Blue Master

Blue Master is one of the essential names in Fukuoka craft beer. The founder, Hidenori Kato, has a pretty interesting background too. He originally worked at a can manufacturing company, doing research and development on beer cans.

Exactly. While ordering beer cans from small American breweries for work, he was shocked and thought, 'There are so many different kinds of beer.' In 1993, he visited more than 20 breweries in California, and that was when the switch really flipped.

After that, he quit his company, studied brewing in Los Angeles, and founded the brewery in Fukuoka in 2001 with his wife. And he did it right when the local beer boom had already completely faded. What Kato absolutely wanted to make was fruit beer, and since there were almost no decent fruit beers in Japan at the time, he decided, 'I'll make it myself.'

The signature one is 'Kabosu & Honey.' It's a beer made with kabosu from Oita Prefecture and honey, and it won the Yokohama Mayor's Award at the Japan Beer Festival Yokohama. Another is 'Amaou Noble Sweet,' made with Fukuoka's famous Amaou strawberries. That one also won the Food Action Nippon Award.

It is not just fruit, either. They also make 'Healing Time,' a coffee porter brewed with organic coffee beans, and the standard 'EXPORT IPA,' a hop-forward IPA. Their ingredient range is incredibly broad. There is even a story that they have tried every fruit except watermelon and pear.

Kato is not just a brewer; he also served as the executive committee chair for beer festivals and helped grow one event to the scale of 100,000 attendees. He says that organizing events is his life's work, and he has helped spread Fukuoka's craft beer culture itself. The brewery is within walking distance of Beppu Station on the Nanakuma Subway Line, and you can drink in a taproom where the equipment is visible through the glass.