Looking for Ingredients to make...

Expecto Patronum!

I’m on a journey, a journey to find specific ingredients to make something delicious.

Yes those are sticks I’m holding in the picture above and that is an ingredient as well.

Here, I’ll give you some other hints so that you guys can guess what I’m going to make…

There you go, that’s all you get. That should have been more than enough information to tell what I’m planning to do…

Plum Blossoms,Beets, Kuromoji, Rice, and Sansho Peppers

All ingredients that were either found in the mountains of Omori, or grown here in the town. Oh! I also forgot to tell you that I’m also going to be using a certain type of yeast that was found in the plum blossoms of Omori.

Bread?

Good guess, but more like drinkable bread…

Craft beer that utilizes the unique ingredients that are found in omori?

Bingo, and to the point as well!

Yes, I have taken on the challenge of trying to make craft beer using the ingredients found here in Omori, a beer that is unique to this town I am living in.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating a little bit, but let me elaborate.

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Beer in japan

Has anybody ever tasted Japanese beer? It’s almost like water but in a good way you know, its refreshing, easy to drink, and pretty much pairs with anything. There is nothing better than opening one of these beers like Asahi, Sapporo, or on some special occasions Ebisu on a hot summer day. These beers are dry, smooth, have a slight bitterness to them, and leaves not much on the palette after it goes down your throat. If I could relate it to beers found in the states, they are kinda like taking Blue Moon and Bud Light, adding them together and dividing it by half? I dunno, I mean the taste and the amount that people drink this stuff in Japan is kinda like Bud Light, but it doesn’t have that image of college party and replacement for water at barbecues. Here in Japan people drink their Sapporo and Asahi with dinner or even with nice meals, which is where the Blue Moon comparison comes in.

The Japanese almost exclusively drink these types of beers (Asahi, Sapporo, Ebisu, Orion) and they mostly taste the same…

and this bores me

Not trying to be “beersist”, but pretty much all major brand Japanese beer tastes the same. I love my IPA’s, stouts, sour ales, lager, cloudy IPA’s, beer that tastes like raspberries… You get the idea…

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iwami Baku-shu 石見麦酒

Alright, back to the main story.

So I’m not building my own beer brewery but getting some help and expertise from a local craft beer brewery called Iwami Bakushu, located in Gotsu city, Shimane Prefecture. They make awesome beers utilizing local ingredients in quantities of 100L, which makes about 300 bottles of beer. I’ve already tried a lot of their beers already and can vouch for their quality. They make IPA’s, Brown Ales, Sour Ales, Saisons, Coffee Stout, Pale Ales, American Ales, I can go on and on because Yamaguchi-san, the owner, is a beer wiz.

Speak about variety

The good thing about these micro-breweries is that you can make beer in small quantities, so you can experiment with different flavors with relatively low risk. Another good thing about this way of making beer is that you don’t need a whole lot of ingredients to flavor your beer. So in essence to make 100L of beer, I can collect the flavorings I want to use myself and not have to go around trying to find industrial sized amounts of things. I can, and already have, just go to my local mountains, find the ingredients I want and after 15mins of collecting have enough to flavor my beer. Now the process is harder for Yamaguchi-san who is the actual guy making the beer (getting the hops, wheat, water and etc.) and infusing the flavorings into the beverage.

If you have a chance to visit Yamaguchi-san, you’ll be blown away. He’s essentially found a way to make beer using one boiler and plastic bags inside of refrigerators, all inside of a room that I cannot really say what the exact measurements are. It’s like a small living room… What I’m trying to say is that he’s found a way to make beer in a small room using tools that can be found at home departments. It’s really quite amazing.

The other week my coworkers and I went to Yamaguchi-san’s place for a beer tasting to get an idea for what kinds of beers we wanted to make. He brought out a crazy variety of beers he is making and is currently working on. There was Soba and Sweet Potato beer, Fig beer, Strawberry cider, sakura flower yeast sour beer, cloudy IPA, and so much more. I’m going to leave what types of beers we ended up deciding to make until next time. A little bit of suspense you know keeps the readers coming back for more. Beer suspense.

I was actually dying from the stomach flu a couple of days ago, a great pick-me-up post-recovery!

