Working my 'normal' job, doing other jobs, updating boozelist (even that hasn't been every day).
I managed to get in a short vacation, up in Hokkaido and northern Japan.
9 days, 12 breweries, many more bars, LOTS of beer.
Hopefully some pics, tales and info on Northern Japan's wonderful array of booze in an upcoming post.
Need to post about sooooo much.
Quick reminder for this weekend, the annual Great Japan Beer Festival is kicking off Sat, Sun & Monday.
Advance tickets for 4100yen or pay on the day for 4500yen.
From 2-6pm Saturday,
1-5pm Sunday and
12-4pm Monday.
From 2-6pm Saturday,
1-5pm Sunday and
12-4pm Monday.
The PDF flyer is available here.
It's probably the best of the festivals.
Hopefully beer quality will be good this year.
Expect a LOT of people.
The list of participating Japanese breweries is here (in Japanese!).
There are a lot of imported beers going to be available too. Here is a list of those.
On top of this, there will be some special beers brought over from New Zealand, for tasting.
It looks like another good beer festival.
If you are going, why not take advantage of the great bars and breweries Yokohama has to offer?
Not far away is Pivovar Yokohama, the wonderful Czech styled small bar/brewpub, in the building housing the Yokohama Beer brewery. Recommended beers include the Anaconda wheat and the Scorpion Deathlock DIPA, if they have it.
Not far away but not so easy to get to is the cracking Czech bar, Pivo. On tap are Urquel, Bernard and a Bernard cerny dark lager as well as a semi dark Urquel master. Best value Urquel and best quality in Japan. The food is good, too.
Not too far away, near Kannai is the famous and impeccable Craft Beer Bar. A small bar but with about 10 Japanese craft beers on tap including usually Minoh, Shiga Kogen, Fujisakura, Swanlake, Baeren, North Island, Baird and others. Nearby is the British bar, 3 lions, with several craft beers on tap as well as some great home made food!
don't forget a newcomer to the craft scene, Bar Green Charcoal & Grill, on Motomachi street. They serve a few craft beers (now Isekadoya, Baird and Yokohama beer) was well as some crackingly fine food.
Heading back to Yokohama Station and we can find the excellent Thrash Zone (serving a few Japanese craft beers as well about half a dozen fantastic US imports at unbeatable prices and quality pours - 1 of my favourite bars) and Yokohama Cheers (was Belgian themed but is now embracing several Japanese craft beers and European beers).
Yessir, Yokohama has lots to offer, beer wise!
It's probably the best of the festivals.
Hopefully beer quality will be good this year.
Expect a LOT of people.
The list of participating Japanese breweries is here (in Japanese!).Of these, I recommend trying Gotenba Kogen's weizen rauch, minami Shinshu oktoberfest, Hakone pilsner, Tazawako kolsch (best in Japan) & 8yr aged rauch
(might be getting too old now), Kuninocho marihana brown, Shiga Kogen Indian summer
saisson, Yamabushi saison1 & IPA harvest brew, Chateau Kamiya helles, Nihonkai pilsner, North Island coriander black (might be a bit strong), everything by Swan Lake, Harvestmoon schwarz, Minoh stout & DIPA.
(might be getting too old now), Kuninocho marihana brown, Shiga Kogen Indian summer
saisson, Yamabushi saison1 & IPA harvest brew, Chateau Kamiya helles, Nihonkai pilsner, North Island coriander black (might be a bit strong), everything by Swan Lake, Harvestmoon schwarz, Minoh stout & DIPA.
There are a lot of imported beers going to be available too. Here is a list of those.
On top of this, there will be some special beers brought over from New Zealand, for tasting.
It looks like another good beer festival.
If you are going, why not take advantage of the great bars and breweries Yokohama has to offer?
Not far away is Pivovar Yokohama, the wonderful Czech styled small bar/brewpub, in the building housing the Yokohama Beer brewery. Recommended beers include the Anaconda wheat and the Scorpion Deathlock DIPA, if they have it.
Not far away but not so easy to get to is the cracking Czech bar, Pivo. On tap are Urquel, Bernard and a Bernard cerny dark lager as well as a semi dark Urquel master. Best value Urquel and best quality in Japan. The food is good, too.
Not too far away, near Kannai is the famous and impeccable Craft Beer Bar. A small bar but with about 10 Japanese craft beers on tap including usually Minoh, Shiga Kogen, Fujisakura, Swanlake, Baeren, North Island, Baird and others. Nearby is the British bar, 3 lions, with several craft beers on tap as well as some great home made food!
don't forget a newcomer to the craft scene, Bar Green Charcoal & Grill, on Motomachi street. They serve a few craft beers (now Isekadoya, Baird and Yokohama beer) was well as some crackingly fine food.
Heading back to Yokohama Station and we can find the excellent Thrash Zone (serving a few Japanese craft beers as well about half a dozen fantastic US imports at unbeatable prices and quality pours - 1 of my favourite bars) and Yokohama Cheers (was Belgian themed but is now embracing several Japanese craft beers and European beers).
Yessir, Yokohama has lots to offer, beer wise!
Thanks for the links to the beers this weekend, its gonna be crazy. hope to see you down there.
ReplyDeleteYou going Sunday? See you there maybe-
ReplyDeletebout' time you posted...thought you might have drank all your brains there for a second! enjoy the fest and don't forget about the niigata breweries!
ReplyDeleteThat was a good festival. got there late but drank loads. The 4 Italian dry hopped lambics were interesting, as were the new New Zealand beers.
ReplyDeleteVery drinkable.
One complain is that all the beers were far too cold. Most of the supplied servers were the primitive block of ice cooled things so I can't blame the brewers.
I was so overwhelmed with how many friends were there and how many new ones I made that I forgot to drink all the beers!
I did of course get royally smashed, both at the festival and at the Naka Meguro Taproom later that evening with the New Zealand brewers - great guys.
If I met you yesterday, Great to see you!