Mugi Zakkoku Kobo Microbrewery

Mugi Zakkoku Kobo is a pretty unusual presence even among Japan's microbreweries. Founded in 2003, it's a family-run brewery that is seriously committed to "making beer from the fields." The father grows grains, vegetables, and fruit, while the children handle hop cultivation, beer brewing, and running the brewpub.

Exactly. The original trigger was that the first generation started gardening as a hobby and ate the grains they harvested at home, but because they got huge harvests every year, they looked for a way to make use of them and, after a lot of trial and error, arrived at brewing beer.

And the flagship beer, "Zakkoku Weizen," is unique too, because it uses homegrown wheat, rye, millet, and foxtail millet. Millet and foxtail millet, can you believe it? You wouldn't normally use those in beer. It has a mellow grain character and is a glass you can only drink here.

They also make "Ogawa Porter," which has the roasted aroma of kilned malt, and they brew about 40 kinds of beer a year. What's more, they're seriously aiming for 100% self-sufficiency in ingredients, and they even do their own barley malting themselves. They also work with local organic farmers, using only ingredients grown through natural cultivation without chemicals.

It's a small brewpub about a three-minute walk from Ogawa-machi Station, and they also serve food made with local ingredients. In this satoyama town surrounded by the mountains of the Outer Chichibu range, it feels like there's a beer place right next to the fields.

That's right. It's a popular event where people bring and enjoy aged beers, and they also host spin-off events at Yokohama's Sabatora Shuhan and Sakura Taps. I love how they go beyond the small brewery in Ogawa Town and connect with people out in the world. Beer that began in the fields connecting people to people - that's the real joy of craft beer.