oh la ho brewery tour

For a few years now our good friends at Cafe Hocco in Mitsuke have been running bus tours to Nagano to visit the popular Oh La Ho brewery. This year Albannach and Rhino craft beer bar in Nagaoka joined up with Cafe Hocca for a great day out. The bus picked us up from Niigata then drove to Mistuke , then Nagaoka. We arrived at Oh la Ho brewery around 11am after a 3 hour bus ride and then could either take a bath at their onsen complex next door , a tour of a local winery or a brewery tour . Tamaki & I chose the brewery tour followed by an all you can drink bar at a fantastic buffet which featured many of the local grown fresh vegetables that Nagano is so popular for. I started off with a full cup of Captain Kid double IPA which was far too hoppy for me and then decided to try half cups of everything until I found the one I liked best which was their amber ale . I really enjoyed their Barley Wine but at ABV 15% you can not afford to drink very much of it. There was a great local blues band playing and I got to do the opening Kanpai ( Cheers ) toast to the crowd . On the return trip home we stopped off at a service area and picked up a great big bag of Nagano apples which have since been made into apple pies. We are looking forward to joining them again next year as well. Pictured below is a slide show taken on the brewery tour