Bathe Yotsume Brewery officially opened on December 16, 2023, and is operated by a sento
(public bath) near Kinshicho. I first saw their bath (Kogane-yu) in a magazine article. The
combination of sento and beer is not so new, and there’s Kamigata Beer in Osaka, which
renovated a sento into a brewery. However, running a sento and a brewery at the same time is
something new―at least I don’t know of any other examples―so I was interested in the place and
decided to visit.
The brewery is near Oshiage station, two minutes walk from the nearest subway entrance. But this
time I started at Kinshicho station and walked to Kogane-yu to take a bath. The place is nicely
reformed with the sense of reminiscence of the sentos of the good old days. At the same time, the
atmosphere there is sophisticated, like the BGM there was ambient music, etc. You can enjoy the brewery’s beer at the counter on the 1st floor and Kogane Kitchen on the 2nd floor. It was good to have a glass of beer after the bath, but they only served pale ale when I visited. I didn’t know why. I saw three tap handles at the counter of the sento on the 1st floor, so I should have checked what was on tap there (but I forgot!). I had the pale ale on the 2nd floor. The fee for using the bathhouse ¥520, and the beer is ¥700.
Then I walked another ten minutes to the brewery. Standing at the front of the brewery, you can
see the brewing tanks through the glass and a hallway leading from the entrance on the left to the
back. There are about six narrow seats along the wall of the aisle, and further back are four box
tables that can seat three or four people. In front of the taproom counter there was a DJ booth.
Real records were being played for background music.
They have ten taps, but when I was there, they served seven beers on tap. Among them, three were their original beers, which cost ¥630 for the M size and ¥1,000 for the L. The rest of the beers were guest beers, the M size for ¥680 and the L for ¥1,200. I only had the M size and I guess that is about 200-250ml. I think that’s a reasonable price considering the higher prices these days.
Their beer lineup at that time was Pale Ale, IPA, and Weizen. I already had the pale ale at the sento,
so I had the other two types here. They were all decent considering the brewery had only opened
about two months before. Also, the guest beer lineup was a bit interesting. For example, I’ve never
seen 808 Brewery’s beer on tap at any other place (but maybe that’s just because I haven’t been
going to that many places lately). A simple food menu like salami & cheese, French fries,
jerky, ham, nuts and so on is also available.
My stay there was not that long, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. In that area, there is
the Tokyo Sky Tree on the north side across from Oshiage Station, but the location of the brewery
is the opposite of that, so it was also good that the place was not crowded. Only beer fans seemed
to be there. I will definitely go back there after a while (and maybe re-visit the sento, too!)
Like many other brewery taprooms, there is no cover charge. They do have Wi-Fi.
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Bathe Yotsume
Ushitora
Sagami
Yatsugatake Beer Touchdown
808
Opening Hours:
Thursday & Friday, 18:00-22:30
Saturday & Sunday, 15:00-22:30
Closed Monday-Wednesday
Location/map:
業平 4−11−3 田辺ハイツ, Sumida-ku, Tokyo
Telephone:
03-3412-7350