Edo-Era Beer from a Novel Brought to Life: A Wild Ale Made with Rice and Koji
Wakayama's ORYZAE BREWING has released 300 bottles of a beer from a novel set in the final years of the shogunate, brewed with rice, koji and house yeast instead of barley.
ORYZAE BREWING, a craft brewery in Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka on the western side of the Kii Peninsula, released “Time Slip Beer” on 1 October 2026. It is a real-life version of a fictional beer that first appeared in a novel. No barley malt is used at all: this wild ale is made mainly from rice and koji, the same ingredients as sake, which makes it a rare bottle on the border between beer and sake.
A drink from the story, in a real bottle
It is based on the novel Time Slip Beer: The Arrival of the Black Ships – Fighting Back with Beer by craft beer writer and author Rupparakanae (real name Kanae Kobayashi). The story sends a modern-day brewer back to Japan in 1853, at the end of the Edo period, when the American fleet (the so-called “Black Ships”) arrived and shook the country. In an age with no malt, hops or yeast to be had, the brewer teams up with a local man who has given up on sake brewing, and together they combine modern beer knowledge with sake-brewing techniques to try to make a beer that does not yet exist in the country. The idea for the book came from interviewing ORYZAE BREWING, which brews beer with the premise “what if Japan were still closed to the outside world today?” It took five years to conceive and three to write. The brewery, which has experience in both beer and sake brewing, supervised the book, and real brewing knowledge is woven into the story.
No barley: rice, koji and the brewery’s own yeast
The premise is “brewing beer in Edo”, so there is no barley among the ingredients. It uses rice, rice koji, hops and sugars for secondary fermentation in the bottle. Fermentation relies on yeast that already lives in the brewery (house yeast). Koji is a mould essential to making sake and miso, and it converts the starch in rice into sugar. In ordinary beer that job belongs to malt; here, koji takes its place. According to the brewery, the finished beer has a character reminiscent of champagne or white wine. It is 7.5% ABV, comes in a 330 ml bottle, and is described as gluten-free.
The “end credits” you drink after reading
The label carries a QR code that gives access to the whole novel. You follow the protagonists’ journey to the end, then taste the beer they made. The makers call this a “drinkable end credits”. Because the beer keeps changing in the bottle, it can also be laid down and enjoyed as it evolves. There is no need to rush through the book: the beer matures as the pages turn. Only 300 bottles are on sale, and this is a one-off brew that will never be made again.
These 300 bottles are unlikely to reach Europe. The announcement mentions only online sales within Japan and says nothing about overseas sales. Even so, the idea itself, making sugar with koji instead of malt, is worth remembering. If you come across an ale labelled “koji” or “rice” at a specialist shop or beer bar, or any beer that borrows sake techniques, it may be worth trying. A gluten-free label can be another clue. When drinking, a white wine or champagne glass suits it better than a beer glass, and it is best slightly chilled so you can appreciate the aroma. With bottle-conditioned beers, it can also be fun to cellar a few bottles and compare how they change over time.
Sources
This article was written by The Sake Wire editorial team, summarising the public sources listed above. Images are our own.
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