I’m writing this review based on the free tour, as I didn’t book the premium one. The free tour you can just walk in and make your way to level 3. No need to queue for ticket . Honestly, the free tour is pretty short — it’s mainly about the history of how Sapporo Beer was founded, along with a small exhibit showing what the brewery looked like in the past. You can finish the tour in about 10–15 minutes, depending on how much time you spend reading the panels.
The highlight was definitely the beer tasting afterward. Theres a queue to purchase the ticket but it's quite fast like 5-10mins. We tried three different beers for around 1200 yen because we were curious about the different flavors. Our favorite was the “Black Label” — super smooth and easy to drink. The “Classic” had a slightly bitter aftertaste, which wasn’t really to our liking. As for the “Kaitakushi,” we’d rank it last — it was quite bitter, especially at the end, so it might appeal more to those who like stronger, more bitter beers.
There are seating areas for tasting, but they can get crowded, so we ended up standing at a table in the back, which was perfectly fine.
Right next to the museum, there’s a large shopping mall with stores like Uniqlo, GU, and more — definitely worth stopping by for a quick browse!
A small, free little museum that's connected with their gift shop and paid tasting bar. We spent a good 10-15 minutes looking at the displays and the mini-film on the 2nd floor. All of the text is in Japanese only, but you can use an English audio guide, with instructions on the 3rd floor entrance. It was a little busy when we visited midday of the week, but for good reason with Sapporo being a big name Japanese beer company across the globe!
There are dedicated buses to go here too. So I'd recommend visiting the Sapporo beer museum.
❗Make sure to book tickets for the paid tour well in advance, especially during holidays — everything gets sold out at least a week ahead due to Korean tourists.
This is based on the free museum tour, since it was impossible to get into the paid one during the holiday period.
For a free beer 🍺 museum, it was actually quite interesting. Nothing mind-blowing, but if you enjoy beer, you’ll probably like it. It explains the brand’s history, its advertising, how it was founded, and how the beer is brewed. The museum isn’t very big — if you read everything, it takes around 20 minutes; if you just walk through, maybe 5–10 minutes.
There’s a tasting area on the first floor. I was told it’s free, but there was a line of about 50 Korean tourists, and even more kept joining. I still don’t understand why they’d rather wait two hours for a free beer than just buy one. I obviously didn’t bother standing in line.
It was not so impressive.
There is only Japanese language to explain the museum.
On the ground floor, you can taste a sampler for three different Sapporo bears.
It is only what I could enjoyed at the museum.
You can buy Sapporo bear in the gift shop but I do not recommend to buy. You can buy Sapporo bear at any convenience store at cheaper price than the museum.
Even if beer is not your favorite thing in the world, if you run out of things to do in Sapporo, a trip to the beer museum is not a bad option. They have a free short tour where you can learn a bit about the history of Sapporo beer, and the whole premise is super cool with the rustic beer hall. At the end of the tour you can also sample some beer too, definitely on the expensive side but nevertheless pretty cool. Overall a good place to spend like 1-2 hours here.
