Today a place I briefly popped in to on the day they launched their first beers. I was intending to stay a bit longer but ended up getting slightly waylaid en route and in the end only had time for a couple of halves. Maybe this was a good thing for them as they seemed to have a lot of interested customers who wanted to drink their freshly launched beers. The taproom has been open a little while but until last weekend they were serving guest beers only. Anyway, here’s what you need to know.
- Under the Chuo Line tracks between Higashi Koganei and Musashi Koganei, marginally closer to the latter. I think there is a JR (Japan Rail) connection to this place but I’m not sure what it is. Unlike many new breweries they don’t have that big glass window to look at the brewery equipment. The brewery is in the next unit, so all in all, they have quite a decent sized space under the tracks. Seating for maybe 10, a standing table for maybe four and also a wide window ledge which I presume doubles up as a bit of casual seating. When I was there you ordered at the counter and it was pay as you go. Oh, beware, they don’t take cash.
- Is probably something of a fool’s errand to talk about their regular beer line up when they’ve only just started serving their own stuff, but when I was there, out of the eight taps, three were their own beers, one was a collaboration with 26k who are a little way east under the same tracks, and the rest were Japanese guests. The guest beers seemed to be from Chuo Line breweries. Well, apart from Hideji which is very much not on the Chuo line. Beers served in two sizes, 290ml and 490ml which I don’t think anyone could ever have predicted. Their own beers ranged from ¥780-¥830 for the regular and ¥1100-¥1150 for the pint. The guests were ¥880-¥990 and ¥1240-¥1400 respectively.
- Hmmm, WiFi… I don’t think so, but of course, I can’t remember. There was no cover charge. They have daytime opening at the weekend but not during the week and they actually have quite a few days when they’re closed, so best check before you go.
This post is a bit of a mess as I was really running out of time when I was there. Also, I guess the day they launched their first beers probably isn’t going to be very representative of what the place is normally like so I can’t say too much till I visit again. There was a real community fee to the place and it must be a very welcome addition for people who live in the area as there aren’t many craft beer places in Koganei. If you don’t mind a bit of a walk it would be very easy to combine this with a visit to 26k. I’ll probably do that next time I’m passing.
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Chuo Line Beer Works
26K
Ishikawa
Vertere
Far Yeast
Hideji
Opening Hours:
Thursday & Friday, 17:00-21:00
Saturday, 11:00-21:00
Sunday, 11:00-19:00
Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
Location/map:
緑町 5-3-45, Koganei-shi, Tokyo
Telephone:
None