by Kumagai Jinya

Summer. Shocking blue skies, transparent aquamarine waters, and 160 subtropical islands whose high temperatures actually almost never rise above 35ºC—this is Okinawa. In such an environment, where people can’t help but drink refreshing beer, maybe it’s fine that most go first for an Orion Beer. But what about your second? So all the craft beer fans can quench their particular thirst, let’s take a look at the booming Okinawan beer scene.

As it has taken off these last few years, one hot topic has been Miyakojima Microbrewery, which launched its brewing operations in October, 2010. Husband and wife team Takahashi Masanori and Miki run both the brewery and brewpub.

Masanori’s interest in beer began to grow about 15 years ago, when he drank a Bass Pale Ale. Then around 2006 he read a newspaper article about the Zakkokukobo Brewery opening in Saitama. He paid a visit and met its original brewmaster Baba Isamu, who offered him plenty of advice. Making beer was becoming a reality for him.

Miyakojima is an island made of elevated coral reef, absent any rivers. Tap-water comes from rainfall but because of the calcareous reef through which it filters to its underground sourcing area, it’s naturally hard water. After moving to Miyakojima and telling Baba about the water quality, he received prescient advice, “That water is similar to Burton upon Trent’s, the birthplace of pale ale in England. Maybe you could make a really nice pale ale yourself.” Since Takahashi’s first beer love was Bass, his life came together in an instant. Having moved there in 2008, he got his brewing license (for happoshu) in August 2010 and then launched in October of the same year.

Their line-up includes Coral Ale in a pale-ale style; Coral Dark, which uses black sugar from Taramajiima, near Miyakojima; and Weizen, a style from Zakkokukobo’s brewery he greatly admired.

The brewpub’s hours are from 3pm to sundown and reservations are necessary on some days. “This isn’t an izakaya,” Takahashi reveals, “I want people to come in the mood for tasting.” No doubt when the last order is called, the twilight sky is amazing.

Goya Dry, a particularly Okinawan beer, won gold for freestyle light lager at the International Beer Competition and went on to win both the Kanagawa governor’s award and Yokohama mayor’s award at BeerFes Yokohama. Helios Brewing in Nago-shi (featured in our summer 2010 edition) has certainly popped into the consciousness of many craft beer fans since.

Their history as a brewery, however, is not so recent. They started making beer in 1996 very soon after brewing deregulations. Their original line-up included a lager, pale ale, weizen and porter, but then the next year they introduced a winter seasonal called Santa Beer. The Goya Dry debuted in 2003.

2011 marked 15 years of brewing for them and they began to plan for expansion outside Okinawa. They first endeavored to have canned Goya Dry placed in luxury supermarkets in urban areas, and then as a brewery participated in their first festival, BeerFes Yokohama, last year. Helios then participated in the Nippon Craft Beer Festival held in Akihabara this past April and BeerFes Tokyo in June. Matsuda Asuka, Tokyo sales executive, attended all the festivals and remarked, “The enthusiasm at the venues and all the encouragement from our fans really left an impression on me.”

If you want to drink Helios on draft, then visiting the Helios pub along Kokusai-dori in Naha is a must. Beyond that, Yokohama Cheers serves it as well as the manager of Craft Beer Market Toranomon, Uchima Yasutaka, who is from Okinawa—but you better time your visit right to catch it.

Another brewery similarly in people’s minds for its recent awards is Nanto Shuzo (of the Nanto Corporation), which is located right in the center of a tourism facility called Okinawa World in Nanjo City on the southern end of Okinawa Island. The beer produced here is actually called Nihede Beer, and consists of their “Soft (kölsch)”, “Hard (alt)” and their “Black Ale” released just this last February.

Brewmaster Ganaha Seigo joined the company in 2000 and helped launch Nihede Beer the following year. Ganaha’s brewing began with the purchase of a used system which, it turns out, the original owner parted with because he often couldn’t sanitize it properly and kept ruining his beer. While it may seem obvious, Ganaha took careful note and commits himself to cleaning. “I haven’t had one infected batch so far.”

He decided to make a kölsch and alt because they were styles being made elsewhere to good public reception. It also seems he wanted a highly quaffable brew that anyone could gulp down, something refreshing and yet different than the typical pilsners made by the large breweries.

Ganaha gained some confidence after first winning a medal at the International Beer Competition, 2004. Then in 2006 he tried his luck at the World Beer Cup eventually winning silver for Soft. Now Ganaha is brimming with determination, claiming, “I still have a lot of studying to do. I want to keep chipping at it until I win gold for both of my main beers.”

The Black Ale is currently the house beer at Yokohama Cheers. Ganaha at first had only planned to make it a seasonal release, but after brewing this beer with crisp taste quite in contrast to its heavy appearance, it became a big hit at Okinawa events and he added it to the line-up.

Shiogai Atsushi, the president of Ishigakijima Beer, Inc, which produces the Ishigaki Ji-Beer brand, is a third-generation native of the island. He established his company in 1994 and finally launched its brewing operations in 1997, but pursued brewing much earlier. Together with others who wanted to make a specialty brew for the hot island, he went to Germany as early as 1991 to train. After deregulation in 1994, they began to prepare for obtaining their license.

Around the same time as deregulation, he established a business partnership with the German brewery Dachsbräu, obtaining from them both equipment and yeast. He eventually started with four varieties, weizen, helles, dunkel and pilsner. This particular weizen is tan in color similar to Dachsbräu’s own, and has a rather full-bodied flavor.

They now produce Weizen, Marine Beer (formerly their Helles), Dunkel, Shiro Beer (a hefeweizen), and Yugure Kaigan Beer (“twilight shore beer”, a red lager). You can enjoy Ishigakijima beer on the island in kegs from izakaya as well as the Kotobuki gift shop. Shiogai has made bottles available at convenience stores in the hope that locals will drink more of it now. They have even instituted a refund system where people receive ¥10 per bottle that they bring back to the plant.

Brewing on Ishigakijima poses a special challenge. Typhoons that smack into the island are “young” and much more ferocious than when they pass over northern prefectures. During typhoon season, sometimes electricity is knocked out, which would entail loosing control of temperatures during brewing. To avoid disaster, they really do have to brew while paying close attention to the latest typhoon information.

The Okinawan brewers all mention being indebted to Horikawa Hideki, owner of Cheers, Yokohama. Horikawa doesn’t just passionately serve their beer at his bar, he also visits the islands several times a year to meet with the brewers. He has thus assumed the role of connecting interested industry peers and beer fans with the breweries.

There are now several low-cost carriers flying to Okinawa, beer pubs are sprouting up all over the prefecture, and for craft beer fans, such a promising scene is only getting better. This summer, why not take a beer vacation down south and drink the island way?

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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.