From IT to brewing: a yuzu craft beer in Moroyama, Saitama

A new craft brewery, Winterland Brewery, has opened in Moroyama (Moroyama-machi), a small town in Saitama Prefecture, north-west of Tokyo. It stands in front of Higashi-Moroyama Station on the Tobu Ogose Line. On 5 June 2026 it received its manufacturing licence from the tax office and began brewing in earnest. Its owner, Masataka Noro (60), has worked in the IT industry for many years. Japan’s craft beer scene has gained yet another brewer from a different field.

A love of beer leads to a career change

Mr Noro is a devoted beer lover, and that passion led him to leave the IT industry, where he had worked for a long time, and take up brewing. He runs the brewery together with his wife, Mieko. The licence he obtained is a manufacturing licence for ‘happoshu’ (sparkling alcoholic drinks). Under Japan’s liquor tax law, beer that uses more than a set amount of ingredients other than the prescribed ones, such as fruit, is classed as ‘happoshu’. The happoshu licence also has a lower minimum annual production volume than the beer licence, so many small breweries start out with it. What is in the glass is largely the same as what European readers would picture as ‘craft beer’; the difference is mainly the classification under Japanese tax law.

Local yuzu, and a restaurant beside the brewery

Moroyama is known as a yuzu-growing area, and the brewery is also working on a beer made with this local speciality. Next to the room housing the brewing tanks, Mr Noro has built a restaurant that the brewery runs itself, serving food to go with the beer. He says he wants the brewery to be ‘a hub that spreads the town’s new appeal’. Using local produce and bringing the place where beer is made and the place where it is drunk together is an approach that also resonates with European brewpub culture.

Enjoying it in Europe

There is currently no information that Winterland Brewery’s beers can be bought in Europe. Even so, the story will feel familiar to European craft beer fans. Yuzu beer is one of the styles commonly seen in Japanese craft brewing. If you come across Japanese beer in a specialist shop, look for the word ‘Yuzu’ on the label. Yuzu’s aroma is more floral than lemon, with a refreshing, slightly bitter quality closer to grapefruit or mandarin. It pairs easily with light dishes such as white-fish carpaccio, tempura or salt-seasoned chicken. What kind of beer will a new brewery in a small town make from its local citrus? As an example of how far Japanese craft beer is spreading, the name is worth remembering.