The station next to the high school I attended was a little prosperous, and I usually went to this town to hang out. One day, after leaving the station and walking for about five minutes along a narrow road next to the train tracks, I found a suspicious shop that could be entered through the back door of a rundown love hotel. The hotel entrance was on the main street side, and the back door was semi-underground because the building was built on a slope. When I opened the small door that looked like it had originally been used as an administrator's office, I was greeted by a bar counter with loud music playing in the dim light. It was the first place I went to that could be called a bar. It was here that I learned about David Bowie and Janis Joplin, and it was also here that I first tried corned beef and sardines in oil. And of course it was here that I first tried bourbon whiskey.
The bar was called SongBird, and I could see its handwritten sign from the train window. It made me feel excited and happy, like I'd become an adult, to realize that there was a bar on this train that I was probably the only one to know about.
When I learned that there is a brewery called SongBird Beer in Kisarazu, I was reminded of those old times, and I was surprised to learn that ``SongBird'' and ``SongBird Beer'' are the same ``SongBird.''
What happened was that the two men were thinking of a name for their new brewery when they found a sign with the word "SongBird" lying around in the warehouse of the real estate agency they were renting property from. When they asked the real estate agent, he told them that the owner of "SongBird" had asked them to keep it until they could reopen it someday, and that's how they left it there. More than 20 years had passed since then, and they didn't think anyone would come to get it, so they took over the name "SongBird" along with the sign.
On a Sunday afternoon in August, I visited SongBird Beer, located in a residential area of Kisarazu, where a small child was playing naked in front of the counter. There was also a small tasting area where a local man was enjoying a beer. The beer brewed in the brewery behind the counter was a Belgian-style beer. They serve it with different hops and wheat.
It has double the hops, or even triple the hops, which is just right for someone who is feeling a bit tired of the recent surge in hop inflation in beer.
This isn't just a daytime visit to a brewery to casually sip beer; it's part of mitosaya's research to obtain a liquor manufacturing license.
To operate as a distillery, you need to apply for a business license from the health department. (You also need to apply for licenses from the fire department and tax office.)
Because this was a renovation of a distillery that had not been done before, we consulted with the health center several times, had them look at blueprints and sample materials, corrected any issues they pointed out, and inquired about any points that were unclear, as we carefully proceeded with the renovation.
Once the distillery renovation is almost complete and the stills and other equipment are installed, a series of documents will be submitted for the permit application, and finally, an on-site inspection will be conducted. In most cases, this is just to confirm that everything is done as declared in advance.
However, after the health center staff came to inspect the site, they asked to take it away for now. I had a bad feeling about this. A few days later, I received a call from the health center asking me to come, and when I did, I was told to put up a new ceiling.
One of the requirements for a liquor manufacturing plant building is that the ceiling must be smooth and easy to clean.
This time, the ceiling of the room that was originally an exhibition room for the herb garden was removed to reveal the roof and skylight. This was to let in light and ventilate the room, which has no windows. Styrofoam had been installed under the roof of the fermentation room and distillery room to house wiring, but this was not recognized as a ceiling, leading to the mysterious determination that there was no ceiling, leaving the attic exposed.
Unfortunately, the person who had been there for the preliminary consultation retired this spring, and there was no handover, so there was no one there who would understand what was going on at that time.
No matter how hard we tried to explain that this was the ceiling, they did not understand, so we decided to collect similar examples and create materials to explain the structure and submit them again.
There are countless examples of factories across the country that produce alcohol in similar environments, but the health center told us, in a mysterious rule, that the examples needed to be from factories in the same Chiba prefecture that were built after 2000 were not suitable for reference. So that's why we decided to visit SongBird Beer, as mentioned above.
However, it is truly puzzling that the judgment rules differ from prefecture to prefecture, even though they are based on national standards.
I diligently gathered other examples, prepared minutes of meetings with the previous person in charge, and also prepared drawings of the structure, which I then submitted again. A few days later, I received a reply stating that "we can reconsider the matter if you install auxiliary structures in the distillation room to prevent foreign objects from getting into the distillation room."
While thinking that he had never seen anything like it before, he made a cover to prevent foreign objects from entering the distiller's extraction outlet.
Once again, the health center staff came to investigate the situation. The cats, Anko and Kinako, who are used to people, hide during the investigation.
