Shinjuku Ale

Shinjuku Ale is Kabukicho's first brewery. Right in the middle of Central Road, they use an entire building as a "beer entertainment building" with a standing bar on the first floor, a beer workshop on the third floor, and a rooftop BBQ space.

It opened in March 2021 after five years of planning, and the team is pretty interesting too. The owner of a shot bar, a producer of a high-end lounge, the manager of a top restaurant... in short, the pros of the nightlife scene came together, but they started out as complete beginners in brewing beer.

Yes. They toured local breweries around the country to study and went through lots of trial and error. But the head brewer, Mr. Honjo, graduated from Kyoto University's Faculty of Agriculture, worked at Kirin Brewery, and even studied abroad in the Brewing Science department at the Technical University of Munich. Brewer Taiga Ogawa is someone well versed in traditional Hungarian brewing.

There are seven beers, including standard IPAs and pilsners, plus a beer called "MIKAN" with a subtle freshness from fresh juice, and even a "CBD beer" you can only drink here. It started with the desire to revitalize Kabukicho, which had been hit hard by COVID, through craft beer.

You can also have a barbecue on the rooftop private rental BBQ space while drinking their own beer, and since they're open until 4 a.m., it's nice that you can drop by casually after a night out in Kabukicho.