A growing handful of Japan’s roughly 400 craft breweries are using locally grown or brewery-grown hops, albeit usually in quite limited amounts. Japan just isn’t a large producer of hops, with the vast majority being imported. There is no doubt that sourcing raw materials locally goes far in mobilizing residents around a brewery here. It’s also a selling point to visitors: you’re getting a taste of the terroir. One of Hokkaido’s newest breweries, Hop Kotan, is pushing this concept to new heights. Instead of using a small percentage of local hops in its brewing, it’s looking to push that number closer to 100%. Can it pull off what most brewers in Japan never even conceived of as possible?
Sapporo native Takayuki Tsutsumino is the driving force behind Hop Kotan and the embodiment of the company’s philosophy. Readers are perhaps familiar with his name as he previously held the position of head brewer at SOC Brewing, makers of North Island Beer. After graduating from Sapporo’s Hokkaigakuen University, Tsutusmino’s first job out of school was at an eyewear chain. While struggling to earn a living and dissatisfied with the work, he began to think that there had to be a career better suited to him. Having been fond of beer since his undergraduate years, in April 2001 he joined CIT Trading, a business that supplied brewing equipment and raw materials to small breweries. One big draw of the job was that the company also planned to launch a brewery of its own.
To set that plan in motion, the company sent Tsutsumino to Vancouver, Canada to participate in a training program for brewers at the now-defunct Richmond BeerWorks. He was joined at the time by Takeshi Tagaya (current head of brewing operations at North Island). They spent a total of six months there as assistant brewers, learning the process from scratch, but soon after returning from Canada at the end of 2001, they were shocked to find out that their company was abandoning its plans for the brewery. Luckily, right around that same time, one Norimasa Sakaguchi was writing up plans to launch his own brewery in Hokkaido. Sakaguchi had contacted CIT about purchasing equipment, but a new opportunity presented itself. Tsutsumino and Tagaya, hoping to put their recent training to work, got together with Sakaguchi to found a new company in March of 2002. The facility was completed in 2003 and originally given the name Canadian Brewery, a nod to the two brewers’ apprenticeship in Vancouver. The brand would later become “North Island”, which seemed a proper choice for their Hokkaido-produced beer. The company eventually changed its name to SOC Brewing after receiving investment from a corporation of the same name.
North Island Beer, under Tsutsumino’s brewing direction, steadily established its reputation among the ranks of respected Japanese craft breweries. He made such a name for himself, in fact, that Mikkeller (Denmark) approached him in 2015 to do a collaboration beer called Haskap Blonde, a winter seasonal employing local Hokkaido haskap berries.
Stepping back a year, in 2014 he participated in the annual prefectural brewing symposium conducted by the National Tax Agency. (In Japan the tax office is heavily involved in advising and assisting breweries due to the large amount of tax revenue generated.) The conference venue that year was at Taisetsu Ji-Beer in Asahikawa City. There are not many hop farmers in Japan, even to this day, but a group in Kamifurano, Hokkaido also participated in the event. After meeting the farmers, Tsutsumino was inspired to try their hops in a brew. Reminiscing, he says, “The quality was on par with any imported hops. Prior to that day, using foreign-grown hops was just the accepted standard. I was excited that I was able to use products from the prefecture where I was born and raised. I was also touched by the fact that I could brew with hops grown by farmers I could meet face-to-face.” That feeling of pride and the importance of community cooperation stuck with him.
Brewing styles of beer that appealed to him personally while also using Hokkaido’s crops captured his imagination. Tsutsumino felt the urge to branch out on his own and create a new brewery with this central concept. In July 2015 he officially gave up his position at SOC as Director of Brewing Operations, but continued as a member of the brew team while he worked to get his new brewery up and running. Tsutsumino explains, “I wasn’t interested in building a 200~300L brewpub. I had my sights set on creating a 1kl production facility.” The plan was to locate the brewery in the same area as the hop fields, but since the population of Kamifurano is a little over 11,000, local sales volume would be miniscule. The business model was going to have to be focused on shipping to larger markets.
Tsutsumino launched a crowdfunding campaign on May 10, 2017 and his plans hit the radar of a much larger audience. The initial funding goal of ¥6,500,000 was reached in a matter of only eighteen hours. A second campaign was launched on June 23 of the same year. This time, a total of 673 individuals contributed to reach the goal of ¥24,952,222. The final four 2s (pronounced “tsu” in Japanese) were Tsutsumino’s way of putting his name stamp on the project. He says, “The ¥6.5 million was earmarked for the purchase of the first two tanks. But when I hit the ¥25 million mark that next round, all eight tanks in the original brewery plan were no longer out of reach right at the get go. The remaining funds for constructing the brewery were secured through bank loans.” His acclaim in brewing quality beer was likely one of the main factors in the success of the campaigns.
