by Ry Beville
Michinoku Fukushima Beer was one of the many early Japanese craft breweries to go with German-style brews. Since then the brewery has evolved and ultimately survived, not simply the early craft beer crash but also the 3-11 earthquake-tsunami disaster that rocked Tohoku and damaged the good Fukushima name. Producing a high quality product has certainly benefited them. They also got by with a little help from their friends. Still, they could use a little more.
Fukushima has by no means rebounded and some people will understandably always harbor negative associations with the prefecture. The crippled nuclear plant on the coast, however, is far away from Fukushima City and the brewery. By independent scientific accounts, products from the prefecture that are brought to market are safe, including their beer.
Local products undergo robust testing for any contamination and I got an intimate look at this process when I visited the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Center a couple of months ago. This is where all the testing happens. Products from the prefecture are brought there and scanned for radiation by some of the most technologically advanced equipment available. The center values transparency, allowing visitors to observe the process. They also announce the results publicly.
My personal opinion after seeing it all for myself was that Fukushima products are probably safer than others I consume without question. But youāll have to decide for yourself what is right for you. As one prominent doctor from the prefecture has told me, he is much more concerned with the damaging effects of stress, smoking, poor diet andā¦ drinking too much.
With beer this good, careful you donāt drink too much, too! Ladies and gentlemen, our interview with their kind brewer, Yoshida Shinji.
What are your flagship beers?
A pilsner, dunkel and weizen are the three main German-style beers we brew.
Any seasonals?
We have a new one called āFriends Lagerā that we made with local volunteers. Weāve also started developing a line of fruit beers using local Fukushima fruit. For example, we have an apple lager, a strawberry ale, and also plans for a peach beer later this year.
Why are your flagship beers German style?
The president and original brewer traveled the world drinking beers. In Germany, they realized that those beer flavors were the ones that they wanted to introduce through their brewery in Japan, and thatās why we focused on German styles. This was around 1997.
That was in the early days of craft beer in Japan, toward the end of the first peak in popularity before conditions got really bad. How did you guys pull through?
We actually didnāt see much of a decline in our output because we were mainly distributing locally and were supported by that.
Isnāt that still mostly true?
Indeed. Weāre still strong locally, especially in hot spring towns.
Who taught you guys brewing techniques when you started?
We had a Kirin veteran named Suyama come to train us. Iām actually the 3rd brewer to have taken the reigns. All the original recipes came from him, but over the years weāve tweaked them here and there.
Any particular reason for the tweaks?
Well, I want to make new beers, or spin-offs like that Friendship Lager. I just want to keep developing new stuff. We donāt really change our flagship beers, but for the others, we do alter the ingredients, like the hops, for example.
Why did you join the brewery?
Actually, my father is the president!
Doesnāt that mean you guys fight, too?
Oh yeah. That comes with a family business. We just say it like it is sometimes.
So who actually calls the shots?
The president is the boss. I can vet my opinions to him, but his opinions ultimately trump mine. But if I get his approval, then I can just go ahead and brew.
Have you ever had any big failures, where you had to dump a batch?
No. So far, so good.
And which of your beers is your most popular?
As you might expect, our pilsner. We donāt alter that recipe and just keep brewing it as we always have. Itās a rather malty pilsner, actually, with a full body.
What measures have you taken to ensure the safety of your beers?
We do rigorous testing of our beers for any contamination, including the ingredients before we brew. For the apple lager, for example, weāll test the apples, too. We make sure the beers are safe. Even on our homepage, we clearly report all our findings. Still, though, after the disaster, many people south of us in the Kanto area and beyond are worried about food safety and we lost roughly half of our customers.
Have you managed to win any back?
Weāve gotten about 70% of them back at this point.
And youāve gotten support from August Beer and Aoki at Popeye, too, havenāt you? Donāt you brew some special beers for them?
Yes, and weāre so thankful for that. Aoki called us right after the disaster and asked if there was anything he could do or anything he could send us. We got a lot of encouragement from everyone, actually. Other bars, too, have brought in our beers for the guest taps. We were saved by all that support.
Keep up the good fight and thanks for your time!
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.
