Beer Event: 2018 Japan Brewers Cup.

Name: Japan Brewers Cup 2018

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

Purchased at: Ticket purchased at the door.

Price: ¥500 per ticket

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various, up to like 10 or 15%

Music: Bands unknown to me, but good.

Snack: Grilled Lamb, Fish and Chips.

Website:  https://japanbrewerscup.jp/english.html

Experience:

I was on my way down to Tokyo planning on doing some walking around some smaller temples. I’ve been watching what I eat recently and cutting down on beers and bad food. Well all that went out the window when I found out there was a craft beer festival on in Yokohama. 

The building that the festival was held in was awesome. It was right by the sea and made entirely of wood. It was curvy too, it felt like walking on the back of a giant whale, entering through the blowhole to devour the beers where its brain would be.

When I entered I was in shock. Inside the large room, lining the walls, were a large number of craft brewery stalls, all offering their unique brews. It was unreal. There was also a grilled meat vendor and a place that had fish and chips. Bloody oath.

 

It was overwhelming at first, I didn’t know what to choose. The festival was also a competition for best beer. I found myself in front of the brewery that won best beer. It wasn’t even 2 o’clock yet and they had already sold out of their award winning beer. Sucked for me but it must’ve been awesome for them.

So I went with an old favourite: Harvest Moon brewery. I first tried these guys at the Snow Monkey beer festival. I was drawn to them because I like the video game series named Harvest Moon, and the Neil Young album Harvest Moon. Jeez a great night would be listening to Harvest Moon while playing Harvest Moon and drinking some Harvest Moon. So I got their sampling set, some fish and chips and went outside.

It was pretty cold, but a lot of people turned up. As the host pointed out on stage later, there were a lot of non-Japanese people there. I’d say at least a third of the people there. Families were turning up. There was a dude asleep already. There were some huge security guards, but I doubt they were needed. The overall atmosphere was so friendly and fun feeling.

I finished those beers and went back inside. This time I went with Oh La Ho! a favourite of mine that I’ve reviewed before. I felt like I should support my fellow Nagano residents. This time I went with some grilled lamb, which is a bit rare in Japan. They also had wild boar and deer, but I didn’t want to tempt fate with shitting myself while I didn’t have a quick exit or a real idea of where I was.

After all that I came back inside. There were bands playing so I decided to watch them. As I was drinking outside and idol band were on stage. This seemed like a really odd choice for a beer festival. They had a lot of fans there though, glowsticks flaring. When I went inside though and band that had an acoustic guitar, violin, harmonica with effects and drums where on. They were really damn cool and suited the mood so much better. I didn’t get their name though which sucked. I was feeling the beer pretty hard at that point, so maybe I enjoyed them more than I would otherwise. Off to the side I saw the idol band having a meet and greet with their rather intense fans. I guess if you paid extra you could go behind the booth and have a close talking conversation with them where they pretended to be interested in what you were saying.

During this time I had many more beers, but I can’t remember the breweries. I walked around and got a beer from any place that had no customers and looked lonely.

Overall I rate this event a 10/10. Heaps of beer at a good price, good food, not overcrowded, no dickheads and no annoying rules like not being able to go outside or anything. It reminded me of a larger Snow Monkey beer festival. If you get the chance to check out a beer festival in Japan, bloody do it. 

Beer Cup Website: https://japanbrewerscup.jp/english.html
Oh La Ho! Beer: http://www.tomi-kosya.com/ohlaho-beer/ohlaho-beer.html
Harvest Moon Beer: https://www.ikspiari.com/harvestmoon/

Beer Event: Snow Monkey Beer Live.

Name: Snow Monkey Beer Live

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

Purchased at: Ticket purchased online, there is help for English speakers.

Price: ¥4500 per ticket

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various, one of the beers with 10% but didnt taste like it.

Music: Toe and Jizue

Snack: I ate super spicy fried chicken, quesadillas and a sausage that made my breath reek but tasted unreal.

Website: http://snowmonkey.jp/

Experience:

On the 18th and 19th of March there was a music festival in Shiga Kogen, Nagano. Shiga Kogen is a big mountain range that would be well known to anyone that comes to Japan to ski. Also a beautiful place to explore and wander in summer. 

The festival was called Snow Monkey Beer Live. A bunch of really cool Japanese bands were playing. As well as that, a heap of craft breweries come and set up small bars in the concert hall. You get a special beer glass and a bunch of beer tickets, and then you can try a whole lot of beers from all over Japan. There was awesome food too.

Of the bands playing, I was particularly excited to see Jizue and Toe. I couldn’t believe these bands were playing so close to my house.

There was still a lot of snow once we started getting into the mountains. I was surprised because down in town theres not a flake left.

I tried a lot of different beers but decided I wasn’t going to review them all. Instead I bought a bunch from the bottle shop they have set up. It was unreal walking into the room and seeing all the different cool beers from all over Japan. I only bought 6, but I wanted them all.

                            This is the glass you get, it's my main glass now.

On the day my favourite beer was one that was infused with a smokey flavour somehow. I can’t remember which company made it, but the point is there was a lot of cool beers to try.

Even if you aren’t a fan of the bands playing, it’s still definitely worth going. The range of beer was terrific, it’s cool to see so many people making cool beers in Japan.

If bands like Toe and Jizue are playing, I can’t wait to see who is on next years bill. There were three shows all up. One on Saturday night then two on Sunday, a midday one and an evening one. For each ticket you buy you’ll get 5 beer tickets. 

About the shuttle bus. Apparently there is a shuttlebus that runs from Yudanaka station up to the event. Its kinda hard to find information about it on the website, but when we got to the festival a guy gave us the schedule. Maybe if you click around enough on the website you can find it. There are also other local busses running but they stop before the festival finishes.