Eitai Brewing (NOW CLOSED)

THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED. APPARENTLY THEY WILL BE OPENING SOMEWHERE ELSE SO I’LL UPDATE WHEN THEY ARE UP AND RUNNING IN A NEW PLACE

Today, another new brewery. I’ve been meaning to get here for a while as I was wondering what was going on with the Mile Post. It seemed like it might be a bit of overkill to have two craft beer places in the same building but according to most things I could find on the internet, the Mile Post was still there. This is not quite the case though. The whole building is now Eitai Brewing, the first floor being the taproom and brewery and the second floor being what was the Mile Post but now under the Eitai name. (The cycle shop has moved a couple of km away, if you were wondering). I’m guessing that this is more of a rebranding to match the brewery rather than a new place, as there is some overlap in their internet presences. Unfortunately, this time I only went to the ground floor taproom, so I going to have to presume that the second floor cafe is still in the Mile Post vein. I suggest you check the old Mile Post entry which I’ll leave up and add a note redirecting to here. One apparent difference is the food, which was curry based and now seems to be more familiar Japanese pub food items. Which is a shame as the curry was great on previous visits, but the new food also looks good judging by the signage and looking at their website. Anyway, a lengthy preamble to my usual ‘here’s what you need to know’.

–  First floor taproom is pretty small, with a couple of counters seating about seven and a couple of small low tables. It’s very much somewhere you’d pop in for a couple rather than stay for hours. That’s what the upstairs part is for I guess. They do serve a few bar snacks though, so you can get some sustenance with your booze.
– They had four beers available, three of their own and one guest (Iwami, the first I’d heard of them to be honest). Beers are served in half pints (probably around 250ml as a guess), and are available for ¥500 for their stuff and ¥700 for the guest. Their beers were a wheat, stout and IPA. You pay as you go here, no running up a tab.
– No smoking, no cover charge, wifi available and open during the daytime, but be sure to check the hours below and maybe on their Facebook too, as the taproom and cafe are open at different times and depending on what you are heading there for, you might end up disappointed. It does seem to be the case that one or the other is usually open though.
– Not going to write much about the cafe as I didn’t go in, but as I mentioned above, check the old Mile Post entry for a rough idea. Apologies if it’s now nothing like it used to be. They do occasionally post tap line ups on their cafe twitter, so at least the beer line up seems to be similar and I’m sure they still have that nice river terrace.

So, all change, but also more of the same. It’s nice that there’s another new brewery in town and I’m guessing that if you want to drink Eitai beer this is going to be the best (and maybe only) place to get it. The cafe section was nice on the couple of times I visited and I imagine that it’s still nice after the rebrand. The line ups I’ve seen suggest that they’re getting some good guest beers on too. Also nice is the fact that, in the taproom, at the weekend there’s an easy place to pop in and have one or two of their beers. As I probably said before, it’s not an area I’m in very often, but must be great for the locals in an area where there’s not a great deal of craft beer.


Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Eitai (at least downstairs in the taproom. Sorry I didn’t go upstairs, this time but it’s a mix of their beers and Japanese guests as it was with the Mile Post. Check the old post here for an idea)

Opening Hours:
– Cafe, 2F
Monday-Saturday, 11:30-23:00 (but closed at 21:00 from November to February)
Closed Sunday & holidays
– Taproom, 1F
Friday, 17:00-22:00
Saturday, 14:00-20:00
Sunday, 12:00-18:00
Closed Monday-Thursday

Location/map:
新川 1-20-6, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Telephone: 
03-5542-0256

Links:
Website
Facebook page
Cafe Twitter
Taproom/Brewery Twitter