Japan is Nippon 日本語
Red-brick Sapporo Beer Museum building with its tall chimney under a blue sky
Photo: The original uploader was K. Takeda at Japanese Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hokkaido · museum

Sapporo Beer Museum

サッポロビール博物館

A Meiji-era red-brick museum tracing Japanese brewing back to the settlement of Hokkaido, with beers afterwards you can only drink here.

Old wooden beer signboards displayed inside the Sapporo Beer Museum
Photo: MIKI Yoshihito, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The red-brick beer museum and a lit Christmas tree on a snowy winter night
Photo: t-konno, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Japan's first museum devoted to beer

The Sapporo Beer Museum opened in 1987 as the first museum in Japan dedicated entirely to beer. It is housed in a red-brick building completed in 1890, originally built as a sugar refinery and later used by the brewery as a malting plant. Together with the Kaitakushi-kan building of the neighbouring Sapporo Beer Garden restaurant, it has been chosen as a Hokkaido Heritage site.

Sapporo Beer traces its roots to the Kaitakushi Brewery (Kaitakushi Bakushu Jozosho), which opened in 1876. The Kaitakushi was the government office that drove the development of Hokkaido during the Meiji era. The museum uses material from each period to show how brewing, which began as part of the Hokkaido settlement project, led to the beer of today.

Renewed in July 2026

To mark Sapporo Beer's 150th anniversary, the exhibits and services were renewed on 1 July 2026, and an admission fee was introduced at the same time.

On the self-guided tour, which needs no booking, an audio guide on your smartphone and earphones takes you round 15 points in the museum. The audio guide is available in Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese (traditional and simplified). The route is one-way, working down from the third floor to the second and then the first, and it takes about 15 to 40 minutes. Highlights include the huge brew kettle that was actually used for brewing until 2003, and a long line-up of Sapporo beers through the ages.

There is also a guided tour with tasting, which needs a reservation. After watching the history in a video theatre, you move to a private lounge to compare two beers: Fukkoku Sapporo Sei Bakushu, a recreation of the Kaitakushi-era taste, and Black Label. Note, however, that the tour is guided in Japanese only.

Tasting, the beer garden and getting there

In the tasting hall on the first floor you can try beer for a fee. There are sets that let you compare beers such as Sapporo Classic, sold only in Hokkaido, and Kaitakushi Beer, which you can only drink here. At the Sapporo Beer Garden on the same site you can enjoy beer with jingisukan, Hokkaido's famous grilled lamb.

The museum is about 2km north-east of Sapporo Station. From Sapporo Station, take a Hokkaido Chuo Bus heading for Sapporo Beer Garden and get off at the Sapporo Beer Garden stop, right by the entrance. You can also walk there in about eight minutes from the north exit of JR Naebo Station, or about ten minutes from Higashi-Kuyakushomae Station on the Toho subway line. Check opening hours and prices on the official website.

Tips

  • There is no brewing equipment in the museum. If you want to see beer actually being made, that is at a different site, such as the Hokkaido Brewery in Eniwa.
  • Drivers, anyone under 20, and people who are pregnant or breastfeeding cannot take part in tastings. Soft drinks are available instead.
  • The guided tour with tasting must be booked and does not run on Mondays and some other days. If you don't understand Japanese, the self-guided tour with the English audio guide is still very enjoyable.
  • The red-brick building changes its look with each season, and there are plenty of spots on the grounds for photos.

Sources

Updated 29 September 2026. Opening hours and prices change, so check the official site before you go.

Keep exploring

Nearby places

JR Tower rising above the south side of Sapporo Station on a sunny day
Hokkaido · viewpoint JR Tower (Sapporo) JRタワー A 173m tower linked to Sapporo Station. The 38th-floor T38 deck gives 360-degree views, from the grid of streets to Ishikari Bay and the mountains.
White wooden Sapporo Clock Tower with its red roof and clock face
Hokkaido · historic site Sapporo Clock Tower 札幌市時計台 A red-roofed, white wooden hall built for a Meiji-era farm school. Its bell still rings every hour, and inside you meet the story of how Sapporo began.
Tudor-style half-timbered buildings of Shiroi Koibito Park with red ivy on the walls
Hokkaido · theme park Shiroi Koibito Park 白い恋人パーク A Sapporo sweets park in English-style buildings where you tour the factory making Shiroi Koibito, Hokkaido's classic souvenir. Renewed in July 2026.
Turquoise Blue Pond in Biei with dead larch trees standing in the water under a summer sky
Hokkaido · nature Shirogane Blue Pond 白金青い池 A pond in Biei whose water looks uncannily blue among dead larch trunks. Born by accident from volcano defences, it looks completely different each season.
King penguins walking in a line across the snow during the winter penguin walk at Asahiyama Zoo
Hokkaido · zoo aquarium Asahiyama Zoo 旭川市旭山動物園 Japan's northernmost zoo, famous for showing animals swimming and leaping as they would in the wild. In winter, king penguins go for walks on the snow.
Wooden Cape Oma sign on the seafront promenade, with the tuna monument behind it
Aomori · coast Cape Oma 大間崎 The northernmost tip of Honshu, with Hokkaido just across the Tsugaru Strait and a famous tuna monument for your "end of the line" photo.