Japan's Miyazaki Prefecture is known for many things - it's the city of Gods, with rich mythological lores (and the historic temples to match it); it's also known for its Shochu culture, as well as simply being a great tourist destination with beautiful sunshine, mountains and coastlines, with also a delicious cuisine to match.

What it isn't typically known for is craft beer.

Yet it is here that we find B.M.B Brewery (ビーエムビーブルワリー), one of the most exciting new craft beer breweries in Japan. B.M.B stands for Beer Market BASE, which is also the name of a taproom in the city center, and is owned by one Atsuro Matsuda (松田温郎) (he likes to go by Atsuro).

Atsuro Matsuda.

A Miyazaki native, Atsuro had trained as a sushi chef right out of high school, and eventually worked as a bartender for several years. With the goal of striking it out on his own, he began looking around the Prefecture for something that he could offer that was different - and it struck him that there was hardly any craft beer spots. Yet, he would quickly find out that perhaps that was for good reason. 

In 2012, Atsuro would open the Beer Market BASE taproom in a quieter part of town at Uenomachi in Miyazaki City. Whilst he had some initial success bringing in any craft beer he could find in the area, he found that most folks weren't coming back, and that business only got slower with time. The reality was that even Atsuro himself wasn't a big fan of craft beers, "To be honest, when we first opened Beer Market BASE, we weren't particularly interested in craft beer. At the time, there were no beer pubs in Miyazaki, so I thought it would be interesting to have one, and pouring beer is simpler than making cocktails, so I thought it would be easier to run a shop. Southern Kyushu, including Miyazaki, is an area where Shochu culture is deeply rooted. There weren't many stores that sold craft beer, and at first, friends and acquaintances came because it was a novelty. After about a year, the number of customers started to decrease. It's embarrassing to say, but it was only then that I really started to ask myself, 'Why weren't there any customers?' and 'What is craft beer anyway?' and began to study hard." reflects Atsuro.

Beer Market BASE at Miyazaki City's Wakakusa-dori Street.

As Atsuro began to lean in more into craft beers, it's unsurprising then that he would naturally gravitate to perhaps Miyazaki's most famous craft brewer, Hideji Brewery. Hideji's story was, and still is, nothing short of inspiring - once in the business of petroleum products, the company had made a major pivot to craft beers when beer brewing licenses had been relaxed in the late 1990's, yet it would find the newfound business incredibly challenging, in particular dealing with the bad reputation craft beers had at the time in Japan as a result of low quality craft beers flooding the market, and despite all of that, found its way to international success when it started championing local Miyazaki ingredients in its beers. Having learnt of Hideji Brewery's story, Atsuro would fall ever deeper into craft beers and began visiting numerous breweries around Japan, and eventually concluded that he too wanted to earn the right to be on the same stage as Hideji Brewery - Atsuro would thus set out to brew his own beers, focusing on more experimental and unique beers that would also champion local Miyazaki produce.

In an attempt to get started on his brewing journey as soon as possible, Atsuro would thus plead with Tokihiko Nagano, the President of Hideji Brewery, to allow him to produce beers for the pub at his brewery. Nagano-san wanting to be sure that the young Atsuro was serious about the endeavour, told him he could use Hideji Brewery's equipment on the condition that he covers a 1 million Yen (or US$6,885) brewing cost. Undeterred, Atsuro would start a crowdfunding project called "Let's Make Our Own Beer" and sure enough he was able to raise the 1 million Yen from 200 crowdfund investors!

When Atsuro presented the 1 million Yen to Nagano-san, the President of Hideji Brewery had admitted that he didn't think that Atsuro would have been able to raise the money, and that the exercise was simply to ensure that Atsuro was committed to do the endeavour - Nagano-san had already decided early on that even if Atsuro couldn't raise the money, he would have allowed Atsuro to use the brewery anyway, so long as the aspiring brewer had made a good effort towards funding his dreams.

By 2018, just two years after that inaugural brew (which Atsuro had cheekily named "Badass IPL", IPL being India Pale Lager), everything would come together nicely for Atsuro to finally start his own brewery. He would fatefully meet Masaaki Sato who was keen on collaborating with Atsuro as the brewery's head brewer, and at the same time a set of brewing equipment that had just been brought over from an exhibition in Yokohama was made available for purchase. Headed back to crowdfunders once again, Atsuro would successfully raise the funds he needed and get started. And so together with a small crew, Atsuro and the team would start a DIY project to turn a store and residence building into a functioning brewery. They would do everything themselves from dismantling the interior to painting the walls and finally installing the equipment and decorating up the place. The small craft brewery would be just a 3 minute walk from the famed Miyazaki Jingu Shrine, and would be called B.M.B Brewery.

You could've mistaken them for a hip hop group.

