Craft Beer Fest Kyoto 2018 / 地ビール祭京都 2018

The 2018 beer festival season in the Kansai region kicked off on Sunday, May 13 in Kyoto. The Craft Beer Fest Kyoto 2018 was the ninth iteration of this annual festival.

It was a dim rainy day, but fortunately the venue is a long (800-meter) covered shopping arcade. The lousy wet weather may have kept some people home, but it also made things more crowded, as the side streets were not an outlet for patrons desiring a respite from the crush.

Thirty five Japanese breweries provided nearly 200 varieties of beer. Breweries new to the festival this year included Hinotani Beer, Kibi Doteshita Beer, Kyoto Beer Lab/Cha Beer, Kyoto Woodmill Brewery, Rise & Win Brewing Co., and Songbird.

I was interested in the new Kyoto breweries (above), and found that they were well on their way to making interesting and unusual beers. Kyoto Beer Lab features a number of tea brews (hence "Cha" Beer).

Also of interest was Songbird, a true nanobrewery located in Chiba. The friendly owners specialize in Belgian-style beers, and their Natsumikan to Shoga wheat beer did not disappoint.


As is true every year, the venue got crowded soon after opening time. It was fairly manageable for for the most part; however there were bottlenecks for several stretches, and other areas proved to be nigh impassable. I did not venture east of the park area, and hence missed the entire A Section, which held a few beer stands I'd hoped to visit, including Outsider.

                                                 the Fujizakura Heights brewer, a true master...

Stalwart breweries, Kyoto Brewing and Fujizakura Heights, provided the highlights of the festival (for me anyway). Kyoto Brewing unveiled their third anniversary beer, Sanshunen, a tasty IPA made from a kettle sour. Fujizakura Heights had two different 20th anniversary beer, but their Dragon Mosaic 2017 weizenbock was a superbly well-rounded and juicy exemplar of the style.

Well into the afternoon and after several samples, the rain and crowds no longer seemed to matter.

Next up: Craft Beer Live in Osaka (May 26-27)

地ビール祭京都 2017 / Craft Beer Festa Kyoto 2017

I intentionally did not go to the Craft Beer Festa Kyoto last year. I remembered the 2015 event, and the discomfort of being stuck in a more or less immobile and thirsty crowd, trying to navigate the ridiculously long lines at the beer booths (and, of course, also at the toilets). The venue is an 800-meter long shopping arcade, which is much too narrow for the number of people who show up.

This year, I decided to chance it, since there were a few breweries attending whose beers I had rarely or never had the chance to sample..

I arrived at just after opening time, and the crowds were already swarming. Long lines at the beer booths were snaking down the street, around into the side streets, and in some cases morphing into hairpin shapes in the main street.

But I soon discovered that most of the breweries I was interested in had fairly short waiting times and that those situated at the extreme ends of the arcade often had no lines at all.

Thirty seven breweries were on show, with a heavy emphasis on Kansai-area companies.

I had wanted to try more of Talmary, a relatively new brewery from Tottori, whose beers have not yet shown up much in this area. I was not disappointed with their Spring Blonde, Smoke Brown, and Tripel Triple. Talmary is noted for producing a variety of wild yeast beers, but it seems they are also making more styles now.

Another brewery whose beers are hard to get is Zakkoku Kobo (Saitama). We chatted with the brewer and enjoyed glasses of Irodori (saison), Sansho Porter. and the thick, smoothie-like Berry Much (fruit beer)

The fast-rising Kyoto Brewing Company was also in attendance, showcasing many of their beers, including two new ones: Sandomemashite (Double IPA) and Minami Hankyuu no Yuuhi (Sunset Down Under), a wheat ale brewed with New Zealand hops. Also, although some breweries show up with only three or four different beers, Kyoto Brewing had fully ten on offer.

Strangely, a couple of the other Kyoto representatives -- Kyoto Machiya and Kizakura -- seemed underappreciated, with swarms of people moving right past the loud touts who were attempting to draw customers in.

                                                         ... perhaps some Kyoto Machiya beer...???

Mark Meli, author of Craft Beer in Japan: The Essential Guide, was at the Japan Beer Times table, talking with all who stopped by.

I honestly enjoyed the festival this year. That said, I really hope that the organizers can find another, more spacious, venue for future festivals....  and one with better toilet facilities (where a sign such as the one below will not be warranted) .....

                                                     ..... I think we need a "No" here....

 However, I was somehow able to get to most of the beers that I wanted to try without feeling exhausted or frustrated. I'm sure it's not an easy task to put together an event of this scope, and I am thankful that there are people willing to do it.