Atsumi Peninsula Brewing

Have you heard of Atsumi Peninsula Brewing? There’s a brewery inside the multi-purpose complex called Atsumi no Ichi Rei in Tahara City, and it’s one of the largest breweries on the Atsumi Peninsula.

The brewery head, Takahiro Kawai, has an amazing background too. In 2012, he quit his office job and set off on a trip around the world. He got into homebrewing in Australia, and that was the starting point of his beer-making journey.

After that, he spent about five years in charge of brewing at RISE & WIN Brewing Co. in Tokushima. It’s a well-known eco-conscious brewery in Kamikatsu, a town famous as a zero-waste community. After honing his skills there, he returned home to the Higashi-Mikawa area and joined Atsumi Peninsula Brewing.

And what’s interesting is the beer names. There’s PAKI PAKI, a white ale; HOKITIKA, a hazy IPA; TAHI, a New Zealand pilsner; AWAMOKO, a brut IPA... They’re all in the Māori language of New Zealand.

They use a lot of New Zealand hops. The lineup really highlights the bright, floral aroma characteristic of NZ hops. Their sour ale-style WAIKOIKOI, for example, combines white grapefruit and passion fruit, so it’s incredibly fruity.

On top of that, they use two-row barley grown in Tahara City for the malt, and the brewing water comes from the Atsumi Peninsula. They also make use of local agricultural products for adjuncts, and they produce everything on a 1,000-liter-per-batch system. Their goal is to create a local beer loved by the people of Atsumi.