Great Japan Beer Festival 2009 Pt 2

Osaka Beer Festival 2009

Finally getting round to writing about the Great Japan Beer Festival 2009 at Osaka Kyocera Dome (usually home to the Orix Buffaloes baseball team, but that day was home to a lot of drunken Japanese and a surprising percentage of gaijin – nothing brings gaijin out the wood-work than “all you can drink beer”!).

I hadn’t been to a Japanese beer festival before so wasn’t really sure what to expect. I went to one back in London a few years back and it was a massive affair, taking up the whole of Olympia or somewhere with hundreds of beers from all over Britain and the world. 

This festival was boasting some 120 types of beer so was obviously going to be  a smaller affair. Having said that I was a bit surprised when as opposed to being in one of the big halls at the Osaka Dome it was actually held around the edge of the building where the toilets and food stands usually are at these kinds of places.

 

Singing at the Beer Festival

Having said that, they had a lot of great beers, and a lot of people were having a lot of fun. For example these old guys in the picture were having a right old time singing old Japanese songs with these young ladies.

One of the guys took great pride in telling me he was 7 THOUSAND years old! He looked pretty good for his age.

But what were the beers like? 

Well a mixed bag really. They had beers from all over the world, Germany, America, Bali, even London Pride was on show, as well as lots of local Japanese beers of course. 

Some were great like the Batavia from Indonesia, Daisen G Beer from Japan, and Yokohama XPA also from Japan. 

Others were not so hot, there was a very strange banana flavoured beer, an American chocolate flavoured beer and even a tomato flavoured beer. None of which were a good idea to make or certainly to drink. 

Still, managed to try about 40-50 of the beers, and reviewed as many as I could, although by the end I resorted to one word reviews or just a score.

Real Beer Goggles

Met these lovely (drunk) Japanese people who not only came wearing Beer Glasses but also had their nails done to match. 

The Japanese version of the lead singer of the Darkness was also wandering around, but failed to get him on camera.

Here’s a list of the beers reviewed:

• Batavia
• Nagoya Red Mizo Beer
• Weizen Beer
• Sinto Pale Ale
• Chocolate Beer
• Iwate Porter
• Kodagen Ale
• Roko Beer
• Amber Ale
• Rhenania Alt
• Krombacher Pils
• Mino Beer Cabernet
• Mino Weizen
• Daisen G Beer
• Brewmaster
• Cabos & Honey
• Old Foghorn Barley Wine Style
• Chimay Blue
• Radeberger Pilsener
• Yokohama XPA

Related posts:

• Great Japan Beer Festival 2009
• Beer and Coke – Not a Great Cocktail Idea
• Autumn Beer in Japan
• Winter Beer in Japan