Asahi Super Dry (アサヒスーパードライ)
Asahi Super Dry is Japan’s top-selling beer domestically (and probably internationally, too). It is everywhere in Japan. It’s not my beer of choice, but I tested it because I thought it had the best chance of any of the Japanese macrobrews to have a low gluten content, since its ingredients include rice and corn.
Beer: Asahi Super Dry (アサヒスーパードライ)
Producer: Asahi
Originating country: Japan
Brewing location: Japan
Bottle size: 500ml
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: (translated from the bottle): barley, hops, rice, corn, starch (not sure what kind — it just says “starch”)
Miscellaneous: In December 2015, Steffen posted test results for an Asahi Super Dry that was brewed in the UK (and labeled “Product of CZ”). The following test is for a bottle of Asahi Super Dry that was purchased and tested in Japan.
Test kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit
Test result: There is a faint, but visible, pink spot on the left side of the testing area, which is an indication of the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area (C) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly, and all reagents are active.
Note: Out of curiosity, I sent these photos to Imutest, asking if they could estimate the gluten content. They first pointed out that the test isn’t designed to be quantitative
, but then estimated that “your photo would suggest a value slightly below 10ppm if it was a regular food sample, which means that it is probably less than 1ppm for beer provided you used the recommended protocol of eliminating the extraction step and adding the beer directly…”
Imutest has been quite helpful, and I’ve ordered five more testing kits.
Steffen
Thanks for the test. The result seems to fit to my previous test result where the threshold was 5 ppm.
Cheers Steffen
Hayden
Hi there. Has there been a test done for ashai super dry that is brewed in Australia?
Steffen
Hi Hayden, no this one was brewed in Japan. But you are right, the brewing location can already make a difference. The receipe may be the same but brewing process and filtration can be differenct and this could return a different test result.
Cheers Steffen
craig
“….protocol of eliminating the extraction step and adding the beer directly…”
I have 5 of these Imutest kits now and am ready to test a few beers. Can you guys confirm that I just take the beer and drop directly onto the test, then add the pink visualisation solution. OR do I need to add the diluent to the beer sample first.
thanks
big in japan
I had that same question when I did my first test. Yes, just put the beer directly onto the test surface.
It’s worth taking a look at the ingredients of a beer. A beer like Asahi Super Dry, which includes adjunct ingredients like rice and corn, is more likely to have a lower gluten content than a beer brewed with 100% barley malt, all else being equal. Of course it depends on the beer in question. Some all-malt beers test very low for gluten, while others test high. Any beer containing wheat malt isn’t worth testing, as its gluten content will undoubtedly be too high for anyone who avoids gluten.
Tom
I purchased this beer @ Total Wine in MD, and it says Product of Italy. How do I know if it is brewed the same as in Japan, and does anybody know what the Purine content it has? I’m a Gout sufferer. 🙁 Any list of Beers for us Gout people would be appreciated.
Dogbite Williams
Tom, here is a list of 10 low purine beers:
https://www.brewpublik.com/low-purine-beer/
Huw Thomas
I’ve had an interesting experience with Asahi. I’m very sensitive to gluten, not coeliac, but get pretty bad IBS for 24 hours afterwards. My go to beer is Asahi and I can get away with drinking a couple of the large 500ml cans. Recently I accidentally bought a box of what turned out to be 330ml cans. I drank a couple and a few hours later got a bad IBS attack. I checked the information on the cans and the 500ml are brewed in Japan, but the 330ml are brewed in Italy! Seems they must have different ratios of ingredients. I noticed also that the bottles of Asahi we get here in New Zealand came from Australia so they might be different again!
Jeff
I drink this regularly in the US, brewed in Italy. Good beer. Light and refreshing.
I have celiac, no problems.