As promised, the brewery focuses on the use of Miyazaki ingredients, incorporating citrus fruits like Hyuganatsu (almost like a lemon), Buntan (most similar to a grapefruit), and Kabosu (reminiscent of a lime), as well as locally cold brewed coffee. B.M.B Brewery began producing everything from the classic Pale Ale all the way to Smoothie Sours. It would also interestingly take on the logo of a skull adorned with hop cones. "No matter who you are, when you turn them into a skull, they all have the same face. We want to deliver a beer that can be enjoyed by all alcohol lovers around the world." says Atsuro. The brewery would also go by the motto "From beer to culture". In the years that would follow, the Beer Market BASE taproom would be relocated (and expanded) in 2020 to the more bustling and youth friendly arcade at Miyazaki City's Wakakusa-dori Street, and in a hugely momentous occasion, open its second brewery in Kiyotake in 2024, allowing for the brand to cater to rising demand.

And so whilst Atsuro has been at it for over a decade now, in a land where Sake and Shochu brewers regularly clock hundreds of years of history, B.M.B remains youthful and energetic with much potential to grow and continue to shape its future. Atsuro's perhaps unexpected foray into craft beers has even seen him help reshape Miyazaki Prefecture' relationship with craft beers - by Hideji Brewery's Nagano-san's own admission, Atsuro "has made a great contribution to the spread of craft beer culture in Miyazaki". Nagano-san even says that his early (and now persistent) support for B.M.B was on the condition that Atsuro would "launch his first brewery that would become a rival to Hideji in the future", and that slowly but surely Atsuro is "getting closer to that promise", even humorously reflecting that he (Nagano-san) "was unsure whether [he] should support [B.M.B]'s crowdfunding initiative, but that if they [B.M.B] can compete at a high level, then he would gladly accept it". 

And so today we've got something really special from B.M.B Brewery, this is a collab brew with neighbouring Oita Prefecture's Beppu Brewery, and is a passionfruit based Smoothie Sour named "Highway To Hell", where Beppu Brewery's side of the collab brew is a Fruit Sour Ale named "Highway To Heaven", and both breweries have agreed that the only necessary feature of either side's beer is the use of passionfruit.

Beppu Brewery (別府ブルワリー) is based in Japan's number one hot spring resort, Beppu, an area that boasts the largest number of hot springs and the largest volume of spring water in Japan. Beppu is incredibly famous with locals for being a great tourist destination, and yet surprisingly never really sported a craft beer brewery! As such, it was in the midst of the Covid pandemic when Beppu-based leisure operator Towa Kaihatsu (東和開発 (別府市)) had decided to turn the first floor unit of their building (just outside Beppu Station) into a craft beer brewery and restaurant which they had hoped would drive tourism.

Beppu Brewery would be run by brewers Rintaro Kamiya (神谷凛太郎さん) and Takashi Furuseki (古関貴さん) who had previously trained in America and in other prominent breweries before joining Beppu Brewery. The brewery's goal is to create craft beers that are to be enjoyed after a hotspring bath, a quality they term as "Beppu-ness", which materially translates into lighter styled craft beers that are not sharp in flavour. Much like B.M.B Brewery, Beppu Brewery makes use of local produce, such as locally grown Kabosu citruses, and its accompanying restaurant is popular for serving local delights such as Oita-style fried chicken.

And so with all our bases covered, let's give this a go!

PS. Big shoutout to Jian Shun for so generously cracking open a can of this and sharing it with us! 

Beer Review: Highway To Hell Smoothie Sour, B.M.B Brewery x Beppu Brewery (ハイウェイ トゥ ヘル スムージーサワークラフトビール ビーエムビーブルワリー x 別府ブルワリー)

This 4% ABV Smoothie Sour has been brewed with southern Japan fruits including passionfruits, mangoes, pink guavas, peaches, and a touch of vanilla.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Mango Milkshake

Aroma: It opens immediately with thick and aromatic, rather confectionary, notes of mango sago milkshake. It's really juicy and supple, yet with this zesty passionfruit twang that comes in the form of a passionfruit custard. It's zesty yet without being tart, all delivered in this rich and creamy custardy aroma.

Taste: Medium-plus bodied here, it's incredibly creamy and packs in the same mango sago milkshake quality. It's juicy and estery, exceptionally fruit forward and succulent, yet at the same time without coming off over the top. Backing it up is some well ripened peach puree and pink guavas, once again bringing that juicy zestiness that's backed up by a good splash of evaporated milk. It feels exactly like the mango pomelo sago dessert in all its big fruitiness, juiciness and creaminess.

Finish: It's consistent and milky, custardy rich into the seamless finish. Light tartness, clean finish.

My Thoughts

This was just so downright tasty! I really loved that it immediately struck me as the local Southeast Asia mango pomelo sago dessert - it's 100% an exact match! 

That aside, it's just incredibly aromatic and fragrant, so juicy and estery, and yet on the body, it's lifted even in its creamy custardy plushness. It doesn't come off heavy, overly sweet or over the top, it's plush and pillowy, with these bold tropical fruit juiciness, balanced by a light yet distinct zesty twang of pomelo and passionfruit. It powers through the finish completely consistently, and then ends off seamless and clean, with just a light tartness. Super refreshing!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot