Enjoying beer, deeply and broadly.

Sapporo: Bars Serving Craft Beer on Tap

Tucked away in the basement of a building in Nishi 8-chōme, just past the Tanukikoji arcade, sits ‘Maltheads’ — a quiet, hideaway bar. This is a specialty bar for malt-based drinks: beer and whisky. It stocks an especially large selection of bottled beers, roughly 100 labels in all, with a particular focus on beers from three cities that sit at almost the same latitude: Sapporo, Munich in Germany, and Portland in the United States.

Munich and Portland are both renowned beer-producing cities and, as it happens, both are sister cities of Sapporo — a fact even many Sapporo residents don’t know. That’s why Maltheads makes a point of promoting beers from these three cities, as a kind of introduction. At the same time, the shop’s policy is to carry a well-rounded selection without limiting itself to any one region — behind the counter, bottled beers from around the world line the shelves, and there’s draft beer on tap as well. If you’re not sure what to order, just leave it to owner Sakamaki-san. Even those who don’t know much about beer are sure to discover a world of enjoyment beyond the standard “beer for starters.”

At this bar, be sure to try some cheese alongside your beer. In Japan, cheese is usually paired with wine, but in Belgium — famous for its wealth of distinctive beers — pairing it with beer is completely standard. As Sakamaki-san puts it, “Both are products of the European landscape, so they go together naturally.”
If you’d also like to try some whisky, the “tasting set,” which lets you sample a little of several different labels, is highly recommended. The bar’s whisky lineup centers on distinctive single malts — you might just discover a new favorite while enjoying the differences in flavor and aroma.
If you want to get to know beer and whisky on a deeper level, this is the place to go. With only ten counter seats, it’s a calm, intimate space where you can savor your drink at leisure.

Despite being in the basement, ‘Marley Garden’ is a beer bar with high ceilings and an open, airy feel — the kind of relaxing place where you sink into a sofa and end up staying far longer than planned. Its defining feature is craft beer, with a particular focus on beers from Portland, Oregon. The whisky and wine selections lean Oregonian too.

Portland, one of Sapporo’s sister cities, has been drawing a lot of attention lately — it’s even been ranked the most desirable place to live in the U.S. The city is also known as the “world’s greatest beer city,” with roughly 60 breweries for a population of about 600,000. Marley Garden always keeps 16 varieties of Oregon craft beer on hand.

The food here is appealing too. It might not fit the typical image of a beer bar, but the menu includes gyoza and Japanese soba, which pair perfectly with beer. The soba can be chosen from Shintoku, Shikaoi, or Horokanai varieties, and they hope to add Nagano soba to the lineup in the future.
A must-try on the food menu is the steamed free-range chicken, steamed in Oregon beer — the moment they start cooking it, the aroma filling the shop is enough to convince you it’ll be delicious.
The bar also brings in one guest draft beer at a time; during our visit, it was “Noroshi” from Sapporo’s “Taiyo to Tsuki Brewing,” rich with the aroma of smoked malt. Reservations made two days in advance can include course meals or all-you-can-drink craft beer, so it might be perfect for a gathering with friends.

Kalahana takes its name from the Japanese term for hops, and it’s a specialty bar for craft beer and cider. There are always eight taps pouring: seven craft beers and one cider. Belgium’s “Vedett Extra White” is a fixed menu item, while the other seven rotate almost daily. Beers come from far and wide — Japan, of course, but also the U.S. and Europe — and the bar actively seeks out rare labels. Sometimes what’s on tap is a beer with only a handful of kegs in all of Japan.

One of the bar’s core values is serving “beer with a visible face” — meaning beer from breweries the staff have actually visited. Manager Sasaki-san, a self-described beer geek from way back, makes a point of sourcing beer directly from breweries he’s personally visited whenever possible. Another core value is keeping an “at-home atmosphere.” The goal is something like a countryside beer café where neighbors gather to chat leisurely. Kalahana takes its beer seriously but carries none of the stuffiness that might imply — and maybe that’s exactly the spirit of a small-town beer café living on in this place.

This bar uses beer in its food menu too. “Pork Simmered in Beer” is a hearty dish of pork braised until it’s soft enough to cut with a spoon, served over garlic rice. The “Beer Curry” is made using beer instead of water and simmered for a full four days — as a result, production can’t keep up with demand, and it’s actually rare to catch a day when it’s available.
Here you can drink beer while eating food made with beer — a bar made by beer lovers, for beer lovers. Whether you’re a die-hard craft beer fan or just mildly curious about beer, this is a place well worth visiting.