It’s hard to find craft beer in Japan – Japanese craft beer, that is. There are a few pub chains here: The Hub (an English-type pub chain which sells its own branded horrid stuff); Kirin City (which sells a few of the Kirin brews, hence the name); Hobgoblin (yes, allied to Wychwood Brewery)… but none of them sell any craft beer from Japan. I asked, at the Hobgoblin in Shibuya, for a Japanese beer and got… Sapporo. Great.

So it was a splendid surprise to do what I should have done all along, and googled where I might find decent beer in Japan; and discovered that there was somewhere quite close to my hotel in Shinjunku that sold a craft beer from Japan.

That somewhere was the Brooklyn Parlor, which sold rather excellent food (yum, blue cheese burger); and two beers – one, Brooklyn Lager from NYC (though it’s apparently supposed to be brewed here under licence now); and the other a proper Japanese beer.

Hitachino Nest White Ale really is this colour; it’s a citrussy, splendidly spicy beer – which didn’t taste as sweet as Hoegaarden or similar wheat beers. I was rather a fan of it; wheat beers tend to give me a shining headache pretty quickly, but this didn’t at all.

At ¥900 (£6.40) for 450ml, that’s a slightly shocking £7.81 per pint; but I am in Tokyo, and it was something rather special. It beats Copenhagen’s prices, mind – though doesn’t quite get to UAE prices. Or Norway’s, come to that.

Anyway, I’d recommend the Brooklyn Parlor, and this beer, if you find yourself in Tokyo. Decent food (unusually), decent beer (unusually), and – where I was sitting, at least – a smoke-free atmosphere (unusually). 素晴らしい！

Brooklyn Parlor, Hitacho, Hitacho Nest White Ale, Japan, Tokyo, Wheat beer Hide