Uchoten Jozō

Uchoten Jozō has such an impactful name, don’t you think? It’s in Suwa, and the representative, Kenjiro Tanaka, is quite an interesting person too. He’s a brewer who learned beer-making while moving around Osaka for three years, Tokyo, Canada, and Yamanashi, and he also works as a DJ.

It’s a former furniture store about a five-minute walk from Kami-Suwa Station, which they renovated themselves into a taproom. They stripped up the floorboards on the second floor and reused them for the counter and the first-floor floor, and if you keep walking through the dim corridor, a bar appears at the back.

People actually do call it a "secret base." Music from records plays inside, giving it a modern, pop vibe. Their beers center on lagers and Belgian styles, and the beer names are very DJ-like too.

There’s a Belgian Chai Porter called "Night Groove," made with cardamom and cinnamon chai spices. It looks heavy because it’s a porter, but when you drink it, it’s surprisingly light. Their lager "Dapper" has aromas of honey and flowers, with a classic finish. And "dollar dollar bill y'all" is a Best Bitter with a strong British malt character.

"Longing for the Wind" is a rye saison available only at the taproom, with the spicy character of saison yeast and a dry, sharp mouthfeel. The fact that you can only drink it here makes it feel even more special.

Suwa is famous for its five-sake-brewery tour, but Tanaka says he wants to blend craft beer into Suwa’s sake culture. I love the spirit of taking beer into the sacred ground of sake.