is an herb ale with 5% alcohol. Another one I’m personally curious about is Kaki Beer. It’s a dark fruit ale made with persimmons, and it’s an extremely rare style worldwide. Apple Beeya is a fruit ale made with local Hayama apples, and that one’s delicious too.

Apparently it comes from a bee character that Naoko had been using for a long time. There’s a bee clinging to a glass on the label too, so it has a soothing feel. They brew during the off-season, so production is limited, but it’s also offered as a return gift for Nihonmatsu City’s hometown tax donations.