As the name suggests, Kirin’s Hard Cidre isn’t a beer, but rather a carbonated apple cider with an alcohol content of 4.5% by volume. Looking at the ingredients listed on the label, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t detect any gluten, but I decided to check for cross-contamination. As far as the taste goes, I don’t have much experience with ciders, so I can’t say much about the taste, except that it’s rather dry. But in the words of Marc Antony, I have come to test Hard Cidre, not to review it.
Beverage: Kirin Hard Cidre (キリン ハードシードル)
Producer: Kirin
Originating country: Japan
Brewing location: Japan
Bottle size: 290ml
Alcohol by volume: 4.5%
Ingredients (translated from Amazon Japan): Apple juice, fermented apple juice, acidulant, antioxidant (sulfite)
Test kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit
Test result: There is no indication of the presence of gluten. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area (T) to indicate the presence of gluten. There is no visible spot, so this test is negative. The pink spot on the right testarea (C) is a control spot 
and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly, and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative, please note this result does not constitute medical advice – please see Steffen’s facts page.
I’ve mixed this a few times with Asahi Dry Zero non-alcoholic “beer”, and the mixture didn’t taste too bad. Call it a gluten-free snakebite… or fakebite!
