Echigo was the first. On February 16th, 1995 they launched, one day ahead of Ohotsuku Beer, after having received their license on December 9th the previous year. Becoming the first Japanese microbrewery in the new age after liberalization wasn’t without challenges, of course. For starters, there was no craft culture, no guiding light.

The decision to start brewing was inspired by their original owner, Uehara Seichiro, who had lived a long time in Europe and thought it was strange that you couldn’t drink a range of beer styles in Japan, too. Echigo’s first brewer was Bawa Demuyakor, a man from Ghana who had graduated from an agricultural school in Hiroshima and had also spent some time at Guinness. For recipes they imported many books from overseas and luckily Bawa had the requisite processing skills. In 1996 Echigo won a bronze medal at the World Beer Cup for their stout—Japan’s first winner!

Bawa’s three-year tenure at Echigo was followed by two other brewers from abroad: Bob Malone (now at Flying Dog Brewery in the U.S.) and Markus Luczynski (see end of article). Says current president Koda Hirofumi, “These three left quite a legacy during their ten years with us. They created the base for many of our current recipes.”

Echigo now works as a team when planning new beer releases. Different members of the brewing team first bring their ideas to the table. Echigo’s original system, before they moved to their large facilities in 1999, now acts as a kind of pilot system where they can test out their new brews. If it’s good, they move to the bigger system.

Echigo’s plan is to try something new three times a year. Their first beer of 2012 is called “Bitterness Unit 100.” Although we haven’t tested it to see if it is indeed 100 IBUs, it does have a good malt balance to its slightly sweet bitterness. That it was an IPA is no fluke. “We do follow some trends,” says Koda, “though at other times we may try to buck a trend.”

Although they have room to experiment, Koda reveals that Echigo is nearly reaching capacity. “We sell out in the summer. We can probably manage for now, but soon we may have to leap to more tanks.” Luckily, Echigo still has room on their campus and growth will likely entail outdoor tanks.

A big part of Echigo’s business model is cans. They began canning when they expanded in 1999 and Koda notes that canning really started to take off for them from 2005. He muses, “Typical beer drinkers began to grow older and drink less, but they wanted to drink better. That’s where our canned premium beers came in. With cans, we were able to compete in the same space as the big beer makers.” Another convenience of cans, Koda notes, is that you can drink them anytime.

Placement in convenience stores would really allow us to drink them anytime. When we broach the subject, Koda says, “We’re working on convenience stores, but it’s hard. We could maybe limit it to certain areas. There are just so many convenience stores, how would we fill that enormous leap in demand?” Demand from overseas, at least, has allowed Echigo to export for several years. Ironically, their exports are in bottle form, as restaurants in America prefer that—for now. Their stout featuring a taiko drum on the label is particularly popular and it is easy to understand why, it being one of Echigo’s most delicious flagship beers over the years.

Another part of Echigo’s business is contract brewing. Gargery is a famous example. The house beer at Hub branches is also brewed by Echigo. Many would probably be surprised how many Japanese craft breweries send their recipes to Echigo because of capacity issues. But with Echigo itself reaching capacity, what does the future hold? More demand, we hope. That’s always better than less. And then maybe Echigo can leap ahead. Convenience stores may need a new shelf soon…

This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.