Mushimahama Brewery

Do you know Mushimahama Brewery? Mushima, in the Kasaoka Islands of Okayama, is a tiny island with only about 40 residents, and that's where they brew their craft beer.

It was started by a man named Ryohei Iseki, originally from Osaka. He used to work in food wholesale sales, but his grandparents were from Mushima, so he'd been visiting the island since he was little for grave visits.

One day, he came upon a scene on the island shore where local men were drinking around a barrel fire. They chatted with him warmly, he drank with them, and he reportedly thought, "I want to live on this island." In 2016 he moved there as a member of the regional revitalization cooperation team.

What's more, after islanders told him, "This island used to be covered in barley fields," he cleared fallow land and started growing barley himself. He learned brewing at Okayama's Kibidoteshita Beer and Shodoshima's Mame Mame Beer, then in 2019 renovated an old house near the port and opened up shop.

The flagship beer brewed with that barley is "Beginning of Barley," a saison with a clean finish and the sweet, complex aroma of yeast. "Drum Can Meeting" is a rauchbier style beer made with natural hijiki seaweed from Mushima as a secondary ingredient. The glutamic acid in the hijiki combines with the smoky aroma to create a distinctive depth.

Exactly. It also won a bronze medal at the Japan Great Beer Awards 2021. Another one is "Kitagishima Oyster Stout," a dark beer made by passing wort through oyster shells from nearby Kitagishima. The minerals from the oysters soften the bitterness of the hops. The brewery is in an 80-year-old traditional house, and through the glass doors you can see the Seto Inland Sea's islands stretching out in all directions.