Kanazawa Brewery

Kanazawa Brewery has an incredible story behind its representative, Yuka Suzumori. She was originally a company employee, but after leaving her job she studied in Canada for two years. There, through home parties and events, she fell in love with the diversity of craft beer. After returning to Japan, in 2015 she met the owner at a cross-industry networking event, and things moved quickly toward founding the company.

She studied brewing for about a year at a training school in Tokyo, and production started in March 2016. At first, she was running the brewery all by herself.

But here's where it gets interesting. The brewer she met during her training, Tatsuo Fujiki, joined the company a year and a half later. He was a veteran with nearly 30 years in the beer industry. After joining, he built a sterilized lab inside the company and started culturing yeast in-house.

Only about three or four breweries nationwide have an in-house sterile yeast-culture lab. Kanazawa Brewery keeps 20 types of yeast on hand at all times, so they can freely choose the yeast that best suits the beer they want to make. Because they start each batch with fresh yeast, the aroma stays exceptionally fresh.

Their flagship beer, Virgin Ale, is an American pale ale and has been the brewery's signature brew since its founding. The Weizen has a rich, mellow wheat sweetness with a fragrant aroma, and the Dry Stout has coffee-like notes while staying crisp and easy to drink. Their regular lineup comes in red, white, and black labels.

Exactly. Suzumori also makes an 11% alcohol barley wine using sake yeast. It's a dessert-wine-like beer with a gentle ginjo aroma. They also make a gluten-free happoshu called Gingerrica, brewed with rice malt syrup and ginger instead of malt.