GRAND ASO BREWERY

GRAND ASO BREWERY is a brewery run by the long-established liquor shop "Aso Okamoto" in Uchimaki Onsen, Aso. Founded in the first year of the Showa era, the shop has about 100 years of history, and it was started by the fourth-generation owner, Kentaro Okamoto.

Okamoto actually spent 15 years away from his hometown, but when he returned to Aso, he was moved by the sight of local people who kept living on despite repeated disasters like floods, eruptions, and earthquakes. He wanted to liven up Aso for those people.

Seeing small breweries in various places energize local communities with beer, he decided to do the same in Aso. Then he launched the ASO GEO CRAFT brand. The name comes from the "geo" in Aso UNESCO Global Geopark.

That's right. Aso's underground water is high-quality natural water, good enough to have been selected as one of Japan's 100 Famous Waters. Based on that mineral-rich water, they use vegetables and fruits grown on Aso's land as adjunct ingredients. It's a setup combining German barley malt and hops with Aso water and local ingredients.

Exactly. You can drink it fresh on the premises. Uchimaki Onsen is Aso's hot spring district, so you can enjoy Aso in a way unique to the area: soak in the hot springs, then drink craft beer at the liquor shop. It's beer that combines the discerning eye cultivated by a long-established liquor shop over about 100 years with Aso's nature.