Bak Brewery

BAK, Bak Brewery, is one of the hottest names in Osaka's craft beer scene right now. They have a brewery in Horie and operate from four locations across Umeda, Dojima, and Shinsaibashi.

It comes from the mythical beast "Baku," said to eat nightmares. It carries the message, "Drink beer and forget the bad things." The representative, Yuji Kawamoto, used to work in sales at an advertising production company, but he quit his salaryman job at 29 and jumped into the beer world.

The starting point was being shocked by a Guinness he drank at an Irish pub when he was 23. He apparently saw the owner of his usual izakaya say, "I can't help but enjoy my job," and decided he wanted to compete by doing something he loved too. While working out a restaurant concept with a classmate, he happened to find a great property and decided, "If I miss this now, I'll never be able to do it."

As a self-proclaimed "beer freak," they really push boundaries. Their only regular beer is an IPA called "Bitter Suffering," and the name supposedly comes from, "It's as bitter as my life" (lol). They also make "KAPPA CAMP," a gose brewed with cucumber; "Melty Chiss," a milk-chocolate imperial stout with cacao and lactose; and even an annual "grilled eel kabayaki beer."

But it's not just quirky for the sake of it. Kawamoto says, "Avoiding off-flavors is a given. We combine adjuncts with a clean base to pursue better taste," and while releasing two new beers a month, they never compromise on quality. They also actively take on new styles like sour IPAs.

"We don't care about beer tradition or the mainstream. We single-mindedly make interesting beer" is BAK's spirit. There's also an episode about how they were inspired by the opening of a nearby brewery called MARCA and decided to start homebrewing, which gives off the nice feeling of Osaka brewers pushing one another to improve.