Mukai Craft Brewing

There’s a brewery on the banks of the Niyodo River, opened by a Japanese American from Los Angeles. Mukaicraft Brewing.

Kenneth Mukai is a fourth-generation Japanese American. He used to teach high school physics and chemistry in the U.S., while homebrewing for about 15 years.

His connection to Japan began when he came to Okinoshima through the JET Program, and later at a wedding in Fukuoka he met someone from Kochi. While visiting Niyodogawa Town, he was apparently encouraged with, "Why don’t you make beer here?"

He moved in 2019, and the following year opened a brewery and taproom called BLUE BREW in a forest along the Nakatsu River. He draws brewing water from springs in the Niyodo River system, which has been named Japan’s best water quality many times, by laying pipe himself.

The beer names are unique too. “2410” is a Belgian white, and it’s a play on the reading of “Niyodo.” It uses local sansho pepper and ginger. “17” is a sweet potato stout brewed with mashed roasted sweet potatoes. The flagship “Santa Monica” is a pale ale inspired by his hometown of LA.

There’s also “439,” a green tea IPA made with tea leaves from Niyodogawa Town. The ginger, sansho, sweet potatoes, and tea leaves used as adjuncts are all sourced from local farmers. And true to his background as a former physics and chemistry teacher, he built his own wastewater purification system. What would cost 15 million yen commercially, he built for 150,000 yen.