May 30,2024
YOHO Brewing brews many different styles of craft beer. They vary in flavor, aroma, color, and alcohol content. But how are these beers actually made? Here Nakamura Hisui of YOHO Brewing’s corporate communications unit takes us on a tour of the beer-making process at its Saku Brewery. The process can be broadly divided into four stages: brewing, fermenting, aging, and packaging. Each takes place in a separate room, which we’re going to be visiting in turn to see how beer is made. So let our virtual brewery tour begin! First, Hisui will tell us about the ingredients used.
From left: pale malt, chocolate malt, caramel malt, magnum hops, cascade hops. Rear, from left: ale yeast, water. Note how the three types of malt differ in shade.
“Beer is made from four basic ingredients: malt, hops, yeast, and water. Each comes in different types, and the color, flavor, and aroma of a beer varies greatly depending on how you combine them. Similarly, the final product will turn out differently if you use an ingredient at a different point in the process or alter the temperature or relative amounts of each ingredient. The way everything is blended is what gives ale its tremendous variety.”
The four ingredients of beer
＜Malt＞
There are some fifteen types of malt that YOHO Brewing typically uses. Malt gives beer a different color depending on how well roasted it is. It also greatly affects the intensity, depth, and richness of the flavor.
＜Hops＞
The hop is a climbing plant of the Cannabaceae family. The part used in brewing beer is the flower of the female plant. It’s well known that hops provide bitterness. They also play an important role in forming the distinctive aroma characteristic of ale by imparting a citrus, floral, or grassy scent. Further, they improve foam retention and enhance antimicrobial activity.
＜Yeast＞
When what is called the “wort” is fermented with yeast, a type of microorganism, it becomes beer. Beer’s alcoholic flavor and fizziness result from the action of yeast. There are two types of brewer’s yeast: lager yeast or bottom-fermenting yeast, which forms a sediment at the bottom once the fermentation process ends; and ale yeast or top-fermenting yeast, which floats to the top. At YOHO Brewing, which brews ale, they use ale yeast.
＜Water＞
Water is another indispensable ingredient to making beer. YOHO Brewing uses mineral-rich hard water sourced from the local Mount Asama water system. Hard water is considered well suited to brewing ale, and YOHO Brewing has put it to good use in developing its beers.
“Now that I’ve finished explaining the ingredients, I’ll describe the production process. Let’s start with the brewing room.”
The brewing room with its three tanks where malt is turned into wort, from which beer is produced
The brewing room, bathed in natural light shining through large windows, contains a row of large tanks. From right: the mash tun, the lauter tun, and the whirlpool.
“First, hot water is added to finely ground malt in the mash tun to make the mash. Saccharification—the conversion of starches to sugars through the action of the enzymes in the malt—proceeds briskly in the tank. Next, the mash is transferred to the lauter tun and filtered to make wort. The wort is sweet like juice when you taste it. Hops are then added to the wort and it’s boiled; then it’s transferred to the whirlpool tank. In the whirlpool, centripetal forces cause the hop fragments to form a sediment, and only clarified wort is extracted. Incidentally, the residue left over from the malt after it’s been filtered in the lauter tun makes good fertilizer, so we give it to local farmers. They sometimes give us daikon and other vegetables in return. They’re really delicious.”
The mash (left) consists of malt steeped in hot water and boiled. It’s then well filtered to make wort (right). It’s starting to look a lot like beer.
A brewer checking the state of the beer in the tank. The brewing room is hot and humid in summer. The temperature can reach almost 40 degrees!
The fermenting room, where ale yeast is added to the clarified wort and the fermentation process is monitored
The rows of huge tanks are quite spectacle when viewed from above. Each tank holds 20,000 liters of beer.
“This is the fermenting room, where yeast is added to the wort to ferment it. It has two types of tanks, one for primary fermentation and the other for secondary fermentation. Inside the tanks, the yeast ferments the wort by feasting on the sugars it contains. The fermentation process produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. If you try the wort at this stage, it tastes a lot like beer. This room is a comfortable temperature, unlike the hot, humid brewing room. That’s because it’s maintained at a temperature at which yeast is active (around 20 degrees). The fermentation process takes about two weeks.”
