About Us

We’re Peter and Saki, who (along with Fumiko and other international associates) form the core of Kaeru Beer.

As beer professionals, we’re motivated by:

  • artisanal craft beers and ciders;
  • independent breweries and cideries;
  • discerning taprooms, bars, pubs, brewpubs and beer or cider festivals that place value on quality, atmosphere, hospitality, customer-service and, most of all, great beverages served correctly;
  • independent beer and cider retailers, importers, exporters and distributors;
  • innovation and disruptive innovation in the beer industry;
  • fellow-beer professionals, writers and others who add weight to a beer, cider, brewery or cider by back-end, hidden activities that are rarely seen or acknowledged by drinkers;
  • people, stories, back-stories, motivations, hopes, wishes and aspirations;

We’re enthusiastic lovers of either water, hops, malt and yeast or fermented fruit, irrespective of our professional involvement with international Craft Beer, Craft Cider, Real Ale and Real Cider.  It’s easy to be passionate advocates of the immense variety of styles, tastes and aromas resulting from a balance of core ingredients, the magic art of the brewer/cider-maker, and sometimes that extra something special added to the mix that delights the drinker.

Click here if you’re interested to know what a Kaeru is?

Meet: Saki

  • What are your motivations at Kaeru Beer?

To promote the Japanese Craft Beer and Cider scene in Europe and the US, and vice versa: to introduce European and US beers and ciders to Japanese beer connoisseurs.  However, most of all I am motivated about being involved with the thing I love and enjoy (beer and cider) on a more professional basis.

  • Describe yourself in five words?

Japanese woman enthusiastic about beer!

  • What are your three best character traits?

Honest, modest and diligent, which sounds like the name of a future beer.

  • And the worst?

A little negative, hot-tempered and something of a pottymouth, which sounds like the name of a future beer.  😊  (© urbandictionary.com.  “pottymouth”: someone who can’t utter a sentence without the excessive use of swearwords.)

  • What makes you most proud?

Completing my master’s degree.  Being a feeder — introducing people to good food.

  • What are you ashamed of?

Gaining 12 kg in 3-months when I lived in New Zealand, to the extent that my family didn’t even recognise me when they met me at the airport.

  • What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?

Either leaving New Zealand for a life in the UK, or eating a whole packet of shortbread every day (comfort eating; see above).

  • What is the most difficult thing you have ever done?

Firstly, leaving my family to go to New Zealand, and secondly, getting married to a beer monster.

  • What are you hobbies and interests?

Drinking beer, seeking great food, watching movies, and cleaning the house.

  • What type of movies do you like?

Anything starring James McAvoy.

  • What type of music do you like?

Pop-punk, metal, and sometimes hardcore, depending on the style.

  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

To be more sarcastic and more assertive.

  • What superpower would you like to have?

To understand every language and to be immortal.

  • What are your guilty pleasures?

Eating ramen in the middle of the night!

  • Favourite place you have visited, and why?

Kyushu, Japan, to eat ramen in the middle of the night.  Tahiti, because it’s a completely different world.  Vietnam, for the food.  New Zealand: mountains, mountains, lots of mountains; I don’t see many of them nowadays.

  • Favourite beer styles?

Porters: British porters, US porters, any porters so long they’re chocolatey, rich and not too watery.  I’m not too keen on stouts that are incorrectly labelled as a porter.

  • Favourite cider styles?

Dry, medium dry, and cloudy.

Meet: Peter

  • What are your motivations at Kaeru Beer?

There’s more to a beer than aroma, taste, mouthfeel and aftertaste.  There’s more to cider than apples and mother-nature.  There’s more to crafting a delightful brew than synthesising the constituent parts into a pre-defined style.  There’s always a backstory, a background — the people-first, human element.  The inspiration.  The hobbies, interests and values that inspires somebody to make beer or cider.  This is what I am interested in.  The stories behind the beers.  The people behind the beers.  What drinkers find interesting about the drink before even taking a sip.

  • Describe yourself in five words?

Living life on the edge!

  • What are your three best character traits?

Can anybody truly answer this question about themselves, since how others see us is most likely completely different to how we see ourselves.  You had best ask somebody else what my three best character traits are, since I don’t like blowing my own trumpet.

I’d be happy if I were called dependable, honest and focused.