A few days later, I was informed that the permit had been granted and went to collect it. The permit number was 30-1. I had a lot of trouble to get such a flimsy item.
Just a little bit more.
The station next to the high school I attended was a bit prosperous, and I usually went to this town for fun back then. One day, after leaving the station and walking along the narrow street along the railroad tracks for about five minutes, I found a suspicious-looking store that was entered through the back door of a shabby love hotel. The entrance to the hotel was on the main street side, and the back entrance was halfway under the ground because the building was built on a slope. When we opened the small door, which looked like it was formerly used as a manager's office, a bar counter with music playing in the dim light appeared. It was the first place I had ever been to called a bar. It was here that I learned about David Bowie and Janis Joplin, and it was here that I ate corned beef and oil sardines for the first time. It was also the first time I ate corned beef and oil sardines, and of course the first time I drank loud bourbon whiskey.
The bar's hand-painted sign could be seen for a moment from the train window, and I was itching to grow up and be happy that I was the only one on this train who knew about it.
I was reminded of such a long time ago when I learned that there was a brewery with the same name, and I was surprised to learn that it originated from that bar.
What I mean is that they were thinking of a name for the brewery, and they found a sign lying in the warehouse of the real estate agency where they were renting a property. According to the real estate agent, the master of the bar had asked him to keep the sign until he reopened the bar someday. More than twenty years have passed since then, and he took over the name of the bar, along with the sign, because he would not be coming back to get it.
On a Sunday afternoon in August, I visited the brewery, located in a corner of a residential area, and found a small child playing naked in front of the counter. There was also a small tasting area where a locally-looking man was enjoying his beer. The beer made at the brewery behind the counter is of the Belgian beer type. They make you drink it with different hops and different wheat.
It's double hops, or even triple hops, which is just right for me since I'm a little tired of the recent inflation of beer.
This is not a daytime visit to a brewery to drink beer in a carefree manner, but rather a part of mitosaya's research to obtain a liquor license.
In order to operate as a distillery, you need to apply for a business license from the public health department. (There are also applications for permits to the fire department and tax office.)
This time, since there were not many examples of distillery renovations in the past, we went to the public health center several times to consult with them, had them look at the drawings and material samples, and carefully proceeded with the renovations, correcting any points that were pointed out and inquiring about any unclear points.
Once the renovation of the distillery was almost complete and the distillers and other equipment were installed, we submitted a series of documents to apply for the permit, and finally, we were asked to come for a site survey. Most of the time, they just want to make sure that the work is done as declared in advance.
However, the person in charge at the public health center who came to do the on-site inspection said that he wanted us to take it home after he had looked over everything. I had a bad feeling about this. A few days later, we received a call to come to the health center, and to our surprise, we were instructed to put up a new ceiling.
One of the requirements for a building used for the production of alcoholic beverages is that the ceiling must be smooth and easy to clean. We were told that the ceiling did not meet this requirement.
This time, the ceiling of the room that was originally the exhibition room of the medicinal herb garden was removed so that the roof and skylight could be seen. This is to let in light and ventilation since the room has no windows. The roofs of the fermentation and distillation rooms were covered with styrofoam to accommodate the wiring, but this was not recognized as a ceiling, and the attic was bare. But this was not recognized as a ceiling.
The unlucky thing was that the person in charge of the preliminary consultation had retired in the spring of this year, and there was no one to take over the job, so there was no one who knew what was going on at that time.
No matter how hard we tried to convince them that this was the ceiling, they did not understand, so we decided to gather similar cases and prepare materials to explain the structure and submit them again.
There are many examples of breweries making alcoholic beverages in similar environments all over the country, but the public health center told us that we would not be able to use them as a reference unless they were made in Chiba Prefecture after 2000, another mysterious rule.
However, it is also a mystery why each prefecture has different rules for making decisions even though they are based on national standards.
A few days later, I received a reply saying that they could reconsider the issue if they installed a supplementary structure in the distillation room to prevent foreign substances from entering.
Thinking that I had never seen anything like this before, I made a cover to prevent foreign substances from entering the extraction port of the distiller.
A representative from the public health center came to inspect the site again. The cats, Anko and Kinako, who had gotten used to being around people, stayed hidden during the investigation.
A few days later, we were informed that the permit had been granted and we went to pick up the permit. Permit No. 30-1. It took a lot of effort to get this flimsy thing.
I'm almost there.
