Kjetil Jikiun is as big as a Viking king, kind as a kindergarten teacher. His name is the Old Norse word for kettle, which seems appropriate given his world recognition as a master craft brewer. In his native Norway, he can claim credit for launching the craft beer movement. Given Norway’s relatively small market for…

Kamakura, despite its twenty million yearly tourists, still feels like a sleepy seaside town with unassuming residents in pursuit of simple, satisfying lifestyles. You wouldn’t call Kamakura life in the fast lane. Neither would you call its local beer bold and earth-shattering in flavor. It suits the culture of the town. And, as more discerning…

Perhaps no craft beer is more closely associated with the Kansai region than Minoh. Launched in 1996, it produces a nationally distributed line-up of beers and now has three pubs in Osaka by the name of Beer Belly that are managed by a business partner—the most recent one opened in a funky neighborhood of narrow…

Sonoda Tomoko was an unlikely candidate for the job of brewmaster at Harvest Moon when she applied to work there in the mid 90s. Japan’s early microbrewery boom had begun and the parent company, Ikspiari, wanted to serve it at Roti House, a restaurant to be located just outside Disneyland, in Chiba. “I didn’t know…

Echigo was the first. On February 16th, 1995 they launched, one day ahead of Ohotsuku Beer, after having received their license on December 9th the previous year. Becoming the first Japanese microbrewery in the new age after liberalization wasn’t without challenges, of course. For starters, there was no craft culture, no guiding light. The decision…