KITO SHIMOICHI BREWING

Do you know KITO SHIMOICHI BREWING in Nara's Yoshino area? It's a brewery created by fully renovating a former elementary school.

Exactly. There's a brewery inside a mixed-use facility called KITO FOREST MARKET SHIMOICHI, which was renovated from the former Shimoichi Minami Elementary School. The building uses lots of Yoshino cedar, so the wood scent is wonderful.

This is the interesting part: they make beer that heavily uses ingredients from Shimoichi Town. "KITO KAKI BROWN ALE" is a brown ale that uses local persimmons, both fruit and leaves, whole, and the sweetness of the persimmons and the toasty aroma of the malt blend together beautifully.

They extract from the leaves too, which gives it a distinctive mellow character. There's also a saison called "KITO 90 Degrees Classic Brew Table Saison Lemongrass" made with lemongrass from Shimoichi Town, so it's crisp and refreshing and pairs well with meals.

"KITO STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE" is a low-malt beer with more than 50% strawberry, blended with herbs and mint from Uda. At 2.5% alcohol, it's one even people who don't like beer can enjoy.

It all started when they began developing it together with Okuyamato Beer in Uda City, and KITO's style is to actively make use of locally grown imperfect fruit and herbs. A former school became a brewery, and the persimmons, strawberries, and lemongrass of Shimoichi Town became beer. It's a place where you can taste the whole town.