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.

Located in Ichinoseki, Sekinoichi makes Japanese sake and Iwate Kura beer. On the last day of the Ichinoseki beer festival, I took some time out to visit the brewery – and which I couldn’t have a full brewery tour because of the festival, I did get a glimpse of the brewery, tasted some excellent sake, had a look into Sekinoichi’s history, and consumed some tasty and unusual beers.

Located in Morioka, Baeren Brewery started making beer in 2001 using equipment shipped over from Germany, some of which is 100 years old. They also have their own beer pub, make the excellent Baeren Classic, and are about to start their Baeren Beer Series 2009 – three monthly deliveries of beer, starting September 2009. Check out the brewery yourself as Beer in Japan goes inside the brewery.