Imagine waking up one morning and finding out your parents have bought you a brewery? It’s a scene that dreams are made of – at least for beer geeks like me – but for Mayuko and Kaori Ohshita, that’s pretty much what happened back in 1997 when their father, a liquor store operator, decided to start a brewery and put them in charge of it. Come take a look inside Japan’s only woman-only brewery.

To celebrate the launch of homebrewer turned commercial brewer Chris Poel’s Bakayaro!, I contacted Chris to ask for the recipe. And he obliged. Find out what’s in Chris’ Bakayaro! yourself and take a brief look inside the Baird Brewery in Numazu.

How would you like to make your own beer at a Japanese brewery? Well you can, at the Brew on Premises facilities of the Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki – and in spring 2009 I did just that. Read on to find out what it’s like making beer at Kiuchi, see my first ever brewery visit, and get the recipe for Kiuchi’s award winning Hitachino Nest White Ale.

Beer with ears? Just 14 minutes from Tokyo by train in the Tokyo Disney Resort, Harvestmoon brews an award winning range of beers for its Roti’s House restaurant. I joined one of their recent brewery tours to see behind the scenes of where this beer is made.