Less free beer! Kirin now charges for beer on its tours to stop heavy drinkers

Heavy drinkers force Kirin Brewery to charge for tours

"Repeated visits by heavy drinkers forced Kirin Brewery Co. to change its longstanding policy of allowing visitors to sample its beer for free during factory tours.

The change, effective Oct. 1, intended to prevent "overconsumption," said a company representative, referring to visitors repeatedly returning for free beer tastings."

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Brings back memories. In the early 70's we had bus tours to the beer companies in Fukuoka. Nothing like a bus load of drunken sailors , LOL. They allowed like 30 sailors to drink all they wanted to. Must have been several gallons of lost money.

Well that's a bummer, kind of reminds me how some people will mob a seafood buffet and eat all the crab. This is why we can't have nice (free) things! I would just include a quota system to make sure people don't overindulge, or just limit the free tastings for first-time visitors (or limit it to once a month or something). Oh well!