Today a quick post about an upcoming beer festival that has got quite a lot of people talking. Mikkeller are bringing their epic Beer Celebration festival to Tokyo for the first time in September and it looks like being something quite different from the beer festivals that we are used to in Japan. I’m not going to go into too much detail as all the information is available on either their facebook page or website. I’ll just give you a rundown on the format and what you can expect. Apologies if you are already well aware of this festival. There can’t be too many people who read this blog and haven’t heard about it. But there may be some who are not aware of the format and what they can expect to enjoy there.
– Two day festival on Sunday September 23rd and Monday September 24th (which is a holiday in case you were wondering). Split up into four three and a half hour long sessions. Tickets can be purchased for a particular session but you can also get a ticket for all four sessions, and one for all four sessions which also gives you 20 minutes early access to each session and a goodie bag, so there are plenty of options to consider. All tickets include your own tasting glass.
– Each session is all you can drink and will feature two unique beers from 40 breweries, many of which have never been seen in Japan before. For many people this is the real draw, as it’s an opportunity to try lots of rare beers from far-flung destinations in the US, Europe and Asia. Over the course of all four sessions there will be 320 different beers available. Good luck trying to get through all of those. Many beers will be flown in alongside their brewers who will also be attending. And there is a promise that the beers will be taken from the breweries ‘best and craziest’ offerings.
– There’ll also be a bottle shop, so that in the event that you’ve not had enough beer during the festival, you can take some home and continue the boozing.
– Large selection of food offerings from Mikkeller Tokyo’s favourite collaborators, including Sun 2 Diner, Good Hood Food, Sake Bozu, Sunshine Juice and Onibus Coffee.
– Held in central Tokyo at Meijijingu Gaien Softball ground. There will apparently be huge 6m tents in case the weather is not so nice.
I’ve added some links below so you can get some more information, regarding timings and pricing and that kind of thing. You can also check out the list of breweries involved. There’s going to be some amazing stuff there and it looks like it’s going to be a very special event. I’ve heard that there will be a pre-event party sometime in July at Mikkeller Tokyo if you need any more encouragement. I’ll post about that when I know more. Lovely!
Location/Map:
道玄坂 2-19-11, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
How was it?
This is the pinnacle example of everybody outside Tokyo (| Japan) needing to know how well the event went. It is not beyond the pale {ale} that persons might plan vacations based upon attending future Mikkeller Beer Celebrations. 8=}}
I had a lot of fun. I'm not really into writing pieces about things I've been to though. Think there's plenty of other people who've done that so hopefully you can find them easily enough.