Utsui Brewery

Utsui Brewery is a brewery in the Utsui district of Shimonoseki, and its origin story is really interesting.

The representative, Hideyuki Tomomura, originally worked as a psychiatric social worker and is the manager of Green Farm, a disability welfare service facility. It was a welfare facility that did farming, and they had a pressing issue: they wanted to raise the wages paid to the users. Instead of selling agricultural products as they were, they decided to add value, which led them to beer brewing.

And they even grow their own hops. They use hops grown in their own field of about two acres, which is quite rare for a Japanese brewery. They handle everything in-house, from cultivation to brewing and sales.

The brand name VACAN CRAFT is a play on Shimonoseki's old name, Bakan, and Valuable Ale Can. They trained at a brewery in Wakayama, built experience through contract brewing starting in 2019, and finally opened their own brewery in 2023.

The lineup includes 01 Rice Ale, a gentle-tasting beer made with locally grown Koshihikari rice from Utsui; 02 Weizen, a Bavarian traditional style; 03 IPA, with citrusy hops; and 04 Hazy IPA, with juicy American hops. The seasonal 00 Fresh Hop is a luxurious beer made with freshly harvested homegrown hops.

It's in the mountains about 15 minutes from Shin-Shimonoseki Station, and you can see the brewing equipment through glass from the taproom. They have 8 taps serving their own beer and guest beer, but it's only open on about three Saturdays a month, which gives it a pretty exclusive feel.