Sampling Suds at Asahi Suita Brewery Osaka
Three days after arriving to Japan we already started to notice how challenging it was to stay within our budget. In order to do so, we’ve had to trim the fat on things we don’t need like beer, which has been a big tease since we are seeing all kinds of fun different beers we haven’t had the chance to test out on our tastebuds yet!
A big bummer, until I found out you could do a free tour at Osaka’s Asahi Suita Brewery. I read somewhere on tripadvisor that not only was the tour free, but you got 3 free beers at the end of the tour. WHAT!!! This sounded too good to be true. I tried to do more research, but couldn’t find out if this rumor was true or not!
So, we decided to check it out ourselves. After going the wrong way on Japan’s confusing subway, we were now 40 minutes out of the way. Luckily, there were some friendly locals who helped us get on the right train and helped us transfer when we needed it. We are super thankful for them.
After a short walk, we easily found the gigantic Asahi Suita Brewery. The friendly guard directed us to the reservation counter where we were told to come back in an hour for our free tour!
We walked around the area and killed some time at the two shrines across the street, Katayama Shrine and Asahi Shrine. Google maps showed that there was a buddhist temple next door too, but we couldn’t get a sneak peek because it happened to be locked.
Before we knew it, it was time for our tour. We checked in and got an english audio guide for the tour. The tour itself lasts for about 40 minutes and takes you through the process of how their beer is made and the craftsmanship that goes into making a perfect bottle/can of Asahi beer.
At the end of the tour we were instructed to sit at a table where we would have 20 minutes of FREE TASTING! We were so excited because here was our chance to get our three free beers. Each table also has a snack for each person who participated in the tour. As we went up for our second beer, there was a guy giving out free samples of sake as well.
Already feeling tipsy and realizing we only had 1o minutes left we went up for beer number three, we noticed there was a fourth beer they were giving out too! So we crushed our beer and went up for another. Asahi is super generous with their tastings.
We realized we actually could have probably had another beer had we known it was pretty much a free for all for 20 minutes. All you can drink for 20 minutes inside a brewery! That’s dangerous! It was quite entertaining to see people from the tour getting tipsy one by one after the tasting.
We were excited that not only was the rumor true (about the 3 free beers) but indeed there were more! Haha, this sounds pathetic how elated we were over free beer, but in Japan it’s not exactly budget friendly so this was an early Christmas present to us!
We recommend anyone visiting Japan to see if one of their many breweries around the country are near them and give it a visit for a free tour and free beer! You can find all their different locations here.
Don’t like beer? No worries, they have different soft drinks that designated drivers, kids, and non beer drinkers can sample instead!