Kokura Brewing

Do you know Tanga Market in Kitakyushu? It’s a historic shopping street called the "kitchen of Kitakyushu," and there’s a brewpub inside it. Kokura Brewing, under the shop name Brasserie Soma.

The owner, Takuji Obi, originally worked in liquor wholesaling and food service, and through his relationships with breweries and wineries he came to think, "I want to make my own too." His wife’s hometown is Kokura, and he opened in Tanga Market using Kitakyushu City’s vacant-storefront utilization program, the "Shutter Hiraku Project."

It’s run by just the two of them, husband and wife, and there are three tanks in the back of the shop. Each batch takes about a month, and they brew a different beer every time. What really defines this brewery is how it uses local ingredients. There’s "Kokura Amanatsu Bergo" made with amanatsu citrus from Kokuraminami Ward, "Yumetsukushi IPA" with Yumetsukushi rice from Fukuoka Prefecture as an adjunct, and even ales with Shine Muscat and saisons with oni-yuzu.

What’s more, they provide the spent malt to a local farm as feed, use the cattle manure to make fields, and have ultimately succeeded in growing hops that are 100% from Kokura. They’re brewing beer through circular agriculture.

Also, Tanga Market had two major fires in 2022, but Soma miraculously escaped major damage. The power outage meant they couldn’t control the temperature of beer that was fermenting, though. Instead of discarding it like you normally would, Obi kept aging it, and it turned out to develop surprisingly good aromas.

They named it the "Fukkou Series," and brewed beers like Fukkou A Bergo and "Fukkou Bampaku Yuzu Wheat" using bantaku pomelo. Part of the sales are donated to reconstruction support funds for Tanga Market. By the way, the name "Soma" comes from Sanskrit and means "the drink of the gods that gives nourishment and vitality."