Kamakura Beer Know-How Recreated in Suzhou: Gold and Silver on First Entry

Brewing Japanese craft beer where it is drunk, rather than exporting it: this approach has now won international recognition. NAVIGATOR INC., based in Tokyo, runs a brewery called NOMURA BREWERY in Suzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province. The first two bottled beers brewed there were entered for the first time in the international beer competition Asia Beer Challenge 2026, and won a gold and a silver medal at once.

Gold and silver on a first entry: what the judges rewarded

The Asia Beer Challenge is an international competition held in Hong Kong every year, with beers entered from around the world. The judges are buyers working in beer importing, wholesale, retail and food service across Asia. Because judging is blind, with brand and origin concealed, the assessment centres mainly on the quality of the beer itself. The gold medal went to “KAMAKURA BEER Belgian White” and the silver to “KAMAKURA BEER Australian Pale Ale”. The gold-winning Belgian White is a cloudy, wheat-based style that NOMURA BREWERY developed independently, building on techniques inherited from Kamakura Beer Brewing Co., Ltd. in Kamakura, Japan. The silver-winning pale ale, meanwhile, reproduces Kamakura Beer’s proven recipe using Chinese equipment and conditions. The company sees the result as recognition of its “development capability” and “reproduction capability”. The entrant was also registered not as the Japanese brand but as NOMURA BREWERY in Suzhou, where the beers were actually brewed.

Kamakura’s craft brought to Suzhou: local brewing for freshness

The aim of brewing locally is to bring Japanese brewing techniques and quality standards across unchanged, and to deliver beer to local customers in a state close to freshly brewed. The brewery produces 180 kilolitres a year, with quality overseen by a Japanese brewer. In the same building, the company also runs its own Japanese restaurant, Nomura Sosaku Nichiryo, where Japanese chefs and brewers work together to develop pairings of food and beer. Representative Noriyoshi Nomura says he is neither a chef nor a brewer, and that his role is to create an environment where each specialist can make the most of their skills. Going forward, the company plans to expand sales of bottled beer in China and also to work with Japanese companies and regions on developing products for the Chinese market.

What European readers may find interesting

These two beers are made for the Chinese market, and the primary source says nothing about sales in Europe. Even so, there is something here to enjoy. Belgian white is a style that originated in Belgium. Readers in Europe, closer to its home, might try a familiar Belgian white beer with light Japanese dishes such as tempura or sushi, imagining how the Japanese interpretation differs. As an industry development, what matters is that a model of transferring Japanese technology abroad and brewing locally has produced results in blind judging. For beer and sake alike, the difference between “made in Japan” and “made with Japanese technology” may become a new way of looking at Japanese drinks when choosing them in future.