Yaro Beer Brewery

Yaro Beer in Tokorozawa, officially called Yaro Shachu, has a really interesting concept. They call it a "community beer" and are trying to keep everything from raw material production to consumption entirely within the local area.

Exactly. Tokorozawa was originally a place with poor water resources, so a barley culture took root there instead, like baked dango and udon. There was also a history of growing beer barley there, and this is a grand project to revive that in the modern era.

The company name "Yaro" also comes from the old spelling of Tokorozawa, "Yarozawa." And their flagship beer, "Yaro Golden," was released in 2011 as the original local beer of Tokorozawa. It's a pale ale made with malt from Tokorozawa and hops originally from France.

Even more interesting is "Yaro Brownie." It's a brown ale made with malt smoked over thinned wood from Tokorozawa's deciduous forests. Turning forest maintenance into a beer ingredient is true local recycling.

And "Yaro Yellow" is a light ale made with upland rice - rice grown in fields - and coriander seed. They're reviving crops that were nearly forgotten locally and turning them into beer. There's also a system where residents can take part in farm work, so it's a beer everyone helps make.

The directly operated taproom has 27 seats inside, and the food court has about 200 seats. It's also nice that you can eat takoyaki supervised by "Chokotto-ya," a long-established shop that has been in business locally for 20 years.