Vector Brewing

Do you know Vector Brewing's Yorii plant? They converted a former pro wrestling venue into a brewery. Where the ring used to be, there are now four 4,000L fermentation tanks lined up.

They originally had a brewery in Asakusabashi, but demand outgrew it, so they built a new site in Yorii at about four times the scale. It's located along the Arakawa River. They also introduced a canning machine to strengthen quality control.

The head brewer, Tomoya Kimizu, is an interesting guy too. He graduated from the biology department in the Faculty of Science at Hiroshima University, and during college he researched the ecology of ascidians.

But that researcher mindset of "repeating hypotheses and verification" translates directly into brewing. He trained at Sankt Gallen, and the turning point was making "Park Brewery Ale" for Park Hyatt Tokyo. After that, he wanted to pursue his own beer and went independent.

The flagship beer, "Nekopanchi," is a Wheat Pale Ale made with wheat, with an ABV of 5.0%. Its concept is "cute bitterness," and its signature feature is the soft mouthfeel from wheat malt. It won the gold medal at the 2019 Japan Great Beer Awards.

What's more, all four entries won awards in 2019. Nekopanchi won gold, Vector Pale Ale won gold, Grand Cru won gold, and Glamorous IPA won silver. Kimizu also introduced a piece of equipment called a "hop gun" to pursue tropical aromas, and he keeps taking data from every brew and steadily improving things. He's absolutely a researcher.