Niihama Brewery

Niihama Brewery's "Hime Beer" comes from Ehime Kajitsu Foods, a citrus processing company founded in 1963. They've been professionals for over 60 years, handling the sorting, juicing, and processing of yuzu and mikan.

It started when President Katsuhiro Furukawa said, "Let's do something fun." It was born in 2023 as Niihama City's first craft beer.

Head brewer Yuichi Okamoto is unusual too. He spent 15 years in Hokkaido as a baker. Since both bread and beer are fermented foods that use yeast, he was chosen for his sincere approach to making things. He trained for two months at a craft brewery in Nagano before starting to brew.

And the brewery's biggest strength is that it develops and processes its own citrus puree just for craft beer. They're putting all the know-how of a juice company to work. That's very rare nationwide.

That's why the fruit character is on another level. "HIME BEER SAISON YUZU" perfectly balances the freshness of saison yeast and yuzu, and the "Karan" series of fruit sour ales is amazing too, using whole iyokan and hyuganatsu fruits at just 2% alcohol. The aroma of the peel, the sweetness of the juice, and even the slight bitterness of the pith all come through.

The ingredients are packed with local pride too, using things like barley grown in Ehime Prefecture, white sweet potatoes from Oshima in Niihama City, and rice from Niihama. A beer infused with more than 60 years of citrus expertise from true professionals is unlike anything else.