Customise freely and make your own gin!
The hands-on craft gin distillery is now in full swing.
<Part 1>

This is truly a micro-distillery for a new era!This month, we report on TATEYAMA BREWING, where you can customise and make your own gin.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi　撮影：Midori Yamashita

Mr Ota makes a cocktail combining TATEYAMA GIN and homemade craft cola.

In May this year, a craft gin distillery, TATEYAMA BREWING, opened in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture.

The key word for this facility is, without a doubt, 'lab'.

Opened as one of the facilities within the TATEIL complex, which includes a guesthouse, shared office, café and bar, it features hands-on content that allows visitors to make their own customised blended gin.

Satoshi Ota, founder of TAIL and distiller at TATEYAMA BREWING, says: "Tateyama has always had a well-developed DIY culture, and there are many craftspeople here.

His day job is as an architect and he is also involved in regional revitalisation as a member of the Tateyama City Community Development Cooperation Team.

Mr Ota says: "Tateyama has a well-developed DIY culture, so I thought that putting value on the experience of making things yourself would be typical of Tateyama.

His day job is as an architect.He personally worked on the interior of the shop and distillery, which was made from repurposed scrap wood.

The theme of the distillery is 'Laboratory'.

TATEYAMA GIN, an original gin just released at the end of June, currently offers two lines.

'As you know, a typical gin is flavoured with multiple botanicals, mainly juniper berries.

The 'Element Series' is a botanical spirit made by single distillation of various botanicals.

The current line-up includes 21 botanical spirits that allow you to directly taste the flavour of the botanicals themselves, such as coriander, lemongrass and chamomile from Minami-Boso, as well as sansho and kuromoji from Kamogawa.

The 21 botanical spirits are as follows.

1. juniper berry 2. angelica root 3. liquorice 4. coriander 5. cardamom 6. clove 7. cinnamon 8. black pepper 9. ginger 10. sansho 11. chromophyll 12. sencha 13. earl grey 14. lemon peel 15.Orange peel 16.Lemongrass 17.Chamomile 18.Caraway 19.Thyme 20.Mint 21.Fennel seed

In 2018, the city of Tateyama started a 'renovation town development' project to utilise existing buildings while adding value.A distillery, café and bar were established on the ground floor of the TAIL complex, which was created in a vacant building of a former corrugated iron company.

Free blend of 21 botanical spirits.

A special feature of the 'Element Series' is that each can be blended at will.

You can taste each spirit in the café and bar space next to the distillery while blending and bottling, or you can buy a bottle of each and enjoy the brand each time you visit.

'Another is TATEYAMA GIN's original 'Blend Series'.

It is a blend of carefully selected spirits from the Element Series, and currently only one type, '001', is available.

The '001' is a blend of juniper berries and a total of seven botanicals, including lemongrass and coriander.

It is a refreshing gin that is easy to drink for those who are not familiar with craft gin.

Mr Ota says he aims to expand the 'blended series' in the future.

Tateyama is a region where flower cultivation by agricultural producers is very popular, and a variety of flowers such as poppies, casania, portulaca and marigolds are shipped to urban areas.They are also experimenting with the distillation of local wildflowers, such as the Japanese knotweed, which grows wild in Tateyama, and are going to create a 'blended series' of gins that are unique to Tateyama.

The most popular gin menu is the Gin Cola.

地産地消のクラフトジン。

Such efforts have spread, particularly locally, and requests from hotels and restaurants in the Tateyama area to handle '001' are increasing.

In addition, there are also enquiries from local manufacturers for the production of original gin, as the company is also able to handle small-scale OEMs.

It can be said that local production for local consumption is taking shape, just as they had hoped.

The packaging is also unique.

The TATEYAMA GIN logo laser-engraved on the bottle uses the Tateyama script, which was newly created for TAIL.

What are 'Tateyama characters'?

These are original Tateyama characters created by a designer.

It's a bit hard to read (laughs), but it's based on ancient characters."

The Craft Gin Shake, available for a limited time only, is a thick shake for adults that combines juniper from the Element Series, tea liqueur, vanilla ice cream and milk.

We wanted the packaging itself to have a slightly sharp impression, so we used the motif of a pharmaceutical package that is typical of a research institute.

The Tateyama lettering and packaging can be a catalyst for communication with visitors.

The lettering was created by Shogo Otani's team at 301 inc.The letters were created by Shogo Otani's team at 301 inc.

Mr Otani has been involved with TAIL and TATEYAMA GIN from the concept design stage, with the idea of creating a distillery that functions as a hub for the city.


The second part of this report focuses on the experiential content of TATEYAMA BREWING!


Continued in Part 2.