Best Beers In Japan?

[Hillbilly]

G'day guys, in two weeks time I'll be off to visit my brother who works in Tokyo and was wondering if any of you guys know any good micro brewery beers I should try when I'm over there, any help would be great.
Hillbilly :beer:

 

[Doc]

Hey Hillbilly,

There are a couple of board memebers in Tokyo.
They've helped other brewers passing through Japan out, but there isn't from memory a run down on Tokyo.
You can find the guys in Japan in this topic

Sign up on the Beer Advocate... site and you can also see their list of member suggestions.

Finally Rate Beer has a pretty good list too.

Have a great trip and post pics and beer reviews.

Doc

 

[crozdog]

I can't comment re micro's, but i did drink a bit of "Good Times Good Value" while I was there. OK for cheap mass produced beer you buy from a vending machine. :chug:

Yeah that is its name!! seriously.

You can get great quality Sake cheap cause of the tax regime. Apparently the brewer tells the tax man how good the brew is; the better it is, the more tax he pays! :huh: So there isn't a great incentive for him to say this is top shelf! :lol:

Enjoy your trip

 

[beersom]

Yebisu = O.K. Dortmunder style from a large Brewery
Yebisu Black = O.K. Schwartz style from a large Brewery

Hitacino Nest make some VERY good beers and some ordinary ones.
Mt Fuji has a small brewery nearby that does decent German style ales.

If in Tokyo there is a bar called Popeye that has a very good range of beers including cask conditioned stuff.

and last time I found a small shop in Shibuya (tokyo) that had an excellent range of craft beer ( Japanese, US and European) and a fantastic whisky and Sake selection.

 

[Steve Lacey]

Craft Beer Bars
Bakushu Beer Club Popeye (Ryogoku)
Kura Kura (Shimokitazawa)
Ushi Tora (Shimokitazawa)

Belgian Bars
Bois Cereste
Belgo (Shibuya)
Frigo (Shinjuku)
Brussels (Harajuku)
.... (to name a few)

Micro Breweries
TY Harbor (Tennoz Isle)
Fish Market Taproom (aka Baird Brewing, Numazu -- about 120 km south of Tokyo) -- story here.

Or just try searching for "Beer" on the Tokyo Food Pages site.

Sorry, just running short of time to give a more detailed answer at the moment.

Steve

 

[NRB]

Definitely get your backside into Popeye's!

I can HIGHLY recommend Baird's Beer; their oak-aged barleywine was to die for!

 

[cj in j]

Sorry I missed this topic when I was on vacation -- there are a lot of great IPAs in the States! Anyway, Steve provided a good list of places to try to find, and I'll add The Aldgate in Shibuya to the list -- for future reference. And NRB is definitely right about Baird -- great stuff!

And in the future, if any of you guys pass through Tokyo, let me and Steve know. There's a good chance that we'll be able to meet up with you and share some beers and some stories.