Japanese Craft Beer

Any recommendations for a good Japanese Craft Beer? Maybe even one with a brewery visit?

Here are a few of my favorite breweries:

- Shiga Kogen
- North Island
- DevilCraft
- Thrash Zone
- Y Market

Here are some bars in which to try them out: http://beerbarsjapan.com/

Hitachino, made by kiuchi brewery.
http://beertengoku.com/2015/06/10/hitachino-brewing-lab-akihabara-toky...
https://hitachino.cc/en/

I enjoyed a couple of local brews the other day. Izu Kogen, Shonan Beer, and Hakone Beer were pretty good. Shonan Beer and Hakone Beer Breweries are easy to get to from Tokyo too.

https://www.kamaboko.com/en/craft-beer/

there are quite a few places to visit for craft beer now, but you will need to be more specific about your location. in tokyo, there are some good ones that are fairly centrally located that usually have either fully japanese craft beers or a mixture of japanese and western breweries. price and food will also vary depending on where you go.

in jimbocho, you can find the craft beer market that has 30 craft beers on tap every day (on a rotation) and both an english and japanese menu. they have limited food (and expensive), but the pint price is lower than other places. they also have a few other locations, including kichijoji, if you find yourself further from the city center.

devil craft, as mentioned above, is a dual craft beer and chicago-style pizza joint. there is a shop in hamamatsucho and in gotanda (smaller). the hamamatsucho location now has devil craft's own breweries on tap, around 5 each day (also rotated). they also have an english beer menu.

there is also the watering hole, near yoyogi station, that has a fairly decent selection, and goodbeers faucets in shibuya, that has more (plus more food). there is also the baird tap room in harajuku, and baird is a japanese brewery, and the tapstand near shinjuku's south exit that has a lot of japanese brews. brewdog also has a tap room in roppongi.

from here, you can also find a lot of smaller locations depending on where you are. we've found craft beer bars in most of the major station areas, and we haven't hit them all yet. but those are the larger ones we've found within tokyo.

if you are looking for locations outside of tokyo, i have some recommendations but my knowledge is much more limited.

My recommendation, if you go as far up north as Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, is Baeren Beer :) Their products are sold at food/drink fairs in Tokyo and the vicinity, and in Morioka they have their brewery and own restaurant/bar as well.

I like Baeren beer, but it's pretty widely available at bars around Japan, so I don't think that it's worth traveling to their brewery just to look at their tanks.

Generally most of the best craft beers are available at a lot of bars all over the place, without much reason to travel to an out-of-the-way brewery. A couple of exceptions are nanobreweries like Thrash Zone (which is served in their two bars in Yokohama), and Yorocco (served at Beach Muffin in Kamakura).

(Thrash Zone listings: http://beerbarsjapan.com/dbinx/tr-yoko.html )

Since OP hasn't responded or mentioned where in Japan he will be, there's not much point in recommending specific bars in some city he might not go to.

Hi guys,

Any good craft beers selling at the shops?

Cheers...

Any good craft beers selling at the shops?

That kind of depends on where you are. Japan is a big country....

I was hoping there are known smaller brands available all around, like Sierra Nevada in the States for example.

Where are you (or will you be) in Japan?

There is only one place I would recommend is Brewdog in Roppongi Tokyo

Staff speak english and have alot of craft beer on tap

Read Sam's (staff reporter) report on craft beers in Osaka. I cant wait to crawl them all!