ONE of Cumbria’s new breed of micro-breweries is hoping to start exports to Japan following a successful trade mission there.

Jason Hill, managing director of Eden Brewery, at Brougham near Penrith, flew to Japan on February 26 where he spent nearly two weeks meeting potential distributors and business contacts in Tokyo and Osaka.

More surprisingly, he came across another brewer from Cumbria who has set up a successful business in the country.

Dan Cockburn, from Ambleside, moved to Japan nine years ago and is now the brewer at the Hakuba Brewing Company, near Nagano.

Mr Hill said: “The Japanese have developed a taste for high quality, seriously tasty beer, which stands out from the mass produced, bland beer from the big breweries.

“We have built a good name for ourselves locally and nationally but we want to expand and find new markets across the world.

“It was fascinating to meet Dan and learn more about the market in Japan and how he has made a success of it.

“There are a lot of really good local independent breweries, but there is definitely enthusiasm for high quality imported British beer and hopefully it is an emerging market that we can enter at just the right time.”

He added: “I have had really useful meetings and conversations with some of the distributors over there and now we’ll have to take some time to review all these contacts and see if we can make them bear fruit.”

Mr Hill was part of a trade mission organised by UK Trade and Investment, after Eden identified Japan as a key market for craft beer.

He took samples of Eden’s Halfpint range of hoppy ales, as well as its experimental Psycho range, which uses unusual ingredients such as dark cherries.

He added: “Although we are concentrating on Japan as a potential export market, Scandinavia and France are other markets we would consider.

“The brewery has grown massively since we began in 2011 and it would be great to continue this by getting our brands known across the world.”

Eden’s cask ales include Eden Best, Eden Gold, Eden Fuggle and First Emperor, an India pale ale, and it has enjoyed success with a range inspired by the film Withnail and I, filmed in Cumbria in the 1980s. It also makes an exclusive range of beer for Tebay Services.