Otaru Beer Garden - 札幌市 日本

We had a bit of trouble finding the place. When you get to the building just head downstairs and one of the doors will be Maltheads. Only 3 beers on draft but a good selection of craft beer in bottles. Found some japanese beer i havent seen else where. Good selection of imported and domestic whiskey. We saw someone ordering a green beer and got interested. Found out matcha beer is the house special. Try it out if you find yourself in Maltheads. Also have to give a shoutout to Sisilian rouge beer that was the first tomato beer i find to be actually ok. If i had knew what im ordering i would have not gone with tomato beer but this one was actually pretty nice. So yeah, no English menu but it's good to get lost at times. Cool place with nice athmosphere, definetly worth a visit if you in Sapporo.

Maltheads--like most of the Sapporo joints I 've been to--is in the heart of the Shiseikan district, neatly tucked away from the wandering eyes of tourists that seem to flock to the Susukino Downtown area, which brings me to a caveat for those of you venturing to Sapporo for the first time in search of good beer: when looking up addresses of restaurants in Sapporo, be sure to get the building information as well (e.g. Taiyo Bldg, B1 else you 'll be looking silly walking around in circles looking for signs that do not exist. Back to the actual review. Maltheads is a one-man venture run by Mr. Koji Tanuki, a certified Level 1 Beer Taster Grader (the Japanese equivalent of a Cicerone and a Level 2 Whisky Sommelier. Fortunately for people like me, Mr. Tanuki 's interest in Whisky seems to gravitate heavily toward the magical island of Islay, as evidenced by bottles and bottles of liquid peat smoke stacked upon his shelf behind the fridge. Given these factors, you 're more than likely going to be able to find something here that will cater to your malt craving, regardless of your pervers... I mean, persuasion. Mr. Tanuki runs a cozy 10-seater joint with three-four taps and a fridge full of rotating seasonal craft beer from Japan, Germany, Belgium, and the US. One of the four taps is permanently slotted for the serving of Sapporo 's very own Sapporo Classic, the serving of which Mr. Tanuki calls, the Perfect Classic. Though I 've yet to try his Perfect Classic, given the finesse with which he served our beers and whisky the night we visited, I have no doubts that the Perfect Classic is deservingly-named. As aforementioned, Maltheads has a rotating selection of beer; a good chunk of the domestic craft is from Hokkaido (Onidensetsu, Pirkawakka, Otaru, etc. while the rest is filled with heavy hitters from around the archipelago (Yo-ho, Shiga Kogen, etc. There 's also a variety of whisky beer samplers on the menu which I will definitely have to come back for some time in the near future, and a small selection of finger food sweets to pair with whisky (understandable, given the limited space of the establishment You 're probably wondering why I 've been going nowhere with the review and this is why; despite the awesome mancave that Mr. Tanuki has built for himself, the jewel of this establishment can be none other than Mr. Tanuki. During my 45 minutes of sitting and enjoying various drinks, I noticed a curious pattern involving people of various pedigrees, from casual drinkers to whisky column writers, all asking for recommendations from Mr. Tanuki instead of actually ordering from the menu itself, and every one of those customers seemed to leave happy which made me wonder if I should have done the same as well. Now I 'm just rambling so I 'll end this review with this: if you 're in Sapporo and feel like broadening your beer whisky horizon to the next level, do give Maltheads a shot, and don 't be hesitant to ask for a recommendation.