Japas Cervejaria Artesanal

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Alexander Gashti

On Christmas Day, my brother-in-law gifted me a four-pack of beer. The label art–foud Japanese masks on a solid background with Japanese writing–fascinated me, so I looked up the brewery’s profile online. That’s how I discovered Japas Cervejaria, which is operated by four Nipo-Brazilian women: Maíra Kimura, Fernanda Ueno, Yumi Shimada, and Tânia Matsuoka.

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Nipo-Brazilians are culturally integrated, either Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Brazilians of Japanese heritage. Japas Cervejaria incorporate their shared culture into the brewing and branding of their beers. Their transition from homebrewing to pro brewing highlights the role of gender in a male-dominated profession, and the amalgamation of Japanese and Brazilian ingredients and cultures they bring to craft beer.

Head brewers Fernanda Ueno and Maíra Kimura have always been craft beer fans. Having never met, they both homebrewed their first batch in 2009 and immediately fell in love with brewing. Fernanda started an internship at a local craft brewery, while Maíra studied abroad, formalizing her professional training in Europe and obtaining her brewer’s certificate before returning to Brazil in 2012.

Their meeting was inevitable, as they would frequent the same beer cafes and craft beer festivals, and at one of these festivals they also met Yumi Shimada, who has a background in creative and digital design. All having a shared love of brewing and admiration for their Nipo-Brazilian heritage, Fernanda, Maíra, and Yumi became friends.

One of their first projects was a collaborative homebrew incorporating ingredients from both Japanese and Brazilian cultures. They brewed four trial batches, their favorite of which was a wasabi pale ale, and posted about the project through various social media platforms. The project piqued the interest of Cervejaria Nacional, a brewpub in Sao Paulo, which invited Fernanda, Maíra, and Yumi to scale up their homebrew to 700 liters. The release party was full capacity, and the beer sold out in two days.

Coming off this success, they hatched the idea of Japas Cervejaria, Nipo-Brazilian women brewing together with a deep appreciation of their shared heritage. They would fuse influences from both cultures by incorporating ingredients such as jasmine, yuzu, matcha, wasabi, and tropical fruit. Their commitment goes beyond brewing beer. Japas Cervajaria actively seeks to foster a sense of community, promote diversity and inclusivity in the brewing industry by empowering women, and highlight their shared heritage.

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This article includes:

• RECIPE: Wasabi Pale Ale
• RECIPE: Koji Pilsner
• RECIPE: Koji Witbier with Jasmine
• The Japas Cervejaria Mask Series
• Featured Ingredients
• Making History