20 Best Tried and True Japanese Beers in 2022 (Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo, and Suntory)

Kirin Beer's Kirin Ichiban is made using first-pressed wort. Our testers gave this beer high scores for its strong malt flavor and excellent balance of hops and barley.

With sweet and sour flavors also found, this beer is best for those who want to enjoy the body and flavor of a beer, rather than refreshing flavors. You’ll be able to enjoy it both paired with food or by itself.

Kirin Beer's Classic Lager is fan-favorite beer made using the same pasteurization method that the company has been using since the mid-1960s.

The beer has a slight sourness, but it has a similar taste to Kirin's other beers with no significant differences. If you'd like to enjoy an old-fashioned beer or want to compare and contrast this with modern beers, this is the one for you.

Asahi Premium Draught Beer Jukusen is made from carefully selected ingredients including rice, malts, hops, and starch aged for a long period of time. The fancy bottle is indicative of the beer's premium status within the company.

This beer has a rich, full-bodied taste as well as a strong malty flavor that emphasizes the barley flavor. We highly recommend you pour it into a glass to fully enjoy its mellow aroma. 

Its great fragrance and satisfying feel make it great for celebrations or as a gift. With an alcohol content of 5.5%, it's not too strong, so regular beer drinkers will surely be satisfied. This is the beer for those who’d like to slowly enjoy it at home as it’s still enjoyable even when it gets a little warm.

Sapporo Beer’s Black Label features a unique barley-derived malt that is used to keep the flavor and froth fresh. It's best enjoyed in a glass to get the most out of its bubbles.

The beer has a prominent bitterness and a full-bodied taste and of all the products we tested, it was the most well-balanced. While it has a solid body, it's one of those beers that you'll never get tired of. Its thick head, which contributed to a creamy mouthfeel earned it high marks as well. Thanks to its well-balanced taste, we feel that this is the definitive Japanese beer.

Sapporo Lager Beer is historically the oldest pasteurized beer in Japan. It's affectionately referred to as Akaboshi, or “red star,” because of the impressive symbol of the North Star on the label. In addition to malt and other ingredients, it also contains rice.

This beer is characterized by its strong hoppy bitterness. The foam is mellow but not too thick, leading to a refreshing feeling when going down. With its overall bitter and deep flavor, this beer is best for those who regularly drink beer, and pairs well with savory snacks and food.

Sapporo Beer's Yebisu Beer was launched in 1890, aiming to replicate German beers, and uses 100% malt, original yeast, and German aroma hops. It's deeply satisfying and has a robust flavor.

This beer has a dense malt and hops flavor with a well-defined bitterness, making it a great representative of Japanese beer. Its creamy foam also enhances the experience by creating a gentle and elegant mouthfeel. This is best for those who want to experience Yebisu's unique richness and flavor, rather than knock back beer after beer.

Kirin's Heartland is sold in a unique emerald green glass bottle. These bottles are returnable, where collected bottles are returned to the factory to be cleaned and reused again as Heartland beer bottles, making it a relatively sustainable product.

The beer itself has a light and crisp flavor and a fresh body. However, it has a distinct scent that's unique to bottled beer, so it may be a bit unpleasant for those who are only used to drinking beer out of cans. Still, if you're looking for a light beer, this is the one for you.

Kirin Beer's Lager Beer is the company's first brand of beer. Brewed in a lager style, it's brewed using a technique that matures the beer at low temperatures to fully bring out its flavor.

The beer has a clean taste that's typical of lager-style beers and has a light body and a slightly dry taste. With a prominent bitterness, its aftertaste leaves a refreshing feeling in the mouth. It’s more of a beer to be paired with food to enjoy its body and the feel of it going down.

The beer is quite light in body, has a dry bitter taste, a crisp mouthfeel, and a refreshing aftertaste that makes it well-balanced overall and compatible with any kind of meal. However, even among the major Japanese beer brands, this beer is all about bitterness, so those who are not fond of bitter flavors may find it hard to drink.

The first thing you'll notice when drinking Asahi Super Dry Shunrei Karakuchi is its cool, crisp and refreshing flavor. It has a fairly standard alcohol content of 5.5% and is a satisfying beer that uses rare Polaris hops brewed at a high fermentation rate to further accentuate its cool sensation.

While it doesn't have a full, rich hoppy flavor, it's a refreshing dry beer that is more suitable for regular beer drinkers than beer beginners. Flavor-wise, it's quite similar to Asahi's standard Super Dry, but if you want more bitterness and a cleaner aftertaste, then this is the one for you. 

Asahi's Dry Premium Hojo uses carefully selected malts to craft a beer with deep and rich flavors. Asahi employs a brewing method where they add hops twice; once before and after the wort boils.

It has a solid body and a slightly higher alcohol content of 6.5%, making it a satisfying beer. We felt that for this beer, one is usually enough, making it a beer that is best savored over time rather than going back-to-back. It has a faintly European floral fragrance and is perfect for special occasions.

Asahi Beer’s Super Dry Japan Special is made using one type of Japanese malt, hops, and rice. Since it's only available as a gift set, this could be a great present.

With a sweet, rice-like fragrance, our testers thought it was a beer that's best paired with Japanese food. It has a rich taste and a solid body, so a single can will be satisfying. We recommend drinking this as a beer to toast with for special occasions.

Suntory's The Malt's balances sweetness, bitterness, and richness. While retaining the malt and manufacturing methods of their The Malt's series, Suntory has implemented new proprietary techniques to it and changed the blends of hops from the previous version.

Compared to Suntory's other beers, this beer has more malty notes, as the name implies. While it lacks any notable characteristics, it’s easy to drink and has a solid flavor. With less bitterness than others and a moderate sourness, this is a beer for everyone.

Sapporo Beer's Yebisu Premium Ale has an alcohol content of 5.5%, and is brewed to draw out deep yeast and hop flavors. It uses two types of aromatic hops, one of which is German.

Compared to the standard Premium Yebisu, the Premium Ale has a deeper amber color, and a more well-defined body, and a richer taste. If you want more depth out of your Yebisu, then this is the beer for you.

Sapporo Beer's Sorachi 1984 is a beer that uses hops from Kamifurano, Hokkaido known as Sorachi Ace. Sorachi Ace is Sapporo Beer's first-ever variant of hops that the company has registered, stemming from the desire to make beer with hops grown in-house.

The beer has a fragrance that is reminiscent of Japanese cypress and lemongrass and tastes remarkably different from other beers. Its strong aroma makes it satisfying to drink, but it’s more suitable for those who want to take their time and enjoy a drink.

While it does have the fragrance of barley, compared to higher-ranking beers, it was a little light on the bitterness and fragrance of hops. However, it does have a distinct aroma, so it's best for someone who enjoys a lighter beer.

Kirin's Ichiban Zero Sugar is part of Kirin's Ichiban series launched in 1990. Thanks to its carb-cutting process, Kirin was able to create a beer with zero sugar, making it, of course, appealing to those on a low-carb diet.

Because it's sugar-free, it may come up short in maltiness and richness compared to other products in the Ichiban series. However, this would be good for those who find regular beer slightly too heavy.

Asahi Super Dry The Cool was created with the concept of making a casual beer that can be enjoyed freely.

Compared to Asahi's standard Super Dry, it has less bitterness and an almost minty, refreshing aftertaste. With 4% alcohol content, this beer is suitable for those who want to knock back a refreshing beer. However, if you're a fan of regular Super Dry, you might find this lacking in bitterness and richness.