Aki created a post about Japanese alcohol-free beer.
Beer is the most familiar alcoholic drink among Japanese people. There is a common Japanese phrase, āTORIAEZU Beer!ā which means āwe will start with beerā in English, because the Japanese usually start a party by toasting with beer. Beer also tops the list of gifts that people want to send as year-end gifts.
But, of course, Japanese law prohibits drinking of alcohol for people under 20 years old, as well as drunk-driving for everyone in the country.
For several years, there were drinks called ānon-alcoholic beerā that came out in Japan. Under the Japanese law, a drink that includes less than 1.0% alcohol is allowed as non-alcoholic, so the makers of these ānon-alcoholic beerā products included almost 0.5% alcohol. To avoid misunderstanding, they named it ābeer taste drinkā instead of ānon-alcoholic beerā.
its taste was different from real beer, and Japanese consumers were anxious that the 0.5% alcohol can still affect driving even if the amount is small and considered legal. Thus, these ābeer taste drinksā didnāt get much attention from the public.
In 2007, after a miserable automobile accident that happened the previous year, the Road Traffic Act was amended and the law was strengthened to become stricter against drunk-driving. Because of this, every Japanese beer company took serious actions in improving beer taste drinks with lesser alcohol.
In Japan, the beer industry is dominated by 4 big beer companies: KIRIN, ASAHI, SUNTORY and SAPPORO. Junior high school students even learn the economic terminology āoligopolyā with the Japanese beer industry given as the typical example.
Under the oligopoly system, if one company develops a new food technology, others would follow the trend. In April 2009, KIRIN released a ā0.00% alcoholā beer taste drink called āKIRIN FREEā. It was the worldās first 0.00% alcohol beer flavor drink (the German brand Einbeckerās 0.0% alcohol supposedly means 0.01%). KIRIN explained that it took more than 1 year to develop the food technology needed to produce ā0.00% alcohol beerā. The most difficult problem was creating the beer flavor without yeast fermentation, which is an essential process in making beer, but they eventually succeeded in making Kirin Free taste almost like real beer.
KIRIN ran strong promotional campaigns in high way service areas to make drinking their new beer taste drink appealing to drivers. The price was much lower than that of real beer because there was no alcohol taxāwhile real beer costs around 240 yen per 350ml can, the beer taste drink costs only around 140 per can. Because of this, they generated very high sales.
After 5 months, ASAHI, SUNTORY and SAPPORO also released their ā0.00% alcoholā beer taste drink. Consequently, these new beer taste drinks produced a concept of āNon-alcoholic beer is really alcohol-freeā among Japanese people, and the beer battle continues. In May this year, ASAHI announced the release of a new beer taste drink on 3rd Augustāa ā0.00% alcoholā plus ā0kcal calorie-freeā product called āW(double)-ZEROā. 1 month later, SUNTORY announced that they would also be releasing a new beer taste drink on the same day, 3rd August. Theirs was ā0.00% alcohol, ā0kcal calorie-freeā and āzero-carbohydrateā and called āALL FREEā.
Japanese peopleāeven those who donāt like alcohol or drink beer oftenācouldnāt help but swing from the usual soft drinks like orange juice or diet cola to the new beer taste drinks. Now they can enjoy drinking it even if theyāre driving, eating lunch during office hours, playing golf or other sports, or cooking dinner without worrying about calories, carbohydrates and, of course, alcohol! Beer taste drinks help increase the opportunities for people to enjoy beer and change their food culture in their everyday life.
The intense competition between the beer companies had generated massive sales all throughout the year. However, controversial questions were raised regarding the effects on society. āCan high school students, even children, drink beer taste drinks? Can we sell it to them? Yes, itās definitely non-alcoholic and legal, but we should allow them to drink it or notā¦.?ā
If children and teenagers enjoy drinking these beer-flavored drinks and end up liking the taste of beer, they might subsequently become attracted to try drinking real beer. This should be avoided. The food culture of enjoying and drinking beer is a privilege that is only for adults. Some stores refuse to sell beer taste drinks to minors like high school students. Others do sell them, but they are careful not to put them in the soft drinks shelf and instead place them in the alcohol section.
All 4 beer companies also set special considerations in their products, putting on their beer taste drinks statements like āThis product was developed under the assumption that people above 20 years old will drink it.ā It may sound like a roundabout notice (or excuse), but interestingly, this long sentence is used in exactly the same words by all 4 companies.
Apparently, they want their new technology to widen the demographic of enjoying life with ābeerā and increase their sales. They would not like to draw young people to this lifestyle, but they seem to consider it more important to keep protecting āfood culture with ābeerā as an adult privilege.
Some of these Japanese beer companies are planning to export these beer taste drinks abroad next year. If you find them in your city, please try them and see if Japanese food technology had achieved real beer taste. And please check how people in societyāstores, parents and high school studentsāwould react to the worldās first 0.00% alcohol beer taste drink created from Japanese technology and culture.
I hope to see you next time!
Posted by: kirin on 
Dec 31st, 2010 | 
Filed under: Announcement & Info.
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