Farmers Brewery Honami

Did you know there's a brewery right in the middle of the fields in Hamada, Shimane? It's called Farmers Brewery Honami.

It's run by an organic farmer named Junhiro Mishima. He originally came from Kyoto and worked for an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Osaka, but after getting married he moved to Shimane, left his corporate job, and started organic farming using the knowledge he had from studying agriculture. He set up the brewery on a corner of Mishima Farm.

The biggest feature here is that they use organically grown sweet potatoes from their own fields as adjuncts in the beer. Honami Red is an amber ale made with purple sweet potatoes from Shimane Prefecture, and the red color from the potatoes is incredibly beautiful. Honami Annou is a pale ale that uses plenty of Annou sweet potatoes, and you can really taste the sweetness of the potatoes.

Honami Golden is a golden ale made with Beni Haruka sweet potatoes, Honami Brown uses homegrown ginger, and Honami Black uses black soybeans. There are six varieties in total, and every ingredient is grown in their own fields. They use organic farming with no pesticides or chemical fertilizers at all, and the brewing water is drawn from 60 meters underground.

They brew using the Iwami method, which uses a chest freezer and plastic bags, and each batch is up to 150 liters. That means they can keep experimenting with new beers. They're also trying to grow their own barley and hops, so someday they might end up producing almost all their ingredients themselves.