Keyaki Beer Festival

The Keyaki Beer Festival is a large festival held at Saitama Super Arena.

Admission to the event is free, but if you want to sit down at one of the official tables, you will need to reserve a seat. The cost to reserve a seat is ¥1,400, but that also includes two beer tickets worth ¥500 each, so the effective price is only ¥400.

Most beers are ¥500 each but you can also get “tasting comparison” sets of 4 smaller sized beers for ¥1,000 at most of the breweries in attendance, although a few may charge more for these.

90 different brewers from throughout Japan and a few from overseas will be in attendance serving over 400 different beers. The most common price points are ¥500 and ¥600. A few brewers will be serving up their product for as little as ¥300.

Breweries in attendance include Coedo, Hatachino, Shiga Kogen, Devilcraft, Swan Lake, Outsider, Y.Market Brewing and Kyoto Brewing Company. Notable absentees are Baird Beer and Minoh Beer.

(Greg Lane)