Kirin Brewery Yokohama — Beer Factory Tour with Tasting

The Kirin Brewery Yokohama Factory (キリンビール横浜工場) offers guided tours showcasing the beer brewing process from malt selection through fermentation, filtration, and packaging. The tour includes hands-on elements — visitors touch and smell raw ingredients (hops, barley malt), observe massive fermentation tanks, and learn the science behind Kirin's flagship Ichiban Shibori beer. The tour concludes with a tasting session where participants sample three beers (20-minute limit, three glasses per person, non-alcoholic options available).

The factory's location in suburban Yokohama (Namamugi area, historically significant as the site of the 1862 Namamugi Incident that escalated UK-Japan tensions) provides industrial-scale brewing contrast to craft beer bars. The tour reveals the precision and scale of industrial beer production — multi-story fermentation tanks holding 300kL (79,000 gallons), automated bottling lines processing 72,000 bottles per hour, and quality control protocols ensuring batch consistency. The free tour with generous tasting makes this popular weekend activity for beer enthusiasts and families.