Brewpub Near Me in Itabashi: Tokyo Aleworks Pours Its Lagers Downstairs

Tokyo Aleworks Taproom is closed on Mondays, opens at 15:00 on weekdays and noon at weekends, and every house pint on the board costs ¥1,300 except the two strong IPAs. It occupies the ground floor of Itabashi Cask Village, 1-8-4 Itabashi, Itabashi-ku, about five minutes on foot from JR Itabashi Station on the Saikyo Line. The beer is made by the brewery that shares the building, so anyone typing brewpub near me in north Tokyo gets about as short a trip from tank to glass as the city offers.

The company behind the taproom is Scotch Malt Sales, a Western spirits importer and wholesaler founded in 1971 whose head office sits upstairs in the same building. The beer side opened as a small brewpub called Itabashi Brewing Unit in December 2017 and became Tokyo Aleworks on 1 May 2018. The Cask Village building also holds a twelve-room hotel on its upper floors, and during the day the taproom doubles as the hotel's lobby cafe.

The company explains the name on its own site. Itabashi was one of the four post towns on the roads out of Edo, alongside Shinagawa, Shinjuku and Senju, and the brewery wants to be a bridge from that old waystation to the rest of the world. Its menu adds a local claim: the house pilsner is called Itabashi Hiiru Lager because, the brewery writes, the first beer made in Tokyo was brewed here in 1873, when people still called it hiiru-zake.

There are more than eleven house beers on at a time, and the menu lists pours as a 473 ml pint, a 300 ml stem and a 250 ml half. Most beers cost ¥1,300 for a pint and ¥950 for a half. The lineup runs from Itabashi Hiiru Lager, a 5.5 percent German pilsner, to Flagon Filler, a 4 percent English best bitter the menu recommends as a chaser for whisky, and Downtown Tokyo Brown, built on a well-known homebrew brown ale recipe.

The one to start with is Swipe Right Pale Ale. It is dry hopped with Mosaic and Citra, and the menu lists a silver in the light ale category at Brewer's Cup 2023 and medals at Beer-1 Grand Prix in 2021 and 2025. Yuyake Amber Lager, a 5 percent amber that took silver for dark lager at Beer-1 Grand Prix 2022, is the quieter choice. The two big IPAs, Beerdologist at 10 percent and Yoyogi Lazy Hazy at 7.5 percent, cost ¥1,800 a pint or ¥1,300 a stem.

The kitchen cooks American bar food. The house burgers use a pretzel bun made with spent grain from the brewhouse and a 100 percent beef patty, and the cheeseburger and the teriyaki bacon burger both cost ¥1,600, with a ¥300 potato set on the side. Buffalo wings come in four sauces, spicy, barbecue, honey mustard and sweet chilli, at ¥900 for four pieces, ¥1,700 for eight and ¥2,500 for twelve.

A newer section called Dip Deli lets you pair a smash burger, carnitas taco, hot dog or fried chicken with one or two dips. A smash burger with one dip costs ¥1,900, and a single carnitas taco is ¥650. Skip the large party platters if you are only two people: The American Monster Slam costs ¥6,000 and the menu warns that party dishes can take about 40 minutes, which is a long wait in a bar where the beer arrives in seconds.

The taproom keeps different hours across the week. From Tuesday to Friday it opens at 15:00 and closes at 23:00; on Saturday it runs from noon to 23:00, and on Sundays and holidays from noon to 22:00. Food last orders fall an hour before closing and drinks thirty minutes before. Monday is the regular day off, and when a Monday is a public holiday the closure moves to Tuesday, while Sunday trading runs until 23:00.

Two things are worth knowing before you go. The brewery has paused its brew-your-own sessions and says it will post any restart on its Instagram account, and the brewery tour it describes on its FAQ page is still listed as being prepared. In March 2026 the company also posted a notice asking guests to follow its rules on photography and social media posts, so ask staff before photographing the brewhouse or other guests. Questions about the taproom go to 03-3961-1196.

Because the taproom works as a hotel lobby cafe by day, the room on a weekend afternoon serves a mix of hotel guests, couples in for a lunch burger and beer fans reading the board. The kitchen offers a ¥900 kids plate that comes with unlimited soft drinks and a small toy, so the brewery clearly expects families with young children in the afternoon. On weekday evenings the bar opens at 15:00, early enough for locals to stop on the way home from the station.

The house beers are also sold in cans through Saketry, the company's online liquor shop, and in liquor stores across Japan, but the taproom is where the brewery says you get them freshest. If you want the same beer closer to central Tokyo, Tokyo Aleworks runs a second bar, Station Taproom Yurakucho, under the JR tracks at Yurakucho Station; it pours from the same brewery and can be reached on 03-5843-2787.

Itabashi is the first stop out of Nihonbashi on the old Nakasendo road, and the former post town still shapes the streets north of the station. Walk up the shopping streets of Itabashi-juku and you reach the bridge over the Shakujii River that gave the ward its name. The route makes a good hour before the taproom opens at 15:00, especially on a dry autumn afternoon.

If you arrive by subway instead of JR, Shin-Itabashi Station on the Toei Mita Line is about eight minutes away on foot and Shimo-Itabashi on the Tobu Tojo Line is about five, according to the Itabashi Tourist Association. If the counter is full on a Saturday evening, do not wait around for a stool: the Yurakucho bar under the JR tracks pours from the same tanks and is a straightforward ride into central Tokyo.

Address: Itabashi Cask Village 1F, 1-8-4 Itabashi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. Phone 03-3961-1196. Hours are 15:00 to 23:00 Tuesday to Friday, noon to 23:00 on Saturday and noon to 22:00 on Sundays and holidays, closed Monday. Pints of the core range cost ¥1,300 and halves ¥950; the two strong IPAs cost ¥1,800 a pint. Draught highballs and gin and tonics are ¥1,100 a pint, and soft drinks such as apple juice or barley tea are ¥500.

The brewery's own site lists awards from Japan Great Beer Awards, International Beer Cup and Beer-1 Grand Prix, and in November 2025 it announced that it had been chosen for Itabashi no Ippin 2025, a selection of local products from the ward. Plan on two beers and a burger for a weekday visit, or come at noon on a Saturday, when the taproom has just opened and there is room at the counter.