Kokono Hop

Have you heard of COCONO HOP? It's in Karuizawa, and the representative, Takahiro Uneme, has quite an interesting background.

It's a double meaning: "koko no" plus "hop," which means valuing the individuality of each beer, and also "There's delicious beer here." Uneme originally came from Saitama, then after graduating college he joined a company in Tokyo, but in 1998 he changed jobs to Yo-Ho Brewing and moved to Karuizawa.

Exactly. He spent 16 years there doing both marketing and brewing. So he understands both how to make beer and how to build a brand. He became independent in 2014 and launched COCONO HOP, but at first he started as a "phantom brewer" without his own brewery.

It's a style where he outsourced brewing to places like Echigo Beer in Niigata while designing the recipes himself. That led to the launch of a brand called KOKAGE Beer, whose concept is the refreshing feeling you get when drinking beer in the shade of trees. The lineup is broad too, with pilsner, helles, stout, IPA, hazy IPA, and more.

And here's the interesting part: in 2023, he finally obtained his own brewing license and evolved from phantom brewer to in-house brewer. Using British and German malt, American hops, and Karuizawa water as the brewing water, he makes naturally carbonated 100% malt beer. In other words, he fulfilled his dream of having his own brewery after about 10 years.

Exactly. He poured everything he learned at Yo-Ho into it, starting as a phantom brewer and eventually reaching in-house brewing. I think that steady persistence is what makes Uneme who he is.