Rio Brewing Co.

Can I tell you about Rio Brewing Co.? The founder, Ryohei Sugawara, went to Belgium in 2008 and trained at breweries like Struise Brewery and De Ranke Brewery.

And he even holds the title of "Honorary Knight of Belgian Beer." He started brewing in Belgium in 2015, and the flagship beer, "Uijin," is exported to more than 10 countries. It’s even served at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, which is pretty amazing.

Then in 2018, they opened a brewpub under the elevated tracks in Gotanda and started brewing in Japan too. In 2021, they expanded and relocated the brewery to Kashiwa-no-ha. Now it’s in a part of KOIL, the Kashiwa-no-ha urban development area, and it also has a BBQ area.

The beer lineup is pretty bold too. They have a DDH DIPA called Social Gravity, a session hazy IPA called Shark Bite, and Taboo is a triple IPA. More recently they’ve released BLOOM CORE, a beer themed around cherry blossoms, and Pink Silks, which uses rose red and osmanthus.

The reason they can do both traditional Belgian brewing and cutting-edge craft beer is that Sugawara really trained properly on the ground there. They’re even planning to start making cider and craft gin, so their momentum doesn’t stop at beer.