41BEER

Do you know 41BEER in Yoichi? It was founded in 2021, so it's still a pretty new brewery, but what makes it great is its backstory.

Yoichi = Yoichi = 41. It sounds like a pun, but it's easy to remember, right? And the two main people behind it are young brewers Uemura Iho and Yoshioka Kazuaki, both of whom moved to Yoichi from outside Hokkaido.

Uemura is from Kanagawa, and when she quit her job, she decided to do what she loved and found a Yoichi job listing at the public employment office. Yoshioka is a former trading company employee from Wakayama who wanted to do hands-on creative work and walked through the brewery's doors. Both of them started with no prior experience.

Even the beer names are all local place names from Yoichi. Shiripa IPA comes from Cape Shiripa on the Shakotan Peninsula, and Fugoppe Stout comes from Fugoppe Cave. Sawamachi Ale is an American pale ale with a strong citrusy hop aroma.

They use groundwater from snowmelt flowing through Mt. Shakotan for the brewing water, and they make beer with the goal of making Yoichi not just a whiskey and wine town, but a real 'town of alcohol.' Yoshioka even helped with spring vineyard work in the area while making beer.

In addition to their five standard beers, they also release seasonal limited editions, so if you order the assorted set, there's the fun of not knowing what will arrive. And if you go to Yoichi, you can drink it directly at Tap & Bar 41BEER.