Baeren Brewery

Do you know Baeren Brewery? It's a brewery from Morioka, Iwate, and what makes it amazing is that they bought a vintage brewing kettle from Germany that was made over 100 years ago and use it as-is to brew beer.

Not only can they brew with it, but the "Classic" made in that kettle is incredibly good. It's a lager faithfully recreating a 100-year-old Dortmund recipe, with elegant aroma from German aroma hops and a solid body and bitterness. ABV 6.0%.

Founder Yoichi Shimada is from Tokyo and originally handled Morioka as a sales rep for a spirits company. There he hit it off with his friend Tsuyoshi Kimura, and in 2001 they left salaried jobs and launched the brewery together. It was a three-person start-up, with a German master brewer joining them.

That bold move paid off: in 2015 they won the inaugural Grand Prize in the Beer Journalists Association's "Japanese Craft Beer to Share with the World" contest. They were the top among more than 200 breweries nationwide. They also won the top prize again in 2018.

Their staples include "Schwarz" and "TG Pilsner," and seasonal releases like "Maibock," "Chocolate Stout," and "Rye Beer." They're a brewery that goes all-in on the classic European styles.

It's a new factory established in 2019 for canned beer production. The main factory in Morioka focuses on bottles, but adding a can line in Shizukuishi made it easier to ship nationwide. In his book "Tsunagu Beer," Shimada writes about how a small local company can help spread beer culture, and this is exactly that practice in action.