Sapporo Kaitakushi Beer Brewery

Sapporo Kaitakushi Beer Brewery is the first brewery in Japan to have produced authentic beer entirely by Japanese hands, having opened in 1876, the ninth year of the Meiji era. It is the origin of Sapporo Beer.

They do. It is a brewery inside Sapporo Factory, and they still use the same subsoil water from the Toyohira River that was used back then. The fact that the water source has not changed in 150 years is incredible.

His name was Sei-bei Nakagawa. He came from a merchant family in Niigata, but in the late Edo period he secretly left Japan and went to Europe. He trained at a beer factory in Berlin and became Japan's first beer brewing engineer.

Exactly. Another key figure was Hisanari Murahashi, a Satsuma Domain samurai, and these two founded the Kaitakushi Beer Brewery. The current brewery carries on that spirit and continues brewing beer based on the methods of that era.

Three kinds of Kaitakushi Beer: Pilsner, Alt, and Weizen. The Pilsner is unfiltered, made from 100% malt, with live yeast. The Alt is a reddish-brown color like bricks and has a strong hop bitterness. The Weizen uses 50% wheat malt and is fruity. You can drink them at BREWERY1876, the brewery's attached pub.