Totopia is a fresh new face in the Japanese craft beer scene that's already quickly making a splash - their visually aesthetic and strikingly high contrast and vibrant labels certainly help with that.

Located in Nagakute City just outside of Nagoya in Japan's central Aichi Prefecture (near the newly opened Studio Ghibli Park, and the local IKEA furniture store), Totopia Brewery (トートピアブルワリー) got its start in just 2022, founded by Junya Morita (森田純矢) and his wife Akiko, with the hope of making beers that can gain international recognition despite being a small craft brewery located in a lesser known area. For Morita, Nagakute represents a special youthfulness in a country known for its ageing population, and is quick to tout its rating as one of the most liveable cities in Japan, and thus hopes to give it proper representation. They've since focused on New England IPA's, Hazy IPA's and fruited sour beers (with an emphasis on using local fruit and ingredients), and have been exploring barrel aged beers.

Junya Morita (森田純矢).

"We aim to make beer that is recognized around the world. The areas where traditional breweries are located on the East Coast of America are rural towns with only a few ski resorts and cottages, but they are so popular that people from all over the world flock there just to visit the breweries. Just having one brewery draws people to it, and makes the locals feel proud. I think that's the ideal situation. So I want to develop Totopia Brewery into a brand that the locals can be proud of."

In and about Nagakute City.

Immediately it's obvious that alot of thought has gone into the creation of Totopia - every beer expression is named after a particular phobia or philia, and thus Totopia's beers can range from Redphobia NEIPA, with an obvious and clear reference to the fear of the colour red, to more esoteric phobias such as Monkphilia, which presumably is a fondness of monks. Whilst it's not immediately clear why Totopia is drawn to fears and fondness, it is stated by the brewery that it's very name comes from a combination of "Toto" (which refers to the area's old nickname "the Ceramic City", as it was known for its ceramics) and "-pia" which refers to the word "Utopia", thus embodying the brewery's simultaneous reverence for its home and its desire to be a place of ideals where its beers can express the unrealistic ideal world that its brewers dream of - ultimately, representing a desire to venture beyond the real world.

You can see how all this abstraction is fertile ground for beer lovers to easily fall in love with the brewery. Aren't we after all, most drawn to higher order idealism?

But the story really doesn't just start there, at the establishment of Totopia, it goes way further back.

Beer Pub Brick Lane

When the Aichi Prefecture local Morita had graduated from high school, he had decided to pursue his dream of moving to Tokyo. There he found work at a British pub in the nightlife district of Ikebukuro, where he began being exposed to craft beers from around the world. This would fascinate Morita and he would spend several years working for various taprooms and craft beer stores, before eventually striking it out on his own at 27. His first foray into F&B would see him establish Beer Pub Brick Lane in 2014 near the Fushimi Station in Naka-ku, Nagoya, setting it up as a place where customers could enjoy craft beers with hamburgers. He would subsequently renovate an old house in Kikui, Nishi-ku, where he would open a drinks and sandwich shop called Used Like New Beer. Along the way, Morita even designed and published a popular craft beer publication called the Nagoya Craft Beer Map, which has continuously been updated to feature new breweries that have come up over time (and has since been renamed "Life and Beer").

Morita also publishes a free monthly publication on breweries in Nagoya.

His ambitions with craft beers would continue to grow, and he would find himself visiting the US every year to visit craft beer breweries, and to understand how they were made and where they originated from. He began steadily contacting and establishing ties with various breweries and thus began importing and wholesaling craft beer in 2017. By 2020, it was obvious that the only thing left to do was to start a craft brewery altogether.

After several bumps along the way, Morita eventually settled upon the Nagakute space which as it turns out, was owned by a landlord who himself ran a liquor store in the city, and thus was keen on the idea of supporting the establishment of a craft brewery as well. By 2022, Totopia Brewery was up, and with the help of an American brewer, the beer began flowing.

Totopia Brewery (トートピアブルワリー)

Using malt sourced from Canada and Germany, as well as hops from the US and New Zealand, the brewery then makes use of local Nagakute water to brew its beers, with a particular emphasis on using a larger amount of hops, as well as incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables to enhance the beers' depth. Working with a base of four different hop varieties, the brewery has continued to switch up the hops and yeast used periodically to explore creating new flavours of beers.

A key part of what Totopia hopes to achieve is also to collaborate more closely with local farmers and to weave in upcycling into their beer-making. They've begun converting a discarded field into a small hops and herb farm, and hope to eventually brew with their own local hops and herbs, for which they'll host harvest festivals to celebrate these seasonal beers.

"I think one of the features of craft beer is that it allows you to connect with the local community and people from other industries. For example, you can brew beer using discarded bread, or add vegetables or cypress during the brewing process to give the beer more flavor. Another advantage is that it's easy to bring out the local flavor.

Conversely, we have the local JA take the malt grains that are generated during brewing, and have farmers use them. Malt husks are discarded during beer brewing, but they are rich in nutrients and can be used as fertilizer. A local person came to visit us earlier this year and told us that their cucumbers and eggplants had grown very well after using the malt grains." elaborates Morita.

As the brewery continues to establish its footing, Morita has many plans in the works, from getting in on collaboration brews with breweries from both Japan and abroad, as well as continuously finding ways to promote Nagakute. As such, some of Totopia's beers will only be available in Nagakute, along with a likely beer festival to be held in the city, all with the hopes of bringing people from all over to Nagakute. Ultimately, Morita wants Totopia to pay tribute to his home prefecture and to give it a more well known global presence, so that more folks can discover the charm and nature of Nagakute City.

