Gotemba Kogen: Brew, Friends, and Food

Like Nate said, we had fun at Gotemba Kogen. The place has quite a few shops and some great scenery, and when you can see it--the view of Fuji is amazing. We were lucky to catch some good weather on Friday afternoon that let us relax by the bell in the sun and decently warm temps.

The weekend before, Nate and I met Scott Brimmer, one of the brewers at Gotemba Kogen, at the Grande Biere Festival in Tokyo. Scott invited us to come down to check out what he has going on at Gotemba, and much to his surprise, we showed up one week later. We met up with Scott on Friday afternoon, and he showed us one hell of a time. Our hats really are off to him for the way he really took care of us.

We walked around Gotemba Kogen for a bit and then sat down to drink a few brews and to chat. I was surprised to find out that Scott had worked for Sierra Nevada for nine years when he lived in California! Anyone who knows anything about beer in the US knows that Sierra Nevada is some great beer. I was impressed.

We drank our conversation beers and headed to Gotemba's all you can eat and drink which is very reasonably priced around 3500 yen. For that price you get all you can eat great food (steak, really good chili, the works) and all you can drink Gotemba Beers. Nate has already told you we are big fans of the Weizenbock, and the Swarchz and Pils were quality as well. All of their beers were well made, and I had my fair share of each. Nate made the mistake of eating way too much, and in the pic you will notice that by the end of the night, I was the only one drinking beer--he abdicated to cranberry juice.

Before we tore into the buffet, Scott took us on a behind the scenes private tour of Gotemba's brewing facilities. Only the beers for sale at Gotemba are brewed on site, (I think) and they have a pretty sweet set-up.

After our tour we laid waste to the buffet and talked about jibeer in Japan. Scott had a lot of interesting and insightful things to say about the current state of good craft beer in Japan. He mentioned that many Japanese simply view beer as being two different kinds: "beer and dark (black) beer". He also made a great point that some of the reason for this (and the popularity of happoshu) is that the Big 4's brews are just so readily available for everyone in Japan.

Scott's main idea about how he wants to brew beer comes down to this: as fresh as possible. He talked about getting the customers a fresh, well-made product that speaks for itself. I tend to agree with him.

He also made my night when he said his favorite cheap brew was PBR. Great minds think alike.

All in all we had a great trip, enjoyed some good brews, and met one hell of a guy! Scott, thanks again for takin' care of a couple of trouble makin' Country Boys!