Chocolate's discarded husks become beer: a Kawasaki wheat beer

A by-product of the chocolate workshop becomes an ingredient

Kagiya Brewery (Kagiya Jozosho, run by KEY CORPORATION Co., Ltd.), a craft brewer in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo, brewed the collaboration beer “DAIKANYAMA SORYO BEER”. It was planned by the craft beer bar “Bibibi.” in Daikanyama, Tokyo, together with the local shopping association. The adjunct is cacao husk, the outer shell of the cacao bean, supplied by the chocolatier “LA BASE de Chez Lui”, which is run by the association’s chairman. This is upcycling (giving new value to waste): a part normally thrown away in chocolate making is put to use as a beer ingredient. The beer has been served in Daikanyama since 19 September 2026.

Until now, Kagiya Brewery has worked to put its own by-products to use elsewhere, for example passing the spent malt from brewing to a nearby poultry farm as feed and using it for growing shiitake mushrooms. This time the roles are reversed: the brewery receives a by-product from a different industry and turns it into beer.

A wheat beer aiming for white chocolate aromas

The style is Weizen (wheat beer), a beer of German origin brewed mainly from wheat malt. After repeated discussions between the bar and the brewery about how best to use the cacao husk, they chose this style. The soft mouthfeel from the wheat is layered with the aroma of the cacao husk, aiming for a flavour reminiscent of white chocolate. At 4.5% ABV it is light, designed to be easy to drink. The name “SORYO” (爽涼, meaning refreshing and cool) comes from Daikanyama’s annual festival, the “Daikanyama Soryo Festival”, timed to coincide with the release. The bar’s owners say the white chocolate-like nuances have come through cleanly.

What European readers may want to note

This beer is served only in and around Daikanyama, and no overseas sales have been announced. Even so, it is a notable example of a small Japanese craft brewery working with another part of the food industry to turn a by-product into an ingredient. Weizen is a familiar style in Europe, so adding a little white chocolate alongside a wheat beer you can find locally may help you imagine the aroma this one is aiming for. When choosing Japanese craft beer, do look at the adjuncts listed on the label, too: they can reveal the ingenuity of brewers who use food by-products.