NAKAFURANO BREWERY

The founder of NAKAFURANO BREWERY in Nakafurano has an amazing background. Her name is Ryoko Ukai, and her previous job was as an investigator at a detective agency.

And before that, she worked in ground operations for an airline at Narita Airport, then at an IT company, then a detective agency, then a web production company, and even went to Vanuatu with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers to support NPO web production... the range is incredible.

She has always loved snowboarding and had been living in Hokkaido in winter since her university days, but she ended up in the Furano area to avoid the crowds in Niseko. When she moved to Nakafurano in 2021 as a regional revitalization cooperative volunteer, she was in an environment where craft beer wasn't available in everyday life. That was the starting point for "I'll make it myself."

And the beer here is packed with ingredients from Nakafurano. "Nostalgia" is a Belgian-style beer that uses lavender from Saika no Sato, made famous by Farm Tomita, and lemon peel. "Reflect" is an ale with the gentle aroma of Furano honey.

"Hazy Horizon" is also a hazy IPA, and it uses a generous amount of ten kinds of hops grown by local farmers. It even includes sake lees as a secret ingredient. The brewing water is spring water from the Tokachi-dake mountain range, and each batch is 130 liters.

In July 2023 they also opened "Taproom THE DAY," where you can drink six standard beers on tap. They also set up at events in Sapporo's Chikaho, so even if you can't make it to Nakafurano, there are still chances to come across them.