New Brew Thursday - Asahi Super Dry

Hubby and I went out to dinner with family to a Japanese steak house to celebrate a birthday.    This type of restaurant isn't hubby's favorite so, it was an opportunity to eat a  hibachi dinner, drink hot saké and . . . of course . . . try out a new beer.

I love saké and I don't often get an opportunity to drink it.  Saké is usually misclassified as rice wine.  The process of making saké is more akin to how beer is made.  Saké is brewed but the process isn't exactly the same as how beer is made, though.  When saké is brewed the starch to sugar/sugar to alcohol conversion occurs in a single step; as opposed to two like in beer making.  Saké typically has a 15% ABV . . . what's not to like?

Okay . . . enough about my beloved rice beer.

Hubby ordered a bomber sized bottle of Asahi Super Dry.  Asahi Breweries is based in Tokyo, Japan.  I was kind of surprised that Asahi wasn't brewed by an American based macro-brewery.  Why?  Because it tasted an awful lot like a middle-of-the-road mass produced American style beer . . . Bud, Coors, Miller, etc.




Ah . . . mystery solved.  I wasn't too far off.  It turns out that the Asahi beer distributed to North American is brewed in Molson's Vancouver brewery.  There you have it!

I'm not saying I didn't like it.  I'm no beer snob.  I believe every beer doesn't have to be a $15 bottle craft brew to be good.  I love and appreciate those wonderful brews . . . but mass produced beer has it's place and I like it for what it is. 

Asahi is good . . . for what it is.

Asahi tastes pretty much a typical lager.  There's nothing complex about the flavor . . . it's light tasting and slambackable.  Which is to say that it's a good beer to kickback and enjoy after a hot afternoon of mowing the back acre.

Like I said . . . a time and place for every beer.


Oh . . . about that lager thing.  It's interesting to point out that German POWs worked in the Asahi brewery during the war to end all wars (WWI).  It's possible those prisoners had some influence over the brewing process.



Wow . . . a pretty long blog post for a mediocre beer . . . go figure.