Asahi Group Holdings President and CEO Akiyoshi Koji Photo: REUTERS/Ritsuko Ando
executive impact

Asahi CEO bets on better tasting alcohol-free beers

18 Comments
By Ritsuko Ando

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18 Comments
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Loved Asahi on my visits to Japan, USA version is of course not the same. If they can make a non-alcohol beer that has taste, body and no bitterness, it will be in my fridge.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Zero alcohol beer is a waste of time - you never get the same flavour. They should concentrate on lower alcohol beer, say 1% to 2% ABV, to retain the taste but with very limited alcohol.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Zero alcohol beer is a waste of time - you never get the same flavour. They should concentrate on lower alcohol beer, say 1% to 2% ABV, to retain the taste but with very limited alcohol.

I suppose zero alcohol beer has its place for those who can’t consume any alcohol but want something like the taste. I’m fully with you on low alcohol beer. I used to drink some really good stuff in the UK at about 1-2% when I needed to be fresh the next day.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Or...how about just putting some real hops in your yellow fizzy water?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Of the non-alcohol beers in Japan, Asahi Dry Zero is the best, hands down. The others taste too watery.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

After you get drunk they taste OK. I finish the night with one or two, occasionally.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Did the idea of making a better tasting regular beer not cross your mind?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

While major brewers here all make decent beer for the masses I have always found Super Dry the LEAST flavourful of the bunch so have been loath to try their Dry zero stuff.

Now I pretty much only keep craft beers in the fridge at home with the occasional Ebisu or some Suntory P. Malts & ales

Would be nice if there were non-alcoholic brews with taste but I suspect they are all still way off the mark

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The citrus-y non alcoholic cocktails in Japan are pretty good. The yuzu and seequasaa ones. The gin and tonic one isn't bad either. Most of them are zero calories. I think they taste better than the zero alcohol beers and many zero calorie soft drinks. Many regular soft drinks now use fructose syrup, industrial sweetener, which sounds like it is much worse for you than regular sugar.

When I work late, I find I can still unwind with a zero alcohol drink.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Beer already has so many calories, it's the alcohol that is the benefit for the cost of ingesting those calories. If there's no alcohol, then it makes no sense to me to drink it. Better to drink something more healthy, like tea or water. Even a fruit juice will have some vitamins.

People who wish they weighed less, yet drink more than one or two beers a year, alcohol free or not, are acting against their own interests in drinking that beer.

Switch to a hard alcohol (or shochu/nihonshu), and mix it with water or tea. If you are any kind of regular drinker, this will cut a significant number of calories from your diet. You still get to drink, without having to pay the price of ingesting hundreds if not thousands of calories as part of the transport mechanism.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

A non alcoholic beer is not a beer. Full stop!

Definitely. Now if they can make an non-alcoholic beer that tastes as good as a micro brew, I’m all in, but until then I’ll stick with my German, stouts and micro brews.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I must be an alcoholic, my favorite brew is 8.1% ABV.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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