Akashi Brewery

Akashi Brewery was founded in 1998, making it one of the oldest breweries in Hyogo's craft beer scene. What's especially remarkable is its location: it's in Eiga-shima, in a part of Nishinada where breweries with histories of more than 300 years stand side by side.

Yes. The brewery is inside NAGASAWA Akashi Eijima Sake House, a complex renovated from a historic sake brewery. It also includes the Japanese Sake Cup Museum and a sake brewery archive, making it a rare place where sake tradition and craft beer coexist.

Their biggest feature is that they stick to 100% malt. They never use adjuncts like rice or corn starch. The brewing water is natural water from Nishinada, and the hops are top-grade fine aroma hops imported from Germany and the Czech Republic. Head brewer Mr. Hashimoto finishes each one by hand.

Major beers often use rice or corn to keep costs down and make them lighter, but with 100% malt, the flavor of the barley comes through directly. Their staple "Akashi Kaigan Beer" is a pilsner with a crisp finish, and "Akashi Roman Beer" is a brown ale with deeper richness. They also make the dark beer "Yukyu no Toki."

"Yamada Nishiki Beer" is especially interesting. It's a Weizen-style beer made with Yamada Nishiki, Hyogo's premier sake rice, as an adjunct, so it's low in bitterness and rich in aroma. It was selected for Hyogo Prefecture's "Five-Star Hyogo" program. It's a beer that could only have been born in a sake-producing region.

They won Hyogo Prefecture's first UQ Award, and at the International Beer Competition, three brands have won awards for three consecutive years. Their quality is well established. Since they also have a restaurant inside the sake brewery, you can enjoy Akashi beer paired with local cuisine.