Outsider Brewing

So, Outsider Brewing in Kofu was founded by Mark Major, and get this: he was originally someone who didn’t even drink beer.

He’s from Australia, and what he liked were vodka and gin. His first connection to Kofu was homestaying there as a high school student in the 1980s, and he settled there in 1998 to become an English teacher. In 2003, he opened a bar called THE VAULT, and it all started when regulars told him, “If you brew craft beer, it’ll get people talking.”

Mark launched the brewery in 2012 because he wanted to bring liveliness back to Kofu’s streets. And the location is interesting too: right in the middle of Kofu’s shopping arcade. The first floor is the brewery, and the second floor is the beer pub HOPS & HERBS. The freshly brewed beer is sent straight upstairs.

The first brewmaster was the legendary Tomo Niwa, a name well known in the industry. After his previous workplace was damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake, he joined in 2012. And the current brewmaster is even more dramatic: a female brewer named Momoko Kobayashi.

She originally worked part-time at HOPS & HERBS on the second floor, then fell in love with brewing and switched careers to become a brewer. Now they make styles with huge range, like Drunk Monk Tripel, a Belgian tripel; Sasquatch American IPA; and The Sis, an imperial stout.

Their concept is local production for local consumption, and they also collaborate with other breweries in Yamanashi Prefecture. They keep releasing new beers like CHERRY BOY and MERLIN, and the brewery started by someone who didn’t drink beer has become the center of Kofu’s craft beer scene.