Obihiro Beer

Shall we talk about Obihiro Beer? It all started when Hideaki Hirabayashi, who opened the restaurant Rancho El Paso back in 1973, was struck by Belgian beer and began brewing in 1996.

Exactly. What's more, Mr. Hirabayashi even raises a branded pork called Dorobuta on his own farm. He created El Paso Farm in 2001 and uses it as the source for his homemade sausages. He's someone who makes both beer and pork himself.

The concept is interesting too: 'Enjoy beer like wine.' They brew with the desire to express the character of Belgian beer in Tokachi, using German malt and pesticide-free two-row barley from Shihoro.

As for their representative labels, 'Mugi Biyori' is a Vienna-style lager and 'Kuroto' is a Schwarz. They also make an India Pale Lager called 'Kin-iro no Cascade,' and in total they have about 13 kinds, though annual production is only around 20,000 liters, so it's a small-scale brewery.

Probably. And as an unusual twist, there seems to be a beer that uses enoki mushrooms as an adjunct ingredient. Their distinctive production method, in which fermentation and maturation are done in the same tank, also gives them a kind of Belgian freedom.