52's Brewing Exploration

You know that nano brewery in Saiin, Kyoto, that was renovated from a machiya nearly 100 years old? It’s 52's Brewing Exploration. They only started brewing in August 2024.

Exactly. It’s run by two brewers: owner-brewer Buu and American brewer Aaron. They do small-batch, wide-variety brewing, and they’ve already made more than 20 different beers.

And the styles are really diverse. Their first batch, "Buu's Pale Ale," is an English-style pale ale made with four kinds of English malt, with a well-balanced bitterness from Cascade hops. On the other hand, "Citron IPA" is a fruited IPA with 6.5% ABV, and it has a highly rated 3.93 on Untappd.

They also make a milk stout called "Nuregarasu" and a Belgian double called "Killer B" with 10% ABV. They’ve also done an OEM collaboration on "Matcha IPA" using Uji matcha, with 5.5% ABV and IBU 38, combining the aroma of matcha with IPA bitterness.

They’re also good at grisette, a low-ABV farmhouse ale, and recently released a third collaboration with Kinopo called "New Grisette" at 3.5% ABV. The label design was done by artist MoYa, and it has a cool pop-art feel.

They’ve also entered the Japan Great Beer Awards 2025, and it’s really impressive how much they’ve accomplished in less than two years since they started brewing. It feels like Japanese and American sensibilities are colliding inside this machiya, and interesting beers are being born one after another.