Kirin Beer Village

The Kirin Beer Village is open to the public even though it is part of the Kirin brewery located in Yokohama. Inside the Beer Village there are free brewery tours that go around the facility and offer a beer tasting at the end. The brewery tour is one hour long and passes displays of the history of Kirin. While being guided you will end up in an area where you can see the fermentation tanks and the bottling area. The tours are usually offered in Japanese, but there are English guides available upon request. The Kirin Brewery Company is one of the four leading beer companies in Japan. It was founded in Yokohama, a city known for being one of the first ports to open up to foreigners, in 1907. Beer started to thrive in the Meiji Period (1868-1912) as the nation began to adopt Western culture.