Japan’s number 1 beer is Asahi Super Dry, and for a good reason… it’s a refreshing and crisp lager that was responsible for spawning Japan’s love of beer. When you think Japanese beer, you think Asahi. Sadly if you purchase the beer outside of Japan, chances are high that it is imported from somewhere like Thailand or other south-east Asian countries. Although they are brewed to strict standards, they just aren’t the same as one bought in Japan.

Asahi Super Dry,
at Asahi Nagoya Brewery’s Beer Hall

Asahi has many breweries throughout Japan, located in:

• Sapporo
• Fukushima
• Ibaraki
• Kanagawa
• Nagoya
• Osaka
• Ehime
• Fukuoka

At all breweries you can book a free guided tour. Some breweries offer tours in English as well as Japanese. I attended the Japanese tour at Nagoya’s brewery.

View this location – Map coordinates: 35.213, 136.958.

Free Asahi Brewery tour + 3 free beers!

I booked out of interest, but also because at the end of the tour, you get to taste up to 3 free (and extremely fresh) Asahi Super Dry beers within 20 minutes.

The tour takes you through the brewery showing you the process used to make Asahi Super Dry. The tour took about 30 minutes, finishing at the beer hall. I noticed no-one asked any questions (I was the only foreigner and my Japanese isn’t technical to converse about beer). When we got to the beer hall I realised the group was comprised mainly of Oji-san (old Japanese men). They were keen to finish the tour and get to the free beers…

When we got to the beer hall, the oji-san’s were prepared! Although there were snacks at the table, they brought their own munchies and looked very well prepared for this 20 minute beer session.

Other breweries, including Kirin and Sapporo offer similar tours.

See another photo of my Asahi Super Dry collection – a family of beer cans and bottles, from 135ml to 3l!