Gogoshima Beer Farm

Did you know there’s a brewery on Gogoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea, about 15 minutes by ferry from Matsuyama? It’s called "Gogoshima Beer Farm."

The owner, Nobuki Nagumo, used to run a restaurant in Yokohama, but he felt uneasy about mass production and mass consumption in urban areas, so he moved to Gogoshima because he wanted to make beer in a circular, sustainable way.

The brewery was renovated from a 150-year-old traditional house, and the walls use a traditional technique called rammed earth. The tap handles are handmade by a woodworker, and island residents also joined in the DIY work, so it’s a place everyone built together.

The interesting part is their pairing beer series. "NIKU" is a rich amber ale for meat dishes, "SAKANA" is a rice lager made with Matsuyama Mitsui, Ehime’s sake rice, for fish dishes, and "YASAI" is a saison made with lemongrass naturally grown on the island for vegetable dishes.

They also make an "Iyokan West Coast IPA" using locally off-spec Iyokan citrus, giving fruit that would otherwise be discarded a new life as beer. Their coffee amber ale uses beans from a roastery on the island, and their wheat hazy IPA uses surplus wheat from local farmers, so almost everything is made from ingredients from the island or from Ehime.

It’s only about a five-minute walk from the port to the brewery, and the experience of taking a ferry just to go drink beer is special in itself. They also make mead, including one made with raw honey from a beekeeper in Matsuyama and the peel of naturally grown Iyokan from Hojo.