Fukuoka standing bar with attached brewery to start making craft sake

Where the making and the drinking happen together

LOCOCRA Co., Ltd. was founded in March 2026, and its representative director is Ikunao Sakimoto. On 1 October the company opened LOCOCRA Brewery - Stand Tap Bar - in Chuo Ward, Fukuoka. Fukuoka is a city in northern Kyushu, in south-western Japan. The bar is about a four-minute walk from Tenjin-Minami Station on the municipal subway. It is a small place where around 20 people can drink standing up, with brewing equipment behind the counter. The equipment is still being prepared, and brewing is scheduled to begin in a few months. The company plans to send the sake from the neighbouring brewery straight to the taps in the bar and pour it directly into glasses.

“Craft sake” as a new category

What LOCOCRA will make is craft sake, which falls under the category of “other fermented alcoholic beverages” in Japan’s liquor tax law. In Japan, it is difficult to obtain a new licence to produce seishu (Japanese sake). For that reason, many recent newcomers make rice-based drinks under a licence in this category. Because producers can choose their methods and ingredients relatively freely under it, drinks have emerged that take a different approach from traditional sake. However, LOCOCRA has not yet announced what style of sake it will make.

The idea of showing a brewery before it is finished

Until its own sake is ready, the bar will serve sake selected from within Fukuoka Prefecture and from around Japan. The company sees this opening not as a “completion” but as a “start”. Its approach is to let customers watch the brewery take shape bit by bit. It aims to be a place that even people unfamiliar with sake can drop into easily. Another feature is that customers and staff, and customers with one another, are close enough to enjoy conversation together.

For European readers, this is an interesting attempt to do with SAKE what the brewpub (a pub with its own brewery) does in the beer world. Craft sake is still not often seen outside Japan. Even so, if you come across a bottle labelled “craft sake” in a SAKE shop or bar in Europe, it is worth paying attention to how it differs from regular sake. You can check how far LOCOCRA’s brewing has progressed on its official Instagram. Watching from afar to see what its first in-house sake will taste like is another way to enjoy it.