Limited-edition stout from a golf course: “O.B. Stout”
Tateshina Kogen Country Club in Nagano has released a stout, the second in its original craft beer range named after golf's “OB”.
A dark beer named after a golfing mistake
Nagano is a mountainous prefecture in central Japan. In its city of Chino, at the foot of the Yatsugatake mountain range, Tateshina Kogen Country Club launched the craft beer “Out of Bounds Stout (O.B. Stout)” on 19 September 2026. The club has 27 holes and a history of more than half a century. It is run by Alpico Resort & Life, a subsidiary of Alpico Holdings, a transport and tourism group in Nagano.
“OB” (out of bounds) is the mistake every golfer wants to avoid: a ball that ends up outside the course. The club has deliberately made this failure the name of its product. The idea is a lucky-charm drink: “drink up your OB and change the momentum with your next shot”. The label shows a dejected golfer who has just hit an OB. The “O” and “B” in the logo are cut open, a hidden message about “cutting off OB”.
The opposite of the first beer
The first beer, “Chip-in Ale”, was designed to be drunk during a round: low in alcohol and rich in aroma. This stout aims for the opposite. The bitter feeling of hitting an OB is expressed in the taste, making it a full-bodied, extra-bitter dark beer. At 6% ABV it has real substance, and the club says it also pairs easily with food. The ingredients are British barley malt, hops and Irish moss (a seaweed used to clarify beer). It comes in a 330 ml bottle and costs 830 yen including tax.
It was brewed by 8Peaks Brewing, a brewery in the same city of Chino that makes beers to suit the food and seasons of the Yatsugatake area. A local golf course teaming up with a small local brewery to create a product exclusive to the venue: this kind of community-rooted collaboration is common in Japanese craft beer.
Enjoying it in Europe
It is sold only at the clubhouse shop and restaurant and through mail order within Japan, so it will be hard to get hold of in Europe. Even so, the story says a lot about Japanese craft beer today: an everyday venue such as a golf course teams up with a local brewery to release a limited beer with a story behind it. If you see a beer from Nagano at a shop that stocks Japanese craft beer, do look out for the brewery’s name. A bitter stout made with British malt is a style that European readers used to Irish and British stouts can easily compare. Toasting with a dark beer after a round with golfing friends, laughing about a bitter shot, is something you can enjoy in any country.
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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