Asahi Brewery Suita

If you love beer and ever visit Osaka, you should definitely check this place out! We made reservations in advance, which I think is recommended, but I’m pretty sure there was a guy in the tour with us who just showed up and was put in our group. If you’re by yourself you might be able to get away without making reservations but I highly recommend calling in advance!
The tour and beer tasting is free, which is so awesome! At the beginning of the tour, they show a short video about the Asahi brewery and then you go on a walking tour of the facility. It’s pretty cool because you get to see all the stages of how they produce & package their beers as well as the different types of beer they make. At the end of the tour, you are given 20 minutes to sample up to 3 beers, which is enough to get a little tipsy! Haha! They even give a really good snack to munch on while you drink your beers! We tried the super cold, black and premium beers. They were all really good but my favorite was the premium!
It’s interesting because we often drink Asahi at home but somehow drinking it fresh at the brewery tasted soooooo much better!

Make reservation! Very easy to get to but make reservation! Highly recommended while in Osaka

Free tour and definitely worth checking out if near Osaka!!! Last 20 minutes of tour I was able to get in 4 beers (10 oz glasses — all for free)!!! First modern brewery in Japan and with a lot of history! Must visit and you will not be disappointed!!!

I love Beer! Free Beer? Yes please! Haha. During our first trip to Japan, my family and i decided to take a trip to the Asahi Brewery in Suita. Easy to get to and a good location. Not a long train ride from the Kitahama area with a few transfers. You must make reservations with the brewery first before taking the tour. Once you get there, you can put any personal items or backpacks in lockers in the lobby so you don’t have to carry them around with you on the tour. I believe the locker charge was only ¥100. Although our tour guide didn’t really speak that much English, there were brochures and signs to help with what she was explaining to us. A few of the guides do speak English. But we got lucky and the guide we had, didn’t speak English Lol. It was nice to look through the big glass panes and see directly into the factory where you see the bottling, canning and labeling machines and everything in action. After the tour, you are allowed to have 3 samples of beer. I liked that idea, although… They have 4 different samples available Lol. And you are only allowed 20 minutes to finish your beverages. For kids or those who do not drink beer, soft drinks are also available free of charge. All in all, very good tour and when we return to Japan in a few years, we will be back for sure!

So, after trying the Yamazaki distillery (see previous review), we had a taste for a good boozy tour. Now, Asahi isn’t my favourite beer in the world but it’s a giant in Japan. Everywhere you go you will be offered Asahi, Sapporo or Kirin as standard; so we figured it would be worth a visit to see where our staple beer had come from. Whilst in Osaka, it seemed to be fairly easy to get to the brewery so we gave them a bell on the Thursday and booked to visit on the coming Sunday.
Firstly, whilst it seems quite easy to get to, the visitors centre isn’t very well signposted. To give you a bit of help… Come out of the train station and follow the road around to the left until you see a security gate. You have to book before you go, but they’ll tick your name off their list at reception and you’ll enter via the sliding doors into a reception area with toilets, a shop and an indoor smoking area.
Once in, we were directed to a big auditorium for a short introduction to the brand. This was in Japanese, but you get the gist of what’s going on. After this, we were split into two groups and led around by a very friendly tour guide. Now, we didn’t have an audio guide for the tour (again, it was in Japanese), but most of the things of note were in dual language and we were given a leaflet — so we knew what was going on around the brewery.
The tour was about an hour and you got to see the gigantic scale of operation that goes on here. Seeing as we went on a Sunday, we didn’t see the machinery working (which was a shame), but it was still really interesting and a great way to spend an hour. At the end of the free tour you are given a beer, snacks and a short talk on the varieties of beer they make within the factory. After this you are welcomed to try 4 varieties of the beer over a period of 20 minutes… It’s time to get your drinking boots on for this to try them all in the allocated time.
Right at the end of the experience, you are given a little can to take away (it’s so mini) and are allowed to hit the shop. I would thoroughly recommend a look. We bought a special variety of highball that we hadn’t seen anywhere before and a bottle of something called «Blind Archer» (which is an apple concoction clocking in at 30%) for £9 as well as some bottles of the Asahi Black (which was very pleasant). The shop is mega inexpensive for some unusual varieties of stuff and great if you’re sticking around Osaka for a bit and fancy a drink in the evening.
I would thoroughly recommend this free tour to anyone visiting Osaka. As a top tip, go in the week to experience the brewing process but ensure that you give them a ring (or get someone who speaks Japanese to book online). Well worth a visit and a great free attraction!

Beer? ?? My favorite 4 letter word ;)I did not know that Asahi made so many different products. For example, whiskey, wine, and coffee drinks. Asahi has a free tour. That’s right free, my second favorite 4 letter word. .lol. Which you can take of the brewery. You need to have reservations to take the tour. They also have free samples at the end of the tour and a small store where you can buy their products. Kampai !!! Cool Japan :)