Mahou Brew

The story behind Mahoubrew in Tsuboya, Naha is ridiculously interesting.

Exactly. The representative, Tatsuro Omokawa, used to travel all over Japan on a scooter, drinking craft beer along the way, and he ended up falling in love with Okinawa during that trip and moving there.

After moving, he first opened a sandwich shop called Witch's, then trained for six months at a brewery in Okinawa, and after that they renovated the place themselves and turned it into a brewery. Apparently they did everything themselves, from importing the equipment to the piping work.

The head brewer, Baku Yanagi, is a metal music fan, and that worldview shows up in the beer names too. There are a lot of dark, fantastical names like Ophelia, an imperial gose, and Edge of Night, a stout.

Juliet, an imperial gose, won gold at the JGBA. It uses Okinawan shikuwasa, sea salt, pineapple, cabuchi, and more generously, and its concept is "beer that is interesting, challenging, and self-indulgent."

The attached Witch's Sandwich also makes the setup fun: Cuban sandwiches during the day and a beer bar at night. They release about four new beers every month, so you'll find a different beer every time you visit.