Slash Zone

Koichi Katsuki of THRASH ZONE has a wild background. He used to be a salaried worker in Osaka, but he got hooked on craft beer by frequenting BEER BELLY, Minoh Beer’s directly operated shop, and then opened a beer bar in Yokohama in 2006.

Exactly. And the concept of the shop is amazing too: the name comes straight from thrash metal, a genre of heavy metal. The interior is exposed concrete with loud metal playing, and it’s a compact space with a counter and two tables.

According to Katsuki, punk, skateboarding, and metal all share the same point: they’re an antithesis to the mainstream. He thinks craft beer stands in the same spirit against mass-market beer. "Making beer like forming a band" is his creed.

Their flagship is SPEED KILLS. It’s a popular beer that accounts for more than half of sales, and its name comes from an 80s thrash metal compilation album. FRONT SIDE GRIND, a session IPA, was created in collaboration with a skate shop. It’s light at 3.5% ABV.

Tammachi Ale is named after Tammachi, where their own brewery is located, and it’s known for its balance of sweetness and bitterness. They actually set up their in-house brewery, BREW LABO, in Tammachi in 2011, starting with small 120-liter batches at first. Now they’ve grown to 300 liters.

At the Tammachi brewery, the real treat is being able to talk beer with Katsuki right in front of the tanks. It’s a 3-minute walk from Tammachi Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line. Their main shop near Yokohama Station has a live-house vibe, and they also serve a wide selection of overseas craft beers on tap.