This past Sunday I needed to go out and do some work somewhere with peace and quiet. What better place than a craft (micro) brewery! The place I went is called Shared Brewery in Naganuma, Hachioji, Japan and here's how it went.
Shared opened in 2017 just down the street from my house. The owner's name is Daisuke and he started only a few years earlier as a simple home brewer. He is the sole proprietor and a talent for delicious beers.
When I went in on Sunday Daisuke surprised me out of the blue asked if I would like a tour. Of course I said yes and was nothing but impressed with his operation.
First he took me back into the small store room for the dry ingredients like hops, oats, etc.
Like most Japanese he is a perfectionist. He told me the best hops are grown in America, specifically Oregon. So that is where he gets his hops from. However, he is very concerned about inflation and his ability to continue sourcing from Oregon. I asked him, what about Japanese hops and he said they are very low quality because of too much humidity in Japan. These types of details are beyond my surface depth of understanding so we moved on into the brewing room.
First I want to show you what his brewing room looked like just before COVID hit in 2019.
From what Daisuke explained, the black container is for running test brews, small batches to get the right flavor, then the larger tanks in the background are for brewing larger batches.
Fast forward to this past Sunday and Dai has been a busy man. These are his brew tanks now.
I apologize, a lot of the details were skipped because I was a several drinks in and I was just overwhelmed with everything.
He explained that despite COVID his business has been good and growing. I can vouch for that because his beer is some of the best I have had in Japan. We'll get to some of the brews later.
Opposite of the brewing tanks are his refrigerated storage tanks.
I believe there are 5 of them in total.
The purple machine in the center of the photo is a canning machine he just got in from a Twin Monkeys in the US. I forgot to mention, he really likes US equipment as well as ingredients because he says the US is far superior in it's craft brewing technology. According to Twin Monkeys this machine will can 10-15 beers per minute!
Next to the canning machine he is still using the small home brewing kit to test out new flavors. These units are also American made by a company called SS Brewtech
To the right of the canning machine is his bottling machine.
I told him that bottled beer tasted better, but he disagreed. He said the UV light gets in and affects the taste of the beer. I didn't argue, but I still think of the beers that I have had that come in both bottles & cans, the bottled beers taste better.
The Tasting Room
I would describe the drinking are as outdoors sport chic.
I always sit at the bench table when I visit as I like to relax when I'm having a pint. At the rate Daisuke is growing I think this space may eventually be turned into a second brewing room.
One thing you will notice in the picture above is the refrigerator. These have become very popular because of the COVID restrictions on alcohol consumption, for some time you could not drink alcohol at any establishment. So the small brewers started stocking a lot of different craft beers from all over the world. Most of the beers in the refrigerator were from the US and I had never heard of any of them!
The Beers
Dai really is a master of his craft. I forgot to ask him if he has won any awards yet, but if he hasn't he should.
Sunday I ordered the tasting set. 4 beers of my choice, but I asked Dai to choose for me.
He chose 1. Yuzu Bomb IPA, 2. Hop In Black #1, 3. Speed Star IPA, 4. Coconut Hazy IPA
I got to work drinking and working.
Starting with the Yuzu, if you don't know yuzu is a citrus fruit in Asia. The yuzu flavor wasn't too strong, but very noticeable in the aftertaste. It was a light, easily drinkable IPA that I found delicious.
The Hop In Black. This was a complex beer. It reminded me of a wood with a light smokey flavor. That is the best way I can describe it. It wasn't thick or heavy like a dark beer usually is so if you liked the flavor it would be easy to enjoy several.
The Speed Star IPA was so light on flavor it was quite forgettable. Think of an IPA flavored Coors Light.
The Coconut Hazy IPA was a treat. I'm not a big fan of fruity beers, but sometimes they are done right like this IPA was. The coconut was pronounced, but not overwhelming. There wasn't any lingering aftertaste so it was easy to drink quickly. It was delicious so I ended up ordering a pint after I finished these.
There was a beer I had here years ago that I also loved, it was a coffee brut stout and I told Daisuke even though I'm not a stout fan anymore, it was one of the best beers I'd had.
I also asked Dai if he had ever experimented with a sakura beer. It's sakura season in Japan and every drink company in the country is doing some kind of sakura flavored drink. He explained to me that sakura really don't have much if any flavor so he didn't think it would produce a good beer.
We discussed beers for a while and then called it a night. 8pm is the cut off time for serving alcohol right now so he had to close. He mentioned one of the beers he would have recommended is the Chillax Wednesday, a session IPA, but he was out. He said he was brewing another batch though and it would be available this coming Sunday. I told him, well I'll see you Sunday then!
Shared Brewery's website is here: https://www.sharedbrewery.com/#sharedbrewery
I have a feeling if you're a craft beer lover you're going to hear of Shared in the future.
