Yo-Ho Brewing

Earlier I mentioned Yo-Ho's Saku brewery, but actually there's another one called the Miyota Brewery, which was established in September 2020.

Saku is the main mass-production plant, using Asama mountain spring water and about 2 tons of malt in a single brew. Miyota is the opposite: they moved small-scale brewing equipment over from Saku and specialize in R&D and experimental small-batch brewing.

Exactly. That's where the bold stuff comes from, like the "In Other Words, We Never Asked for Your Taste, SORRY" series, an umami IPA with bonito dashi extract, and a yuzu-salt session ale. What's more, the headquarters functions were also moved from Saku to Miyota, and it's within walking distance of Miyota Station on the Shinano Railway.

It really embodies Yo-Ho's "intellectual maverick" company culture. Beers that you'd never get approved in a normal company proposal keep coming out of there, like the whisky-barrel-aged barley wine "Barrel Fukamidasu" and "Sakuramochi Stout," inspired by sakuramochi.

They collaborate with Miyota Town through hometown tax return gifts. They do their part in working with the local community. It's not open to the public, so you can't tour it, but for enthusiasts the fun is checking when the experimental batches born here show up in the Yona Yona no Sato online store.