Yoho Brewing

YOHO Brewing is a craft brewery founded in 1996 in Karuizawa, Nagano, by Yoshiharu Hoshino, heir to a local hot-spring inn who had been struck by the beer he tasted in a New York pub years earlier. Taking advantage of the 1994 revision of the Liquor Tax Act, he built a brewery sized for national distribution rather than regional tourism.

Its flagship Yona Yona Ale, an amber ale with Cascade hops, debuted on 7 July 1997 and gave its name to the Yona Yona Friends peace project and the Cho-Utage gatherings. The company now brews a wide portfolio of styles, from Aooni IPA to Wednesday Cat, exports to international markets and runs breweries and taprooms, including the Osaka brewery YONA YONA BEERISE.