Helios Sake Brewery

Helios Sake Brewery is an indispensable name when talking about Okinawan craft beer, but in fact it didn’t start with beer.

Rum made from sugarcane. In 1961, founder Tadashi Matsuda launched "Taiyo Brewing" with the idea: "If food shortages come, we need alcohol that doesn’t rely on the five grains. Okinawa has sugarcane, doesn’t it?" The company name "Helios" comes from the sun god in Greek mythology.

They started the craft beer business in 1996, and now they are a comprehensive beverage maker with six kinds of production licenses, including awamori, beer, whisky, and rum. The brewery is in the Yambaru forest in Nago City, and you can also tour the vine-covered old aging cellar and the distillery with Okinawa’s only copper pot still.

"Blue Sky and Sea Beer" is a South German-style wheat beer with a refreshing fruity aroma. "Goya Dry" is a happoshu brewed with 100% Okinawan bitter melon, where the bitterness of the hops and the bitterness of the goya combine beautifully. "Hoshizora Porter" is a dark ale that originated in London and has a smooth, satisfying body.

Actually, the bitterness of goya pairs astonishingly well with beer. Also, "Island Beer" is impressive: it uses yeast from Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, German bitter hops, and Okinawa-grown barley, with goya added as a secret ingredient. It’s unfiltered, so the yeast character really comes through. And part of the sales goes to support Yambaru kuina conservation.

On top of that, Helios acquired the former Sawauchi Brewery of the old Ginga Kogen Beer in Iwate Prefecture, so it now brews in two locations, Okinawa and Tohoku. It’s a company that seriously follows through on its slogan, "Bring Okinawan sake to the world."