A recent football game in Okayama gave me the opportunity to tick off a prefecture that I’d never been to before. I realise that Ehime isn’t that close to Okayama, but there’s a direct train, so it seemed like a good idea. And it was! I only visited a few beer places so this is very much incomplete, but in the usual way, this will get updated as and when I manage to get to the many places that were closed when we were there. Important tip for Matusyama, don’t expect many places to be open on a Sunday evening. And one more important tip, definitely consider visiting Ehime if you haven’t. I really liked it.
Matsuyama
Lots of places to chose from in Matsuyama, but as I said above, the opening times are sometimes limited and foiled a few of our plans, so bear that in mind when making any plans. Everyone mentioned Bokke as being the place to go. Naturally it was closed the whole time we were there…
DD4D Brewing & Clothing Store
Maybe many people’s first stop in Matsuyama, but as we arrived late we had to leave it till the next day. This place is a clothes shop with a brewery and mini taproom at the back. They now have a bigger brewery and a bar out of town, but this place works great for daytime drinking in the city centre. Nine taps of their own beer on when we visited. Nice prices too for the pints (mostly ¥1200). The location and opening times are the big draw and although there’s not a massive amount of space to drink, there is a table for four and some room for standing and boozing. Would definitely go bac
This shop’s Instagram
The brewery’s Instagram
Dogo Beer Hall / Dogo Bakushukan
Dogo Onsen is very touristy and this place has prices that reflect that. It was different from how I expected it to be, given that the brewery is one of those older style Japanese breweries with lots of European styles. The beer hall is maybe more reminiscent of an izakaya, but a bit classier and with some classy music. The food is more Japanese than what you might expect at a beer hall in Japan, which sounds kind of ridiculous but hopefully you know what I mean. Less pretzels and sauerkraut and more teishoku. Although the brewery is branching out a bit into more modern styles, you’ll probably be coming here for the experience rather than the drinks. They do have small tasting sizes though, so if you just want to tick off the beers quickly, you can do it without getting wasted. Oh, and they have another standing bar nearby if that’s more your style.
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The Tap
Mercifully open on Sunday night, and until late too. Narrow bar tucked away in a building containing lots of other little bars, with a counter for around six and a little table for four attached to the end of it. Around eight taps and as far as I can remember, they were weighted slightly in favour of domestic stuff. The three taps of the local Garyu Brewery were what we were interested in. Prices were kind of normal for what we’d expect in Tokyo which is not always the case when we travel as plenty of other cities are more expensive. The food was Japanese leaning pub style dishes and was very nice.
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Coffee & Beer Roots
This is basically a coffee shop / cafe that has one tap of local beer served on nitro. When we were there it was a coffee stout, which makes sense with the nitro thing, so I imagine they might usually have those kind of beers on. The cake was very nice here.
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Imabari
If you’re traveling to or from Matsuyama by train, you’ll probably go past Imabari and the brewery we visited there is about a 10 minute walk from the station, so easy to pop in to so why not split the journey up? Guess it would also work as a place to celebrate after finishing the Shimanami Kaido.
Imabari Machinaka Bakushu
Brewpub located in a shopping arcade not far from the station. Think they had eight taps of their own beers on with some cans in the fridge too. Seating is at a counter for about ten so it’s not the biggest place. Some food too. The cheese was really nice and much better than you get in some other places. Beers were in modern styles with quite a bit of haze involved which isn’t really my thing. But all the same, I enjoyed my visit and I thought the non-hazy IPA was really good. They are fans of the local J2 team Imabari which I fully encourage too
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