Baird Brewery Garden Shuzenji

Baird Beer. It was started in Numazu in 2000 by American Brian Baird and his Japanese wife, Sayuri, and the beginning was astonishing: it all began with a 30-liter brewing setup made by welding used kegs on the balcony of an apartment.

After Brian graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Japanese studies, he studied brewing science at the American Brewers Guild and trained at Redhook Brewery in Seattle. He brought that experience to Japan and obtained a license as what was then Japan's smallest brewery.

They steadily expanded from 30L to 250L to 1000L, and in 2014 they established a site of about 3 hectares along the Kano River in Shuzenji. What is amazing here is that the grounds include hop fields for Cascade, Shinshuwase, Fuggle, and Centennial, as well as orchards of yuzu, loquat, summer orange, and plum. In the future, they aim to grow barley themselves too and pursue "estate beer."

Exactly. Wabi-Sabi Japan Pale Ale combines local wasabi and green tea with whole-flower hops, to the point where the boundary between wasabi, tea, and hops disappears. Saison Sayuri is a saison named after his wife, using local Aoshima mandarin peel and juice. It won a gold medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup.

And at the 2010 World Beer Cup, they won gold medals for three beers: Saison Sayuri, Country Girl Kabocha Ale, and Numazu Lager, tying with Ballast Point for the most gold medals among all entrants. Out of 3,330 entries, too?

You should also try Kurofune Porter. It's a robust porter made with floor-malted Maris Otter, chocolate malt, and rock sugar, and Brian says it tastes like being gently stroked rather than slapped. The name Kurofune references the period at the end of the Edo era, when Perry came to Japan, and the fact that porter was popular in Britain at the time. There is also a campground on the grounds called Camp Baird, where you can camp while looking out over the hop fields and enjoy free beer.