Why I want to be a brewer

When I was a young kid, my mum worked part-time in a local pub. Growing up we often attended events, wedding parties, watching sports etc. in a pub or in a community social or sports club with a bar. This pub culture was influential to my upbringing and as such it was pretty much guaranteed that as soon as I turned 18, the age in Scotland where it is legal to work in pubs, and I did.

On top of this, I also enjoyed cooking from an early age and was lucky enough to receive tips and guidance from professional chefs through part-time jobs at a number of hotels where I worked. I learned a lot about herbs and spices, ingredient preparation and techniques, for example. At several times in my life I too worked as a cook in various pubs. Later in life, along with Sakino, as a hobby we would regularly visit restaurants, including several Michelin star rated restaurants.

At home, these restaurant visits would inspire me to try new recipes, and my interest in food and cooking continued to grow.

Beer and food have always been central to my life, but my favourite time of all was when I was behind the bar pouring beers. I worked in pubs both part-time and full-time and in a variety of roles for approximately 17 years. I have poured thousands of beers over the years and this simple task brought me a considerable amount of satisfaction. The friends that I made whilst working in bars, remain some of my closest friends and will likely remain so for the rest of my life.

Despite this, after out-living the student lifestyle, I sought a little more financial stability than the pub jobs could provide and started working in various industries trying to land on a career that made me as happy as being a bar-tender. It never happened, but I had skills in the realms of I.T. and web development and decided to make a career in the I.T. industry, whilst maintaining a part-time job pouring pints.

After a number of years working in the IT department of a major international financial company, I decided enough was enough, I had so little satisfaction with my work that I decided to start over again and to finally get a degree. I set my heart on living in Japan, having been a life-long fan of samurai culture and with a fast developing interest in history, both Scottish and Japanese, I started taking Japanese language evening classes and successfully applied to The University of Edinburgh to join the MA Japanese course.

During my studies, I spent an exchange year in Okayama where I met Sakino, which was of course life-changing but my return to Scotland coincided with the craft beer bubble reaching my home country. This coincidence turned out to be almost as life-changing. Almost.

During my studies, I spent an exchange year in Okayama where I met Sakino, which was of course life-changing but my return to Scotland coincided with the craft beer bubble reaching my home country. This coincidence turned out to be almost as life-changing. Almost.

As I had invited Sakino to move to Scotland my immediate thoughts on graduating from university were to provide financial security for us. So again, I returned to I.T., this time with I created my own company as offered my services as a consultant. However, very quickly I experienced the same lack of satisfaction from this career choice as I had previously, however I decided to bury this and focus on providing for my wife and future family.

However, during this time my interest in and love for craft beer swiftly developed. Discovery of craft beer turned the focus of drinking beer towards the enjoyment of flavour and mouthfeel and away from a way of just getting drunk. Taking my time to savour beers in this way changed my lifestyle considerably, I was consuming far less alcohol on a regular basis but getting a lot more pleasure out of it.

In 2013, I signed up to the craft beer subscription service, Beer52 from their inaugural box and started to experience an array of beer styles from every corner of the world. Every month, I would receive 12 new beers alongside an excellent craft beer magazine.

Then in 2016, I attended my first craft beer festival in Edinburgh with friends. On that day, also attending for the first time was a fledgling brewery from the North East of Scotland called Fierce Beer. One of their beers immediately caught my attention, a chipotle chili porter called “Dirty Sanchez”. This beer blew my mind, the heat was incredibly well balanced but the flavour of the chilli was prominent. This was the most interesting beer I had ever tasted, and it opened a door to a merging of my love for cooking and my by now, profound love for beer.

More than this though was the experience of camaraderie, openness and enthusiasm from each of the breweries in attendance. The brewery representatives were thriving on exchanging knowledge not just with enthusiastic customers but with each other. I realised that the craft beer industry was one of cooperation and collaboration without a glimpse of competition. Brewers were openly discussing their recipes and processes, there were no secrets and everyone seemed to be happy at their work.

At some point during the day I spoke with one of the founders of Fierce Beer, telling him how much I loved his beers and how it was inspiring something inside of me. I had realised that this was the future that I wanted, and when I shared this, he was delighted. When I asked about buying a metal logo sign that they had at the festival, he asked me to come back at the end of the session and when I did he gifted me said sign. From this moment on, I knew that I was going to become a brewer. This gave me the patience to endure the daily dissatisfaction of my I.T. career.

Some time later I was invited along to a “Brew Your Own” beer event by a close friend at Stewart Brewing in Edinburgh and we made a milk stout called “Broken Whisk” named impromptu after another friend in attendance broke Stewart Brewing’s whisk. Speaking with the brewer in charge of us that day, I learned about a brewing course at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh and that Stewart Brewing had a partnership with them, offering a space for students to come and brew their own beers.

Finally, armed with this information I started home-brewing. I had been using my savings to acquire home-brewing kit for a while by now and so I started brewing every few weeks.

Soon after we visited Japan to introduce our daughter to her Japanese family, despite having visited several times before this was the first time for me to relax in this rural setting. During the trip I heard projections of when local villages and towns would essentially be deserted due to depopulation and I was incredibly concerned about my daughter not being able to connect to her cultural roots. Then after various chats with friends, family and neighbours, I started to think that maybe we could help. On top of this, years of working in front of computer monitors had resulted in me suffering from insomnia, and so I thought that maybe we should move to this village and start a brewery, whilst attempting to live a healthier lifestyle.

Then on our return from Japan corona hit and as a family we started to dwell on the thought of living in Japan more and more. I was so unhappy with my work and before me lay an exciting prospect. I put all of my available energy into learning more about beer and brewing, I enrolled in the postgraduate course which I had discussed a few years earlier with the brewer from Stewart Brewing.

Whilst working full-time, homebrewing, studying a microbiology and biochemistry postgraduate course, helping raise our daughter and preparing to move to Japan, I sent a hand-written letter to Kenneth Mukai in Niyodogawa-cho, Kochi Prefecture. I had heard that Ken had recently opened a brewery less than an hour from our future village and I wanted to congratulate him as well as introduce ourselves and our plans. I was unable to find his email address, so I wrote an 8 page letter instead. Ken, thankfully responded by email and we were in frequent contact during this time.

We applied for and were accepted into the Regional Revitalisation Scheme for Hidaka Village. Our mission was to establish a craft beer brewery in the village. Shortly after arriving, I was offered and gratefully accepted the chance to intern for 1 year at Mukai Craft Brewing during which time I learned a great deal. Sakino and I also took many business trips visiting other breweries around Japan and gleaning an assortment of advice from peers who had already travelled the same path that we found ourselves on. These opportunities only enhanced my already high motivation levels and kept us focused on the task ahead.

I have been a fan of craft beer for over 15 years, and despite our rural Japan location and dearth of easily available craft beer, at no point has my passion for this product or industry dwindled. I am incredibly excited about this path we have chosen. I am so focussed right now on creating recipes for delicious beers inspired by my experiences in Scotland and applying my accrued knowledge to ensure our beers are made to the highest quality possible, and it is exciting!

I am not yet a brewer, but I will be soon and I will spend the rest of my life honing my craft, learning from mistakes and striving for perfection.

I sincerely hope that you will join me on this journey!