Once again this year, Anglo Japanese Brewing Company (AJB) in Nagano will be hosting the SSBB Festival in scenic Hokuryuko, Nozawa Onsen. SSBB stands for saisons, sours, barrels and ‘brett’ (brettanomyces). Like the inaugural event last year, it will feature a lot of sour beers and other eclectic varieties not often seen in Japan. Expect kettle sours, barrel-aged sours, and other sour-like flavors that brewers achieve through other techniques and/or unique ingredients. Last year was a blast and this year looks to be even better.

In 2019, a total of 21 breweries will be in attendance–11 from overseas–featuring over 100 different varieties of beer. The Japan invitees include those that excel at this art: AJB, Zakkoku Kobo, Shiga Kogen, Loco Beer, Yorocco Beer, Kyoto Brewing Company, Minoh Beer, Kakegawa Farm Brewing, Barbaric Works and Hino Brewing. The overseas list, meanwhile, includes a few that will be familiar to Japanese drinkers–Great Leap Brewing, Taihu Brewing, and Mikkeller–as well as others from across Asia and Europe. Most of the brewers will be there, too!

The event takes place Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th from 11am to 6pm. If you’re buying tickets in advance, a pack of 11 tickets plus glass is ¥3000 while 22 tickets plus glass is ¥5000. Those packages go up ¥500 and ¥1000 respectively on the day of the event. For more information, please visit the website at: https://ssbbjapan.com