Toys Brewery

Toys Brewery in Toyohashi is inside a retro building called "Suijo Building," which stands right above an irrigation canal. It is an ultra-compact brewery of about 7 tsubo, and it is a 5-minute walk from Toyohashi Station.

In the Showa era, they covered an agricultural irrigation canal and built a row of buildings stretching about 800 meters. Now it feels like a retro shopping street. The person brewing beer there is Keita Ono. His background is fascinating too.

He spent 10 years at a coffee bean roasting company, then he and his wife ran a cafe in Okazaki for 8 years. After they were forced to move because of urban development, he earned a wine sommelier qualification and trained for 4 years at a French restaurant in Nagoya. Around that time, a friend told him, “There’s a project to brew beer in Suijo Building,” and he reportedly jumped in, saying, “This is fate.”

They launched in 2021 after raising 202% of their crowdfunding goal. They make more than 25 kinds of beer a year, and a highlight is beer made with ingredients from Toyohashi. RED PHOENIX GOLDEN ALE uses red shiso from Toyohashi, and they also have a beer called "Toyohashi Ale♪" brewed with Toyohashi barley.

They also use local white strawberries, white peaches, mandarins, persimmons, and more, so fruit beers unique to Toyohashi, an agricultural powerhouse, keep coming out. The name "TOYS" comes from TOYOHASHI, and it carries the wish for it to be a place that feels as exciting as a toy.

Yes. They built their own system for temperature control by sending cold air from a small refrigerator through ducts. Because it is a tiny 150-liter brew system, they can try a different taste each time. Their love for the city is obvious too, since they want to energize Toyohashi, where the area around the station has been losing some of its bustle, through beer.