This Valentine’s Day marked the 8th annual Tokyo Real Ale Festival, held once again at the Sumida Riverside Hall– an iconic spot most famous for commercial brewing giant Asahi’s rooftop golden statue of, well, we’re not sure what it is supposed to be actually! Artistic liberties aside, the irony of enjoying traditionally prepared and served ‘Real Ale’ in the shadow of Japan’s top selling brand of fizzy lager was not lost on many in attendance.
This year’s festival seemed to be another successful one, swelling to even greater numbers from its humble beginnings, and even being heralded as Japan’s best beer event in recent years. This year’s line-up didn’t disappoint. I didn’t get to try everything unfortunately as I only have one liver, but here are some of the standouts from this year’s selection:

Minoh Beer: Imperial Stout (carbonated and standard)

Warming alcohol accompanied with excellent roasted notes. A little more astringency was noticeable on the carbonated version, but was fast-fading and both left a mild sweetness begging you to take another sip. A perfect nightcap beer for that long train ride home!

Isekadoya Beer: Brown Ale (Citra dryhopped)

This beer stole the show for several of my friends, primarily due to the generous amount of dry hopping with a new (and rare) variety of hop called Citra, which has some very unique aroma properties that have been likened to pineapple, mango, and papaya. While the appearance of this beer was more like an amber ale than a brown, with a taste like this, we’re not going to complain! We’re hoping to see more of this one.

Hitachino Nest Beer: Casked Pale and Sorachi Gold

I was able to try both of the offerings from Hitachino Nest, and while I expected and received a quality beer from the Casked Pale, the Sorachi Gold was the surprise of the afternoon. Sorachi Ace hops are a variety developed in Japan by Sapporo, but one that I haven’t cared for in the past. My general bias against Sorachi hops has been that they add an earthy, mushroomy taste and aroma, but in the Gold, that was replaced with pleasant earthen wood notes, with just a touch of vanilla and lemon.

Shiga Kogen Beer: Not So Mild Ale

Well-balanced despite the name, this one would make a nice session beer to have at any given pub on any given weeknight.
Honorable mentions: August Beer’s Toshi’s IPA, Harvest Moon’s T.S.T, Swanlake Beer’s Real Porter, Yaho Brewing’s Tokyo Black Real Ale, Brewdog’s 5 AM Saint
While there certainly was a lot of good beer, there were a few surprisingly sub-standard (and worse) drafts as well. The general level of craft beer and real ale in Japan has made great strides in recent years, but clearly still has room for improvement.
Let’s all raise a pint to real ale, and the labor of the brewers who make it all possible.

Please check the next issue (summer) for part 2: coverage of the other breweries and beers not listed here!

by Jason Koehler

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.