Where is Sapporo Premium Beer brewed?
By Mark Porter Last checked 19 September 2026 How we check
The UK supply of Sapporo Premium Beer is split between imported stock and stock brewed in Britain. Check the small print on the pack.
Listed by Tesco when last checked. The product pages are among the sources below.
Every beer on the shelf by strength · How the units are worked out
More about the brand: rights, style, when it was created, where it is brewed at home
Partly verified
At least one of those three claims rests on a secondary source or an inference, a disagreement between sources is still open, or a split supply has a format that has not been read.
Carlsberg Britvic's own newsroom says 'it will brew and distribute Japan's iconic Sapporo Premium Beer in its UK portfolio from 1 August' and that it is 'the brand's full license partner, overseeing the on-trade and off-trade channels nationwide, as well as all brewing and marketing activities'. Against that, the Tesco listing for the 650ml can read on 2026-09-05 prints Country of Origin Japan and 'Brewed under supervision of Sapporo Breweries Ltd., Tokyo, Japan' at 5.0%. Both can be true during a changeover, so supply is recorded as mixed and the row is lowered to partly verified until a pack is read that names where it was brewed. No UK brewery site is recorded because no source names one.
The 5.0% UK strength and the matching 5% Japanese strength are unchanged and still verified, as is the owner. Correction reported by Tim Webb of CAMRA, September 2026.
The small print on the base of a current can or bottle, giving the producer name and address, would settle this.
In short
The UK supply of Sapporo Premium Beer is split: some of what reaches the shelf is imported and some is brewed here. The can in your hand could be either, so check the producer address in the small print. It is the same strength here as at home: 5.0%. The brand belongs to Sapporo Breweries Ltd (Sapporo Holdings).
This page is about the packs sold in supermarkets. Draught in pubs can come from a different brewery, and this page does not cover it unless a format table says so.
Who has brewed it here
| Years | Brewer | Site | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? to 2026 | Not established | Imported from Japan; UK distribution through Carlsberg Marston's, Wolverhampton; Carlsberg Breweries Denmark as food business operator | tesco.com |
| 2026 to now | Carlsberg Britvic | Not named in any source | carlsbergbritvic.co.uk |
What changed
- Corrected 19 September 2026: verification level was verified, now partly verified
- Corrected 19 September 2026: recommendation was genuine import, now not established (source)
- Corrected 19 September 2026: UK rights type was "imported_distributed", now "licensed" (source)
- Corrected 19 September 2026: country brewed in was "Japan", now "Mixed" (source)
- Corrected 19 September 2026: UK brewer was "Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Japan, per the pack's country of origin (not brewed in the UK)", now "Carlsberg Britvic, which took over brewing under licence on 1 August 2026; the last pack read still prints Japan as the country of origin" (source)
- Corrected 19 September 2026: UK supply was imported, now mixed supply (source)
- 9 September 2026: home-market strength was "not established", now "5.0 (Sapporo Premium Beer on sapporobeer.jp)" (source)
- 5 September 2026: verification level was partly verified, now verified (source)
Questions people ask
Where is Sapporo Premium Beer brewed?
The UK supply is split between imported stock and stock brewed in Britain.
Is Sapporo Premium Beer brewed in the UK?
Partly. Some UK stock is brewed in Britain and some is imported, so it depends which pack you pick up.
Is Sapporo Premium Beer really Japanese?
Only partly. Some UK stock is brewed in Britain and some is imported, so it depends which pack you pick up.
Who owns Sapporo Premium Beer?
Sapporo Premium Beer is owned by Sapporo Breweries Ltd (Sapporo Holdings), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. In the UK the brand is handled by Carlsberg Britvic under licence.
What strength is Sapporo Premium Beer in the UK?
Sapporo Premium Beer is 5.0% ABV in the UK. In Japan it is 5.0%. A UK pint is 2.8 units.
Is Sapporo Premium Beer weaker in the UK than in Japan?
No. It is 5.0% in both the UK and Japan.
See also
Side by side with Asahi Super Dry.
Sources
- Tesco (tesco.com), 5 September 2026: 5.0% abv, country of origin Japan, brewed under supervision of Sapporo Breweries Tokyo, distributor Carlsberg Marston's Wolverhampton
- Sapporo Breweries (Japan) (sapporobeer.jp), 6 September 2026: The Japanese page for Sapporo Draft Beer Black Label (黒ラベル): 'アルコール分 5%'. Black Label is the domestic flagship; Sapporo Premium Beer is an export product with no Japanese equivalent.
- Sapporo Breweries (Japan) (sapporobeer.jp), 9 September 2026: Sapporo's Japanese nutrition table, read 2026-09-09: SAPPORO PREMIUM BEER, アルコール分 5%; the domestic flagship 黒ラベル (Black Label) is also 5%.
- Sapporo Breweries (Japan) (sapporobeer.jp), 9 September 2026: Japanese product page for the domestic release of Sapporo Premium Beer: アルコール分 5%.
- Carlsberg Britvic (carlsbergbritvic.co.uk), 28 July 2026: 'Carlsberg Britvic is pleased to announce that it will brew and distribute Japan's iconic Sapporo Premium Beer in its UK portfolio from 1 August'; 'Carlsberg Britvic will be appointed as the brand's full license partner, overseeing the on-trade and off-trade channels nationwide, as well as all brewing and marketing activities'; no UK brewery site named
- The Grocer (thegrocer.co.uk), 6 July 2026: 'Carlsberg Britvic is to produce and distribute Sapporo Premium Beer in the UK'; Carlsberg Group did not say when it planned to launch Sapporo in the UK; no brewery site, ABV or format given
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