Real Ale? Can i have more please sir...?

Well the Tokyo real ale festival is in the books and a nice event It was. Running between 1 and 5 on a Sunday afternoon is certainly a bit strange, but everyone was well mannered and had a good time. Winners for me on the day were the Baird Barley wine, Sankt Gallen imperial chocolate stout and the Tokyo black. The Baird Barley wine (8/10) was big and bold with lots of sweet fruits permeating though the mix. The other two were brews I've tried more than a few times before and were well represented in cask form. My good friend Aiko enjoyed the Tokyo Black the most, so I really think this represents the quality of the brew. She enjoys beer, but as a more casual drinker she tended to enjoy the more mild beers, so it was an all round winner.

The Shiga Kogen was a little disappointing for me as it was a collaboration with Nogne 0 from Norway. Called 'Not so Mild ale' it was a simple mild bitter that fell in to the normal Shiga profile, but didn't present anything special. Oh well collaborations generally aren't the best anyway, just look at the Stone, Ale Smith, Mikkeller collaboration recently....

The event was reasonably well organised, although the popular beers ran out after about an hour and a half and by about the third hour pretty much everything was gone. Hitachino Nest Japanese classic ale ran out just as I was the the third person in line to try it. It had been sitting there in a shochu cask and I couldn't help but pine for it. Oh well.

The best part of the day was perhaps meeting up with other beer lovers. I saw Koichi the owner of Thrash Zone and a lot of rate beer regulars. It was particularly nice to meet Mark (aka Kyotolefty) and the Jolly one. Thanks for the three philosophers beer generously shared by Mark! Great to meet you mate! Also met Nate and his lovely girlfriend, who does the blog 'Good Beer and Country Boys'. Seemed like a nice chap. Keep up the good work with the blog!

Well now I'm back to work and still dreaming about those loverly loverly brews! Onwards to the next festival!!