Tsumari Beer

Tsumari Beer is one I really want to introduce. It's a brewery in Tokamachi City that's run almost entirely by one woman.

Chiho Takagi. She was born in Tokamachi City in 1973, and after working in sales for an IT company in Tokyo, she became acutely aware of how fragile life in the city was when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit in 2011. Around the same time, her father passed away, and she moved to her roots in Tokamachi as a regional revitalization volunteer.

At first, it wasn't about beer at all. She was working on promoting local production for local consumption and helping sell agricultural products. Then in 2014, when she started co-running a pizza shop, tourists kept asking her, "Isn't there any local beer in Tokamachi?"

She visited breweries in Yamanashi and trained for two months under the famous brewer Satoshi Niwa. That led her to start brewing in 2018. She received support from 170 people through crowdfunding, and when she called for help on Facebook, 20 people came to help build the brewery.

The standard "Gousetsu Pale Ale" has a nice malt aroma and restrained bitterness, making it perfect for beginners. "Medetashi Golden Ale" has a bright aroma of orange peel and tropical hops. And "Tokamachi Soba Ale" uses roasted soba from the local Toyomusume variety.

The labels are interesting too. A kimono maker in Tokamachi helped incorporate kimono patterns into the design. The logo is modeled after the phoenix on the octagonal portable shrine at Suwa Shrine in the area. They're also starting trial cultivation of hops and barley together with local farmers, so they're seriously aiming for truly local beer made from local ingredients.