Sonoda Tomoko was an unlikely candidate for the job of brewmaster at Harvest Moon when she applied to work there in the mid 90s. Japan’s early microbrewery boom had begun and the parent company, Ikspiari, wanted to serve it at Roti House, a restaurant to be located just outside Disneyland, in Chiba.

“I didn’t know how to make beer at all, but I saw that they were hiring and thought it seemed interesting. I applied and got the job! I had to write an essay about what kind of beer I wanted to make. I wrote, ‘a beer that smells like the sea,’ because we were seaside.” Sonoda laughs, “Looking back, I have no idea what I meant by that, but I think my idea stuck with them.”

Ikispiari was impressed enough with one other candidate during the multi-stage interview process to hire him, too—Sakurai, who still works with Sonoda to this day. A brewery start-up hiring someone with no brewing experience was a recipe for disaster in many cases in those early years of frothy dreams. Luckily, Ikspiri came onto the scene just late enough to see all kinds of places already failing, and the company decided to take its time. Four years worth of time.

In 2000, when Roti House finally opened, the boom was essentially bust. Sonoda and Sakurai, though, had plenty of insight and experience under their belt. Patience is a virtue perhaps necessary for all brewers, but four years to wait before you can brew! What do you do with four years?

“We noticed that many of the early breweries were only making three styles of beer. We decided early on to make at least five styles for variety. But because Sakurai didn’t have any brewing experience either, we had to do a lot of studying.”

That included learning at a brewery that had the same equipment while also obtaining beer taster and beer judge credentials from JCBA. In addition to touring breweries in Japan, they further traveled to America and Europe on beer sabbatical.

“Back then, Guinness and similar stouts were all that was available, but neither Sakurai nor I liked them much. We wanted to add a dark lager to the line-up, something you could session with. Well, that’s when we discovered the dark lager from U Fleck in Prague—that beer impressed me the most in all our travels. Even though we knew it might not be best suited to Japanese tastes, we decided to make a dark lager based on it anyway, and ended up with the Schwartz that is our flagship beer.”

And a great beer it is, easily one of Japan’s best in that style. If you have a chance to drink some at any of the beer festivals this year, we do recommend it. Half of Harvest Moon’s other beers are pilsners in part because of their location in a touristy area. Sonoda wanted to make beers that wouldn’t be an acquired taste for customers.

“Many people who come here are drinking craft beer for the first time. First and foremost, we want them to develop an appreciation for craft beer. I try to make beers that go down easily, not beers with bold flavors. That’s part of the reason we made a fruit beer from the start and continue to do so. Soon, we’ll be making a slightly bitter orange beer with a pale ale base.”

Their formula for success seems to have worked. Harvest Moon now sells more than twice what they did when they started, and Sonoda claims they are nearly at capacity, somewhere north of 150 kiloliters per year. 90% of their beer is sold right where they are based, in Maihama. That includes their seasonals, to complement their regular beers, for a total of six or seven whenever you visit Roti House.

The years have come with some hiccups, though. Sonoda relates a funny story when she first started working there.

“I was putting beer into kegs but hadn’t completely familiarized myself with the machine, yet. When I tried to attach the keg filler to the keg, beer shot out of the keg and began showering me. At that very moment, the vice-president opened the door and shouted at me, ‘Are you OK?!’ Yeah, I replied as I was getting soaked, just fine!”

On her relationship with Sakurai, she says they do wrangle with each other on regular occasion, but characterizes it as constructive friction.

“We’ve been working together for 16 years now, so we have a good idea of what each other wants and like to do. Sometimes when we really fight, our assistant Saito steps in,” she laughs.

When asked about the future, both hers and the craft beer industry, Sonoda notes that she is content to stay at Harvest Moon.

“I still think there is more that I can do for Harvest Moon. All brewers of course dream of going independent, but I’m probably better suited for supporting this brewery than being on my own. I do think we’ll see a lot more small breweries being opened by young, ambitious brewers wanting to go independent. And I think such places will draw very loyal fans. There also seems to be a lot more freedom now in Japan in terms of what styles people can brew—so many more varieties of beer out there than when I started. People are talking of this big boom again. I actually don’t think we’ll have an explosion of craft beer, but I do think we’ll see a steady increase of production and consumption. I hope new brewers actually study brewing so we don’t have a repeat of what happened during the first craft beer boom.”

What we may see is an increase of female brewers, led by the likes of Sonoda. There must be challenges in a male-dominated industry where hoppy, high-alcohol beers now seem all the rage, right? Sonoda demurs.

“I don’t really think of myself as a female brewer at all. I’m a craft beer brewer.”

And if a brewer makes good beer and if the business is successful, who’s going to argue otherwise? www.ikspiari.co.jp/harvestmoon

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.