Koto Brewing - Idaho Brewery

Koto Brewing in Twin Falls, Idaho, was the Idaho brewery that I checked off on my Brewery-In-Every-State Quest. There were two really interesting parts to this brewery. First, they used the flooring from the old high school gymnasium to create their tabletops. We thought that was a great way to preserve local history.

Next, the history of this building is fascinating and the brewery, named after the original owner of the building, has a small tribute to him and his family in their back hallway. In approximately 1920, Tojiro Koto moved to Twin Falls and built a high-end restaurant, Tom's Cafe. However, because Koto and his wife were "Issei," or first-generation Japanese immigrants, he and his wife were not allowed to own property by law. So the property was legally titled in their son's, Tom's, name, even though Tom was a small child. However, during the Depression, Koto lost the business and the building and moved elsewhere. Tom was drafted into the Army in 1941, serving in Military Intelligence, and met his wife, originally from Salem, Oregon, who was incarcerated at the nearby Minidoka War Relocation Center. They married after the war when he was discharged and she was released from the internment camp. Scott and I thought it was great that the brewery, which is in the original building, chose Koto as its name to honor the family and the legacy of the place.

As Scott and I have completed our WWII Japanese Internment Camp Quest, this was meaningful to us.