Butterfly Brewery

Butterfly Brewery. It’s Kasugai City’s first craft beer brewery, and the story here is truly remarkable. The representative, Hiromasa Iriya, originally worked for a major logistics company in Tokyo, and in 2013 he married flute player Mitsue Takashima. Their shared dream was to open a place where they could drink the beer he brewed while listening to live music.

In 2016, they returned to Kasugai to start working toward that dream... but Mitsue suddenly fell ill and passed away at the age of 40.

Yes. But Iriya opened the shop in November 2021, saying he would "carry on the rest of the dream he shared with his wife." That is the current Butterfly Brewery. The name comes from the fact that the shape of Kasugai City resembles a butterfly.

And all the beer names are instrument names. Flute, Piano, Saxophone, Marimba, Koto, Shamisen... more than 30 kinds. Because his wife was a flute player, the idea of comparing each beer’s flavor to the tone of an instrument also came from Mitsue.

The brewmaster, Hitoshi Tamaki, is from Okinawa and was Iriya’s university classmate. After training at Camado Brewery in Gifu, he joined in 2022. They use German malt, American and New Zealand hops, and Kasugai water for brewing. Each batch is a small 400-liter brew, and the lineup ranges widely from IPA and Weizen to Saison and Stout.

They’ve also held more than 30 mini concerts in the semi-outdoor space next to the shop. They’ve truly made a place where you can drink beer while listening to live performances. They also set up booths at the cherry blossom festival and beer-run events, steadily becoming part of the local community.