An important part of a brewer’s job is constantly checking the state of the beer at the fermentation stage. They immediately catch anything wrong.
The aging room, the final step in the beer-making process, where the beer is stored until the tastes is just right
Refrigeration halts the action of the yeast. Yeast has played a key role in the beer-making process so far, but its job is now over.
“Beer that’s finished fermenting is called young beer, which still has a harsh flavor. It’s aged in a round tank to bring the flavor together. Here it’s stored for ten days to two weeks at around five degrees. Beer that’s finished aging has a beautiful color now that the yeast and other unwanted elements have been removed.”
The beer is cooled to stop it from fermenting any further. The aging room with its rows of cold tanks feels quite chilly. Yeast is a living fungus, and a brewery has rooms at different temperatures to handle it. Being made from yeast, beer too is a living thing.
The packaging room, where freshly made beer is promptly canned
Newly made beer is canned, inspected, and shipped all over Japan.
“Each beer is provided with a lid to prevent contamination with anything unwanted. We’re sticklers even when it comes to how the lid is fitted on. Each can consists of a body and a lid. Once the can body is filled with beer, the lid is placed on and crimped around the edge using a method called seaming. This seals the can without the use of adhesive. Here at YOHO Brewing, around 160 cans of beer are filled a minute. These are then inspected, and those that pass are shipped.”
That concludes our report on the beer-making process and the ingredients used in it. As you can see, a great deal of time and painstaking effort go into making craft brew before it finally reaches you. Every step is carefully controlled.
The pilot area, a mini brewery within a brewery where anyone is free to try making beer
The pilot area of Saku Brewery, a room where anyone can try their hand at making beer
Saku Brewery has another room containing rows of compact-sized brewing equipment. It’s called the pilot area. So what goes on here?
“Anyone on staff is free to make their own beer here. They’re even allowed to take it home to enjoy. Of course, our development people use this room to make test batches, and we all give it a try. The place is the scene of lively conversations about beer among people from all departments. It serves as a communication forum for employees.”
YOHO Brewing is a company of beer lovers. That may be the reason for its impressive lineup of great-tasting beers, each with its own personality.
The lobby is festooned with employee ID cards. Everyone has a lively expression on their face.
In the lobby at the entrance to Saku Brewery, you’re greeted by the sight of what look like festoons of garlands. On closer inspection, these turn out to be employee ID cards suspended on lengths of cord and grouped by unit of affiliation. Each ID card bears the employee’s nickname. Many of nicknames are quite amusing: Pakuchii and Ninnin and so forth. The company’s units are likewise creatively named. The corporate communications department is called the YOHO Evangelists Team. The president’s office is called the Wheelhouse of the Great Ship Yonayona. This reflects the company’s non-hierarchical, silo-free culture. At YOHO Brewing, it’s company policy to call each other by nicknames. That creates a much closer-knit team and fosters smoother communication. YOHO Brewing’s craft beers don’t just offer a tremendous variety of flavors; they also stand out thanks to their striking names, like Suiyoubi no Neko (“Wednesday Cat”) and Aooni (“Blue Demon”) and Sinless Satan. The source of the company’s creativity may lie in this laid-back, individualistic corporate culture.
Let’s stay tuned to see what unique new offerings join the YOHO Brewing lineup next.
Nakamura Hisui, a member of the YOHO Evangelists Team (as YOHO Brewing’s corporate communications unit is known), loves reading and making bread. Her favorite ales are IPA, Kölsch, and Saison.
YOHO Brewing Company, a craft brewery headquartered in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, has been making and selling craft beer since 1997. It was founded by Hoshino Yoshiharu of Hoshino Resorts. Under current president Ide Naoyuki, it is now Japan’s largest craft brewery and its sixth largest brewing company overall after the Big Five.
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