Kawasaki is a city I am quite familiar with as I work there three days a week and have a spent a great deal of time at the football stadium. There are a few breweries ranging from the fairly well know (Brimmer) via the very local and quite quirky (Moonlight) to the downright confusing (TT). (Check out the almost certainly incomplete Tokyo Beer Drinker Kawasaki rundown here). But there’s a new brewery in town called TKBrewing. Confusingly, it’s relatively close to the similarly named TT, but there are quite a few differences, with the most significant one being the beer. TK has only been open a few months and already people are talking about it. Sometimes, that’s not a good thing, but with TK the talk is positive. I was pleased to get down there and see for myself. Here’s what you need to know.
– Not the most convenient location, about a ten minute walk south of Kawasaki JR station. The brewery is in a communal cafe/art space kind of thing. Look for the beer balloon outside. The brewery is in the room next door, but the counter and small seating area, (one high table and a couple of low benches) is reached by heading for the cafe and looking left. It’s a nice looking space and looks fancy and new with interesting posibilities. For now, we’re concerned with just the front corner near the serving window.
– Five of their own beers were on tap (but there were a few more tap handles available, so maybe they’ll expand the selection at some stage). They were a nice mix of styles, a common, two saisons, an IPA and a stout. Prices ranged from ¥550-¥650 for 275ml pours. Unfortunately, they are served in plastic cups, which is a bit of a shame. I would have loved to try them in a glass as the plastic cup always takes something away from both the taste and the experience for me. The beers were all very nice though, which makes me want to drink them in a glass even more. They seem to be quite a way ahead of quite a few Japanese breweries already which is very exciting. [UPDATE: Now there are fourteen taps on at the same prices and they have proper glasses. Lovely!]
– No smoking, no cover charge and you pay as you go. The brewery has very limited opening hours, just four hours on Friday evening and seven hours on Saturday afternoon, but it’s well worth popping down and trying the beers. If I wasn’t on a blog related bar crawl I would have liked to have stayed to drink all of their beers. Apparently their beers are on tap in some Kawasaki bars, so I guess I’ll just have to work out where these are and then I can get my TK fill and have it from a glass!
So, a very encouraging start for a new brewery. Once again, the location isn’t the most convenient, but until I work out where these other places are, this is the place to go to get TK beers. Although the ‘tap room’ is quite low key, I’d say it’s definitely worth paying them a visit. Will be back soon when the football season gets started. Go Frontale! (Oh sorry, that’s the post sign off phrase on my other blog…)
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
TKBrewing
Opening Hours:
Best check these as they have changed from when it first opened but I think these are now the regualr hours.
Friday, 17:00-22:00
Saturday, 15:00-22:00
Sunday, 15:00-21:00
Closed all other days (usually)
Location/map:
日進町 3-4, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Telephone:
none
Links:
Website
Facebook page