Sumikawa Beer Brewery

Sumikawa Beer Brewery is a highly distinctive brewery with the concept that it never makes the same beer twice.

Exactly. The representative, Yasuhiro Saito, originally worked in the IT industry, but when he was about to go independent, the Lehman Shock hit. All the work he had lined up disappeared, and that was when he decided, "I'll turn the beer I already loved into my career."

While he was still an office worker, Saito was shocked by the weizen he drank in Munich, Germany, and from there he ended up visiting Germany 13 times. He opened the beer bar "Hirara" in 2011, and finally started brewing in-house in 2018.

What's more, each brew is only 70 liters. It's an ultra-small operation, basically made at the level of a stockpot, and over two years they've created about 240 different varieties. So if you miss the chance to drink one, that same beer will never come back again.

There are six regular beers, including "Sumikawa Weiss," a German-inspired weizen with a gentle sweetness, and "Sumikawa IPA," which is a solidly bitter beer at 6.5% ABV and IBU 40. For limited releases, they also make beers like "Summer Mikan Wheat" using domestically grown, pesticide-free summer mikan.

It's also been selected as a Sapporo city hometown tax return gift, and you can drink it at their directly managed beer pub "Hirara," so it's easy to add to a Sapporo sightseeing route. I also like how the brewery quietly stands in a calm residential neighborhood.