Brimmer Brewing in Kawasaki is a relatively young brewery, but headed by a brewer with deep connections to one of the most storied craft breweries in the world. Scott Brimmer, however, never parades his past to draw attention to himself, choosing instead to focus on simply making great beer and developing relationships with local bars and retailers.

Kawasaki (and Japan, for that matter) is lucky to have him. The city so long maligned as an ugly, industrial sprawl between Tokyo and Yokohama has been working hard to improve its image and appeal. A good craft brewery is certainly a welcome addition and the city, according to Scott, has been supportive of his and his wife’s endeavors. Yoshiko, additionally, has won several entrepreneurial awards in Kawasaki and has been instrumental to the success of Brimmer Brewing. If their momentum continues, we have every reason to believe that the brewery will become a bastion of local pride.

Scott is clearly pleased with the brewery’s progress. It is located along a street of mixed residential and industrial buildings, and in a corner near the entrance, some of his son’s toys are visible—Brimmer Brewing is family owned. He has a full-time assistant now in Chris Macomber. Some space behind the brewery may accommodate some additional tanks in the near future. His dream has become reality, but this is not exactly where Scott imagined he would be when he embarked on the path of craft beer in a semi-rural, northern Californian town two decades ago.

A native of Modesto, California, Scott traveled several hours north to visit Chico State University shortly before graduating from high school. Hanging out with some locals one night, he took a sip of some beer they offered and it was unlike anything he had ever had (yeah, he had been an underage drinker). It was Sierra Nevada’s flagship Pale Ale. He exclaimed at that moment that he was eventually going to work for the company, which was located in that same town of Chico.

He enrolled at Chico State in 1994 and in 1997 finally begged his way into a job washing dishes at Sierra Nevada’s pub in town. He advanced from that to bussing tables. Finally, after a couple of years of such grinding work, he was promoted to bartender. Now his life was going to change.

During his several years behind the bar, he had ample occasion to meet Ken Grossman, the legendary founder of Sierra Nevada, who frequently eats lunch there. Grossman is also a pioneer of the craft beer movement and widely considered one of the most respected people in the industry. Casual conversations with Grossman naturally deepened Scott’s appreciation of craft beer.

By the late 1990s, Sierra Nevada was a large, nationally recognized brewery. People from out of town would visit to take tours. Accordingly, well-trained tour guides were part of Sierra Nevada’s staff. One day while Scott was still washing dishes, he was suddenly called on to fill in for one of the guides. He was given no preparation or warning, but by the end had done an excellent job. The ever-affable Scott was soon tapped to work both as a guide and in the taproom the next several years.

Scott eventually caught the attention of brewmaster Steve Dressler, who dropped by to ask him what his life goals were.

Scott reminisces, “I had never really thought about it before, but just said, ‘Actually, I want to be a brewer. I’ve learned so much here and know all the guys in the brewery really well now.’”

Dressler talked to the powers that be in the company and arranged to have Scott take classes at the University of California, Davis, one of the world’s most advanced brewing schools. Sierra Nevada paid for two courses, after which Scott received certification in brewing and packaging. All the while, Scott was still working back at Sierra Nevada, where he could apply what he learned to his job.

“Steve always told me, ‘No guarantees that when you finish we’ll give you a job as a brewer.’ But I’m a persistent guy and even on my days off at the bar, I would go into the brewery to help the brewers. I went above and beyond what was expected of someone not guaranteed a job, I think.”

He was first offered a job in the lab, but turned it down, figuring he should hold out for what he really wanted to do. Eventually, a job did open up in the brewery and he took the interview in 2002. Grossman presided.

By that time, Scott had married Yoshiko, whom he had met at the university years before when she was an exchange student. Always looking out for his future business interests, she demanded that he wear a suit and tie to such an important interview. Did it work?

Scott laughs, “Toward the end of the interview, Ken started teasing me, ‘If you work for us, just don’t get your tie stuck in the auger (a big corkscrew that moves grain).’”

Although his five years of work at the pub was drawing to an end, the move to the brewery was not immediate. It was a tough time at the taproom, with the general manager short on good staff like Scott. He had to wait an additional four months before finally stepping into the brewery’s bright lights full time in 2002.

Scott originally trained on a 200-barrel brew house, which he describes as a much different experience than his brewery in Kawasaki, which is over twenty times smaller.

