Tokyo Old Boys Brewing (Formerly Inazuma) NOW CLOSED

This place is now closed with Tokyo Old Boys moving to their new location in Hachioji. You can read about that place here.

Today, another relatively new brewpub and, as seems to have been the case recently, one which has actually managed to start brewing. Still waiting for the Watering Hole to do so six years on! I think I constantly gripe about Roppongi on here and I have to say that my opinions on the area haven’t changed. But being invited for a beer by a friend at Inazuma gave me the perfect opportunity to tick it and Fujizakura off in one go. Great! Now just the remaining 200 or so bars on the backlog to deal with. Anyway, here’s what you need to know.

– Basement bar, below the street level brewery. Pretty small place with a small counter for five or six and tables for maybe 12 more. Fairly classy feel to it, but maybe I was given that impression by the food, which had an Italian feel, was pretty snazzily presented and was also pretty nice.
– Ten taps, eight of which were on when we visited. Three of them were their own beers, with the others being a mix of Japanese craft and US imports. All beers were served in one size only. Unfortunately, I have left it too long between visiting and writing this, so can’t really give an accurate estimate of the size, but I remember it being somewhere between US pint and half. If I’m going to have a stab in the dark, I’d say a little over 300ml. Their beers were priced from ¥750-¥800. The Japanese guests (including the never before seen Shiki!) ranged from ¥880-¥980 and the US imports were from ¥980-¥1080. Given my lack of certainty over the size of the servings I can’t really speak for the value, but the US ones, which were an imperial stout and a triple IPA, seemed pretty reasonable. One thing though, tax is added at the end, so it’s actually a little more than I suggested above. They also have a bottle selection with some Belgian stuff. Didn’t see the prices though. Oh, and they post their taplist on facebook if you want to check out what they have before you visit.
– Suprisingly, no cover charge. The place is also no smoking. Two things I’m all in favour of.

So there you have it. It was good to get to try another new brewery and it was good to see Shiki available for the first time. I wonder if there is some kind of connection between Inazuma and them. The location is a minus for me, but that’s just me, and it will probably be a plus for some. And, depending on your point of view, the other potential plus point is that you can only get Inazuma beer here. Their guests were pretty interesting too. The Daisen Barley wine and Knee Deep were very nice. Not sure when I will be making me way back there, but I’m always in favour of people starting new breweries and giving it a go, rather than starting a new bar with nothing original about it.

Japanese breweries seen on tap:
Inazuma
Shiki
Marca
Daisen

Opening Hours:
Monday, 18:00-23:15
Tuesday-Friday, 11:30-14:30, 18:00-23:15
Saturday & holidays, 14:00-23:15
Closed Sunday

Location/Map:
六本木 3-6-9, Minato-ku, Tokyo