The Keyaki Beer Festival is one of the largest craft beer festivals in the Kanto region. It is one of the most reasonably priced beer festivals with lots of breweries and importers participating. It is a bi-annual event with the Autumn Edition taking place inside the Saitama Super Arena.

This autumn marks the 20th edition of the Keyaki Beer Festival and if you have been there before, it’s pretty much the same deal with two special changes. For the first 300 individuals who buy an Official Guidebook, they will get stickers to commemorate the 20th edition; this is every day of the event. If the stickers are not enough to lure you to buying the program, it always has special discounts for tasting flights at many breweries. The second special change comes directly from a spokesperson from the Keyaki:

We plan to sell limited beer to mark the 20th time.

-Keyaki Spokesperson

On their event page, they have listed these limited brews by brewery. In total there will be 26 different types of beer made specifically for this event.

20th Edition Keyaki Beers

Booth Brewery Prefecture Name Description 3 Welawang Chiba Barrel Welawang 12 A barley wine at a whopping 12% alcohol. 6 Tokorozawa Beer Saitama SORA Using vines of the grapes called Adirondac, this vine grown in Yamanashi Prefecture creates a smoky and sweet treat. 17 Yokohama Bay Brewing Kanagawa Keyaki Imperial Pislner This is a triple decoction 6.5% Czech-style Pilsner by using a special Saaz hop that creates a unique flavor. 19 Belgian Beer Bar BARBEE’S Saitama 20 -twenty- This is a fragrant pale ale that is brewed with 20 different hops. 24 Daisen G Beer Tottori Imperial Stout They will break open one barrel of their vintage Imperial Stout from 2013, 2014, and 2015. 26 Sankt Gallen Brewery Kanagawa Fresh Hop IPA A large amount of fresh hops were used to create a traditional IPA that is similar to a NE-IPA. The hops were harvested in August from Yamanshi Prefecture. 31 10ants Brewing Tokyo Drifting in the Hop Universe This mega bitter IPA uses 20 different kinds of hops where the IBU is listed at 100. 32 COEDO BREWERY Saitama Natsuhate This all Saitama juicy and hoppy lager (IPL) was made with pears and wheat from Saitama Prefecture (Special thanks to BEER HUNTING URAWA for this lager). 41 Ise Kadoya Microbrewery Mie Kurenai no Keyaki IPA This Red IPA is said to represent the autumn foliage. With a generous amount of Citra hops, it has the typical impact of their IPAs but still easy to drink for those craft beer newbies. 46 EverGreen Imports Washington State The Rusty Nail This bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout with licorice and cinnamon at 14.5% was specially imported for the Keyaki. It is a whale beer for sure in Japan. 48 Miyazaki Hideji Beer Miyazaki Imperial Red Bock Using 5 kinds of malt including the new “RED X”, this complex malt base truly makes a red lager with fruit notes. 49 Kyoto Brewing Co. Kyoto Unknown This sour, citrus scented, Saison was made with Amarillo hops specifically for the Keyaki. 51 Kirishima Shuzo Miyazaki Black Tea Beer This easy to drink specialty lager was made with black tea that brings out the aromas of the malts. You can also get the essence of bergamot orange. 55 Nasu Kogen Beer Tochigi Hatsukoi Ale This beer uses local organic two-row barley grown in Nasu, as well as organic hops from the Tohoku region. This beer reminds the brewers of their first love, hence the name, First Love Ale. 56 Y.MARKET BREWING Aichi be twenty With more hops than their previous NEIPAs, they dry hopped this New England White IPA with 20kg of hops. 57 North Island Beer Hokkaido Keyaki Special Lager This special lager uses several spices such as ginger and coriander. The aromas and flavours of the spices bloom in your mouth as you drink this brew. 59 OH!LA!HO Beer & Matsumoto Brewery (Collaboration) Nagano ELDER SESSION WHEAT This drinkable fragrant wheat ale has the scent of elderflower. It is the first collaboration between these two breweries. 75 Matsue Beer Hearn Shimane Keyaki Special Weizen This Weizen uses three hops (Citra, Simco, and Mosaic) liberally to create a tropical Weizen. 76 Tochigi Micro Bewery Tochigi Marron Glacé (with Collagen) This specialty dessert beer will be in limited quantities. Drinking this treat is like eating Marron Glacé. 77 BLUE MAGIC Tochigi Keyaki 20 SPECIAL Blue Magic plans to ambush the Keyaki with a special beer. Drop by their booth and let us know! 78 Romantic Village Tochigi Keyaki Pils 2018 Using in-house hops for dry hopping to give a citrus fragrance and malt from Tochigi Prefecture, this “Keyaki Pilsner” is very drinkable. 80 OIRASE Brewery Aomori Oirase IPA Their first IPA will be introduced for the Keyaki, which uses three types of hops (Citra, Chinook, and Mosaic). This juicy and aromatic IPA is well balanced between the malt and hops. 82 Kyoto Bakushu Kyoto Kyoto Bakushu Matcha IPA With the overseas craft beer fan in mind (it looks green by the photo too) this Matcha IPA combines the bitterness of the match with hops while retaining the fragrance of the matcha. 83 HYAPPA BREWS Aichi Monkey Business Labelling their fruit ale as “Monkey Business” because monkeys like bananas and this is packed with banana favor notes, Hyapp Brews wonders if they’ll still be in business after this. 85 Naruko no Kaze Miyazaki Refreshing and Delicious This tomato ale uses tomatoes grown in Osaki, Miyazaki that has higher sugar content than usual. It is not something you can find in local markets. 86 Rokko Beer Hyogo Keyaki Rice Ale (with dry hopping) Using the famous Yamada Nishiki rice, rice used for sake, along with American aroma hops (Amarillo and Citra) this rice ale uses the kanji 「米」which is a play between rice and the kanji used for America.

New Breweries Attending

Booth Brewery Prefecture Description 87 Craft Beer Company Tokyo Parent of the Vector Beer chain, this brewery is bringing their India Pink Ale, a pink IPA made with beets. 20 Chichibu Beer Saitama Tan-san (head brewer) recommends his Tarumori Strong Saison, a Barrel Aged Saison that is low on bitterness but at 17%. 30 TDM 1874 Brewery Kanagawa Their IPA is a secret with a suppressed bitterness but with a fruity hop scent. NEIPA?!?! Hazy IPA?!?!?! The head brewer would never do that. 11 YONA YONA BEER WORKS Tokyo Yona Yona Beer Works is the restaurant arm of Ya-ho Brewing. They are keeping tight lipped on their special Works Ale but it’s listed at 7.5% and limited to only the Keyaki.

For detailed information, check out our event page for our Spring edition.

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