Three Tree Brewery

Three Tree Brewery in Ibaraki City is a brewery run by a husband-and-wife team.

The owner, Ryohei Mori, is from Tomakomai in Hokkaido. He encountered craft beer while attending university in Kyoto, then spent four years in intensive training at Oni Densetsu Beer brewery in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido.

There’s a beer event held every year in Ibaraki called the Mugion Fest, and while taking part in it, he apparently thought, 'I wish there were a local beer here that I made.' So he and his wife, Naoko, moved from Hokkaido to Ibaraki and opened the brewery together.

If you break down the surname 'Mori,' it becomes three trees, or '3 tree.' Pretty stylish, right? They operate in a compact setup about a 3-minute walk from Hankyu Ibaraki-shi Station, with the brewery on the first floor and a beer stand on the second.

Their flagship is a pale ale called 'RPG.' It has a grapefruit-like aroma and a crisp bitterness. Their saison called 'Marukoobu' is also floral, light, and delicious. Mori’s philosophy is 'drinkable' beer - beer you want to keep having again and again.

Their connection to the local community is interesting too: they provide spent grain from brewing to a chicken farm in Ibaraki as feed, brew beer using locally grown red shiso, and even make a coffee beer in collaboration with a nearby roastery. They’re a brewery that’s firmly rooted in Ibaraki.