Kochi Campagne Brewery

Do you know the brewery founded with the idea of making beer for a wife who didn’t like beer?

That’s Setoguchi Shinya of Kochi Campagne Brewery. He’s from Osaka and used to be an engineer at a sensor manufacturer, but he also studied microbiology in graduate school, so he had ties to brewing. His wife, Kaho, couldn’t handle beer’s bitterness, and that inspired him to think, "I want to make a beer my wife and I can toast with together."

While training on weekends at Iwami Beer in Shimane, he won an excellence award at a Kochi Prefecture business plan contest, and in 2018 he launched the TOSACO brand in Kami City. He and his wife often traveled around Kochi, and when they decided to brew beer, they chose to move to a place they wanted to live in.

Exactly! And the company name, "Campagne," comes from the Latin word "campanio," which means "people who share bread." That’s why their lineup includes a beer called "pan beer." Every part of the name is packed with meaning.

"Kome White Ale" is a Japanese white ale made with Kochi-grown rice and Niyodo River sansho pepper, and it won gold at the Japan Great Beer Awards 2019 and silver at the International Beer Cup. "Wajo Kölsch" is a hybrid of sake yeast and beer yeast, and it also won gold at the JGBA.

"TOSA IPA" uses four kinds of hops plus the peel of Tosa buntan citrus, and "Yuzu Pale Ale" uses Kochi yuzu just as it is. TOSACO’s real strength is how it uses ingredients from Kochi Prefecture in small quantities across a wide variety of beers. Setoguchi’s dream is to brew beer with ingredients from all 34 municipalities in Kochi Prefecture and create beer tourism centered on TOSACO. The brewery also has a TAP STAND attached.