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April 27, 2024

A long-established sake brewery in Osaka Prefecture has been revived as a craft beer factory and beer hall.Owner aiming for regional revitalization

Yomiuri Shimbun
Kiyotaka Ishida (left) and Shozo Minami stand at Banri no Haru Shuzo’s brewery in Tondabayashi City, Osaka Prefecture.

Text: Takahiro Tatsumi/Yomiuri Shimbun reporter

April 28, 2024 13:00 (Japan time)

Tondabayashi City, Osaka Prefecture — In the Terauchi district of Tondabayashi City, Osaka Prefecture, a sake brewery that went out of business at the end of the Showa era has recently been revived as a craft beer factory and beer hall.

Banri no Haru Sake Brewery also plans to produce local beer using vegetables and fruits grown in the Minamikawachi region of the prefecture.

Banri no Haru Sake Brewery’s sixth-generation owner, Mototaka Ishida (43), and brewer, Shozo Minami (41), hope to make the brewery a base for regional revitalization.

This town, where old folk houses remain, has been designated as a nationally important preservation district for groups of traditional buildings.

Teranai originally developed as a religious autonomous city during the Sengoku period (late 15th century to late 16th century), and believers lived in the entire town as part of the temple grounds. After that, it developed as a commercial city.

Since then, sake brewing has been popular. Blessed with underground water from Mt. Kongo, it has been said that “there is golden spring water at the bottom of the sake brewery well in Tondabayashi.”

Banri no Haru Sake Brewery was founded in the early Meiji period and prospered through wholesale sales of sake to major sake brewing companies. As time passed and neighboring sake breweries went out of business, Banri no Haru continued to make sake. However, in 1983, the company finally ceased operations, mainly due to the termination of its wholesale contract.

Banri no Haru applied for the revocation of its sake brewing license, leaving only the company building and wooden warehouse.

Mr. Ishida wanted to revive his family’s liquor store business, so he rented out the sake brewery as an event venue while keeping the company afloat. However, he gave up because the government does not allow new sake breweries to obtain liquor licenses in order to balance supply and demand.

Mr. Ishida focused on craft beer, which has become a catalyst for regional revitalization in recent years.

At that time, a mutual friend introduced me to Minami, who is from Fujiidera City in the same prefecture.

After working as a firefighter for four years and traveling around the world, Minami turned his attention to craft beer, which is popular among young people in Central America. After returning to Japan, he spent five years training at craft breweries around the country.

Ishida and Minami hit it off immediately and began making plans to open a brewery in 2021.

The two got their start by renovating a one-story wooden sake brewery built in 1898 to make use of its historic atmosphere as a beer hall. Damaged exterior walls were repaired and plumbing and other equipment was installed. They handcrafted tables and chairs for the beer hall with the help of relatives and friends.

Yomiuri Shimbun
Beer hall converted from a sake brewery

A portion of the former reinforced concrete company building has been converted into a brewery. Five beer tanks were installed on the first floor, making it possible to brew five types of beer at the same time.

In order to use Mt. Kongo’s groundwater, the two men replaced the pump at the well that was pumping groundwater for sake brewing.

They obtained a craft beer brewing license in October last year. To obtain a beer production license, you need to produce at least 60,000 liters of beer per year, so Banri no Spring will start with a license to produce happoshu, happoshu-style drinks, and some types of craft beer. But 6,000 liters would need to be produced. Amount of alcohol consumed per year.

Banri no Haru brews 10 types of drinks, including pale ale and wheat beer, and serves them at the beer hall that opened last November.

They also produce beer using hops grown in Chihayaakasaka Village, the same prefecture. In the future, they plan to develop craft beer using fruits and vegetables from the Minamikawachi area and sell canned beer.

“The water here is clean and delicious, so this town is the perfect place to brew craft beer. I want to make it a place where people from all over the country gather,” Minami said.

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