Morita's Used Like New Beer Shop.

That all said, Morita is still certainly keeping his eye on Totopia making a global splash. "Craft breweries often use local ingredients or make beers that are unique to the region, but we aim to be a brewery that can compete on a global scale. We will be establishing a brewery in Nagakute City (behind IKEA building), but rather than putting a local flavor all over the place, we want to build a strong brewery brand that will give people pride in the fact that a world-famous brewery is in their hometown. I have learned a lot about the beer market and what kind of labels sell well, since I have been involved in everything from importing beer to sales and store management. I would like to make the most of the experience and knowledge I have accumulated so far while focusing on quality and creating a beer that will be the culmination of all our efforts."

And now there's only one thing left to do, and that's to try some Totopia beer!

Let's go!

Beer Review: Totopia Fangphobia Hazy IPA

This is Fangphobia, which I presume is to do with a fear of fangs. Very striking and aesthetically stylish label! Inside is a Hazy Oatcream IPA. As Totopia says "We have made significant changes to the way we handle hops in this OC IPA. Not only the amount, but by changing the way we add hops, we think we have been able to bring out the depth of the hops. This has added a proportionate amount of sweetness and complexity, leading to a body that you can savour slowly." It's made with Peacharine, Citra Cryo and Citra hops. 

Tasting Notes

Colour: Pale Hazy Pineapple Juice

Aroma: It opens with fresh, juicy and milky scents of apricots and pineapples, in the form of puree and concentrate. It’s really pulpy and pithy, and with a light waft of freshly cut grass. There’s a good splash of unpasteurised milk in there, and with time develops more onto pomelos, yuzu pith, white peaches and guavas. It’s fresh and bright, with a good silky richness to the aromas.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, it starts off creamy and really milky, with all those citrus puree and concentrate, of pineapples, grapefruit and pomelos, coming through so seamlessly at first, followed then by the more dank hoppiness of cut grass and a touch of diesel. It’s incredibly smooth and silky, plush and velvety with this endless seamlessness. It feels rounded and rich, with quite a bit of depth to it.

Finish: A pop of citrus comes through at the finish, of freshly squeezed orange juice. It then fades off seamlessly into an assortment of citrus pith bringing with it some bitterness, backed up by that same juice. It’s a really firm and satisfyingly saturated finish, building this almost pepper warmth and heat inside you that goes on for so long.

My Thoughts

This brew is packed to the brim with all manners of citrus and orchard fruits! It's incredibly well saturated and also really plush and velvety, which masks just how much of a heavy hitter this IPA is. It is in fact a big whopper that's super flavourful and incredibly slick and creamy, which together gives the impression of an incredibly polished and refined beer. It holds back on the sweetness as well as the dankness, both secondary to the estery fruitiness that really jumps forward, yet at the same time there's a good amount of richness to bolster and fill in the body, so as to keep it from getting overly pithy or dry. It also touts a really long finish that is seamless and almost feels endless. An incredibly impressive hazy!

Beer Review: Totopia Multiphobia Fruited Sour IPA

We're on to Multiphobia, which I presume is the condition of having many phobias. Interestingly this is a Fruited Sour IPA, so a crossover of two major styles. Totopia says that they've added more puree to this one. It's made with Guava, Mango, Peaches, Brown Sugar, Almond and Cinnamon - wow! That's caught my curiosity! And of course, again a very pretty label!

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Orange, Orange Juice

Aroma: A really eclectic mix of cinnamon, orange cordial, orange gummies and orange lozenges. It almost seems like there’s a touch of herbal cough syrup in there too. Some peach gummies and peach juice too. It’s a mix of spiced, herbal and citrus fruitiness. It’s thick and almost syrupy rich. With time the peachiness continues to become more prominent, developing into tinned peaches with even the syrup. There’s a light pithiness although here it’s of peach cores.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, it centers and focuses on an assortment of peach flavours, of peach gummies, peach cordial and tinned peaches in syrup. There's a consistency of mango puree here although it's not particularly obvious as it blends in quite closely with the peaches. It’s really rich and rounded, almost syrupy, but also very estery and fruity. It feels almost thicker in texture, as if one was drinking tinned peach syrup. As it gets towards the finish, accents of guava begins to show up very lightly. 

Finish: It finishes off pretty quickly here, with a hit of cinnamon. It then lingers on cinnamon, a dash of salt, and more tinned peach syrup. It’s a pretty clean and syrupy rich finish.

My Thoughts

This struck me heavily on tinned peach syrup. It's certainly heavy on the fruit puree which really comes through more than anything else. In that sense, whilst I did enjoy the fruitiness, I have to say that it does overshadow everything else (and there's quite a number of things) that's put into it. It has a really rich body, yet a very eclectic nose that's simultaneously spiced, herbal and also of fruit cordials. The body was incredibly decadent, with only the mango coming through as an afterthought, and the guava showing itself as a light accent into the finish. I did not manage to find much in the way of the brown sugar and almond that's put inside as well, although I do get the sense that the goal here was to create a fruited sour that's really seamless at every layer of its body, which it does achieve very well. That said, I can't help but wonder where the IPA comes in here. An interesting creation, though I think they've just gotten alittle too generous with the fruit puree here.