仲間と造る W/ Ape Brewing

Back at the start of 2021, with us reeling off the back of 2 experienced members moving on to new challenges, we got an intro from Kaori from Minoh Beer - a person to whom we are for many reasons indebted - of Yuji Matsumoto (or “Matchan” to us), a brewer who had been with them for a number of years, and who had himself moved on. We had known him from collaborations in the past, and Kaori spoke highly of him, so the chance to get some help from an experienced professional was very welcome news indeed.

Knowing that he had ideas and ambitions of his own, this was initially a win-win short-term solution, but time went on and he stuck around, to our delight, becoming a key member of the team. His depth of knowledge, work ethic, ability to take things on, and general attitude were all strengths, but he also turned out to be quite the positive mood maker for us as well.

When he told us that he was going to move on, we were naturally very sad to hear, but also understood that his new opportunity was one that fitted more with his goals that he’d had from when he first agreed to come on board. He wanted to experience starting up a brewery, as well as being the core creator. His new employer, Kato-san of Yellow Ape, had gained himself an excellent employee, and he gained the chance to start up a new brewery. Yellow Ape has been a staple of the Osaka beer scene since its early days, and we in fact were helped out by Kato-san when we were starting up, with him subsequently also becoming a valuable customer of ours from the off.

We were excited for both of them, and looking forward to trying Matchan’s “own” beers. The first beer we tried from him, unsurprising to us, was an English bitter. We knew Matchan loved this style, and were confident he would nail it, which he did. Ape Brewing is a small brewery, but they have a wide range of beers that they do consistently well (we highly recommend swinging by, in case you couldn’t tell!).

We are now in the midst of making many collaborations over the course of two sub-lines. One is with a range of Japanese breweries, both those we have collaborated with before (but new for head brewer James), and those we are collaborating with for the first time. In addition, we have a concurrent “KBC OB” series, with brewers who used to work with us in the past (see our Barley Wine with Yamorido and our Milk Stout with Nara Brewing to try the first two).

We wanted to make a beer with Matchan at each of our breweries, and for the beer on their side, they were keen to use our yeast and attempt an IPA (again - visit Ape Brewing to try it at the source!!). As for the beer on our side, we wanted to make - yes, you guessed it - an English bitter! We decided to go one step stronger/maltier, and so we went for a Special Bitter.

So how is the beer? Well, we went for lovely fruity character of the London Ale yeast do its work on the malt, with a heavy focus on Maris Otter, but blending 4 other varieties for the subtle layers of complexity you want in an English bitter. We also went traditional with the hops, going for East Kent Goldings and Fuggle to add a balanced bitterness and plenty of herbal notes that meld with the malt and yeast character. While we love drinking our first, this is a beer that will go down well in its second, and third pints. Cheers to old colleagues, cheers to new challenges, and cheers to our long-term friends.