Craft Beer Taproom Near Me in Gotanda: Far Yeast Tokyo Brewery and Grill

Far Yeast Tokyo occupies a glass-walled space under the Tokyu Ikegami Line viaduct at 1-15-6 Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, about three minutes on foot from JR Gotanda station. It is the Tokyo bar of Far Yeast Brewing, whose own brewery sits two hours west in the mountains of Yamanashi, and it suits anyone searching for a craft beer taproom near me on the Yamanote line's southern loop. The room seats 75 inside plus 30 on an open terrace, and it opens for lunch every day from 11.30 am.

The company was founded in September 2011 as Japan Craft Beer Co., Ltd., and its first brand, KAGUA, was released in March 2012. KAGUA was designed to go with Japanese food and is still brewed under contract at the De Graal brewery in Belgium. The Far Yeast brand followed in April 2014 with Tokyo Blonde, and in October 2015 the company took the Far Yeast Brewing name.

In May 2017 it opened its own Genryu Brewery in Kosuge, a village of about 700 people at the source of the Tama River, one of Tokyo's water supplies, and moved its head office there in 2020. The Tokyo bar began in Shibuya in July 2017 as Craft Beer and Bao and relocated here to Gotanda in September 2020 as Far Yeast Tokyo Brewery and Grill. In September 2026 both Gotanda and the village brewery hosted events for the company's fifteenth anniversary.

The bar has 20 taps, with the company describing more than 15 beers on tap at any time. The core is its own: KAGUA, the Belgian-style range in Blanc, Rouge and Saison versions, and the Far Yeast series brewed in Kosuge, which the company says is shaped by Belgian techniques such as bottle conditioning combined with American craft hops. Guest beers from Japan and abroad fill the remaining lines.

Order the Far Yeast IPA first. In July 2026 it won the top prize at the Japan Brewers Association's national quality evaluation, and Far Yeast was named Country Champion Brewery at the Asia Beer Championship three years running from 2023 to 2025. Autumn 2026 releases have included Farm to Brew, a Kölsch made with fresh Yamanashi hops picked the same morning, and Grapevine 2026, made with Château Mercian's Katsunuma winery.

The company explains its choice of Kosuge plainly: the village borders Tokyo but has a climate closer to northern Europe, where many traditional small breweries grew up, and the cool air suits fermentation. More than 90 percent of the village is forest, and the brewery uses water from the headwaters of the Tama River. That is why a Gotanda bar can call itself the Tokyo end of a mountain brewery.

Gotanda is one of several outlets the brewery runs directly. The others have included a yakiniku and craft beer restaurant in Atami, opened in 2019, Beerholic in Fukuoka in 2020, a gastropub in Taipei in 2021 and the Miharitei bottle shop in Uenohara, Yamanashi, in 2023. Far Yeast began selling canned beer in April 2020. Two years earlier, in June 2018, it had joined Tap Marche, Kirin's dispensing service for craft beer in bars, and in June 2024 the Tokyo series brewed at Genryu was folded into a single Far Yeast series.

The kitchen is built around grilled dishes. Light starters such as ham platters and seasonal salads lead into mains like herb-grilled domestic chicken, and the menu also covers bar standards such as French fries. The wine list specialises in natural wine from Yamanashi producers, a sensible pick for anyone in the group who does not drink beer.

The honest call is to come hungry and order a grill main rather than grazing on fries; the grill is the point of the menu, and the chicken shows off the lighter Belgian-style beers better than a fried snack. Save KAGUA, designed by the company to suit Japanese dining, for the end of the meal rather than the first round.

Weekday lunch runs from 11.30 am to 3 pm with last orders at 2 pm, and dinner from 5 pm to 11 pm with last orders at 10 pm. On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays the doors stay open from 11.30 am straight through to 11 pm, which makes a weekend afternoon on the terrace the most relaxed way to visit. Online reservations are taken through the store page, and the phone number is 03-6420-3978.

Weekday evenings after work are the busiest stretch, when the terrace and long tables fill first. A weekday lunch is the quiet alternative, and the glass walls keep the room bright. If the bar is full, the area around Gotanda station has many other bars, and the trains on the viaduct overhead are a reminder that Meguro and Osaki are one stop away on the Yamanote line.

Far Yeast sells its beer online, and the prices show what a bottle or can costs away from the bar. A six-pack of Far Yeast Lager costs 3,300 yen, a six of KAGUA Blanc, Rouge or Saison 4,400 yen, and a three-bottle KAGUA gift set 2,750 yen. Limited releases such as Farm to Brew sell at 3,960 yen for six and tend to disappear once the batch is gone.

For a longer outing, the company opened THE FAR YEAST Beer Adventure in Kosuge in November 2025, next to the brewery at the headwaters of the Tama River. It makes a day trip from western Tokyo for anyone who wants to see where the Gotanda taps come from.

Address: Far Yeast Tokyo Brewery and Grill, 1-15-6 Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, under the Tokyu Ikegami Line viaduct, about three minutes from JR Gotanda station. Phone 03-6420-3978. Hours: weekdays 11.30 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 11 pm; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays 11.30 am to 11 pm. Seating: 75 indoors, 30 on the terrace. Twenty taps of KAGUA, Far Yeast and guest beers, plus Yamanashi natural wine.