Johana Beer

You know, Yamamoto Masaru of Johana Beer started out from a family business that was originally an auto body shop. His father said, "I want to make beer!" and they built a brewery from scratch.

And they started in 2001, right when the first craft beer boom was winding down. At first, they reportedly sold only three cups a day.

Yamamoto kept improving the beers by listening to candid customer feedback, and now they make six regular beers plus a stream of limited releases. They even have a "freshly harvested hop version" made with hops they grow themselves in front of the brewery.

Among the regulars, "Hikiyama Black" is a black beer inspired by Johana's Hikiyama Festival, and "Kagayaki W7" is named after a local rice variety. More recently, they've also put out adventurous limited releases like the Belgian saison "Kinokaori," made with local yuzu and silk powder.

Exactly. Johana is known as the "Little Kyoto of Etchu," a place with a long silk-textile tradition. Their newest release, "Kagayaki E7," is a Cold IPA built by reconstructing a recipe from four years ago. "GOLDEN SPARK" is a spice ale with a ginger kick, and it's funny that the official line calls it "an adult ginger ale."

The new brewery, which opened in 2019, also serves as a direct-sales shop, and about 10 kinds of draft beer are always on tap. Since they switched containers from bottles to aluminum cans three years ago, nationwide shipping has been going well too. They also appear every year at the Johana Mugiya Festival in September.