Beer Club Popeye

Mugi, if you love craft beer, there’s a place you have to visit at least once: Beer Club Popeye in Ryogoku. Founded in 1985, it was the first place in Japan to serve beers from multiple breweries under one roof. It’s truly a sacred spot.

Exactly. The founder, Tatsuo Aoki, broke the taboos of the time. Back when nobody was serving beers from multiple makers in a single shop, he did it anyway. Now they have more than 70 varieties on tap at all times, with over 100 tap lines.

That’s what makes Popeye so impressive. They have specialized staff called 'cellarmen' who monitor the condition of each keg and adjust it to bring out the best possible serving quality. Then in 2020, building on that experience, they launched their own microbrewery, Ryogoku Beer Laboratory, right here in Sumida Ward.

The brewmaster is Yuki Kobayashi. He studied yeast in the brewing department at Tokyo University of Agriculture and had been interested in brewing since his student days. After graduation, he trained for five years at Strange Brewing in Niigata before being assigned to Ryogoku.

Their first five flagship beers were all distinctive. 'Saiun Belgian White' has a soft acidity like yogurt drinks, 'Cape Cod Fog NEIPA' is a hazy-style beer, 'Barbed Wire Double IPA' really hits hard, and there’s also 'YOKOZUNA American Stout.' Very Ryogoku, right?

Their brewing approach is serious too. Every time they brew, they propagate their own yeast and use it fresh, and they installed a pure-water system to adjust water hardness for each beer. Breweries with a pure-water system are actually pretty rare. They’re producing more than 40 kinds at 300 liters per batch.