By YUKA SUZUKI/ Staff Writer
December 18, 2024 at 07:00 JST
Masayuki Hatakeyama at his craft beer brewery in Sapporo’s Chuo Ward on Oct. 3 (Photo by Yuka Suzuki)
SAPPORO--“Azuki” beans, melon, Sakhalin fir, crab, strawberries, potatoes and carrots ...
These are among ingredients Masayuki Hatakeyama has used to produce 396 distinctive craft beers.
The 40-year-old believes choice makes people happy.
“The same can be said of beer,” he said. “There is fun in choosing (a brew) you think will go well with your meal.”
The Sapporo native came to brewing in a roundabout way. He started skiing when he was around 3 years old and became enthralled with the sport.
As a first-year high school student, Hatakeyama regularly made a two-hour round trip to the ski slopes to practice mogul skiing until dark.
But at age 23, he suffered a torn ligament during the final match of a national tournament in which he was competing to earn a spot on the national team.
And after that, he kept getting injured.
Hatakeyama was left broken-hearted, but one day came across a craft beer in the refrigerator at his family’s home.
The taste of the brew made with sweet potatoes grown in Saitama Prefecture was a revelation.
Until then, he had been torn between two career paths: as a coach or an outdoor guide, which he had always wanted.
But after much consideration, he decided to tackle a world he knew nothing about: brewing beer.
That was 11 years ago.
Hatakeyama tried all sorts of ingredients and learned that not all of them lead to success.
For example, cabbages are unsuitable because of their odor.
Crabs caught in Abashiri, also in Hokkaido, made the drink taste astringent, so Hatakeyama sought advice from a Japanese chef on how to prepare crab stock.
The craft brewer says his dream is to make beers in all 179 municipalities of the northernmost main island.
He continues to seek specialties unknown even to locals to produce a beer that has never been tried before.
Hatakeyama hopes his efforts will help local people realize what they have to offer and cherish their hometowns.
“Beer brewing is happiness building,” he said.
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