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/

Yo Ho Brewing - Karuizawa Kogen Beer Belgian White

Name: Karuizawa Kogen Belgian White

Brewery: Yo Ho Brewing


Style: Belgian White

Purchased at: A restaurant in Karuizawa

Price: ¥500 (Restaurant price)

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Summoning - Stronghold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuoR8wEW0Bo

Snack: Roasted Chicken at the restaurant.

Website: http://karuizawa-kogen-beer.com/

Experience.
I'm a little confused about who brewed this beer exactly. I thought that Karuizawa Kogen Beer was its own company and brewery, but on the website it says it is owned by Yo Ho brewing who are also based in Karuizawa and gave us the undeniable masterpiece known as the Yona Yona. I'm just going to assume this is a company owned by Yo Ho until I can find out what is really going on. Looking on their websites it appears as if there are two separate companies, but then I see the Yona Yona label in different pictures. And the bio mentions Yo Ho brewing. Enigmatic and confusing! You don't need to be a genius to drink and enjoy their beers though, so here we go.

Karuizawa is a town in Nagano, Japan. It is fancy as heck, lots of rich people shops and skiing and all that. It has two big breweries that are brewing great beer. Yo Ho brewing and the Karuizawa Brewing Company. Both of these breweries are based in a city called Saku though, which is maybe half an hour away from Karuizawa. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Karuizawa is a place where rich people from Tokyo have their summer or winter homes. Maybe they don't have the room for big breweries. I'm sure some marketing magic was involved because, no offence intended to Saku, but Karuizawa I imagine would be a lot easier to sell as a luxurious place where beer flows freely or whatever.

Anyway, I've reviewed two of the beers from this company before, but they were their all year beers. This is the first seasonal one of theirs but as I said you shouldnt have too much trouble finding it. I'm not even sure what season this beer is meant to be available, it doesn't really matter, what matters is the taste.

And boy, the taste is unreal. This beer is sweet and fruity. I swear I could taste oranges or something. I can see it becoming a bit sickly if you had too much of it, but one or two and you are in heaven. Looks so nice in the glass too.

These beers can easily be found in Karuizawa, Nagano. Just about anywhere that sells craft beers will sell this beer. Maybe it will be out of season when you look for it, but don't worry because it will be coming back.

Echigo Beer - Flying Pale Ale

Name: Echigo Flying IPA

Brewery: Echigo Beer

Style: IPA

Purchased at: Nagano Station

Price: ¥300

Taste: 9/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Evilfeast – Lost Horizons of Wisdom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6M1PFLo7S0

Snack: Making fajitas.

Website: http://www.echigo-beer.jp/

Experience.

It has been a while since I’ve written a review. But don’t worry, Ive continued drinking beer. Im planning on doing video reviews when I can be sure no one will walk in on me talking to the camera, that would be embarrassing.

Ive had many beers from this brewery, Echigo Beer. On the can they claim to be Japan’s first micro brewery. If that’s true then I am glad they are still around. All their beers are great and they seem to be a pretty cool company. According to their facebook page they are always attending and hosting events. I’d love to visit the brewery but I haven’t had the chance yet.

This beer is one of their newer ones. At the time of writing this, they are currently releasing one with a tiger on the can. This one, the Flying IPA, has a dragon on it. Have to say, I love the can design. The dragon is holding a beer. Haha. The can alone makes it a worthwhile purchase.

As far as taste goes, while it claims to be an IPA, I think it tastes closer to a pale ale. For me this is a good thing. I cant stand the super strong American IPAs, I think some of them taste like fresh cut grass. This however was much more mild, however still extremely refreshing.

This beer can be a little hard to find. You aren’t going to see it at supermarkets very often. I have seen other beers by this company at Seiyu, so maybe try your luck there. Apart from that, any food shop that sells foreign snacks and spices, seems to have them. There is such a shop in Nagano station.

EDIT: I had this beer again last night. I don't know what happened with the first one, but this one had a much stronger IPA taste. I usually don't like IPAs that much, but this one went down easy. Very smooth. I guess they are a smaller brewery, so the beer probably changes in flavour with each batch.

Fujizakura Brewery - Weizen 330ml bottle

Name: Fujizakura Heights Weizen

Brewery: Fujizakura beer.

Style: Weizen

Purchased at: Snow Monkey Beer Live bottle shop.

Price: ¥500

Taste: 8.5/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Still listening to Eternal Champion a lot. Also listening to Visigoth a bit, going through a real heavy metal throw back phase at the moment. I can't stand power metal right now though for some reason, so it's difficult to find modern heavy metal bands that don't drift into power metal territory and at the same time don't suck.

Snack: I had a hot dog with curry sauce on it, it was really good, perfect with beer.

Website: http://www.fujizakura-beer.jp/

Experience.

It's finally a great time to be alive again here. The snow has pissed off for a few months and it's

getting warmer everyday, bloody great.

When the sakura trees are in bloom everyone has picnics in the parks under the trees. Everyone uses the same blue tarp and most people are drinking beers and having fun. It's like everyone can finally come out of their winter hovels and celebrate being able to go outside again.

