BACCA Brewing

BACCA Brewing is a 200-liter microbrewery a five-minute walk from the Alps Exit of Matsumoto Station, and its origin story is pretty interesting.

Compared with the tens of thousands of liters brewed by major breweries, that is truly tiny. That is exactly why they can take risks. The representative, Kenji Fukasawa, is a former engineer who started thinking about a "second life" in his 40s and made the switch.

He apparently fell deeply in love with craft beer while living in the United States for five years starting in 2009. After returning to Japan, he took brewing courses in Tokyo and trained at a brewing company, then opened the brewery in Matsumoto in 2018.

This is the interesting part: the place was renovated from a former beauty salon, and Fukasawa nearly built the entire interior by hand with the idea that if the beer is craft, the shop should be craft too. A Taisho-era dressing table is still there, and he bought what used to be a temple pillar at auction and turned it into the counter.

The beers are unique too, with names inspired by the peaks of the Northern Alps. Jandarm Stout is named after the "Jandarm" section of the Hotaka mountain range, and it has a creamy nitro texture with roasted aromas. Kiretto Sour IPA comes from the sharp-edged "kiretto" ridgeline.

The Strawberry Sour uses "Suzuakane" strawberries from Matsumoto City, and KASUMI Lemon is a white beer made with Meyer lemons from Nagano Prefecture. They source seasonal fruit from local farmers and brew seasonal beers. Fukasawa says he wants more than just to make beer; he wants to see the reactions of the people who drink it, and being able to talk directly with customers in the taproom is something you only get at a brewery this small.