  • And the worst?

OCD

  • What makes you most proud?

Pride is a strong word.  There’s not much I am proud of, although I am pleased with a lot of things.  I’ve always wanted to better myself, and driven myself towards further, better goals.  A consequence of this self-starting approach is being pleased with where I am in life now.

  • What are you ashamed of?

Not having made more mistakes.  Not taking the plunge.  Not making the most of what was on offer.

  • What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?

There are not enough hours in the day to even begin on this topic.  I’ve done far too many stupid things, yet I don’t regret any of it because everything we do is another step on the staircase of life.  Changing one stupid thing in the past to a more sensible approach may have contributed to me being a completely different person today, and that would be dreadful.  Perhaps.

  • What is the most difficult thing you have ever done?

Drink beer served in a green bottle.

  • What are you hobbies and interests?

Words.  Music.  Drinking.  Travel.  Voluntary/charity work.  No time for much else, really.  It’s great those five core elements are still as much my motivation now as they were in the distant days of my childhood!

  • What type of movies do you like?

On our television at home, we can search by Genre.  Above Movies is the word ‘Adult’ that I have mistakenly clicked a few times.  They’re eye-opening movies!

  • What type of music do you like?

Whatever makes my heart flutter, whatever moves me emotionally.  I have very, very eclectic taste in music, but rock and punk lie at the very core of who I am.  My 70s British punk thing switched to metal in the early 80s, then hair-metal in the late 80s; my tastes in the 90s and thereafter could be summarised as ‘alternative’.

  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’m working on it!

  • What superpower would you like to have?

An Iron-Man type suit would be perfect for those nights when the beer flows too delightfully.  “Jarvis, I’m hammered, take me home, sir!”

  • What are your guilty pleasures?

Vintage Fender Precision Bass guitars.  Cheese.  “The Profit.”  “Bar Rescue.”

  • Favourite place you have visited, and why?

Beer-wise or generally?  Beer-wise, it must be the US: San Diego, Minneapolis, Tampa, Denver, Portland, Austin, the usual beer-cities.  Burlington, Vermont, and Asheville, North Carolina, are high on my list of places to visit.  Beer-writing commissions from breweries in these cities will be welcomed wholeheartedly!

Generally, Japan is my second-home and a country I love.  The Japan Craft Beer scene is booming, too, so that’s a bonus.  I liked Buenos Aires; I found it very European in its pub, bar and drinking culture — it was a home-from-home, albeit unique.

  • Favourite beer styles?

I have a penchant for life on the hoppy-side, so West Coast-style IPAs usually jump at me first from a beer-menu — or general US-style Pale Ales.  Not far behind in runners-up position are the Sours, the Lambics and other wild-fermenting delights.  Bronze medal goes to a Porter — a good Porter that doesn’t pretend to be a Stout, a roasty, thick, chocolatey Porter; they’re difficult to find.  Awards for competing always go to a decent quality Mild.

Banana-flavoured esters to the fore are always appreciated.

Would I be struck-off the beer-lovers register for saying my favourite beer style was Real Cider?

  • Favourite cider styles?

I love strong British-style tea with no sugar, so go figure…

Meet: Fumiko

  • What are your motivations at Kaeru Beer?

To drink and eat!

  • Describe yourself in five words?

Nervous about answering this question.

  • What are your three best character traits?

Three of the best?  I have no idea!

  • And the worst?

If I can’t think of the best, I certainly can’t think of the worst!

  • What makes you most proud?

Food: cooking and eating.

  • What are you ashamed of?

I have an unwavering character.

  • What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?

It’s too serious to state here.

  • What is the most difficult thing you have ever done?

Camping!

  • What are your hobbies and interests?

Food and exercise.

  • What type of movies do you like?

Comedies,

  • What type of music do you like?

Rock.

  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My eyes.

  • What superpower would you like to have?

A better memory, an ability to remember everything.

  • What are your guilty pleasures?

Having the house to myself in the evening when everybody else is working, when I can drink some nice beers without interruption.  I love that time!

  • Favourite place you have visited, and why?

Fukuoka in Japan because food and sake are very nice…and cheap, but overseas it must be Turin for the same reasons — just substitute the word ‘sake’ for any kind of beer or wine.

  • Favourite beer styles?

Most recently it is sour or gose.