Hop Kotan Brewing

Hop Kotan Brewing is a really interesting brewery. "Hop" + "Kotan" (kotan means "village" in Ainu) gives it the meaning "the village of hops."

Right. Kamifurano is the only town in Hokkaido where hops are commercially grown, and the brewery has its own hop farm there called "OUR HOP FARM." The representative, Takayuki Tsutsumino, was born in Sapporo in 1975. After learning brewing techniques at a beer ingredients company, he trained in Canada, served as a director at North Island Beer, and then went independent in 2017 to launch this brewery.

Yeah. And their motto is "brew every beer with local hops." The standard ORIGINALS lineup uses 100% Kamifurano-grown hops. There's Upopo, a pilsner; Nonno, a pale ale; and Haskapu, a fruit saison made with haskap. Even the names all come from Ainu.

Tsutsumino said that fresh and dried local hops are as different as grapes and raisins. Because the hops vary each year, the beer tastes different from one vintage to the next even with the same recipe. He wants people to enjoy that like wine. It's a small team of five brewers, and even label application and bottling are done by hand.

They're also actively releasing new beers. "HOP IN MY HEAD," an American IPA, comes in at 6.0% ABV and 55 IBU with Kamifurano hops turned all the way up. They also make things like "Umemigachi," a plum saison, and in the FREEDOMS series they challenge a different style each time.

It sounds like their future goal is to use Kamifurano-grown barley too, aiming for a beer made 100% from Kamifurano ingredients. They also use water from the Tokachidake spring, so it's really beer you drink as if you're tasting the whole land.