Asahi Brewery Osaka

On a recent trip to Osaka we headed to Nishinomiya for a tour of the Asahi brewery there. The brewery was about a 15 minute walk from the Nishinomiya Station on the JR Kobe Line. Guided by Asahi’s public relations staff, the tour started with a display of the raw materials used to brew beer: malted barley, hops, water and yeast. We were able to sift our hands through the grain samples. This was followed by an overview of the 5 steps to making beer: processing the barley (malting), the mashing process, the fermentation and maturation processes, the filtration process, and finally the bottling and canning processes.

Asahi Brewery in Nishinomiya, Osaka

The tour of the plant took approximately 90 minutes and was enough to make you thirsty. Luckily, at the tour end we ended up in the tasting room where we were able to sample 3 of Asahi’s beers. I had the Asahi Super Dry, Asahi Super Malt and Asahi Kuronama Black. Ash had a Mitsuya Cider.

Asahi Super Dry and Asahi Kuronama Black

In front of the souvenir shop

No tour of a Japanese brewery would be complete without a gratuitous mention of a beer image girl in a bikini. Itō Misaki, in the video following, kickstarts her career in 1999 as a bikini-clad beer image girl for Asahi.

The following beer image girl posters were hanging at the entrance to the tasting room. Surprisingly no bikinis…

Asahi Beer Image Girl

Asahi Beer Image Girl

For more beer tours in Japan check out Kirin Brewery Yokohama or Beer Museum Yebisu.