One of the brew kettles was acquired from Shiga Kogen Beer (Tamamura Honten Co.). Tsutsumino comments, “I previously did a collaboration with Eigo Sato (Shiga Kogen’s Managing Director). He has always been supportive. Around two years ago Shiga Kogen installed a new brew system and thanks to Sato’s kindness, I was able to get the kettle at a bargain rate. It was made by Canadian company Specific Mechanical. It’s the perfect size for us and allows us to pack in a lot of hops.”
With the equipment secured, the next step was to find an appropriate property. But since the town of Kamifurano is so small, there were few places available that could accommodate a brewery. Then farmers introduced Tsutsumino to a place near Miyamatoge, a tourist spot known for its blooming fields of lavender and views of the surrounding mountains. There had been a production facility for Kamifurano Beer at that location from 1997 to 2007. There’s now an art museum and facility selling regional produce and products adjacent to it. Look straight up from the property and there’s even a Ferris wheel.
In February of 2018, Tsutsumino decided to sign the lease for the property and construction started almost immediately thereafter. In April that year, Tsutsumino welcomed to the company another brewer with whom he had long hoped to brew: Hiromi Uetake. He brewed at Coedo a few years ago and more recently was the head brewer at Ushitora–Uetake is obviously a well-known member of the Japanese brewing community. As we touched on before in the Japan Beer Times (JBT31, Ushitora), Uetake had been trying for some time to obtain a visa to brew in Canada with Ushitora’s original brewer, Luc Lafontaine, current owner of Godspeed Brewery in Toronto. Uetake informed us that his dream will finally become a reality at the end of July 2019. We wish him the best of luck!
In late June 2018, Hop Kotan was granted licenses for both beer and happoshu production, and by the middle of July brewing activity was underway. It was the first time in about twenty years that a beer license was issued in the prefecture. (Note: this is greatly simplified, but in Japan a beer license has restrictions on adjuncts and a higher production volume requirement, while a happoshu license allows adjuncts and has a much lower required output. See JBT36 article on happoshu.) Tsutsumino applied for both licenses so he could have total brewing freedom. He recalls, “It took just about four months to get the licensing. That’s about the fastest you can expect. I believe we presented a solid business plan to the tax office and they could easily see its merits.”
The name Hop Kotan was chosen for very simple reasons. Kotan is an Ainu (Hokkaido’s indigenous people) word meaning “village”. What better name is there for a local brewery making beer with Kamifurano’s hops than “Hop Village”?
In August of 2018, the first beers rolled out of the factory, proudly named Made in Kamifurano Lager and Made in Kamifurano Ale. Both were single-hop, wet-hopped beers using Kamifurano-grown Cascade. The lager is a hoppy pilsner while its partner is a golden ale. As you would expect from two veteran brewers, these first brews to hit the market were well-received. They were unveiled at events at Beer Cellar Sapporo, Craft Beer Market in Kanda, and Hibino Beer in Osaka. Excited craft beer fans converged on the events and it’s safe to say investors in the crowdfunding campaign, many customers themselves, were pleased. Unsurprisingly, over the past year Hop Kotan has been consistently delivering clean, exceptionally produced beers to the marketplace. Kamifurano’s hop producers have been delighted with the end result, too, and Tsutusmino’s team has inspired them to keep pace by doing everything in their power to provide the highest quality hops possible.
For this article, I visited about ten months after production had gotten underway. By that point, Hop Kotan had already brewed 65 times, releasing 58 original beers. Tsutsumino explains, “For the first year I didn’t want to solidify a regular lineup. We are still getting used to our equipment and we also simply want to try making a wide variety of beer types.” Production for the first year will come in around 80kl. In the second year, Tsutsumino predicts an increase to about 95kl. With the expected increase in brewing volume and the departure of Uetake mid-summer, Sakae Suzuki joined the team last year. Three more younger members will be joining Hop Kotan this year, too, bringing the total brewing staff to five.
Labeling year one a “prologue”, Tsutsumino says the first chapter of Hop Kotan begins this fall. The harvest this summer is projected to be better than average and the company is expecting to make around 70% of its beer using the locally grown hop crop–an impressive number to say the least. He will start regularly producing one beer made with 100% Kamifurano hops. To this point, when using the local product, the company has been brewing with whole hops. But Tsutsumino says he plans on purchasing a pelletizer in the fall of 2019 so the majority of the hops can be processed for future use. Plans to begin bottling are also in the works. Hop Kotan’s beers will be increasingly available around Japan over the coming year, too. Expect an uptick in brews using locally grown Hokkaido produce, like fruit and the haskap used for the Mikkeller collaboration. Working in unison with Furano Wine, ideas are being tossed around for a barrel-aging program using wine casks.
If you’re considering a visit to Kamifurano, it’s a well-known fact that Hokkaido receives heavy snowfall in the winter. A trip in the summer, when the vibrant colors of blooming flowers paint the hillsides, might be the better choice. You could also observe the hop harvest. Hop Kotan also hosts a monthly drinking party. Joining Tsutumino’s team and the hop farmers for multiple rounds of freshly produced beers would surely make for a great memory. You may even find yourself inspired to support your own local community. Consuming locally produced beer using locally grown ingredients is an easy first step for any of us.
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.
