Takayama: Authentic Sake Tasting At A Historic Brewery

This was a really interesting tour with lots of background on how sake is made as well as lots of opportunity for tastings with explanations. Takumi gave us a thorough rundown or the whole process as well as explaining the differences in types of sake and how they affect tastes. Be warned though - you will need an extra bag to take home your supplies after the tasting!

We really enjoyed our small group Funasaka Sake Brewery tour. Satoe our friendly and expert guide clearly provided the historic context and explained about the different types of rice used in the production and brewing process, before taking us through our tasty and enjoyable sake tasting session. Would definitely recommend this tour.

This was such a lot of fun. We learned such a lot about making sake from our wonderful guide, and the tasting was amazing - we had never imagined there could be so many different varieties of depth and taste.

Our guide was so nice and very informative (thanks Sato). The tour went into the back rooms of the brewery. I learnt many new things about the complex process for making quality Sake. Next time I’d book directly with Happy Plus tours for less than half the cost. TripAdvisor is a complete rip off.

We really enjoyed our time and learned a lot. Yama was great. Worth it for the tasting and learning about sake. We also purchased some bottles to bring home

Detailed review of sake making process and the tastings were delicious. The host was knowledgeable and patient in answering questions.

Great tour, great tour guide! Super interesting seeing the oldest sake brewery in Japan! Also got to try some great sake as well.

I was the only person booked into the tour so I got a private tour and tasting and it was excellent! Takumi explained everything throughly and clearly about the sake-making process and could answer all my questions. He was a great guide that kept things fun and relaxed. At the end I got to try 8 delicious different samples - would highly recommend this tour

Great tour learning about the history of sake in Takayama and with the ability to try many types of sake. The tour guide gave us a behind the scenes tour of the sake brewery.

We visited Takayama because we heard that it's so relaxing and different from Tokyo. But yes it was true ! also attending this tour was a great idea. We could try many types of Japanese food and really enjoyed Takayama a lot!

Our tour guide was informative and polite, but seemed unenthusiastic about being at work and unengaged with the group on the tour. He rushed through his explanations and the sake tasting so quickly that even the 20 something’s in the group were not keeping up.

Mu has been a wonderfull guide ! We have learn a lot about Sake and Takayam thanks to her. I would jighly recommend to book this tour before anything in Takayama to have local flavour about life ! Thanks again Mu : Celia et Mathieu

The Sake Brewery tour was very informative thank you to our knowledgeable guide Yama. It was very interesting to learn about the Sake making process and sample some very nice kinds, Kanpai!

We visited the oldest Sake Brewery in Takayama with our guide Mui. She was amazing! She explained everything so well. We learned a lot about the brewing process, as well as the history of Takayama. I would definitely recommend booking a tour with Mui!

We were so fortunate to be the only guests for the tour, so we had the undivided attention of our guide. She was thorough and answered all of our questions with patience.

It was a good event, although the group was very small (3 people + guide) and it felt a bit awkward. But the history of brewery and tasting sake was very nice ^^

The tour was super short and not very informative. It took about 15 minutes once we got into the brewery (not including the tasting). The guides English and was barely acceptable. One of the group was FaceTiming the entire thing and was loud and obnoxious and the guide said nothing. Really bad atmosphere. Tasting was just Ok with very little information about what we’re tasting except the type of the rice - nothing about the different methods that were used to create each one. We also only got to try 4 types of sake and one type of yuzushu. All in all I wish I hadn’t booked it and just went to do the tasting alone - like I’m doing in the other breweries in the area.

Great experience getting a tour of the oldest sake Brewery in Takayama. Amazing sake! Great to taste many different sakes. Mu was an excellent guide. Thankyou for the experience Mu. Highly recommend!

A great tour to understand the sake brewing process, a little sake history for the area and a tasting with explanation of different types of sake. “Mu” is a terrific guide and she makes you feel as if you are visiting with a friend from Takayama.

Miyuki(Mu) was amazing! We ended up getting her all to ourselves. She walked us around town explaining the history. Every so often we would stop at a local food stall or shop and we would pay for snacks if we wished to try it. The last part of the trip was the brewery. We were able to see some of the packaging process and Mu took us through the process of how it is made with pictures and small samples. Lastly was the tasting, my favorite was the sweeter plumb sake 😋 Thank you Mu, we had a wonderful time! I would recommend this tour!

Sake tour was fun for everyone including our 8 year old who got to sample fresh local water instead of sake. Tour guide was very knowledgeable.

The tour guide was very friendly. The tour is in English. The sake samples were delicious. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the sake. Our 8 year old son enjoyed the tour too. They offered him fresh water instead, of course!

He gave us a very detailed and easy-to-understand explanation about the history and geography of Takayama, the characteristics of Hirase Sake Brewery, and the sake brewing process. He even showed me the inside of the brewery so I could better understand the production process. Also, during the tasting, he explained the characteristics of each sake, which combined with my taste buds, helped me understand more deeply. It was a wonderful tour. Thank you very much.

Excellent, well planned brewery tour. This is a short 30 min tour located in the heart of Takayama town. We were in a small group (4 of us) plus our guide ( Yama-san, hope i remember his name correctly). Our guide was professional, witty and well-versed in the content and took us to Hirasae brewery for the tour. The tour was very engaging and covered the whole sake manufacturing process and its nuances. We were treated to a sampling of the various sake he was explaining. We could keep the small ceramic cup as a souvenir. At the end, we could also purchase sake from their store. They wrap it well with bubble wrap to carry on a flight.

This was an interesting and enjoyable tour that included some fascinating information on the history of Takayama and its production of sake. The tastings were a hit and rather warming on a cold December afternoon!

