
Sake Tour with a Sake Brewer
- 4 hours
- Free cancellation up to 24h before
- Guided in English
- Instant confirmation
Highlights
Join an expert brewer for an exclusive journey through Japan’s most famous sake region. Go beyond the free tasting areas to explore traditional techniques, visit a master cooperage where barrels are still handcrafted, and enjoy a guided tasting of sake made from three different rice varieties. • Exclusive Tastings: Sample rare Nama (unpasteurized), barrel-aged, and ultra-premium Daiginjo sake. • Behind-the-Scenes Access: Visit a workshop where skilled craftsmen still hand-build traditional wooden sake barrels. • Expert Insights: Learn centuries-old brewing secrets and local culture from an experienced sake brewer. • Sake Knowledge: Enjoy a guided Sake Flight with your host at an active sake brewery. For weekend dates, please check my other tour at Origin Sake Tours, available Fri, Sat and Sun
Inclusions
What's included
- All taxes, fees and handling charges
- Taste various types of local sake
- Explanation of traditional sake brewing techniques
- Guided Sake Tasting with your host (comparative tasting of different grades of sake)
- Guided by a local sake brewer, not a tour guide
Itinerary
Enjoy a welcome drink in front of the crystal-clear spring water of Sawa no I well. This natural spring is directly beneath the elevated tracks of Hanshin Mikage Station in Kobe and holds deep cultural importance both for the naming of the Mikage area and for the region's brewing history.
Our first stop begins with traditional sake brewing. Your guide is an experienced sake brewer and has experienced the Edo-period brewing techniques on display. He will be on hand to show you around their interactive museum and explain the various tools and equipment on display. This is also a chance to see the workings on a fully operational craft sake brewery. Free sake tasting is provided.
Our first stop is Kiku-Masamune, founded in 1659. Today they are famous for their continued use of traditional brewing techniques such as cask-aged sake (taruzake) and the natural kimoto method. Here you will visit the workshop where dedicated craftspeople still make these casks by hand (subject to availability) and try the sake aged in them based on a traditional Edo-period (1603-1868) recipe.
Our last stop takes us up to the modern age of sake brewing at one of Nada's smallest breweries. Hamafukutsuru is a interactive brewing facility, built after the devastation of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. They concentrate on the luxurious ginjo method of sake brewing, known for its light and floral brews. Here you will enjoy a comparative tasting of 3 different kinds of ginjo made from 3 different rice varieties.
Cancellation
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.
Reviews
5.0
- 52
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- 10
Ratings come from 2 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.
Know before you go
- Meeting point
- Our meeting point is Hanshin Nishinomiya Station on the Hanshin Electric Railway Main Line. After getting off the train, wait outside the ticket gate of the Ebisu Exit.
- Pickup
- Everyone meets at the starting point; there is no pickup.
- Ticket type
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Group size
- Up to 8 travellers
- Operated by
- Origin Sake Tours
- Service animals allowed
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
How it compares in Kobe
- Its from-price is 24% below the median of the 198 experiences we list in Kobe.
- Its length is typical for the group.
- By number of reviews it ranks 61 of 198.
- The operator lists free cancellation on it.
About Kobe
Kobe is a port city on Osaka Bay, set between the sea and the Rokko mountains, known for its beef, foreign-style hillside houses and hot springs.
Kobe is a long, narrow city squeezed between Osaka Bay and the Rokko Mountains, which rise steeply behind it. It opened as a treaty port in 1868, and its foreign merchants left a hillside district, Kitano, of European-style mansions, churches and cafés. Nankinmachi is a compact Chinatown. At the harbour, the red Port Tower and the Meriken Park waterfront look out over the bay.
Top-ranked sights in Kobe: Kobe Harborland, Kobe Port Tower, Kobe Maritime Museum.
Special offers in Kobe
Was/now prices come from the operator, never from us.
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