Takao Brewing have recently opened a new taproom that is a bit easier to get to than their previous location. I have long been interested in visiting them as you don’t really see their beers around much, (at least not where I am looking, I guess). So the fact that their new place is very close to Takao station meant that I had no longer had an excuse not to go. Here’s what you need to know:
- The taproom is on the second floor above a Mos Burger, (hence the bad photos on this post), and shares a space with a coffee shop. You order from your preferred outlet and then sit in the seating area that is between the two counters. Quite a lot of seating with lots of charging points. They also had a nice little counter outside on the balcony near the entrance where you could sit and watch the Keio line trains go by or the bus station if that’s more your kind of thing. The brewery is at the back of the space and you can see it through the windows. As it’s a new place the decor is clean and modern as you’d expect.
- Five taps of their own beer and one guest tap. Two of them were IPAs, two were saisons and one was a fruit beer. Unsurprisingly, my favourite one was one of the saisons. They also have a fridge with some bottles, some of which are their regular beers, some big bottles of very interesting sounding specials of theirs and the rest nicely chosen Belgian 750ml stuff. Beers on tap served in two sizes, which were a little difficult to judge. I think I heard the larger being described as 330ml. My initial guess was 350ml so well done me (unless I misheard). The smaller one is probably about 200ml I think. Prices ranged from ¥900-¥980 for the larger one and ¥600-¥660 for the smaller. The guest was ¥1000 for 150ml but as it was an aged Logsdon sour it was well worth it.
- No cover charge, daytime opening. I forgot to check for WiFi but I would astounded if they didn’t have it. It felt like the kind of place that definitely would. They serve some food as well. We had the focaccia style pizza slices and they were nice. As you might expect from the location, it doesn’t stay open very late, (I guess hikers go home early), so I would check the hours carefully before visiting.
All in all, this was a pretty nice place. It was a very enjoyable first stop on a day of visiting some bars and I’d like to go back to tackle some of those big bottles. I guess it’s unlikely you’ll be just passing by given the location, but it’s definitely a good spot to start a nice day of pub crawling. Get the long train journey out of the way first to go here and then on the way back, hop on and off and pop in to a few places. Lovely!
Japanese breweries seen on tap:
Takao Beer
Opening Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday – 13:00-19:00
Friday & Saturday, 13:00-21:00
Closed Tuesday
Location/Map:
初沢町 1231-35, KO52 TAKAO 2階, Hachioji, Tokyo
Telephone:
None