Events Report: The Battle of the Craft Beer Events

This post is for all the craft beer lovers in Ibaraki.
Today, I am going to be talking about not just one craft beer event, but two craft beer events that happened at the same time last weekend. One of the events was in my town in Tsuchiura, the other was in the town of Hitachinaka. One craft beer event has been happening for a few years now, while the other just started this year! Both of theses events happening at the same time, selling Ibaraki’s tasty craft beer, and food. This can only mean one thing, it is a Battle of the Craft Beer Events!
Which one will be victorious in the heart of Mr. Ibaraki Eats?

Cheers Festival

The Tsuchiura Cheers Festival has been going on for quite a while now. I believe I first visited this craft beer event about three years ago. There are always a lot of great Ibaraki craft beers to try at Cheers Festival, including Tsukuba’s Twin Peaks and Tsukuba Brewery, Mito Brewing, Ushiku Brewing, and many more.
I have always enjoyed myself at Cheers Festival. There is usually live music, tasty beer, and good company. I did find that the food selection could be lacking sometimes, but other than that, it has always been a solid craft beer event.
Cheers Festival usually takes place on the roof of Tsuchiura Station, but this year, the event was held in the event space at Tsuchiura City Hall. A lot of the usual craft beer vendors showed up, and I was ready to get drinking! They even stepped up their food selection this year by adding Oppo Ice Cream and a place called Hisa, which served cup pasta.
It was a pretty good beer festival!

Brewer's Gate

Brewer’s Gate is a new craft beer event that started this year. It took place near the bus terminal at Katsuta Station. If you have ever seen the ROCK sign in Katsuta, then you know exactly what place I am talking about. Brewer’s Gate had a good selection of beer and food, with plenty of different food options and a few different beers from other prefectures to try.
Since this was my first time at this event, I was excited to check it out. I met a few local Hitachinaka residents, grabbed a seat at one of the many tables that were set up, and enjoyed a few beers and some good conversation.

So, between these two events, which one was the clear winner of this craft beer battle weekend?
To decide that, I came up with three categories for this battle: food, atmosphere, and, of course, beer.

Food

When it comes to the categories, I really had to think about two of them, except for this category. The clear winner, without question, was Brewer’s Gate.
Cheers Festival did have food, but honestly, it was not very good. The only amazing food they had was the ice cream from Oppo pictured above. I am usually not a fan of chocolate mint, but Oppo’s chocolate mint is fantastic.
The other food came from shops at PlayAtre, which is the building connected to Tsuchiura Station. The bakery Couronne, Tsukuba Ham, and a few other places were there. I decided to grab a sausage sandwich from Couronne, and I was very disappointed. The sandwich was cold and tasteless. Because of that sandwich, I decided not to try food from any of the other vendors, except Oppo.

On the other hand, Brewer’s Gate had a lot of fantastic food options. There was curry from Viajero, Korean food from Jeonju, burgers from 33 Diner (pictured above), and plenty of other great choices. I had tteokbokki from Jeonju and a burger from 33 Diner, and they were both outstanding.
Who would think that warm, tasty food would be great at a beer festival? Cheers Festival, do better!

Atmosphere

So which event did I feel more comfortable at, and which one made it easier to have a beer and talk with the different people around me? The clear winner for that is Brewer’s Gate.
The Cheers Festival took place near Tsuchiura Station, but you wouldn’t know there was a beer festival going on unless you got close to the event area. The event was also small and kind of closed off from the rest of the town. I did like the fact that they designated the right side as the food area and the left side as the beer area. People were having a great time and talking to each other while enjoying their beers. There were tables and chairs in the middle of the event and a small tent with chairs, but otherwise, there wasn’t a lot of space to stand around and relax with a beer in hand.
Cheers did have a stage, but the performances and music they had going on didn’t really scream “beer festival” to me. There were idols and dance groups performing. It’s fine to have those kinds of performances at different events, but if I have to scream over the music when a friend of mine is standing right next to me, then I think you have a problem.

Brewer’s Gate was much more open and could easily be seen from Katsuta Station. There were a lot of tables and chairs lined up around the entire event area. The food and beer tents were all mixed together, but not so much that it became confusing. Everyone at Brewer’s Gate was sitting down, having beers, enjoying great food, talking with their friends, and meeting new people. It was a relaxed and open space where everyone seemed to be having fun.
I do have three problems with Brewer’s Gate. One, the tickets you had to buy to purchase food and beer were a pain. Second, the event was supposed to end at 7:00, but the staff started cleaning up and making us leave around 6:45. Finally, in all the events I have been to, not one has ever played “Hotaru no Hikari” when the event was ending.
For those of you who don’t know, “Hotaru no Hikari” is the New Year’s theme in America, and it is played in stores in Japan when they are closing. But I have never heard it played at an event before. It was weird and made me feel like they wanted us gone as quickly as possible.
Other than that, I had a great time talking to the vendors, drinking beer, and enjoying some amazing food at Brewer’s Gate.

The Beer

This category was a lot tougher to decide. The reason is that I had delicious beer at both events. Both events had great breweries and a lot of different tasty beers to choose from.
That being said, I am going to have to give this category to the Cheers Festival.
One aspect I really liked was that the Cheers Festival had beer only from Ibaraki brewers. I know a lot of these breweries, and they all make excellent beer. I didn’t dislike any of the beer I had at Cheers; they were all delicious. There were drink sets and different sizes to choose from, and it was great to try Twin Peaks’ Lemon Weizen and Mito Brewing’s Tororin Hazy IPA. All the beer was nice and cold and very tasty.

At Brewer’s Gate, there was a mix of Ibaraki breweries and breweries from different prefectures. Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean to say that this is a bad thing. In fact, I really like trying beers from breweries from other places. But I think a beer festival that gives Ibaraki breweries a chance to shine makes for a great beer event.
Of course, all the beer I had at Brewer’s Gate was excellent, like Senba Brewery’s watermelon lager, but I just felt that the Cheers Festival had a lot of delicious Ibaraki beer ready to try. The ticket system at Brewer’s Gate didn’t help either.

I did have fun at both events, and I hope both events come back next year.
I would love for the Cheers Festival to work out some of its food and atmosphere problems, and hopefully Brewer’s Gate can get rid of its pesky ticket system. Either way, both were great events, and I hope I can have a beer at both events again next year.
Will they happen at the same time again? If they do, you can guarantee I will try to go to both and have a great time with friends, food, and beer!
Enjoy!

For more information on Cheers Festival, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/tsuchiura_cheersfestival/

For more information on Brewer's Gate, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/brewersgate_hitachinaka?stkn=emE2cXRka3VvZnpt

For the older blog posts, check out the WIX Ibaraki Eats.

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