Sapporo Beer Tour: A Great Lesson of the History of Beer in Japan!

The Sapporo beer tour is one of the must-do activities if you visit the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido Japan. Located in the center of the city the Sapporo Beer Brewery is a beautiful factory and beer museum. You can get a guided tour for ¥1000, ($6.67US) for adults, ¥500, ($3.33US) for Jr. high school to high school age and it is free for elementary-aged kids. However, you can walk around the museum on your own for free. If you go on the guided tour adults who are not driving, will get a glass of beer. For those who are underage or are driving will receive a soft drink of their choosing.

The guided tours give you a good history lesson about the history of brewing beer in Japan. Sapporo Brewery was one of the first to use advertisements to sell its beer. When beer was first produced in Japan, it wasn’t popular at first. The lack of popularity was mostly due to the cost of a bottle and the amount of glasses of beer per bottle. At the time, a bottle of Japanese sake produced about 20 glasses of sake, whereas a bottle of beer only produced about 4 glasses of beer. Sapporo came up with posters to advertise their beer to gain popularity.

One interesting fact that you will learn about is where the term ‘Jockey’ beer comes from. It stems from one of the early advertisements Sapporo Brewery used to make their beer more popular. Another interesting fact that you will learn from the tour is that they not only used the same model for many of their posters, but they used the same family of women for most of their posters.

Another option instead of the paid guided tour, is to explore the museum on your own. A benefit of doing this, other than saving money, is that you can get through it quickly and make your way to the Star Hall, (Paid Tasting Corner). You can get a flight of three beers for ¥1000, ($6.67US).

Single glasses of beer range from ¥400, ($2.67US) to ¥450, ($3.00US). Also, you can get a non-alcoholic beer or soft drinks for ¥200, ($1.33).

There are a couple of gift shops, one inside the brewery and the other is detached in a separate building. These gift shops not only offer a wide variety of snacks and souvenirs, but they also offer a variety of different types of Sapporo beer that are only available there.