Japanet

“Japanet Fuji Beer Brewery.” Did you know that Japanet is brewing beer?

Not just sell it, they brew it themselves. Japanet Water has a natural spring water business in Yamanakako, and they built a brewery next to that plant in 2021.

That’s the thing, the brewer Hirota Sakaki is seriously impressive. He’s a veteran with about 30 years of beer brewing experience, and after being impressed by saison beer in Belgium, he kept researching beers from around the world. He arrived at the conclusion that “good beer needs good water,” and joined Japanet in 2020, drawn by its natural spring water business.

The beer he created, “Cleyera,” has the concept of “champagne-like beer.” It’s based on saison, but because Yamanashi is a famous wine-producing region, he referments it with wine yeast, which is not normally used in beer. He completed it after more than 50 prototypes, exchanging ideas with local winemakers along the way.

It won gold in the Specialty Saison category at the International Beer Cup 2023. That was gold out of about 1,300 entries from 25 countries and regions. It has a fruity, spicy flavor and is designed to be easy to drink even for people who don’t usually like beer.

The brewing water is mineral-rich natural water drawn from 253 meters underground at the foot of Mount Fuji. The name “Cleyera” comes from brewer Sakaki’s name and from the scientific name of the sakaki plant, “Cleyera japonica.” It’s a beer made with the determination to leave his own name on it.