all photos courtesy Rise & Win Brewing Co.
There’s a craft beer boom brewing in Japan. Craft beer has been popping up in every corner of the country. And what’s amazing is, it’s actually good. Well, most of it. Osaka’s Minoh Brewery won the World’s Best Imperial IPA award in 2013. The Coedo Brewery in Kawagoe won a silver in the “American-style amber lager” category at the 2014 World Beer Cup. How are they accomplishing this? The same way they’ve elevated the whiskey, denim and coffee game: by “taking things from other places, tweaking them and making them better.”
One of the latest to join the craft beer craze is Rise & Win Brewing. Located in Tokushima, the unique brewery is also putting an environmental twist to their beer.
On May 30, 2015, Rise & Win Brewing Co. officially opened for business. They’re located in Kamikatsu, which became Japan’s first town to declare a “zero waste” policy. There is no incinerator and instead there are 34 different recycling bins. As difficult as it seems to run a business, the new brewery is taking it’s town’s motto to heart.
Let’s begin with the unique structure. Architect Hiroshi Nakamura reused mill ends from local cedar to create the exterior facade. He then mixed persimmon juice and red iron oxide to produce an organic finish. The 8-meter (26-feet) high patchwork window is made entirely from discarded material. The structure itself functions as a craft beer brewery but also offers a tasting stand, a BBQ garden and a shop that sells products unpackaged, by weight, in order to eliminate waste.
Rise & Win replaces what was previously Kamikatsu Department Store, a small shop dedicated to selling everything from pasta to shampoo unpackaged, by weight. If you’re in the area (Gmap) definitely check it out!
