Today, a quick post on a shop that I have walked past hundreds of times and visited only a few times. Takekuma is an off licence/booze shop a little way up Bremen street from Motosumiyoshi station. I used to pop in to get an emergency Orval from time to time and in those days it had a small selection of Belgian beers and a few US imports. I went in today on the off chance hoping to pick up a TDM can and found it has been transformed into a Japanese craft beer heaven. Well maybe I’m overdoing it a bit, but it’s now definitely the best place in the area to pick up Japanese craft. And therefore now I feel like it needs a full entry on here. Here’s what you need to know:
– It’s a booze shop so I’m going to skip all the usual parts about decor and the like. Aside from the beer which I’ll talk about in a minute they have the usual kind of booze you’d expect to find in a booze shop in Japan.
– Three fridges of Japanese craft with some nice selections, varying from local stuff to more far flung breweries, and from bigger names to less well known ones. Usual kind of prices you’d expect for a beer shop. Tax is added at the till though so beware.
– Also they have two taps of ‘craft’ under the Tap Marche system. If you’re not aware of what that is, it’s a dispensing and beer supply system from Spring Valley (Kirin) which allows a lot of places to have ‘craft’ beer on tap that wouldn’t normally be able to have it. I am not going to totally endorse this system as from taps at places I’ve seen it looks like there’s a requirement for you to have at least one Spring Valley beer on tap so it’s not really craft. But they do often have some genuine craft beer on the other tap(s). In this shop, the beer is sold for take away.
It was a genuine nice surprise to see how much they have expanded their beer selection here. Sadly they didn’t have the TDM I’d gone in for, but I got a Yorocco instead which is a more than adequate replacement! I spend quite a bit of time in this general area and I’d say that there aren’t that many places to actually buy good craft beer to drink at home so this place expanding its selection is a good thing. I know there’s a new place in Musashi Kosugi but I haven’t made it there yet. Perhaps this isn’t somewhere you’d travel miles to visit but I’d be surprised if you could find as good a selection of Japanese craft for quite a few miles in any direction so a very welcome addition to the area! It seems like they have another branch in Kawasaki but as I haven’t been there, this one will do for now!
Japanese breweries seen on tap:
Tap Marche, but bottles and cans from
Yorocco
Y Market
Minoh
Ise Kadoya
West Coast
Uchu
Shiga
Baeren and more
Opening Hours:
Monday, Tuesday & Friday, 13:00-19:30
Saturday, Sunday & holidays 11:00-19:00
Location/Map:
木月3-10-17, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Telephone:
044-522-0022