“It’s actually much easier to train on that larger system because it’s highly automated—almost like computer brewing. But one challenge is that you have to juggle four to five brews every day, each of which is at a different stage in the brewing process. So as we’re pulling in grain, we also have a mash going. At the same point, we have a brew going from the lauter tun to the kettle. At that same time, we also have a boil going. And at that same time, we also have a brew going into the fermenter.”

Scott admits that going to brewing school was very important because it created a foundation of knowledge, but that he learned much more after starting work. Different brewers there had different theories and he benefitted from them all. Scott never got to formulate his own brews, taking instead instructions on what to brew each day from those above him. Were those four years monotonous?

“I always loved it,” says Scott. “I wish I could brew as much as I did over there. Still, on this brew system here in Kawasaki, we can knock out a lot different brews.”

So with one of the most promising craft beer jobs in America, why the leap to Japan? Basically, to be closer to family—Yoshiko’s, of course. All of Scott’s family lived reasonably close in California and had each other for support.

Luckily, Scott had already met Bryan Baird, of Baird Brewing, while Bryan was vacationing in America. Baird had offered to help him out if he ever came to Japan. After a brief stint at Baird where Bryan helped Scott get on his feet, he then took a full-time job at Gotemba Kogen Beer, which Yoshiko helped him find.

Sierra had offered him some insurance as a one-year window to return if things didn’t work out in Japan, but then a new development arose. They revealed to Scott they were going to build a second facility in Asheville, North Carolina, and that he would have a job if he came back. Scott was well taken care of at Gotemba, but the allure of Sierra Nevada’s new plant was great. That dilemma gave rise to a new thought.

“I talked to Yoshiko and said, ‘We have two options: I either go back to Sierra Nevada or we move to Kawasaki, stay with your family, and you help me start my own brewery.’ She said, ‘Alright, you find the equipment and set it up; I will do the paperwork.’ And that’s what happened.”

Only six months passed from the inception of the idea to the time they launched the company. It took another few months before they received their license to begin brewing beer.

“Gotemba Kogen Beer was super nice and let me stay on a lot longer than I had originally expected. When we moved to Kawasaki, they even paid for me to have a bullet train pass to commute, so I could continue supporting ourselves. Then, at the end, when I was making the transition to our brewery, my wife and I were going door to door, handing out phone books just to get by financially.”

When the tax office came by for their inspections, they were surprised to find that it was just a husband and wife team struggling to get by. As much as people bash the tax office for taking so long to do paperwork, they approved the license for Brimmer Brewing shortly after their visit.

For his equipment, Scott splurged a little.

“Grossman and the Sierra team are copper freaks; they like really nice copper equipment and I always kind of wanted my own, too. I talked to Markus Luczynski at BET, and in the end, he and Hori Teruya at Laff helped me find, plan and build this system. Hori was great at finding all kinds of good contractors during the construction phase, saving us so much money in the end.”

Kawasaki City was very excited to have this new addition to the city and split a loan with the local bank so that Scott and Yoshiko could get started.

“Kawasaki has gotten a horrible image as this big industrial city over the last couple of decades, but that’s not the case. When the city and bank officials came over to sample our products, they said, ‘Wow, this came from here? This tastes really good!’ That was the coolest thing for us. I think they are really proud of us.”

Brimmer Brewing does not have a flagship beer, but three standards: Pale Ale, Golden Ale, and Porter. The brewery always offers a fourth, too—a specialty beer that they change once or twice a month. Brimmer Brewing has also shifted away from craft beer specialty bars and focused its sales on more mainstream bars in an attempt to spread the footprint of craft beer.

“One of my goals is to reach markets that aren’t necessarily craft-beer oriented,” explains Scott. “Our best retailer is actually a department store that markets us as local. In a couple of weeks, we are going to be serving draft beer over there. I want to reach locals and get them into craft beer.”

Scott says he definitely wants to open a taproom someday, but that they are “brewery first” at the moment. In the meantime, those wishing to try Brimmer’s full line-up should drop into the Brimmer Beer Box in Aoyama, Tokyo. Funded and launched by business colleagues a year and a half after his brewery opened, this converted shipping container (no kidding) features just a few taps and snacks, but really good prices.

Maybe Kawasaki will be dotted with these one day. The city should hope so.

by Ry Beville

www.brimmerbrewing.com

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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.