After being shocked to find there was no Shiga digest post, I was even more surprised to discover that there was no Osaka digest post. Well at least a bit surprised, as I have always approached adding Osaka places with some reluctance as there are so many of them that I couldn’t do the city justice. So please don’t take this as a comprehensive list of Osaka places, (clearly it is nowhere near that!), but I will add places I go to in the future to this so hopefully it will become slightly more useful as time passes.
Nomcraft Juso Taproom
This place was great! I’ve always thought Nomcraft beers were fine, but they tasted really good here. Small taproom in the Juso neighbourhood, not too far from Umeda on the Hankyu line. I’ve absolutely failed when it comes to making notes about this place, but it had about 20 taps I think and beers were served in two sizes, both of which were smaller than the usual sizes you’d expect, but were also much cheaper than usual. Some small izakaya type dishes too, but I think you can also bring your own food if you want. The barman was great and took a lot of care when it came to pouring the beers. Will probably be a must visit place for us whenever we’re in Osaka now.
Instagram
Ape Brewing (and also briefly the other Yellow Ape places)
Situated in the space that Koumin used to be in, Ape Brewing is the reasonably new brewery from the people behind the Yellow Ape bars in Osaka. I’m not particularly good with areas in Osaka, but the area seems to be Honmachi, just a little bit south of Yellow Ape, the original bar, (think this place has an cover charge if I remember rightly, is mostly standing and seems mainly focused on domestic beer), which in turn is a little bit east of ‘Yellow Ape Craft The Bottle Shop & The Kitchen’ (bigger, has a bottle shop attached, serves domestic and imported beer, has much more food and loads of taps and works on a pour your own beer using a smart card system). Seems like I didn’t make many notes, but as far as I can remember there were about 10 taps and about 75% of them were their own beers, made on site in the brewery at the back of the space. Lots of food too. Beware, the prices on the menu don’t include tax as far as I can remember.
Ape Brewing Instagram
Yellow Ape Craft Instagram
Yellow Ape Craft The Bottle Shop & The Kitchen Instagram