NAHA, OKINAWA
Thirty-five years ago German businessman Wolfram Opitz was sent to Tokyo for two months to help train a partner company in Japan. “What an interesting city and country,” he thought to himself. Today, he and his wife Yuka are the proud owners of Okinawa’s only German-style microbrewery at the steps of the island prefecture’s most famous landmark, Shuri Castle.
Back in Germany and Switzerland, Wolfram gained some knowledge of brewing beer with his home-brewing friends. “It is legal to drink beer from the age of 16 years old there, so my knowledge goes back even further,” he jokes.
When he got to Japan he wasn’t overly impressed by the “average tasting” beer from Japan’s major beer producers. He did, however enjoy some outstanding craft beers, which gave him the inspiration—and confidence—to start his own brewery after retiring from his corporate career.
He was 57 years old when he and his wife began thinking about their future, and what kind of work and lifestyle they wanted. Yuka had already started roasting coffee with a Probat roaster back in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka while they lived there. After some soul searching they landed on the idea to brew beer and roast coffee in Okinawa. Their adventure began with a one-way flight to the big island.
“I had traveled a lot within Japan—on business, with friends, on our motorcycles—but I felt, and still feel, Okinawa is the best,” Wolfram recalls.
They settled into the Shuri Castle area of Naha, where they would enjoy morning walks and explore the neighborhood. One day on one of these early jaunts, they saw a “For Rent” sign on a building near the ancient castle. It seemed like the perfect location.
In 2019 Wolfbräu Brewery started brewing German-style been in line with “Reinheitsgebot,” the “Purity Law,” which was enacted in Bavaria in 1516. It stated, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops. While the proclamation doesn’t mention yeast as an ingredient, it was used in the brewing process, and thus accepted as an essential part of brewing process. Beer that didn’t abide by these tenets was promptly confiscated.
Today, the award-winning brewery crafts nearly twenty beers, which includes their Hefeweizen, Pilsner, Shuri Red (amber ale), Shuri Yellow (Helles), Shuri no Kaze (German ale), Märzen, Kölsch as well as their popular Oktoberfest and coffee stout beers. Visitors can stop by the Wolfbräu Brewery and Roastery brewpub to enjoy fresh beer and coffee from the source.
There are challenges starting any small business, and brewing craft beer in Japan’s most southern prefecture was no exception.“For starters, transport costs of raw materials is much higher out here,” Wolfram shares, “But our warm season is longer than Tokyo, which is great for drinking beer,” he adds.
It’s a challenge competing with large breweries with unlimited marketing budgets, like Okinawa’s Orion Beer, but Wolfbräu’s aim is to convince people that well-brewed beer with superior ingredients and real craft knowledge has value—and it is worth paying a bit more for great quality beer.
His leap of faith seems to be paying off, as they particularly get great local feedback about their Weisen, Pilsner and ale. They’ve recently invested in canning, which makes it easier to ship fresh beers off to places carrying their beer, and also easier for customers to carry home.
Wolfram considers crafting great beers as both art and science. “One does not work without the other. You need some inspiration, some risk taking and proper processes,” he states. This combination of passion and precision has brought some energy to the neighborhood they now call home, and some great authentic German beer for everyone in Okinawa.
Wolfbräu Brewery and Roastery
wolfbrau.com
34 Shuri-Ikehatacho, Naha-shi, Okinawa
2 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Closed Wednesdays)
