I was quite surprised to see I had nothing on here for Aomori. I guess the last time I visited Aomori city I wasn’t in the digest post business. I think it was also around COVID times and that was one reason we couldn’t visit the only bar open during the daytime. A few years later and I was back there again, once again on one of those sneaky foreigner only rail passes. There is a new brewery! I still have not been able to get to the daytime opening place as it opened just a bit too late for my tight schedule but I’ll add it anyway, along with the one place we managed to get some craft booze last time. Still haven’t been to Hirosaki. Be Easy only opens in the evening so it makes it a bit tricky to visit if you’re not staying over. One day we’ll make it there. Anyway, here are the other spots in variable levels of detail.
Keika Brewing
Newish brewery that was the reason for my visit this time. Plenty of daytime opening, but pretty difficult to get to. Very close to the Asamushi Onsen station but that’s the easy part. The trains to get there from Aomori or Shin Aomori are quite infrequent so plan carefully. Counter for about eight and a table for four in what I think is an old vault. I believe this used to be a bank. Six taps, five of which were their own beers. Decent prices and some nibbles available. WiFi too. I had a good time here. The staff were very nice. But I can’t stress enough how important it is to plan your trains carefully. Good luck!
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Aomori Brewpub
Can only really mention this rather than provide details, as when we visited during COVID the only thing you could get here was take away bottles. I believe that now it is the Aomori city brewpub for the Be Easy brewery. Not sure if the brewer or beers are the same as sadly I was unable to pop in this time. I recall hearing that it’s a ‘pour your own beer’ operation, which is always quite fun for me and gives you a chance to try little bits of lots of stuff. Next time!
Website
A-Factory
Cider brewery and shop which has lots of apple related stuff for sale as you’d expect. Last time we were there we enjoyed the second floor where you could drink draft cider poured by those automatic pouring machines which take tokens. On my latest visit, the upstairs bit was closed so there was no opportunity for on site boozing, so maybe that’s a weekend only thing. But still worth a visit if you’re in the mood for cider as they sell a lot of interesting looking stuff to take away.
Website