Kyoto Beer Lab

Kyoto Beer Lab is run by Representative Kazuhide Muragishi, who originally came from an accounting firm and used to work on restoring old houses through an NPO. In the course of that work, he met tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto, and that sparked the idea, "Could we brew beer with tea?" That was the beginning of everything.

Starting in 2014, they began making tea beer through contract brewing, and in 2016 they met Tom Ainsworth from Australia. Tom had been an English teacher at a high school in Shiga and had homebrewing experience. They hit it off, and Tom returned to Australia to train in earnest at a brewery before coming back to Kyoto.

Exactly. He's the real deal, a brewer who handled more than 600 brew days over six years. Their flagship is the CHABEER series. They use high-grade tea leaves from Wazuka Town, and it's amazing how they switch styles depending on the tea variety, like sencha ale, hojicha stout, and kabusecha white ale.

What's more, they brew on an ultra-small scale of 100 to 200 liters per batch, and some of the six fermentation tanks were handmade by the team themselves. They've made more than 40 kinds of beer so far, including experimental ones with watermelon, mango, and coconut.

It's within walking distance from Kyoto Station, along the Takase River. Wazuka Town is a tea-producing region where depopulation has been advancing, and the beer lab plays an "antenna shop" role, supporting tea farmers. I like that structure: drinking beer helps support local agriculture.