Sky Hop Brewing

There’s a brewery called Sky Hop Brewing in Shunan City, and its founding story is seriously intense.

The president, Hiroyuki Hirakawa, is from Shimonoseki and used to be a supermarket manager and a salesperson. The brewmaster, Kazuo Ohsora, is from Kure City in Hiroshima Prefecture, discovered his love for beer while at Yamaguchi University, and after graduating gained sales experience at a local craft beer company in Yamaguchi City.

The two met at the 2018 craft beer event "Craft Holiday." When Ohsora said, "Someday I want to brew beer myself," Hirakawa immediately said, "Let’s do it now!" From there, they raced from incorporation to obtaining a brewing license and starting production in just five months.

The brand name is "SAVEER." It’s a coined word combining SAVIOR and BEER, and the concept is "salvation beer." The core style is American, and the Hazy IPA (7% ABV) uses dry hopping to bring out juicy aromas and sweetness.

My personal recommendation is the Saison. It uses the peel of a citrus fruit called "sudachi" from Suo-Oshima, blending the spiciness of Belgian yeast with local citrus. The Black IPA has been brewed with the same recipe since the company was founded, and its defining feature is a sharp, clean bitterness.

They won a silver award at the Japan Great Beer Awards 2022, and they supply to more than 100 establishments, including Michelin-starred restaurants. They’ve also worked on a collaboration beer with Mitsui no Kotobuki, a long-established sake brewery in Fukuoka, making for an interesting collaboration between a sake brewery and a craft beer maker.