by Ry Beville

Not all plans require the best team to execute them. Not all projects require the largest budgets. Cutting corners, making substitutes, working on the fly—these are all a part of the art of compromise. But how much future quality is one compromising when it’s an investment of the size of a large craft brewery?

“Too much” would be the answer from Hori Teruya of Laff International and Markus Luczynski of BET, the pair behind some of Japan’s best and newest craft breweries.

Thankfully, Japanese breweries have many options for equipment and parts these days, with products coming primarily from mainland Asia, North America and Europe. The current range of price provides comfort zones for any brewer in the business. Hori and Markus would certainly qualify as premium. Some brewers are confident importing equipment on their own from discount vendors and assembling machinery themselves. Some are not. Some just don’t have the time. Those who fall into the latter two often turn to Hori and Markus, who provide a full range of engineering, maintenance and consulting services backed by experience. I traveled out to meet them while they were building Karuizawa Brewery, to get a peek at their work and ask them how they came to be a team more than a few consider the best in Japan.

Hori launched Laff in 2001 and Markus, BET, in 2007. The two, however, have been working together since 1999, primarily handling parts and maintenance, and breaking down defunct breweries. Hori has built ten breweries and works on maintenance for fifteen. His first was in 2003 and was Baird’s original 200-liter system that was below the Numazu Taproom. Markus, meanwhile, was originally working as a brewer in Japan and learned about equipment through that job before eventually moving into importing it. The Karuizawa Brewery marks their first large-scale building of a brewery together from scratch.

Touring the massive brewery in hard hats as dozens of technicians and construction workers continue building, the vast complexity of it all strikes me first. I’ve been in many breweries before, but have never gotten the chance to see what’s behind the walls. This is a very different beast than some of the smaller brewpubs people are putting together today. How did the two grow to this level of sophistication?

Hori replies, “I previously had some construction skills, but I basically started from zero and learned how to build breweries on my own. There are no textbooks for building a brewery.”

Obviously, Hori had an aptitude for the job. Those who know him well frequently joke about his “Da Vinci notebooks.” Hori has a sketchbook with designs and diagrams that he takes notes in. It’s interesting to see him open it suddenly to draw something in, as if a Eureka moment has struck.

With a brewery this size, though, Markus and Hori do not handle all the work. In addition to BET-Laff, which manages designs and brewery equipment, they note that there are teams working on electricity, facility equipment (like piping and AC), waste disposal, well water, and the packaging line.

Do the various teams run into friction trying to work together?

“Not at all,” replies Hori. “We’re all professionals.”

Has the construction gone smoothly?

“So far, perfectly. Just as we’ve planned.”

Is that usually the case?

Hori and Markus look at each other and laugh, “It depends on the plan.”

Looking at the unfinished walls stuffed with wires and pipes, surveying the interconnected parts of the whole brewery, from brew house to conditioning tanks, one has to wonder where the work begins.

“We start with a production target,” says Markus, “and then we meet roughly every week to develop the plans.”

Hori adds, “We generally try to fulfill what a customer wants. We think about how to make it easy for them to brew a particular line of beer at a particular volume. Then we recommend the requisite equipment and design. Here, we also recommended energy-saving equipment. The cost is high, but all that money comes back over the long term.”

In the context of actual execution, the duo works on the floor plan first, deciding on the ideal system and set up. Then they determine how to connect it all. The actual building construction team comes in after that and builds on that basic schema.

Hori admits that he doesn’t really advise on business plans and has little interest in it. Markus, however, does offer some follow-up services, including production consulting, trouble shooting, and the sale of some brewing-specific products.

I prod them some more for their perspective of the business of brewing and they begin to open up.

“I see a lot of smaller breweries that I think must be a tough business,” says Hori. “Using some of those smaller systems will take many hours to brew and consume all the brewer’s time. Basically, if you aren’t thinking about making 60 kiloliters a year (the lower limit for receiving a beer license as opposed to 6 for a happoshu license), then there’s brutal work involved.”

Do you ever go into a brewery and think, ‘Who the hell planned this place?’

They both laugh.

“Yes, most of the time,” says Markus. “At the time many were built, people didn’t really know a lot about brewing or properly designing for it.”

What are some of the problems you see?

“Breweries that don’t spend enough money on sanitation,” notes Hori. “That’s the biggest problem. Too many brewers just don’t know enough about the engineering side—like hoses, for example—which affects sanitation. That creates a lot of problems. I think there are brewers out there who make really good beer, but that poor sanitation diminishes their product.”

“Beer is 80% sanitation,” opines Markus. “You can’t be a good brewer if you don’t understand sanitation.”

Are there any breweries that meet your ideal for sanitation?

“None,” says Hori smiling, “except for maybe the big four.”

Markus replies, “I think a lot comes down to taking care of your equipment. If you aren’t, you’re inviting risk to your business.”

I ask their opinion of overseas breweries.

Markus relates with a little pride, “Germany has a lot of history and experience in brewing, so their breweries reflect that. Even breweries in America at the class of Stone and Lagunitas are putting in German brewery systems. Problems can still happen, but in terms of quality, I don’t think you can beat the Germans.”

What are some other issues in building a brewery?

“Safety is a really big issue. Because of earthquakes in Japan, you really need to think differently about the brewery,” explains Hori. “We’ve attached our tanks here to both the roof and the floor. These can withstand a fairly large earthquake.”

At present Hori and Markus are so busy with new building projects that they are turning down a lot of requests. How many more breweries can Japan sustain?

“There’s definitely a building boom now,” explains Hori, “but I think that will taper off in about two or three years. Then we’ll have all that maintenance work to do. There are certainly a lot of people who want to get into craft beer, especially brewpubs, but again I think they need to realize how tough it is. If you have several branches, then I think that maybe you should consider a separate production facility. Or if you are a place like Gotemba resort with several restaurants on campus, then that’s fine, too. But in the cities, it’s a really tough business if you don’t own your own space. The cash flow must be really tight.”

Markus emphasizes, “It’s not like in America where you are seeing a continued explosion of breweries. It’s easier to grow there. In Japan the laws covering size and production are a challenge. Sure, you can just get a happoshu license, but it is so hard to scale up from there.”

Despite all their words of caution and disapproval of much of what they see, Hori and Markus are very hopeful for the future of craft beer in Japan. They wouldn’t have staked their careers on it if they weren’t. And they are very curious to see the results of the brewery they are finishing up.

“Beer will be fermenting here by the time your magazine comes out.”

And by that time, Hori and Markus will no doubt be hard at work somewhere else.

Disclosure: the Japan Beer Times receives advertising revenue from several equipment makers. We encourage breweries to research all their options, gather feedback from peers and choose the option best for them.

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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.