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So why beer?

Well there are several reasons to why I’m doing this.

First of all, the company I work at, Gungendo, found this plum blossom yeast here in Omori which we have been using to make various skincare products, sake, and miso. The truth is that Gungendo seemed to have been stuck on these products for a while, and nothing too new has been done with this yeast lately. Not sure why nobody suggested to make beer yet, but I thought it might be a good way to utilize the yeast especially if we have such a talented craft brewery near us that specialize in using local ingredients to make original beers.

The second reason why I wanted to do this was because I just wanted a beer that I want to drink and to make it better, something that I was involved in. As you guys might have been catching on from my other articles and posts, I really like making the things we just regularly find in supermarkets. There’s just something rewarding about that, and not to mention the information you get to gain from the process. I’m also bored of mainstream Japanese beers and want something with a kick, some character, something memorable.

The third reason is that I think this can become a fun community centric project that can be utilized in so many ways. We have a great bakery in town, so many interesting farmers growing crazy vegetables, the ocean is right there and we can catch seafood, so why don’t we have a local beer as well to bring it all together? We plan to have farmer’s markets and other food related events here in the town in the future, so it’ll be a great addition to all of these things that are starting to happen here in Omori. Not to mention we can always make new beers so the townspeople can get involved in the process, and then people may come to just buy the beer! Now I’m not saying this as some marketing scheme to get more tourists into the town because believe you me I’m not a fan of trying to herd meaningless tourism into towns only to sell the place out to some fetishized image of the countryside. This is something more than that, it’s about having people realize that the time has come when the countrysides are going to be the front runners in this new age of when we are reconsidering what a “fulfilling life” is. The local mountains are not just places where people go for hikes once in a while, but a location where there is a plethora of resources starting from food to all the way to energy. The old houses can be fixed to have both utility and aesthetics. It’s about reconsidering what we hold valuable and enjoyable. That might have been a little intense, but I think I the most simple terms making beer like this is just one way of finding new possibilities in the countryside where we aren’t just digging and burying ourselves in the past, but moving on into the future by reimagining and finding new value in what we already have! Not to mention everything is just better with beer. Just saying.

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So that’s what I’m up to folks, experimenting to make local beer for Omori that uses Plum Blossom Yeast Beets, Kuromoji, Rice, and Sansho Peppers. The first batch is supposed to be finished by the end of next month! Super excited about it. If it turns out well I’ll be able to send some out if you’re living in Japan!

Until next time…!

Kuromoji is a plant in the Lindera family that is native to Shimane. It has a citrusy and almost a bit licoricey type of smell when you cut into it. The plant also has anti-bacteria effects and is frequently used for toothpicks used to eat traditional Japanese sweets. Around here it is used for tea, and fragrance bags. The amazing thing about these plants is that even years after harvesting if you bruise the branches it gives off a scent.

ØL Tokyo

Address:37-10 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Phone:03-5738-7186

Sun-Tue 12p–12a
Wed-Thur 12a–1a
Fri 12a–2a
Sat 12p–2a

One of my favorite places to drink beer in Tokyo. This is a Norwegian beer company that specializes in making beer with berries. The cold climate in the Norway make it apparently an ideal location to grow berries, so they brew their ØL, which means beer in Norwegian, with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and much more! There are frequently foreigners in this pub so it’s a really nice atmosphere for somebody like me who has lived in the states. They change their menu frequently so there’s always something new to try here! I would recommend their number 3 as a staple. It’s a little tart and fruity which will be a surprise if you haven’t ventured that way before, but trust me it’s worth it.

Iwami Bakushu 石見麦酒

Address: Kakushicho, Gotsu, Shimane Prefecture 695-0016

Phone: 0855-25-5740

A great crafter brewery found in the town of Gotsu which is about 40mins away by car. They have a small scale production going, but that doesn’t stop Yaguchi-san from making an incredible selection of beers. He makes sure to use ingredients from the Iwami-Ginzan area. Just recently he made a sour ale from sakura yeast and a winter ale that uses maple syrup, and both have been an absolute delight to drink. You’ll find his beer all over the Iwami area, and even in some special locations in Tokyo as well!