Open Air Minatoyama Brewery

Open Air Minatoyama Brewery in Kobe is on a whole different scale from the way it was founded.

Representative Goei Murakami has long held onto the desire to create an open place where people can gather, shaped by his experience as a victim of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. He renovated the cafeteria kitchen of the former Minatoyama Elementary School, which has 141 years of history, into a brewery.

And the head brewer is Ben Emerick, who is from Portland. Someone who honed his skills in the mecca of craft beer is brewing with underground water from Mount Rokkō.

They release new beers almost every week, and once they're sold out, they're gone. For example, the Session IPA "big dreams" uses three hops, Nectaron, Citra, and Riwaka, and even at 4.5% ABV it has a bright, expressive aroma. They also make bolder beers like the Hazy IPA "hop viking," brewed with Kveik yeast.

They've also made a Golden Stout called "paper moon" in collaboration with the local coffee shop Crescent Coffee, and they brew beers using local ingredients like budo sansho pepper. With their internationally diverse team, they actively incorporate seasonal Kobe ingredients.

The brewery is part of a larger complex called NATURE STUDIO, which transformed the former school into a community hub. It's the physical embodiment of Murakami's post-earthquake vision: creating a public space where people gather around beer.