FRIDAY: Heretic Tasting
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| Kamikaze |
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| 1000 yen tasting set |
This was a really fun event with Kamikaze being packed & there being poster, sticker/coaster & t-shirt giveaways. The highlight was of course the beers with Heretic giving us beers that ranged from good to great!
SATURDAY: World Craft Tasting 2013
World Craft Tasting changed location from Umeda to the popular Namba Hatch which has a beer fest about every 3-4 months. For their second year they seem to have been overly ambitious which combined with the change of location made for a bit of an uneven event. This lead to some minor complaints among attendees but I'll attribute it to growing pains. Overall, the event was well received with decent crowds enjoying the dozen or so beer booths, the small food area, kids area, stage & dozen booth market area by the riverside.
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| market area |
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| music & food area |
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| beer area |
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| Ajen pouring Imp. Oatmeal Stout |
Kegs didn't seem to turn over that fast & by the end of the event some were never tapped... but they had tons of nice American, German, Scottish/English & Belgian beers to join the wide array of Japanese beers. And this event had a mixed crowd of Japanese and foreigners. Pretty good for such a young ambitious festival.
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| Baird's special beer for the event-tasty! |
SUNDAY: I took a day off to recover!
MONDAY: Fiesta Mexicana & Ibaraki Bakuon 2013
As Phred from Ezo Beer was not invited to World Craft Tasting this year(too bad Rogue's Hazelnut Brown was one of my favorite's last year) I decided to go visit him at the Fiesta Mexicana. This event held at the Umeda Sky Building had a really cheerful vibe with lots of families taking in the sunshine, Mexican music & food.
Phred brought some Sierra Madre, a nice craft pilsner from Mexico, as well as tons of tequila.
While there I ran into Kouji from Asahiya and on my way out I also saw Ajen from Evergreen Imports.
It was a nice event but beerwise you mostly had Mexican macrobrews like Dos Equis, Corona & Sol so I was grateful Phred was around to bring the craft beer!
I left there in the afternoon for Ibaraki where a nice old lady smiled at me then gave me a big thumbs up for my tshirt that says "Save the Earth it's the only planet with BEER". This put a smile on my face & told me that I was in a beer friendly town!
I walked about 5 minutes from JR Ibaraki station to the event where I was met by a sea of tents & a bigger crowd than expected. I am not sure if it was due to a larger crowd than World Craft Tasting or if the layout wasn't as spread out but Ibaraki Bakuon had an energetic atmosphere & a mostly Japanese crowd. Last year I heard about the event after it was over so this year I was determined to check it out simply as I love the concept. What could be better than an outdoor rock fest featuring japanese craft beer? Being from Montreal also means I am a sucker for outdoor festivals...
Ibaraki Bakuon seems to be run by the same people that do the Takatsuki Jazz Street. I guess this is why it went off without a hitch & was incredibly well organized. You had 18 tents of Japanese craft beer, 24 tents of food from local restaurants, a dozen tents for people to sit in the shade & plenty of tables in front of the stage for those looking to enjoy the music.
Things seemed to go really well with tons of beer being guzzled everywhere I looked & almost everyone was sold out nearing the end of the evening. Coedo sold out of everything by around 630pm!
By that time the sun was going down & crowds were out in force. Kegs seemed to be getting tapped out in record time with some vanishing in 15-30 minutes. I'll try you next time Minami Shinshu Christmas Ale...
The beers at this fest are all Japanese craft beer so while the beer line up might not have been as exciting as World Craft Tasting's it seems to have been better curated. Plus slowly but surely Japanese craft beer is getting better all the time. I didn't have anything I'd call truly bad at the fest. Nothing blew me away but the beers were average to pretty damn good~!
All in all an exceedingly well run event with lots of Japanese craft beers, good food & good music. The vibe here was really great, I'll be back again next year I think.
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