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SanktGallen is the first “Ji-Beer” (local beer) brewery in Japan, located at Atsugi, Kanagawa. All beer is brewed by passionate and skilled president, Nobuhisa Iwamoto.
They named the brewery after Abbey of St. Gall, as the origin of brewing beer. It is a monastery in Switzerland and the first brewery in all of recorded history.
SanktGallen started their history as brewpub in 1993 at San Francisco, CA, since Japan’s strict tax laws didn’t allow microbreweries. At that time, in Japan, breweries could not get a license without producing at least 2 million litres (528,000 gal) per year. They also imported own-brewed beer and brewed low-alcohol beer in yum cha & ji-beer restaurant at Roppongi, Tokyo.
TIME, Newsweek and other US media reported this action and the tough situation of microbrewing in Japan became widely known not only in the US but also in Japan.
In 1994, the Liquor Tax Law were relaxed allowing smaller breweries producing 60,000 litres (15,850 gal) per year for a beer license or 6,000 litres per year for a happoshu license. As a result, a number of smaller breweries have been established throughout Japan.
Accordingly, SanktGallen got the license in 1995 then started brewing. They opened first brewery at Atsugi city in 1997, then expand to new location in 2009.
SanktGallen have been consistently brewing ales, not lagers, in order to remind Japanese people of how wide beer variety is; in Japan, most of people still know commercial beer only (mostly pilsner).
They have got awards for basic beer products such as Golden Ale, Amber Ale and Yokohama XPA (IPA), and also famous for their “Sweets Beer” such as Imperial Chocolate Stout, Sweet Vanilla Stout, and Sweet Orange Ale.
Seasonal limited beer such as Sakura (cherry-blossom flavour) and Apple Cinnamon Ale is popular as well. el Diablo (Barley Wine) got overall score 95/100 at RateBeer.