Streetlight Brewing Information

Streetlight Brewing : At a Glance

• Opened : December 2022
• Japanese name : ストリートライト・ブルーイング
• Location : Sapporo, Hokkaido
• First beer : 予光演習IPA (Yokō Enshū IPA), November 2022
• Head brewer : Yohei Kawamura (川村洋平)
• Homepage : https://streetlight.jp

Streetlight Brewing : Background

Streetlight Brewing is a relatively young brewery in Sapporo, but there is considerably more to its story than its 2023 opening date suggests. Located in the Sōen area of central Sapporo, the brewery was created by three people with very different backgrounds, brought together by a shared idea: to create a place where beer could help bring people together.

The three founders are brewer Yohei Kawamura, copywriter Masashi Osaka, and Koichi Miyaguchi. Kawamura had already made a name for himself as a so-called “phantom brewer”, working with breweries around Japan rather than having a brewery of his own. He had previously worked at Hakodate Beer before becoming an independent brewer, producing beers at various breweries and developing his own Hobo Brewing brand. He also spent more than a year helping establish Setouchi Beer in Takamatsu, where Streetlight’s first experimental batch was brewed.

The idea for Streetlight was partly inspired by Portland, Sapporo’s American sister city. Both Osaka and Miyaguchi had visited Portland and were struck by the way breweries with taprooms had become gathering places for their neighbourhoods. Rather than simply opening another beer bar, they wanted to create somewhere in Sapporo where brewing itself could be at the centre of that community.

Finding the right building took time. Eventually, they found a former food wholesaler’s warehouse in Sōen and set about transforming it into a brewery and taproom. The taproom opened in December 2022, while the brewing equipment was still being installed. During this period, Kawamura brewed Streetlight’s first beer, 予光演習IPA, at Setouchi Beer as a kind of rehearsal for what was to come. The brewery began producing its own beer in February 2023, with 点灯宣言IPA becoming its first beer brewed in Sapporo.

The name Streetlight, or 街灯, is central to the brewery’s philosophy. The idea is that beer is like a streetlight: something small that brightens the people around it, with that brightness spreading throughout the neighbourhood. Their slogan, “We Brew Lights,” sums it up rather neatly.

That philosophy also explains the importance of the taproom. Rather than simply being somewhere to drink the beers, it is intended as a meeting place, with the brewing equipment visible from the bar. The brewery quickly became known for experimentation too, producing dozens of different beers during its first year before gradually developing more regular beers alongside its one-off releases.

Streetlight Brewing may be young, but its ambitions are considerably bigger than simply making another range of craft beers. It is trying to build a place where brewing, drinking and community overlap, with each new beer acting as another little light spreading out from Sōen across Sapporo and beyond.

Streetlight Brewing : Beer Reviews

The following are some of the beers we’ve had:

• Streetlight BAC IPA – a 6.5% Hazy IPA which is part of their collaborative lineup, with this having been brewed with with BARISTART COFFEE, a local coffee roaster in the Sapporo area
• Streetlight Chocolate Stout – a 6.5% foreign stout that uses cacao nibs from Madagascar, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago.
• Streetlight Divine Light – a 5% kettle sour that uses Alora hops and was part of their second anniversary lineup.
• Streetlight Fu Wa Fu Ra – an 8% hazy double IPA brewed with Galaxy, Comet, Centennial, Idaho 7 and Sabro hops.
• Streetlight Hi Lucifer – a 9.5% strong golden ale that is brewed using Citra hops.
• Streetlight New Grassic – a 6% American IPA that is designed to be drunk young and is hoped using Comet, Chinook, and Idaho 7 hops.
• Streetlight NZHZ – a 6% hazy IPA that uses NZ Waiti and US Comet and Amarillo hops.
• Streetlight Petit Julien – a 5% Belgian pale ale brewed with Belgian yeast.
• Streetlight Yuzumeki – a 5% helles style beer brewed with Kito yuzu in from Tokushima prefecture.

Streetlight Brewing : Articles

The following are some of the articles we’ve done:

• Streetlight Brewing Taproom (Sapporo / Hokkaido) – a write up about our visit to their taproom, attached to the brewery, in Souen, Sapporo.
• Streetlight Brewing Roundup – rather than writing up individual beer reviews, they can all be found here.

Streetlight Brewing : Details

• Address : 19-1-1 Kita 10 Jonishi, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0010
• Phone : –
• Homepage : https://shop.streetlight.jp/
• Online store : https://shop.streetlight.jp/
• Social Media : Facebook / Instagram

Brewery : Location