Kyoto’s best, well in our opinion, craft beer festival takes place on Saturday 9th May and it looks bigger than ever this year. The Kyoto Craft Beer Festival was first started by those lovely people over at Yamaoka Sake Shop and they have managed to outdo themselves this year to get even more breweries to come along. The only problem is that it is only a one-day festival so you better drink quickly if you want to try everything at the Kyoto Craft Beer Festival.
Tickets for Kyoto Craft Beer Festival can be bought in advance for ¥2,000 which will get you six beer tickets, or if you want to buy a beer on the day it will cost ¥400. Buying the advance ticket will not get you a special glass, though one can be bought for ¥400 and is 240ml. The festival is open from 14:00 until 20:00, weather permitting so best check in advance as rainy season is coming.
As mentioned, Kyoto Craft Beer Festival have done a great job in getting an excellent line up with the breweries below all attending:
Kyoto
- Kizakura
- Kinshimasamune
- Kyoto Shuzen Kaido Beer
- Kyoto Ichijoji Brewery
Kansai
- Nagahama Roman Beer
- Minoh Beer (Osaka)
- Kuninocho (Osaka)
- Nagisa Beer (Wagayama)
- Konishi Beer (Hyogo)
- Rokko Beer (Hyogo)
- Zigzag Brewery (Hyogo)
- Akashi Brewery (Hyogo)
Tohoku
- Iwate Kura Beer (Iwate)
Kanto
- Bell Beer (Saitama)
- Harvest Moon (Chiba)
- Song Bird Beer (Chiba)
- Shonan Beer (Kanagawa)
Koshinetsu
- Fujizakura Heights (Yamanashi)
- Outsider Brewing (Yamanashi)
- Tamamura Honten / Shiga Kogen (Nagano)
- Minamishinshu Beer (Nagano)
Tokai / Hokuriku
- Johana Beer (Toyama)
- Ohya Brasserie (Toyama)
- Baird Beer (Shizuoka)
- Aoi Brewing (Shizuoka)
- Morita Kinshachi (Aichi)
Chukoku / Shikoku
- Daisen G Beer (Tottori)
- Matsue Beer Hearn (Shimane)
- Kure Beer (Hiroshima)
- Miyajima Beer (Hiroshima)
- Umenishiki Beer (Ehime)
Kyushu
- Brewmaster (Fukuoka)
How to Get Tickets For Kyoto Craft Beer Festival 2015
Tickets for Kyoto Craft Beer Festival 2015 can be bought from these places in advance
- Kyoto Sanjo Association Office (075-811-4472）
- Kinshimasamune Brewing（075-23-2072）
- Kizakura Brewing (075-611-9921）
- Yamaoka Bottle Shop (075-461-4772)
Moreover, tickets can also be bought at these bars in Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo listed here (in Japanese) such as Bungalow and Beer Cafe Bakujun.
How to Get to Kyoto Craft Beer Festival 2015
Kyoto Craft Beer Festival is based on Kyoyo’s Sanjo shopping street and it reached from JR Nijo station, Hankyu Omiya, or on Kyoto’s underground Nijojomae station, as shown below.
4 comments
I was there yesterday. Nice festival, nice people, good beer. I had Minoh, Johana, Rokko, Nagisa, Fujizakura and Shinshu. Pretty long lines at some breweries, so the best was to get one beer and then drink it while queing for the next one! Also lots of good food available from the shops in the shotengai.
One thing I noticed was a traditional liquor shop in the street where the festival took place. An old lady inside, and no customers in the shop. Outside, thousands of people were enjoing beer. In the shop, on one side there were sake bottles, and on the other side beers in a fridge. Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, Suntory, lots of happoshu, all in cans. Not a single craft beer….
Sadly, nearly all other small liquor shops in Japan are the same. No craft beers on sale.
Good to hear you had a good time – had a sudden appointment so couldn’t make it down. All of the breweries you listed had some good beers on show.
Did Johana have their Earl Grey tea beer on?
Craft beers are never going to get big until tax laws change and bottling requirements by supermarkets are less stringent. Could be another soapbox article there perhaps?
Yes, Johana had their Earl Grey, but I did not try it. I prefer Assam…
Bottling requirements by supermarkets, do you mean that they want beer with a shelf life of 6 months, instead of the usual 3 months that craft beers have? I have read about that several times, but I am not convinced that this is the full story. All supermarkets sell raw meat, raw fish, fresh bento boxes and so on, which are heavily discounted shortly before closing time (and then obviously thrown away if unsold). These items have a shelf life of one day. Every craft beer I know has a shelf life longer than that, so why are they not in stock?
On a positive side, there are actually more and more supermarktes these days selling some craft beers in cans. Yona Yona, Ginga Kogen, Coedo (and – unfortunately – Karuizawa) are often available. And even Lawson has some. But not the small liquor shops.
By the way, the Japan Times had an excellent editorial on these shops on Wednesday:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/05/12/editorials/protecting-small-liquor-shops/
Sorry for not replying quicker. Supermarkets don’t stipulate a shelf life but from what I have heard from the smaller breweries as well as from Coedo, supermarkets are loathed to stock beers that only have a shelf life of around 3 months as they are considered to be luxury goods considering the prices. The difference between the meats and bento boxes is that they are often made or produced in-store or bought at dirt-cheap prices in bulk.
Cans are getting better, even with Karuizawa beers unfortunately making in roads.