The curiously named TDM1874 opened its doors on December 2nd, 2016 in the outskirts of Yokohama. A brewpub with a bit of a twist, itâs also a specialty liquor shop with an extensive selection of wine, sake, and other libations. For lovers of fine drink, thatâs just short of heaven. The all-in-one concept is the brainchild of Yokohama native, Kato Shuichi.
Kato is the fifth generation CEO of Sakaguchiya, the original liquor specialty shop founded by his great-great-grandfather in Tokaichiba, a suburban area of northwestern Yokohama. When Kato was deciding whether to remodel or rebuild his aging, thirty-year-old building, he envisioned a hybrid store where you could not only shop, but also try beer that was made right on site. Construction and obtaining multiple licenses required significant time, but after two years the plan finally came to fruition.
The TDM in the name comes from the literal translation of Tokaichiba: âten day market.â Long ago the area had a market that was held on the 10th of each month and the name stuck. The 1874 in the name comes from the year that Katoâs great-great-grandfather started the business. Once explained, it seems more clever than curious.
To be better prepared for his new venture, Kato visited different breweries in Japan seeking advice. He also took a trip to Portland, Oregon to absorb as much as he could about craft beer. He felt the brews there were especially hoppy and wondered if he would tire of them after a glass or two. He personally wanted more balance. As a busy CEO, learning to brew beer and then actually doing it simply wasnât feasible. He needed an experienced brewer and wanted someone with tastes similar to his own.
In the summer of 2016, importer Todd Stevens of Beer Cats introduced Kato to the person he was looking for: George Juniper. Stevens had previously worked with Katoâs daughter and had come to know her father well. He was aware that both parties were looking for a partner.
Juniper says that he and Kato were on the same page right from the beginning. It was the first interview during his somewhat frustrating search for a head brewing position that he went away from feeling extremely positive about. The brews Juniper had introduced to Kato were almost exactly what the owner had in mind. In November of 2016 Kato brought him on board and the tanks arrived about a week after that.
Juniper was meant to be a brewer. That realization took hold of him early in his life and never let go. The origins of his brewing career are not rooted in the beer world, but in fruit wines. Living in the English countryside in the small town of Wisborough Green (population around 1,500), Juniper was surrounded by tons of fruit and flowers. When he was 13, his mother began teaching him how to make elderflower champagne and fruit wine. It wasnât about drinking it, but more about teaching him the joy of creating something with his hands and providing a hyperactive child with a hobby that focused him and put his energy to good use. Likely, she didnât envision it at the time, but he would put brewing to such âgood useâ that it would turn into a career (or maybe it was her ingenious plan all along!).
In his mid-teens he became more and more interested in the idea of making beer. He started off with kits using extract, then moved on to all-grain mashing when his brother bought him a book on it. While he was attending the University of Brighton, he was still homebrewing as much as his meager student income allowed. He would often take his beers into local pubs in Brighton for people to try. As fortune would have it, one of those people ended up being a brewer working at Dark Star Brewing.
Juniper recounts, âI got a phone call the day after asking if I wanted a job. They were looking for a new brewer at the time and I was pretty fed up with university. I didnât enjoy it and I didnât have any money. I hadnât really considered doing brewing as a living until it kind of fell on me that day.â He was 19 at the time.
Many parents might not be so excited about their child leaving university to pursue brewing, but having a mother with a passion for fruit wine and a working-class father who was a fencer by trade (putting up fences, not epee), the conversation went very smoothly. Juniper says, âIt was a short phone call to my parents to ask if theyâd mind if I left university to start working. My dad, especially, was pleased with that. Heâs a bit more old school and believes very much in work and apprenticeship. He was keen for me to leave and start brewing.â
He had a very short interview in a pub and took the job at Dark Star without hesitation. He started as an apprentice and became an assistant brewer soon thereafter. When one of the senior brewers left to return to Canada, a year into his tenure he was suddenly the #2 guy working under Mark Tranter, now owner of the extremely successful brewery Burning Sky.
Dark Star began building a larger brewery with a 45bbl brewhouse and while the head brewer was off getting that online, Juniper took on more responsibility running the existing 15bbl system. When the move to the new brewery was completed, he found his role further expanded into management of raw materials and other aspects of production. With everything apparently going perfectly for him, one might ask why he would leave it behind to go to Japan.
His aspirations to relocate started off with a hobby. When he left university, he still wanted to pursue educational interests outside of brewing to keep his mind alive. He had gotten into Japanese punk music and decided to take weekly lessons in the language. Eventually, the urge to experience the culture and test his language skills first-hand moved him to journey to Japan in March of 2009.
His first trip to the country exceeded his expectations. With the help of a few members of the craft beer community that Dark Star had connected him with, he found himself guided to various craft beer bars. He also visited the Minoh Beer brewery for a tour, gaining insight into how breweries in Japan ran.
