Cat Hop

Cat Hop is Teine's first craft beer brewery. What's more, it's built by renovating the first floor of a detached house.

Exactly. Co-founder Mr. Yoshinari bought a house in Teine and turned about 13 tatami mats of space on the first floor into a small brewery, with two 160-liter copper kettles and four chest freezers used as fermentation tanks. Using a tiny-scale brewing method that originated in Shimane called the Iwami method, they handcraft 500 to 600 liters a month.

From crushing the malt to bottling and labeling, everything. And the brewer, Taiki Higashi, has an interesting background too. He used to be a police officer. He spent seven years at the Susukino police box and with the riot police.

He says he discovered his calling on a cross-country beer trip across the U.S. with a senior colleague. And co-founder Mr. Yoshinari used to be a veterinarian. They were senior and junior classmates at Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, and both jumped into beer from completely different careers. Mr. Yoshinari also runs a free school in the same building.

And the beer is genuinely good. The flagship 'Teine-ru' is a pale ale made with Cascade and Amarillo hops, Voss Kveik yeast, and quinoa as a supplementary ingredient, with a strong citrus and tropical aroma. 'Teineipa' is a hazy style with a creamy wheat character from three hops: Citra, El Dorado, and Amarillo. At 6% ABV and 16 IBU, it's easy to drink.

'Double Teineipa' is a W-hazy at 8.5% ABV with a big banana aroma. They use quinoa in all of them, so they're classified as happoshu, but originally they planned to use matatabi instead. It's a cat-themed brewery, after all. The logo also combines the silhouette of Mount Teine with a cat.