Heartbeat Brewing

Did you know there’s a brewery right in the hot spring district of Nagato Yumoto Onsen? It’s Heartbeat Brewing, and its brand name is "365+1 BEER" (San Roku Roku Beer).

“365” expresses the wish to enrich the daily lives of local people. The “+1” means making the one special day a traveler spends here even more memorable. They aim to brew beers loved by both locals and visitors.

The founders are Takanao Ariga and his wife Ayaka, who serves as the head brewer. They were originally consultants in Osaka and had been involved in a town revitalization project in Nagato Yumoto Onsen for about four years. Then they decided to move from Osaka and start a brewery, shifting from being the ones giving advice to becoming the ones living in the town and contributing to it.

The taproom is housed in a renovated former pharmacy that’s about 60 years old, and it blends beautifully with the atmosphere of the hot spring town. At the time of launch, they outsourced production to the renowned Isekadoya Brewery to ensure quality while preparing for in-house brewing, which was a very solid approach.

Their flagship, San Roku Roku Pale Ale, won gold in the American-style Pale Ale category at the Japan Great Beer Awards 2022. It’s aromatic with restrained bitterness, designed so even beginners can drink it smoothly. They also make Yofukashi IPA, a strongly bitter IPA, and Yama-Kawa Hazy, a citrusy, juicy hazy IPA.

It’s even served at the well-known local ryokan Otanisanso, where you can enjoy it alongside the inn’s meals. Because the two founders spent years looking at the town through their consulting work, they’re able to naturally weave beer into the overall experience of the hot spring district.