 Spring Valley Brewery was one of Japan's first beer breweries, and in 1907 became the founding production facility of Kirin Brewery Company, one of Japan's largest domestic beer producers.Copeland was born Johan Martinius Thoresen in Arendal in Norway.In the 1840s, Copeland worked for five years as an apprentice to a German brewmaster a few blocks from his home before immigrating to the United States and changing his name to William Copeland.