Our 10 year anniversary felt like a huge landmark to me (Ben). It had crept up, but we were no longer a “new” brewery, and we were reminded of statistics of how few companies survive to the 10 year mark. Within that 10 years, we also saw so much in terms of change, which is perhaps unsurprising given how young craft beer is as an industry. We were one of very few that launched in 2015, and there are new breweries opening all the time now. Craft beer isn’t ubiquitous by any sense, but familiarity is much greater than when we started.
We kicked off our 10 years with our very first festival, Naminamito, which was a major occasion for us, but our assumption that post-Naminamito would see a slow down turned out not to be the case at all. The second half of the year was another kind of wake-up call for us, as we saw the two sides of many new breweries. Exciting as it is, and as good as it is to have new blood and new ideas, it also saw an over-saturation that caused us to realise that craft beer, and KBC, must continue to evolve.
A key element of that was seeing that craft beer must grow outside of its niche, and we have focused on expanding in the retail space. Becoming accessible is key for craft beer to grow, but we believe in doing this our way. Our Habakarisan (Kyoto limited) and Ichigo Ichie (nationwide) are now fermented in package in true classic Belgian beer style, and are available across a wide range of stores, and we look forward to adding to this lineup this next year.
Our next stage of evolution outside of retail expansion was to move into the direct retail and bar/restaurant space, and we worked towards our first forays in the form of Mion in Eigamura, which launched at the end of March. This feels like a big step, but it is still just a step, and we still have a lot of our journey left to go.
Looking ahead towards the next 12 months, taking our experience in Mion and looking to create something fitting to a new location will be one next big step for us. While we always had an idea of “someday” getting into the world of restaurants, that was a can repeatedly kicked down the road, but the benefit has already been there for us to see with less than two months of operation. Pairing quality beer with quality food is one element, and the chance to engage with customers and introduce them to both our brewery and, often simply to craft beer in general, is a big part of our future strategy, as well as a big personal motivational point. Seeing people trying our beer for the first time and their reactions when they were expecting "normal beer" was hugely satisfying when starting up, and I enjoy these moments to this day.
Ben
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In the months leading up to our 10th anniv + celebration, we did a slew of collabs not only with our senpais and peers in the industry but also with some of the KBC OB/OG brewers who have gone on to start breweries of their own. It was a crazy time (on average, 1 collab brew every 2 weeks for 14 months straight) but it was a fun time.
Since that tumultuous period, a growing mix of feelings have been coalescing inside me as I think about the state of the domestic industry. There are now essentially 5 generations (2 gens older than us and 2 gen younger) of breweries that exist out there since the market first opened its doors in 1994. This is awesome. There are numerous places out there turning out great beers across a wide spectrum of styles and Japanese craft beer has been growing in recognition across the global craft beer scene. Thinking about that fills me with pride and happiness.
However, there are some places out there turning out some not so great beers and therefore confusing or turning off potential customers new to craft beer. This has me slightly angry but moreso sad. I appreciate the desire of the J-gov to want to lower barriers to entry to the industry but as I look across at the more than 1000 breweries across the cou
ntry, I wish my only goal was to shout, “we make good beer too” instead of also needing to say, “don’t worry, the fundamentals are there, we’re safe to drink”. I guess the best thing we can do is roll up our sleeves and shout even louder to help in outreach to new audiences.
Back to the point, we have purposely lessened the frequency of collabs since our 10th anniv but love what they represent: an opportunity to share knowledge and meet old and new friends alike. Expect a healthy dose of collabs to continue as we march towards our 12th year. This will manifest is us pushing to do a 12th year anniv festival in Kyoto once again. Furthermore, expect us to continue to try out even more of the dizzying number of new ingredients being made available to brewers to deliver delicious tasting suds to our customers.
I thank you for your patronage. I love this industry.
Paul
