MXPDX is produced by Beer Friends, a 501(c)(4) founded in 2023 to promote education, commerce, and cross-cultural exchange with craft beer, cider, food, arts, & culture.

Beer Friends’ first event was the biennial Fuji to Hood (F2H), a Japan/Oregon collaboration beer festival that was held in Portland, Oregon in 2018, and then in Tokyo in 2019. The festival returned after the pandemic in 2022 to rapturous attendance and interest from the public, sponsors, brewers, and vendors. After returning to the Shibuya area of Tokyo in 2023, organizers decided that to improve the festival and extend their mission that a nonprofit model was the best course of action.

Ahead of the 2024 Fuji to Hood festival, 501(c)(4) Beer Friends was formed by founders Michael Walcott, Red Gillen, and Ezra Johnson-Greenough with additional board members Nicole Kasten and Jeremie Herrig adding their deep experience in beer events and nonprofits to the team.