Songbird Beer

Songbird Beer is in Kisarazu, Chiba, and it's a brewery that Belgian-style beer fans just can't resist.

It's a microbrewery run by brewer Kyohei Nakajima and his wife, Monami. They launched it in 2015 on land where Monami's grandfather's house used to stand.

And here's what's amazing about Nakajima: he collects wild yeasts from Kisarazu himself and uses them in his beer. He gets yeast from honey made by Japanese honeybees, and from flowers like camellia and plum blossoms.

Exactly. Their regular Blonde is a 5% Belgian blonde, and Moderne is a robust 8.5% beer. They also make a 9% barley wine-style beer called C'est la Vie. They brew 20 to 30 kinds a year, so there's always something new whenever you visit.

Because Belgian style is their foundation. They also brew with ingredients like ginger grown by farmers in the Yana area and wheat from Chonan Town, pushing a unique approach of brewing Boso ingredients with Belgian techniques.

It's a five-minute walk. They're open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and sell directly through their bottle shop. If you bring an eco-bag and return your empty bottles, they'll collect them, which feels very much like a small brewery run by just the two of them.