Mikazuki Brewery

Mikazuki Brewery is just a 3 to 5 minute walk from JR Wakayama Station, inside Misono Shopping Street. In a corner of the retro arcade, there's a space with black walls and ceiling that creates a nighttime atmosphere, and a glowing crescent-moon sign floating above it.

Even the beer names are all unified around night-sky and space themes, like "golden moon," "misty moon," and "buzzing light year." The owner's name isn't publicly disclosed, but the starting point seems to have been drinking Shiga Kogen Beer in Nagano and being shocked by it. Fascinated by that brilliant hop aroma, they taught themselves the ingredients and brewing methods in depth and opened their own shop.

Hoppy Wheat Ale vol.3. This is the beer the owner themselves calls the "finished form." It uses only Citra hops, and the sweetness of wheat and citrus aroma spread across the palate. Reviews even said, "Once you drink this, other beers fade into the background." They reached the current vol.3 after repeated trial brews.

There are also West Coast IPA and Kolsch, and they run five taps in total. But the owner handles everything alone, from brewing to bottling. The policy is to make something so good that even people who don't usually like beer will say it's delicious, and each bottle is carefully hand-bottled one by one.

They only open Friday nights and Saturdays, precisely because they're brewing while also running the shop. On the Sunday of the Misono Marche held once a month, they apparently open from the afternoon too. They also play a part in revitalizing the shopping street, so it's the kind of brewery you'd want to keep coming back to and drink while chatting with the owner.