Takao Beer

Want me to tell you about Takao Beer's Ongata Brewery? Shuhei Ikeda here used to work as a web director at a design company.

Exactly. When he moved to Takao, there were no places where you could grab a beer after coming down from the mountains. So he thought, why not make his own? He took Portland State University's craft brewing program online and even did hands-on training at a brewery in California.

In 2017, he launched Ongata Brewery in Shimookagata-machi, in the foothills of the mountains. It's a production facility and isn't open to the public, but they work with local farmers to source Hachioji-grown wheat and passion fruit for brewing.

Their flagship is an ale called OH! Mountain. It's 5.5% ABV, perfect after a trip back from the mountains. They also make BIGFOOT IPA, a fruit beer called Peche, Stone Fruits Sour, and even a lactic acid-fermented beer made with daikon called Daikon Lactic Acid.

And they grow their own hops too. They source 40 to 50 kinds of agricultural products a year from local farmers and turn them into fruit beers, so it really feels like Hachioji's natural character is in every glass.

They don't do tours at Ongata Brewery itself, but the bottled beers brewed there can be bought at KO52 Brewery near Takao Station. Ikeda says he wants to make beer a device that creates movement of people, and he's really making that happen.