On this particular outing I took two beers with me, both of which were purchased at the snow monkey beer live festival. The first was this weizen which comes from somewhere near Mt. Fuji. This beer was very fruity and full tasting. Very delicious and it suited being outside in the sun with flowers very much.

The design on the bottle was also cool. It was pink which matched the flowers and I think the cap even had a sakura leaf on it. I just grabbed any beers from the fridge as we left, so this one must have jumped to the front to be a part of the spring festivities. Upon looking at the bottle again, I realised the brewery actually has "sakura" in it's name, so yeah it was definitely the right choice to take to a hanami.

I've never seen this beer for sale anywhere before, but perhaps if you are travelling in the Mt. Fuji area you will find it. I plan on climbing Mt. Fuji, so I'll definitely be picking up a few of these when I'm in the area.

Looking on their website, it looks like the have a restaurant in Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji, which is one of my favourite towns in Japan. I cannot recommend going to this town enough, it's really beautiful and you get an unreal view of Mt. Fuji.

Matsumoto Brewery - Pale Ale 330ml bottle

Name: Traditional Bitter

Brewery: Matsumoto Brewery

Style: Pale Ale

Purchased at: Matsumoto Brewery Tap Room

Price: ¥500

Taste: 8/10

Alcohol Level: 5%

Music: Akhlys - The Dreaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_SK1Gn63f0

Ferocious and dark black metal.

Snack: I was cooking spaghetti

Website: http://matsu-brew.com/

Experience.

I forget why but I wanted to make spaghetti bolognese from scratch, if you count using canned tomatoes as from scratch. I think I'd been eating a lot of crap at the time, so I wanted something that wasn't dripping in oil or too process. I could have eaten some plain vegetables, but

Anyway this is another one of the beers from Matsumoto Brewery. This is a great Pale Ale. It doesn't have that intense hop flavour of some pale ales. Very refreshing and slightly citrusy I guess. The best thing about Matsumoto brewery beers is how fresh they are. They make them all right there.

I hate it when you find out a craft beer company is actually just a small division of a huge beer company. Mainly because of how stupid they think people are. Kirin and Asahi make "craft" beer here in Japan, but they dont try and hide it at least. Their names are all over the label. Australian beer companies dont do that though, they try to make it seem authentic. Craft beer companies should start in someones garage or by a group of people who want to go out on their own and make something cool, not a board room by a company cashing in on a growing trend and trying to increase their already massive profits. I probably have no idea what I'm talking about here by the way.

I still like the Matsumoto bitter beer the best of what I've tried from them, but this is definitely a delicious Pale Ale that I would love to have again.

By the way, you can see the Snow Monkey Beer Live glass in action here. Only problem with it is the glass is really thin. My premium malts glass broke last night, which I was pretty sad about. If the snow monkey beer glass breaks ill be really sad.

Beer Venue: Oriental Brewing in Kanazawa

Name: Oriental Brewing in Kanazawa

Brewery: Various

Style: Various

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

Price: ¥700

Taste: 10/10

Alcohol Level: Various

Music: Been listening to Eternal Champion a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODNqxcRQGH4

Snack: I'd just eaten a lot of sushi, so I couldn't eat any of the great looking pizzas they had there unfortunately.

Website: http://www.orientalbrewing.com/

Experience:


Over the spring holidays my special lady and I took a trip to a city called Kanazawa. It's a beautiful little city on the Japan sea in the Toyama prefecture. People like to describe it as a smaller Kyoto, but I think they should just focus on being themselves, they have enough to offer.

While there I discovered a local micro brewery called Oriental Brewing. It was a really nice little bar that had two house brewed beers on tap and about 6 other craft beers from different parts of Japan, including the 11% beer I tried at snow monkey beer live.

The bar itself actually has a small brewery attached, which is really rare to see in Japan. I wanted to take a picture but there was a guy in there so I didn't, in hindsight I should have just taken it.



The house brewed beers were delicious. There was a Weizen and a Yuzu beer, Yuzu being a Japanese lemon. I don't even know if they bottle these beers, so you'll have to go there to try them.











They also make some great looking food. We had just been to a really nice sushi place, so I was full as. I really wanted to order a pizza, but we were going to a geisha performance that night and didn't want to feel like compelte shit. The lady working at the bar actually rolled out the dough, put on the toppings and cooked the pizza right behind the bar in an oven. This again is a really rare thing to see in Japan. It's great to see people doing cool things like this.

Oriental Brewing is right near Kenrokuen Garden. If you go to Kanazawa you will almost certainly visit this garden, so this is a great place to go while you are in the area. Also, they host English speaking geisha evenings nearby which is 100% definitely worth checking out as well. They are real geishas and you can play a drinking game with them.

If you are in Kanazawa definitely go here, and don't eat anything beforehand, save your appetite for all the beers and pizza.

You can find pictures of all the stuff I missed on their website. Looks like they really have their shit together, sick dudes.

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.