Yamato Brewery

Yamato Brewery, you know, actually started as an in-house venture from the Kintetsu Group.

The head brewer is Yoshifumi Fujiwara, who applied through an internal recruitment program at Kintetsu Retailing. He used to be a rugby player, and he started with absolutely zero brewing experience. He trained at One's Brewery in Osaka and obtained a brewing license in January 2020.

Not only okay, he won five medals at the International Beer Cup 2021 in one shot. Among them, "Hajimari no Oto Stout" won gold and also took the top honor among British and Irish-style 21 styles, the "Category Champion."

The other craftsman, Koji Iki, is interesting too. He used to be a salesman, but he passed the Nara certification exam. His brewing philosophy is "80% cleaning, 20% passion." He believes that thorough sanitation is the foundation for quality that stays true to style. In competitions, he says they were praised for "faithfully reproducing the style's numbers and color."

The core "Hajimari no Oto" series comes in four varieties: pale ale, saison, stout, and IPA. Each label is colored with "Yamato colors," ancient colors from Nara. The stout is Byakugun-iro, the saison is Hakuzakura-iro, and the IPA is Beniiro.

What's more, there's a YAMATO Craft Beer SWITCH shop inside Kintetsu Nara Station, where you order on your smartphone and pour the beer yourself with a QR code. It's Japan's first payment-linked self-serve beer system. The best part is how easy it is to have a drink right in the station. Their Persimmon Ale made with Nara persimmons and their sansho beer are interesting too.