Ashigara Local Beer

Ashigara Local Beer is a brewery founded in 2008 by Tomotaka Yokoyama of the liquor shop Wine & Foods Yokoyama in Matsuda Town. It is the kind of place where a shop owner started making beer himself.

Three minutes on foot. It's a station-close brewery. Its flagship beer, Ashigara Happy Malt, is a British-style ale with a solid, assertive bitterness. The brewing water comes from groundwater flowing from the Tanzawa mountains into the Sakawa River.

Good catch. The groundwater from the Tanzawa range has a mineral balance that makes it well suited to beer. One interesting Ashigara Local Beer product is Ume Beer. It blends Happy Malt with plum juice from Soga in Odawara City, giving it a finish like sparkling wine.

Technically it's labeled as happoshu because the plum is a secondary ingredient, but the base is still a proper ale. The tartness of the plum and the bitterness of the ale come together in a unique balance. They also make a beer called CITRUS, an ale using low-pesticide lemons from Kataura in Odawara City. Kataura is a coastal citrus-growing area with plenty of sunlight.

They also have a lager called MATSUDA LAGER, named after Matsuda Town. It's made with 100% malt and is offered as a thank-you gift for hometown tax donations. I like how closely they work with the local town.