Shiga Kogen Beer

Let me tell you about Shiga Kogen Beer. Eigo Sato here spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs, was stationed in New York, and later became Head of Marketing and an Executive Officer at Uniqlo's Fast Retailing.

He returned to the family business, Tamamura Honten, at age 37. He's the eighth-generation head of this long-established sake brewery, founded in 1805. At a time when ski visitors were declining and sake sales were falling, he started brewing beer in 2004. The first beer they released was an IPA, back when hardly anyone in Japan even knew what an IPA was.

Exactly. And the amazing part is that they grow their own hops around the brewery at an altitude of 685 meters. They cultivate five varieties across about 40 acres. Among them, they revived a Japanese-original hop variety called Shinshu Wase, a cross between Czech Saaz and North American White Vine, known for its lemon-like citrus aroma and gentle bitterness.

What's more, this area used to be Japan's largest hop-growing region. Sato brought it back to life. Their Harvest Brew, a fresh-hop beer brewed on the very day the hops are harvested, moves at almost the world's fastest pace from field to kettle.

The flagship is Shiga Kogen IPA. It has a solid malt body and a strong hop punch. Another is Miyama Blonde, brewed with home-grown Miyamanishiki sake rice and Shinshu Wase hops. That's a true terroir beer that can only be made here.

Yamabushi is the premium line, aged in around 200 oak barrels with wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. The concept is, 'Belgium has Trappist monks, Japan has yamabushi mountain ascetics.' Their first collaboration with Minoh Beer, Barrel-Aged Yamabushi taro grand cru, is a saison made with Hakuho peaches and blended-aged for 17 months in wine barrels and 15 months in whiskey barrels; it also uses Ichiro's Malt barrels.