With fond memories fresh in his head, he saved up all of his vacation time to return again in 2010 for three weeks. During that trip, he was introduced to Kiuchi Yoichi, who had been on the lookout for help in the Hitachino Nest brewery, and the two formulated a plan to have him come to Japan on a more permanent basis. He had worked at Dark Star for four-and-a-half years and decided that he was ready to learn some new things. All the beer at Dark Star was secondary fermented in casks, so he had never kegged or bottled beer professionally. Additionally, while he had some freedom with recipes, Tranter formulated the majority of them. When he finally broke the news to Tranter that he was heading to Japan, it didnât come as a big surprise. According to Juniper, the company was quite supportive of his decision.
He started at Kiuchi in 2011 and worked there for a year. Dropping from the #2 brewer to a much lower position coupled with a lack of knowledge of how to function properly within the culture of a Japanese company frustrated him. He moved to a position at Brimmer Brewing where the way of doing things was more casual and involved significantly less culture shock. Juniper says, âI had a great time at Brimmer and learned a lot there. Scott (Brimmer) let me do a few recipes and I also got to see a brewery during its start-up phase.â That experience would help him later down the road at TDM1874.
Juniper spent a year at Brimmer, but found himself yearning for a head brewer position where he could make whatever beer he wanted to make. Working at Brimmer had given him a taste of putting his creativity to work and he wanted to take it to the next level. He yearned to be the top dog or nothing, so he left in search of a place where he could accomplish that. Aggravatingly, it took him three-and-a-half years to find the perfect fit. In the meantime, he worked teaching English to children. Though far from his ideal situation, it taught him a lot about how to operate within the structure of a Japanese company.
Finally getting back behind the brew system has rejuvenated him. That Kato allows him a great deal of freedom in the brewery has also made his creative juices flow. While the CEO is mostly hands-off in the brewhouse, the two men communicate often, especially when it comes to evaluating the beers. Being both a wine and a sake sommelier, Kato picks up the slightest of nuances. âHe has a great palate for quality,â praises Juniper.
The majority of the beers developed by Juniper have a British tilt, especially in the malt flavoring, but he currently has a penchant for experimenting with American hops as well. Expect a malty backbone to be standard in most of the beers, with some adhering to tradition and others more experimental in nature.
One of the beers Juniper is most proud ofâand an example of that malt-driven conceptâis his British Best Bitter (BBB). It was a beer he wanted to make from the start since he feels there arenât many examples of a true British bitter in Japan. That, and itâs a style he loves drinking. It is also the beer customers are most likely to reorder. Itâs approachable for people new to craft beer, yet flavorful enough for craft beer fanatics (note that the BBB will take a summer hiatus in lieu of something lighter and more seasonable).
While Kato is content to let Juniper freely create in the brewery, he stipulated that one beer use the local hamanashi (a pear variety). The Midori-ku area of Yokohama has a lot of agricultural land and the pears come from a farm down the street. Juniper chose a 4.1% ABV gose (a sour, salty styleâsee JBT#23 Sour Beers) for this. Because pear is delicate, he wanted to do a beer that was very dry. Still, donât expect a blast of pear flavor; itâs more of an accent.
Juniper has started an IPA ânumber seriesâ to experiment with a lot of the newer hops that have appeared over the last few years. The brews are equal parts experimental fun and new tastes to excite customers. The first two were British-style IPAs with identical recipes (6%ABV, 50IBU range) except for the hops used (El Dorado in #1, Azacca in #2). #3 is more American in style, dryer with quite a bit more hop aroma from a yet unnamed hop (Experimental 7270) as the feature. Stay tuned for more releases.
Another standout creation that has been well received is the Coco-Natsu Ale, an American-style pale ale with toasted coconut (5.8%, 37IBU). It was inspired by Fieldworkâs Coconut Milk (see pg 51), which Juniper tried during co-founder/brewer Alex Tweetâs visit earlier this year. He loved the flavors and decided to make a lighter, drier version that would go down easy in the heat of summer. The name itself is a play on words, replacing ânutsâ (natsu) with a homonym meaning âsummerâ. Coco-Natsu is quite sweet in the nose, with tropical aroma from the Equinox hops as well as the actual coconut. Juniper claims that it is one of the hardest beers he has brewed because its complex flavors and aromas are difficult to balance.
As Juniper continues to experiment, expect a mix of the traditional and the innovative to become standard. Kato, for his part, hopes to teach people who only know about the big industrial makers how good craft beer can truly be. He wants to help change the culture of beer in his locale and beyond. TDM1874 has already impacted the local drinking public. Neighborhood residents have taken to it quickly, and it wouldnât be shocking to show up there on a weeknight and have nowhere to sit. The companyâs brews are now trickling into the Kanto area market and are winning over new fans. Thankfully, that once-a-month market concept is a thing of the past.
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.
