Hikawa Brewery

Post by Mothy

Hikawa Brewery is a small place, but in an area that doesn’t have much in the way of craft beer. It’s located less than a ten minute walk from Omiya Station near the Hikawa Shrine and Omiya Park. The interior prominently features, you guessed it, wood. It has counter seating for 15 and four small tables that can sit maybe 10 more.
They have 10 taps in theory, but none of the times I’ve been in there have they had 10 beers on tap. Usually it’s been more like half of that. This time they had four – an amber, a fruit, a weizen, and a special New Year ale. Their beer isn’t the greatest but good enough. As far as I know they never have guest beers. That’s a guess from going there a few times and a perusal of their Facebook page. The price varies a little bit by style, running ¥980-¥1110 for a pint (UK) and ¥580-¥600 for a half pint (290 ml). Not bad at all, relatively, but beware, tax is added at the end, so you’ll be paying a little more.

Other things of interest: No table charge and no smoking. Their food is not that interesting but not bad. Standard Japanese European. They also sell their beer to take away fresh poured in PET bottles. ¥1100 for 500ml and ¥2100 for 1000ml. I can’t see me doing this under normal circumstances, but Omiya Park is popular for hanami, so popping by and getting some craft beer to go before spreading my tarp under the cherry blossoms has some appeal.