Are you ready? You better be. The summer beer festival season is chugging full-speed ahead like a train down the tracks. (Did someone say chugging? Please don’t chug craft beer…). But let’s put on the brakes a little and look back at the last few months.

Japan’s premiere food and beer event, Grande Biere—this year in Shibuya and not Roppongi—pushed the envelope again with exciting new pairing possibilities. Our senior writer Kumagai Jinya picked his favorite, the T.Y. Harbor smoked wheat ale with natural cheese, claiming, “The smoky aroma accentuated the umami from the cheese.” Speaking of pairing, in this hot summer season, do you know of any good beer and ice cream pairings?

The beer train’s next stop was Kyoto, where that annual spring festival attracted thousands to the arcade along which brewers set up their booths. While some local shop owners must have been dazed and confused by the inebriated hordes, the financial benefit to many of the small businesses offering food was no doubt welcomed. By cooperating with local businesses, the Kyoto organizing committee of brewers plus Yamaoka Liquor Store demonstrated just how positive a community movement craft beer can be. And that’s why we’ll always attend.

Craft Beer Live in Osaka in the latter half of May proved that craft beer and live music are still one of life’s best combinations. With Snow Monkey Beer Live in the winter, this event in the spring, we need a summer craft beer live music festival. Oh, wait! (see page 10)

At the end of May, our beer train had to divert some of its cars. Alas, BeerFes Tokyo (in Ebisu) and Keyaki Hiroba Beer Festival were on the same weekend. The former, though, was all-you-can-drink and offered attendees a wider range of sampling options, while the latter was a more festive atmosphere outside Saitama Arena. And thank goodness they moved it outside again! We’re looking forward to the autumn installment that generally signals the end of beer festival season.

Overseas, the Australian International Beer Awards announced the winners of their 22nd annual competition. This year, the competition received a record 1560 entries from over 30 countries, including Japan. The U.S. and Australia both had very strong showings. Japan, alas, was shut out of awards. Better luck next year. Psst, brewers: don’t forget about the upcoming European Beer Star Awards (see page 31).

In the U.S., publisher Ry Beville attended the inaugural Craft Beverage Expo in San Jose, California. Similar to other large conferences around the world, like the Craft Brewers Conference we wrote about in the last column, this one attracts an array of exhibitors, speakers and industry employees. The big difference was that this event brought together all “craft” producers, whether they are working in beer, wine or spirits.

Beville reports: It was great to see the boundaries of genre broken down. I think this is where we are headed—toward a craft culture. This is something Japan will likely embrace. Already, there are many breweries making both craft beer and sake; Kiuchi (Hitachino Nest), Kumazawa (Shonan Beer) and Konishi are three whose sake I often enjoy as well. It was also fascinating to learn that craft beverage producers face some similar problems: pushback from industrial competitors, distribution challenges and cash crunches.

The highlight of the event was the panel discussion between Steve Hindy (founder, Brooklyn Brewery), Ken Grossman (founder, Sierra Nevada), Vinnie Cilurzo (founder, Russian River) and Rob Tod (founder, Allagash Brewing), some of the most famous and innovative brewers in America. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more influential group of brewers on a single panel.

They spoke at some length about the origins of craft beer in America, especially the influence of Charlie Papazian and the homebrew movement. It struck me again how unfortunate it is that Japan still doesn’t have a robust home brewing movement. Sure, it’s basically illegal in Japan, but it was illegal in America, too. Charlie and his followers simply attracted so many people over the years and lobbied the government so hard that states began to legalize it. Just recently, in fact, America’s 50th and final state legally approved home brewing. This was a consumer movement that I hope Japan is capable of achieving, too.

The narrative from there moved on to challenges they had faced over the years. It seems that all of them have run into some kind of problem with bad distributors. Japan is very lucky in a way because breweries can distribute directly to bars or even the consumer. Trademark was another theme; this is a concern on the horizon for Japan, too, I believe. I already know of two trademark disputes in Japan, and these certainly won’t be the last.

During the Q&A session, I asked Hindy why Brooklyn Brewery had decided to export to Japan. As some may know from our interview last year with brewmaster Garrett Oliver, Japan was this groundbreaking brewery’s first export market many years ago. The original motivation for exporting to Japan, Hindy claims, was simply because they wanted people to drink and enjoy their beer. They took great pride out of that and still do.

Oops! We make mistakes, sometimes really bad ones. It’s like we’re drunk when we’re really sober. In last month’s feature on Devil’s Canyon, we mistakenly identified the brewer/owner as Chris Curran. Chris Garrett is his name, while Daniel Curran is the vice president. “Chris Curran” must be their imaginary friend. Also, while the brewery was founded in Belmont, the new facility is in nearby San Carlos, CA.

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.