Belgian beer essentially is craft beer. While not every Belgian brewery takes a non-industrial, artisan approach to brewing, most do. It’s an integral part of the country’s brewing heritage.
In some ways, Belgian beer helped pave the way for craft beer in Japan by acclimating people’s tastes to flavors more complex than the mainstream lagers and by being priced at a premium to those beers. We owe some thanks to early advocates and importers like Konishi Brewing. Belgian beers have also inspired many domestic brewers. Minoh won a gold medal at World Beer Cup (2012) for a Hoegaarden-like white ale using local yuzu. Many other Japanese breweries have also effectively used Belgian yeast, which imparts unique flavors. Then there is Sugawara Ryohei, who brews in Belgium and reimports the beer himself for his Belgian-themed bars and restaurants in Tokyo.
Every beer lover should try to make a trip to Belgium at least once. If the costs are prohibitively expensive, though, then at least you have options in Japan. Belgian Beer Weekend is a great one for variety of beer offered, food pairing options and live entertainment. In the few short years that the festival has been around, it has grown from one weekend in Roppongi to nearly fifty days of total festival time across six cities during different times of the year.
Cynics may ask, “Is this just another version of the Oktoberfests that pop up everywhere, offering anything and everything?” We don’t think so. These events are very carefully organized between Belgian breweries, importers and individuals involved with Belgian culture and tourism. Obviously, they want to make money but not at the sacrifice of total authenticity. We applaud that and have been dropping by a few of the festivals every year since it started. We’re not surprised to see other Japanese craft brewers and industry friends there as well.
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
