Craft Beer House Molto

A few weeks ago I had to work in the Hankyu Grand building in Umeda so I decided to take the opportunity to check out Craft Beer House Molto. This craft beer place is located on the 31st floor which gives you a fantastic view of Umeda facing towards JR Umeda Station. They have about 6 tables seating around 20 people and then a long bar facing the window for another dozen people or so. During the day there's no table charge (lunch service from 1130-3pm last order at 2pm) but at night(5-1130pm last order at 11) if you want to sit down you have to pay 300 yen. They now have a standing bar area at the entrance (no view) where you can avoid the table charge & get some free nuts to eat too!

So, if you want to check out the interior go during the day to avoid the charge but honestly 300 yen isn't so bad. The standing bar is a great idea making it reasonable to pop in for a quick drink after work. Which is what I did! I had lunch with my wife, went to work then stopped by for a beer before heading home. The staff were friendly and had ok beer knowledge. The selection was all Japanese craft but had decent variety with the menu broken up into lager, weizen, ale, IPA & black styles. Prices are pretty standard with 650 yen for 240ml and 1100 yen for 453ml.

But for 1300 yen you can get a tasting set of three 140ml beers which isn't a bad deal.

They also have 3 levels of nomihodai. The A nomihodai just gets you cocktails & heartland for 1500 yen, for 2500 yen B nomihodai adds 3 craft beers and C nomihodai gives you access to all 24 craft beers for 3500 yen.






Lunch has 3 choices: a beer curry at 900 yen, a 1200 yen lunch set or a 1500 yen craft beer & otsumami (tapas) set. The food looked great and tasted quite nice, I think it is a great place for lunch.

All in all a good addition to the Osaka beer scene and a great places for a date!

Sankt Gallen's Chocolate beers at Kyoto's Yodobashi Camera

Last Sunday after work I decided to go to Kyoto's Yodobashi Camera Global Kitchen since I saw a few weeks ago that they had a special Valentine's Day beer from Kizakura Kappa Country. Since I always like to support local breweries I thought I'd pick one up.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out they now had some more Japanese craft beers! Namely, they are carrying all three of Sankt Gallen's chocolate beers.

They are only available for a limited time so hurry up and go pick yours up! I have to say I am impressed with Sankt Gallen as they have done a really nice job boosting their distribution for these beers. It is great since the more people see interesting beers the more the craft industry grows.

So here you can see from right to left:

KizaKura's Chocolate Beer 7%
Sankt Gallen's Sweet Vanilla Stout 6.4%
Sankt Gallen's Orange Chocolate Stout 6.5%
Sankt Gallen's Imperial Chocolate Stout 8.5%

That night I tried the Sweet Vanilla Stout. I'd had it before on draft and really liked it. In a bottle straight from the fridge it started off with too much of a vanilla flavor, it was kind of overpowering. After it warmed up though the flavors blended and it became quite nice. It is a nice mild flavored stout, good roast caramel/chocolate notes with a sweet vanilla aftertaste.

These beers seem worth checking out!