309. Asahi Super Dry

This is our first beer from Asahi Breweries, which is located in Tokyo, Japan. We had this out of the bottle at Saya, a Korean and Japanese restaurant in Fairborn—our friends Art and Chloe took us there.

Pouring a light gold with a thin white head, Asahi Super Dry has a sweet flat grainy nose. The front starts sweet, moving into a slightly grainy and dry middle (it’s that patented “KARAKUCHI” style!), before finishing with a light hop bite that is also slightly spicy—you know, something of your classic lager-esque finish. The body is light and dry on the palate with a medium to low carbonation. Flavors are good, and the dryness is nice, but a bit more body would help round out this beer and marry the graininess of the middle with the other flavors. We know the point here is dryness, but this beer seems caught up in the goal of making a beer that tastes like nothing. And we’re not sure we can get behind that.

Yes, my friends, that’s Ray Allen, selling the Asahi...

From the Asahi website: “Since its debut in Japan in 1987 as the first ‘KARAKUCHI’ (dry) beer, Asahi Super Dry has set a new de facto standard in Japanese brewing. Over the years Super Dry has continued to expand its popularity while offering refreshing good taste and drinking pleasure. Behind its overwhelming popularity among people regardless of age, as well as among those restauranteurs and professionalswho keenly discern good taste, lies the story of the three secrets of Super Dry: Use of a Rare, Special Yeast, Selected Ingredients, and Manufacturing Technology.

To make Super Dry beer, we use a rare yeast, the Asahi yeast strain No. 318, which not only yields outstanding fermentation, but produces a complex aroma that results in an elegant and sophisticated flavor and ensures Super Dry’s pure, crisp, dry taste. Yeast are sensitive micro-organisms, and their conditions constantly change during fermentation. Creating an optimal environment for yeast to ‘do their best job’ for beer-making depends on the beer brewer’s technology. We are ceaselessly developing new technologies to pursue a more sophisticated, clear, KARAKUCHI taste.”

ABV: 5.0%

(5/5/2010)