I’m not sure if I’m just really slow on the uptake recently but Tachihi Brewery seemed to come out of nowhere for me. I guess I’m not going to beer festivals as much as I used to, and at the same time am perhaps not paying as much attention to the beer scene as you’d expect from ‘the greatest beer website in Japan’ (quote from Tokyo Beer Drinker when he was feeling a bit cocky). But Tachihi seems like a brand that is slowly gaining exposure and spreading itself over Japan. (I had one of their beers in Ehime before I’d even seen one in Tokyo). Some of the out-of-nowhere aspect of this story became a bit clearer when I did some very cursory research on the Tachihi name. It seems that Tachihi is a big money real estate company that owns about 4% of Tachikawa. This explains why they have such a big brewery, I guess. Perhaps it doesn’t really explain why the taproom is quite small though. But anyway, you’re not here for west Tokyo business history, so here’s what you need to know:
- Substantial building about 20 mins walk from Tachikawa station, or alternatively about 7 mins walk from the Tachihi monorail station. Having seen pictures of the brewery online I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but was still a little shocked to find that the pretty big building that housed the brewery and taproom seemed to house only those two things. The taproom is pretty small though with just three standing tables and very much has the feel of a place that is mainly for beer geeks wanting to drink at the source. There is a second floor area, but it said ‘staff only’, so I suspect it’s only used for private functions. I heard that they have a patio when the weather is good, but as it was pissing it down when I was there, I can’t confirm this.
- Eight taps, but when I was there they only had seven on. They were all their own beer. The beer styles ranged from the predictable, (Pale Ale, Weizen, Pilsner, IPA), to the slightly more surprising (Orange Lager, Blueberry Sour). In my opinion, out of the five I tried, the lagers were the best. Beers served in two sizes, M (265ml) and L (480ml) with the former being ¥770 and the latter ¥1100, so the prices are good, (as they should be at a brewery taproom). They also had a flight of 180ml of any four beers for ¥1650 which is what I started with. They had a fridge of bottles for takeaway of the same beers and also sell beer in plastic cups. (I believe they are for the patio, but when I was there, someone got a plastic cup, had a few sips in the bar and then took it away).
- Few snacks available, lots of daytime opening, (but not much evening opening at all), no cover charge and they had WiFi.
Like I said above, this is probably not somewhere you’re going to plan to spend a long time at, given that there are no seats, but it was a very fun place to pop in to and drink almost the whole tap list quite quickly (maybe too quickly…). I’ve heard there is another craft beer bar in the area north of Tachikawa station so perhaps you can pop in there on the way back to Tachikawa if you walk, as I chose to do. There are a lot of places to drink in Tachikawa now, (as you’ll see in the next two posts), so it’s well worth visiting and enjoying the four brewery taprooms that are all within relatively easy reach of the station.
Japanese breweries seen on tap here:
Tachihi
Opening Hours:
Thursday-Monday, 11:00-18:00
Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
Location/map:
高松町 1-23-14, Tachikawa-shi, Tokyo
From Tachikawa:
From Tachihi:
Telephone:
None