Today I went to the Kyoto Craft Beer Festival. It was smaller than expected but a pretty interesting experience. Craft beer is now just starting to gain a little traction in Japan. There are a plethora of variety when it comes to sake and shochu, but with Japanese beer, there are mainly just a few big, bland beer makers.
About a dozen Kyoto beer breweries took part in today’s festival. Some are completely new ventures and others are sub-brands of established sake breweries. Today I had a very nice porter, from I can’t remember where. Sorry. Then I had a Weizen Beer from ZigZag Brewery in Tamba Sasayama (not actually in Kyoto prefecture, but almost). Next I had an interesting Red Shiso Beer from Kizakura Brewery. The weizen beer wasn’t my style while the red shiso beer was quite intriguing to me. Red shiso is an important ingredient in Kyoto tsukemono pickles. Now people riff on it creating things like shiso shochu, shiso ice cream, and now shiso beer!
For me, the main event was my friend Ry Beville, and American entrepreneur based in Yokohama came down to promote his craft beer magazine, Japan Beer Times. Ry is a character and has a t-shirt that already seems to be a classic — it reads “Bad Beer is the Enemy” – the literal translation in Japanese really turns heads.
I found an interesting beer curry that I picked up that I am looking forward to trying. It is made by Kizakura Brewery, in Fushimi.
Currently, this festival is held in the spring and autumn. The venue is the Zest Oike shopping mall in front of Kyoto City Hall.
