T. Y. Harbor Brewing, home of Tennoz Ale, in Tokyo is impressive upon first glance. It is in a large building sitting near a body of water spanned by a walking bridge and a decent view. Inside there are 5 large brewing tanks, all with the Tennoz logo, lined up behind a bar. This room leads into another the size of a German beer hall, but the similarity ends there. Large modern art dominates the walls and many people wear leather for fashion. T. Y. Harbor is the place to be for some people. I am not some people.
There food may be good but Miyuki and I will never know because we only ordered beer. We started with a sampler to see if they were brewing anything worth a full glass. They weren't. The wheat ale looked like it had been filtered. Why would you filter a wheat ale? So you can make it taste closer to funk water apparently. The pale ale was a more bitter version of the wheat ale with no body at all to speak of. The English description of it read "...our flagship beer, and one that keeps many customers coming back." Yeah, I'm sure. The brewer's choice tasted like they had thrown a handful of caramel malt in the pale ale fermentor. 
The description of their amber ale said it was lightly carbonated which, in this beer's case, means flat. All of these beers had the same funk water taste. I don't know if it was from over cleaning, or chemicals, or what, but the taste sticks to your tongue. Not a good thing.They had a dark beer that was not included in the sampler. We ordered a small glass of that so we would be able to write Tennoz Ale off completely. This dark beer feature a dark malty taste followed by funk water. On the way out, we looked over the railing into the harbor. When you have funk water flavor in your mouth and you are staring into some murky shit, you don't get the best feeling in the world.
T.Y. Harbor is hip. It's cool. It tells a girl that you are a high roller. Who drinks Big 4 when Ji-Biru rolls like this? You do.
I will go back to Tokyo. I will not go back to T.Y. Harbor Brewing.
4 comments:
Yeah. went there a few years back. Ok date spot or place to meet the suits, but the beer is nothing special and overpriced for what it is or rather isn't. There is much better booze out there.
Nice setting, great food, so why did they fuck up the beer so much? More than 10 years of serving crap beer, that said they some times come to the real ale festival or the strong beer festival and make something awesome. However, in general, the beer seems infected. So much potential, but they seem satisfied with crap.
I bet it's a money thing. the bottom line. Why make it better when people still come and drop top dollar to impress a skirt?
I agree -- TY has fantastic food, but the beer is only good when you get it fresh -- it goes downhill fast. It's a nice location, and in summer there's no place better in Tokyo to sit outside and enjoy some beers. If only the beers were made better...
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