The tour started with a very brief introduction to the history of the city of Takayama and proceeded quickly to the brewery. Our guide, Yamakoshi, offered to take a photo of us outside and explained the history of brewing in Takayama. We went in to the brewery where we saw the bottling line and sake ageing tanks. Yama explained the process really clearly and succinctly. I went in with basically no knowledge of how sake is made and left fully understanding the process overall. Yama answered all our questions really clearly. The tasting was interesting and fun and we were offered more of any that we liked. We were offered the opportunity to buy sake, including all that we tried, but didn't feel pressured. (We did buy some yuzushu!) Would absolutely recommend to anybody, it was quite a short experience, less than one hour, but completely worth it. Yama was a friendly and really skilled guide.

Great tour of the sake brewery. The guide knew his stuff and was very informative. Lovely sake and worth the time taken to do the tour.

The tour was well worth our time and money. Yama-san, our local guide, was wonderful. He is very knowledgeable about all things related to Takayama. Highly recommended Yama-san, Hirase Sake Brewery and Happy Plus tours.

Very nice tourgide. We learned a great deal about how sake is made. And of course you get to taste some :)

Yama took my partner and I on a private tour of a sake factory. Great behind the scenes experience and quite knowledgeable. We definitely feel like we are better equipped to assess sake now!

Very fun tour to do when you're in Takayama! We've learned a lot about sake and the history of kanazawa. We'll never drink sake the same way as before:) And our guide, Mu, was very entertaining and super friendly!

Due to my own befuddlement, I found out on arrival that I'd mistakenly booked our tour for the next day, by which time we would be moving on. However our host Yama was unfazed and kindly offered to run a special tour for us later that morning. The brewery tour and sake tastings were very informative and comprehensive and Yama was an excellent guide. Can recommend.

The sake tour was great, especially thanks to our amazing tour guide Miyuki who told us everything about Takayama, sake and Japanese culture. It was one of our best experiences in Takayama. Would 100% recommend !

The tour was very nice, informative and fun. Yama our tour guide was very funny and explained a lot. He knows a lot about Takayama, Saka creation and more. He is a very cool guy :) It was a great experience and a must do in Takayama.

Nice short tour of the brewery. The guide was knowledgeable and patient. The brewery experience was insightful as to how Saki is made. Tasting options were good to end. Bring a bottle home. The cost of eth tour was well priced.

This tour is fantastic. Very informative, guides were extremely kind and knowledgeable and the sake was delicious. They gave a souvenir sake tasting glass at the end. Our train had been cancelled due to weather and we were unable to make it in time for our original tour. They were so kind and understanding that we were able to simply move our reservation to the following day. Thank you for a great experience!

A must do tour for anyone Sake lovers and anyone interested in the Sake brewing heritage of Takayama! Our guide Mr Yamakoshi spoke excellent English and was extremely knowledgeable about the Sake brewing process and the history of the Hirase brewery. He pointed out lots of interesting details in the 100 year old Sake factory including charming period light fittings and hand blown window panes.

We loved our Sake tour… it was just what we were looking for to get a better understanding of how it is produced and also understanding the differences in taste and why. Up to now we were kind of lost. Highly recommend

We had a great time with Yama on our Sake Brewery Tour at the Hirase Brewery, the most ancient one in Takayama!!!! The tour was kept in excellent English and it lasted about 1 hour. Yama showed us the different areas of the brewery and we learned so much about sake and how it is made. Finally, we had a tasting of 6 different sake. Overall, we sincerely recommend this fantastic tour!!!

Just ok. Brewery was mostly closed so explanation was via pictures and pointing to equipment. Could have gotten same info in a tasting room for much less.

We had an enjoyable time with Yama. The session was informative and the sake tasting was delicious. If in takayama, highly recommend in signing up for this tour, you won’t regret it!

We loved this tour! We learned so much about sake brewing and we got to taste many fabulous sakes. Yama was extremely knowledgeable and we leaned so much. Highly recommend!

Great tour in English of an old family-run brewery that taught us a lot about sake and had a great and very generous tasting at the end. Would hit this up if you are curious about sake and are in Takayama.

We had a great time going through the old sake brewery. Our guide was very knowledgeable, was able to answer our questions, and we learned a lot about sake. The actual brewery itself is also a very cool, family-run operation that seems very old-school and unique compared to many of the other distilleries and breweries we've toured in the past and that also made it special. Also, the sake was pretty tasty, educational and the pours were generous.

Brilliant afternoon tour with Yama! We had a most enjoyable tour this afternoon - hugely informative and great to see how sake made. As a today afternoon the brewery was empty of staff but still loads to see and a super tasty tasting session at the end. Yama explained all the various aging/ tastes etc and let us taste the limited edition Sakura sake and our favoursite was the citrus Yuzu (tried again later in our Ryokan!). Recommended for an intro to sake and its history.

My family and I (5 adults) took the Sake Tour by Happy Plus, at the Hirase Sake Brewery. The president himself provided the tour, which we were very thankful for. Our guide from HappyPlus provided perfect English translation! We learned a ton about the process of brewing sake, its place in Japanese Culture, how this tradition is being preserved, and more. The facility was beautiful and well-kept, the sake was amazing, and the tour was informative. I would highly recommend booking this tour and others with HappyPlus!

Tama was a very knowledgeable guide, who took us through the oldest Sake Brewery in Takayama. He explained well, and engaged fully in our questions. The tasting was a highlight, not to be missed.

Very informative and interesting. Yama explained all the processes associated with sake production and the history of Takayama

It was great overview of the process and very insightful. Our guide was able to answer all of our questions and very personable. The tastings towards the end were fantastic and really showed the effects of aging, milling and use of different rices.