Inadaze Brewing

Inadaze Brewing is a brewery that Kazue Tominari started on her own in Ina City in 2019. She originally came from Okazaki, Aichi, and spent six years researching lactic acid bacteria at the Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University.

She joined a food manufacturer, but there she saw the reality of huge amounts of out-of-spec vegetables being thrown away. That stayed with her. After that, she trained for four years at HYAPPA BREWS, a brewery in Gamagori, Aichi, where she was drilled not just in brewing, but also in management, tax work, and customer service.

Exactly. Then she returned to Ina, where she'd spent her student years, and DIYed a former JA apple processing facility garage into a brewery herself. She got help from Rebuilding Center Japan in Suwa City, which specializes in reusing old materials. Three 400-liter fermentation tanks and a taproom with just 10 seats.

What I like is that all the beer names are rooted in Ina's local landscape too. 'Sanshu IPA' comes from Sanshu Kaido, 'Gonbei IPA' from Gonbei Pass, and 'Kurashi' in 'Kurashi Session Ale' means 'come on in' in the Ina Valley dialect. It's a session ale made with Meyer lemon.

What's even wilder is 'Kashio GOSE.' They use Kiso's traditional pickled dish, 'sunkizuke,' in the beer. Sunkizuke is a rare lactic-acid-fermented pickle made without salt, and the idea is that its acidity pairs with the gose style. That's the kind of insight you'd expect from a lactic acid bacteria researcher.

They also use hops they grow themselves, and they've introduced 'Shindai Crystal,' a brewing water developed jointly with Shinshu University. They built their own stone oven and bake pizza with local vegetables, and each label is designed by a designer from Ina. Everything runs through a network in the Ina Valley.