Toki Brewery

Toki Brewery on Sado Island has an impressive backstory for its representative, Takahiro Fujiwara. He graduated from Tomakomai National College of Technology, worked as a systems engineer at Hitachi, quit after a year to become a freelancer, and later co-founded the IT company Fuller with friends from college.

It started when he visited Silicon Valley as a student and was blown away by craft beer culture. Then, when he visited Sado with a cofounder from Niigata, they met the president of Tenryohai Sake Brewery, who said, "You can brew it on our grounds."

It opened in autumn 2021 as Sado's first microbrewery. The brand name "t0ki" uses the zero as a digital homage, which feels very much like an IT-born idea. And this brewery has the clean rule that it basically only makes IPAs.

What's more, they don't keep a regular lineup; once a keg is gone, that beer is gone. The recently released "NP v4.0" is an American pale ale at 5.5% ABV, and "IPA Pepper Hook v1.0" is an American IPA with Sichuan pepper added during fermentation instead of dry-hopping, using New Zealand Riwaka hops. Even the version numbers feel like something an IT person would do, right?

The local collaborations are interesting too: "Nashi cache v1.0" is a three-company collaboration beer made with 80 kg of off-spec Japanese pears. They also make a Hazy IPA using rice koji from Obata Shuzo on Sado. As for hops, they go all in on top-tier varieties like Simcoe, Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic, and Nelson Sauvin.

The taproom is standing-room style, and you can see the brewing area through the glass. You can also do BBQ on the terrace, and because it's in Sado's Ryotsu district, it's easy to get to right after getting off the ferry.