Brewing with Friends - Kyoto Nude Brewing
The nakama (friendship) series is our collab series and KBC has been on a tear for the greater part of the year. As was explained in a separate blog, we’ve focused not only on doing collabs with breweries we view as our peers but also with breweries where the owner or head brewer was someone who worked at KBC – our OB (Old Boy/Girl) series. So far, we’ve collab’ed with Nara Brewing (Dream of Two Cities - Milk Stout), Yamorido (Kitsunebi – Barley Wine w/ Kyobancha), Ape Brewing (Masu Masu Hamaru - Special Bitter) and Flora Fermentation (Boku Bokku - Weizenbock).
Up next is our collab with Kyoto Nude Brewery (herein Nude).
In Mar 2015, Shiraishi Takumi-san (herein Takumi-san), owner of Takumiya, a craft beer bar that had just opened up the week before, had just walked into our brewery. He told us that he had heard that we were on the verge of opening and that he wanted to get our beer when available.
The result?
Takumi-san rocked up to our brewery without an appointment, firing off questions in rapid succession, all the while somehow acting somewhat aloof (haha!). They say first impressions are important and on this occasion, Takumi-san was on shaky ground. Regardless, our license had not yet arrived and who were we to turn away a potential future customer (there were only 7 places serving craft beer at the time in Kyoto) and so we decided to head to his craft beer bar later that evening to check it out.
At the time, he ran it with his brother and good friend Takano-san (who now runs a bar a few blocks away with his wife that focuses on Apple Cider - Swingin'). The Shiraishi-san brothers with their sly and dry sense of humour combined with solid food from Takano-san made for a very different atmosphere than other craft beer bars in the city. It seemed as though the brothers knew almost everyone that came into their bar. If not, they made it a point to strike up conversation; and whether you liked it or not, try to introduce you to one or a few of their other customers if they thought it might be a good chance to connect. Our initial shaky opinion of Takumi-san started to change.
This opinion of him further evolved as during those initial years, Takumi-san has done a variety of things including helping us deliver kegs around the city, lending out his personal car to do company-related errands, and even helping us with advance payments on beer when cash flow was constant issue in those initial days. In short, he was involved in helping KBC getting through those rough startup years.
Fast forward 9 years and his bar has grown from 1 to 4 locations across Kyoto. Similar to a lot of companies out there, there was no dotted path towards success that he simply had to trod along. Takumi-san learned firsthand that as your company grows, so too does the risk. This was keenly felt during pandemic. Almost overnight, customers stopped coming out to bars. The easiest thing would have been to let go of staff (ie. triage outgoing cash) but a promise from Takumi-san meant this was not an option and so he found himself in the unenviable position of lots of cash going out while almost none was coming back in. Never one to back away from a challenge, Takumi-san leaned into the turmoil and applied for a government grant to help diversify sources of business income. Takumiya saw the perfect opportunity to get his dream brewery off the ground.
This is the genesis of Kyoto Nude Brewery.
In 2023 and Kyoto Nude Brewery opened their doors. Joko-san (nickname JK), ex-KBC member, became their head brewer and he decided that he wanted to focus on making low alcohol beers (3~6%).
When JK was working at KBC, we had the opportunity to collaborate with Taihu Brewing from Taiwan. For KBC’s side of the collab, given the penchant that Taihu had for cocktail-inspired beers, we decided to make a beer based off of a Sidecar, a traditional drink featuring brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice. That collaboration took place immediately prior to Covid and marked the start of KBC’s collab pause period (not to mention JK’s last collab as a member of KBC’s brew team). That collab, therefore, left an indelible mark on JK and so when we talked about doing a collab together, JK thought it would be nice to retread that theme.
For KBC’s side of the collab, given James’ long history of living and brewing in California, we looked to ingredients and tastes prevalent in that area of the world. With that in mind, when thinking of a base cocktail to deconstruct, we thought it fun to try our hand at a pineapple margarita.
The foundation of the drink is set with pineapple juice and tequila. Triple sec and freshly squeezed lime juice is then added to the mix to temper the sweetness and provide some nice sour citrus character. A lime wedge is then used to coat the rim of the glass and the rim is then submerged in tajin seasoning, a unique blend of natural chili peppers, dehydrated limes and sea salt. With 1 sip, you are initially confronted with a sweet and sour taste that then gives way to a nice layering of savoury (the salt), spicy (the peppers) and earthiness (the tequila).
We hope that this beer encapsulates a lot of the same characteristics you would find in the cocktail.
The timing of this release coincides with the 10th anniversary of Takumiya. For those people in the Kyoto area, please head on over. Normally, the occasion would be a 1-day affair but with 10 years soon under their belt, they decided to christen the even by running it for a full week. The festivities will begin March 8th and run through ‘till March 14th.
As for Nude’s side of the collab, KBC will be heading over there at the end of the month. Margarita’s are a great way to kick things off: whether in the afternoon or early evening. For Nude’s beer, we looked to a separate cocktail that you might want to drink towards the end of your evening. It’s going to be a Golden Stout. We look forward to seeing how it comes together.
