Kofu special part 2: The Vault (NOW CLOSED)

(This place has now closed down, but may reopen somewhere else, at some stage. Watch this space, I guess)

The Vault is pretty near Hops & Herbs (from here on referred to as H&H) and if you are if Kofu, it makes sense to pop in here too I reckon. It is also part of the Outsider group but has been around longer and is a very different kind of place to H&H. Firstly the big difference is the atmosphere. On the Friday we went, H&H was comfortable, relaxed and smoke free. The Vault was boisterous, loud and smoky. They are clearly for different situations. The Vault is much more somewhere to party with youngsters and probably get smashed whereas H&H is somewhere to sniff and savour your beers whilst enjoying intelligent conversation and probably also get smashed, but in the kind of way that you wouldn’t notice till you stood up to go to the toilet (those ¥900 pints of imperial stout, eh?).
It’s probably a similar size to H&H, but the Vault is more a place for ordering and paying at the bar, wandering around, standing, playing darts or pool and generally hanging out. 
The beer in the Vault is more international. They have a large fridge full of Belgian, German, British and other world beers and there were a few taps of world stuff on. However, one big reason to go there as well as H&H is that they have two taps of Outsider on at the Vault, and when we were there, one of them was a beer not on tap at H&H. I didn’t make any notes about the prices and sizes, which I take to mean that they were the same as at H&H, but could mean that I had just enjoyed the whole tap list at H&H a little too much.
So, for me H&H was much more my kind of place, but I put this down to age and general grumpiness at seeing young people openly enjoying themselves. (Only joking). The two places combined make a nice little pub crawl but I think it probably makes sense to do H&H first and then go to the Vault as the intoxication hits. Although, I guess the Vault would be quieter earlier and then you can relax in H&H afterwards. Well, anyway, I think you can probably work out what’s best for you now. Oh, one last thing, no cover charge here too. Good on them!

Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Outsider

Opening Hours:
Sunday-Tuesday, 18:00-24:00
Wednesday-Saturday, 18:00-02:00

Location/map:
1-21-7 丸の内, Kofu, Yamanashi-ken

Telephone:
055-237-0944

Links:
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