Today we visit Akita on my mission to cover loads of places all over Japan in a slapdash manner. To be fair though, I’ve been to Akita a couple of time so I at least have the experience of a repeat visit. If you think of Akita city, Aqula is probably the first beer thing that comes to mind. However, there are quite a few other breweries in the prefecture and it’s a fun place to drink beer. (But then again, most places serving beer are fun places to drink beer I suppose). It might be a surprise that Tazawako beer is not on here, but at the moment the taproom/restaurant isn’t open, so it seemed like it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to add it. Will add it if it reopens.
Akita-shi
Aqula
The big name of the city and maybe even the prefecture. I don’t think you see Aqula around as much recently in Tokyo (maybe that’s just me being out of touch…), but I always enjoy drinking their beers. They have two places to drink in Akita city which are conveniently right next to each other. There is a big beer hall and restaurant and a small low key bar. Have only been to the bar. It’s quite cosy and they had about 6 beers on tap and pub food if I remember rightly. Very nice place to work your way through the tap
list. Know nothing about the beer hall but I believe it is more like a restaurant.
Website
Beer Flight
Kind of classic modern craft beer bar. Think they have around 8 taps which if I recall correctly were split about half and half between Japanese and imports. They also have a lot of cans and bottles too and do food. They operate as a bottle shop too apparently. Seemed popular both times we’ve been there. People love those imports!
Website
Brewccoly / To-Mart
Sadly, this place seems to have now closed. Will leave the listing here as I guess there will be a new place to drink Brewccoly soon, hopefully.
When we last went to Akita, Brewccoly was a new addition to the local scene. And a very welcome one it was too! I really liked their beers. At that time they had a limited hours taproom and then a kind of guest taproom at a local restaurant bar. Now that kind of thing has been moved to their own place called To-Mart. When we visited it was a lot of fun. They had four of their own beers on but capacity for about twice as many. The food is very nice too. And the prices were good. If you’re in Akita I’d say it’s a must visit. Check the opening hours though as they aren’t normal bar hours. They start early but also finish a bit earlier than you might expect. But this could be because December in another year ravaged by COVID and tourist free isn’t exactly prime time for people to visit Akita.
Brewery Facebook
To-Mart Instagram
Summit
This place has been on our list both times but we still haven’t made it there as it’s a little away from the
other places which are more central. ‘Belgian Frites, Craft Beer and Wine’ is the slogan. The beer is mainly Japanese it seems. Looks pretty good I think.
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Tazawako
Beer Restaurant ORAE
This is the taproom and brewery for Kohan No Mori. You have to get a bus from Tazawako Shinkansen station so it’s not exactly the most accessible but you do get nice views out across the lake, about 5 taps and some more bottles, some decent beer pub food and a little souvenir/local produce shop. The place is surprisingly big but I guess it’s a popular place to stop when tourism is properly up and running. This Tazawako brewery might not have the honour of being people’s favourite Tazakwako brewery (out of the two that there are), but if you’re in the area, it’s a nice place to stop and have some food and drink with the nice views.
Website