Craft Brewery Near Me in Okutama: VERTERE's Weekend-Only Riverside Taproom

VERTERE Okutama Taproom opens only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, from 11am to 7:30pm, in a renovated old house at 212 Hikawa Street, Okutama-machi, Nishitama-gun, Tokyo, one minute on foot from JR Okutama Station. Ten taps pour beer brewed by VERTERE itself, food stops at 6pm and the last beer is poured at 7pm. Tables cannot be booked. For anyone in the Tama hills typing craft brewery near me after a hike, this is the westernmost brewery tap in Tokyo.

Okutama Station is the end of the JR Ome Line, a little over 30 minutes up the valley from Ome. Step out of the station and turn into Yanagi Koji Yokocho, the short lane right by the station front, where the taproom sits on the right in a renovated old wooden house. The Tama tourism council puts it one minute from the ticket gates, which makes it the obvious last stop before the train home.

VERTERE's newer brewery is somewhere else entirely. It moved into a purpose-built site at 1099-6 Hikawa in 2024, about 20 minutes on foot from the station, or a five-minute ride on a Nishi-Tokyo Bus to the Byoin-mae stop, which is one to three minutes from the gate. The brewery has 15 parking spaces and a cycle rack, but the taproom by the station has neither.

VERTERE was founded by Kokage Tsujino and Hikaru Suzuki, friends since high school who both studied at Tokyo University of Agriculture. In 2011 Tsujino trained as a brewer in Koenji while Suzuki kept an office job to save capital. When a friend living in Okutama called to say a house by the station was empty, rent about an order of magnitude below central Tokyo's settled it, BE-PAL magazine reported in 2021.

The house had stood empty for years, with a garden grown over like jungle, and the pair re-laid the water, the wiring and the floors themselves. The company was registered in December 2014, the Beer Cafe VERTERE opened with 50 seats in July 2015, and a brewing licence followed that December on a 100-litre kit. VERTERE marked ten years of brewing in February 2026, and Suzuki is still its representative director.

Growth came in steps of tank size: 500-litre batches from 2018, 1,000 litres from 2020, then the 2024 brewery with 2,000 and 4,000-litre systems and a ceiling of 400,000 litres a year. The Tama tourism council counted about 200 different beers and roughly 180,000 litres a year by early 2026. On May 29, 2026 the company joined the DAISHIZEN group, with no change to its brewing team or management.

VERTERE is Latin for to turn or to change, and every beer takes the Latin name of a plant chosen from a botanical guide. Suzuki explained the logic to BE-PAL: a name like grape would make you taste grape before the glass reached your lips, so the labels give nothing away. Beer from the Okutama tanks is always on ten taps in the old house, and the lineup rotates through IPAs, sours and stouts.

The brewery's current list shows the range. Calendula is a 7% oats IPA with mango, pineapple and white grape aromas and a silky body. Excelsa is a 9% hazy triple IPA built on El Dorado, Simcoe and Strata. Globba is a 7% chai latte stout brewed with real chai tea, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper, and Jasius is a 9% mixed berry sour aged 18 months with Brettanomyces.

Erato is the one to order here. It is a 5.5% lager brewed with Jisuke-imo potatoes grown in Okutama, hopped with Meridian for a soft, floral finish, and the brewery sells it as a local-only release. To take beer home, the online shop sells a pick-one-style box of four cans for ¥4,140, and the station-front bottle shop next door opens 10am to 6pm on the same weekend days.

The schedule is the whole story. The taproom is closed Monday to Friday, with one exception: it also opens on the last Friday of each month. On open days, arrive close to 11am. Seating is first come, first served, and BE-PAL described Okutama Station as quiet on weekdays but packed with hikers on Saturdays and Sundays, which is exactly when the taproom is open and the garden fills.

Do not plan a weekday detour for the taproom, because outside that last Friday you will find a locked door and an empty lane. The other mistake is arriving late: the kitchen takes its last order at 6pm and the bar at 7pm. The kitchen cooks dishes designed to pair with the beer, so the 6pm food cutoff matters more than the 7pm beer call.

The best seats are outside. Time Out Tokyo noted that the river runs in the valley right below the building, and BE-PAL pointed out that the garden ends at a cliff edge above it, so you hear the water before you see it. Japan's drinking age of 20 applies, and on tours and at its festivals VERTERE refuses alcohol to anyone driving a car or riding a bike.

The regulars have barely changed since 2015. Tsujino told BE-PAL the core crowd is hikers, cyclists, campers and day-trippers from central Tokyo, plus people who have moved to Okutama, young local couples and American regulars from Yokota Air Base in Fussa. Time Out adds rafters and anyone filling the gap before the next train, and Suzuki said hikers and cyclists treat the place as their finish line.

The brewery is normally closed to the public, but on weekends staff run a 90-minute tour at 11am for ¥4,000, booked and paid in advance through VERTERE's online shop. Remaining 2026 dates are Oct. 25 and Nov. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 and 29. Each tour takes 12 people at most, under-20s cannot join, and children are not allowed because of the machinery inside.

The first hour covers malt, hops and yeast, the mash tun, fermenters and canning line, plus the malt store and cold room. The last 30 minutes are at the Brewery and Bottle Shop, tasting five beers of about 150 millilitres each. Drivers note no tasting and get a 500-millilitre can instead. Wear layers, because the brewery has no heating or air conditioning and the tour is entirely standing.

Cancel at least eight days ahead for a full refund, or lose half the fee from seven to four days out and all of it after that. Meet at the Brewery and Bottle Shop five minutes before the start, not at the station shop. The brewery shop itself opens Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am to 4:30pm, and anyone who buys something there after the tour gets a size-up ticket valid at all five VERTERE taprooms.

The biggest day on the calendar is OKUTAMA BEER FEST 2026, held on the brewery grounds on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 from 11am to 5pm, with free entry and no ticket. Guest brewers include Kyoto Brewing, Nara Brewing, Totopia and West Coast Brewing. Expect about 200 seats, a shuttle bus from the station and no parking at all. Arrive between 10:45 and 11:15 for a festival tenugui, but never before 10:15.

Hikawa Gorge starts about 200 metres from the station, free and open around the clock, with a stream where Tokyo day-trippers come to swim, barbecue and relax. Cross the Tokei Bridge to join the path toward Atago Shrine, and the Hikawa campsite sits about eight minutes farther on. Because the gorge begins almost at the station, you can walk it and still be back in the taproom garden before the 6pm food cutoff.

Two minutes from the station, the Okutama Visitor Center is free and open 9am to 4:30pm, closed on Mondays. It is run jointly by the Tokyo government and the Ministry of the Environment's ranger office, with trail conditions for Mount Kumotori and the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park. Ask here before a long ridge walk, then drink in the garden once you are down.

On weekdays, or when every garden table is taken, ride the Ome Line back toward Tachikawa, where VERTERE Tachikawa Taproom on Shibasaki-cho opens Monday to Friday 2pm to 10pm and from noon on weekends and holidays. It is about six minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa Station and pours the same Okutama beer, which makes it the honest Plan B rather than a long wait in the lane.

VERTERE Okutama Taproom, 212 Hikawa Street, Okutama-machi, Nishitama-gun, Tokyo, one minute from JR Okutama Station on the Ome Line. Open Saturday, Sunday and holidays 11am to 7:30pm, food last order 6pm, beer last order 7pm. Also open the last Friday of each month. No reservations. Brewery and Bottle Shop, 1099-6 Hikawa, Saturday and Sunday 10:30am to 4:30pm, with 15 parking spaces. Brewery tours ¥4,000, booked online. Email info@verterebrew.com.