Asahi Style Free

Brewed by Asahi Breweries
Style: Pale Lager
Tokyo, Japan

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

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Typical Japanese macro swill with a pale gold color and a white fizzy head. Aroma of grain and a metallic tangyness. Sweet plasticy taste, some dry grassy notes in the follow. The free in Style Free must also stand for Free from any redeeming qualities. Pure crap, avoid if possible.

You have to admire their honesty; what next, ’Asahi Tastes Like Glue and Cornflakes’? Dead flat looks with bathfoam fizz of head. Some light breadiness and lemon on prising the tin lapsing into lemonade and lime, adhesive. Rotting vegetable taste; rusty tin, tenth pressing grassy hop. A crumb of toast and bitterness almost salvaging things from the plughole. Thought this was not only style free but alcohol free owing to the huge 0 on the label. Slimy glycerol mouthfeel. Piss poor really, but finishable.

A little better than expected but not by much. Watery and largely flavourless but there’s a hint of bitterness on the back palate. Don’t go out of your way to find this.

The Asahi Style Free’s branding does not translate well into English. Style free sounds like a sly way of saying someone’s a dork, or just a hopeless case of cargo pants and bad hygiene. Apply that label to a beer that sells in Japan for just over 100 yen at a convenience store and you have more than an inkling that a bad drink awaits you. Not all hope is lost once you break the seal on the can. I’ve discovered that while so many Japanese lagers simultaneously wring one’s wallet and palate, they are not without purpose. Japan abounds in incredible food, not the least of which is all the fried goodies that find their way down salary men’s gullets on Friday (and hedonistically, weekday) evenings. The perfect beer for these fatty fried offerings is something bubbly, active and can fight for your attention in the midst of a fried food lipid haze. Beers like Yebisu’s main line, Suntory Premium Malts and even Asahi Dry are admirable partners in the war against crispy fried goodies. Beers like Asahi Style Free or not. Instead of judging this beer on its own merits with a clean and eager palate, I polluted my tongue with gyoza and the sour ponzu sauce before my first sip. Again, a good Japanese lager can stand up to this kind of greasy tongue-curling assault. The Asahi Free Style fell flat on its face, moaned and then gave a death cry. It was quite literally tasteless, and with each succeeding bite and sip I might have been better served with club soda, or even insects crawling on my tongue. I understand many of these beers are crafted to evade tax laws and appeal to consumers caught in Japan’s economic quicksand, but they simply don’t replace the beers of yesteryear which seem to be beyond many’s grasp. If a beer can’t even be used as a drink to accompany cheap, greasy fried food, I’m afraid it’s lost its purpose as a drink.

Can. Sugar free beer. Clear yellow, short lasting bubbly white head. Strange mild metallic rice aroma, which is in the flavour too along with a little bitterness. Bad.

Canned in Tokyo. Clear pale golden, no head. Compost heap aroma.Sweetish but thin. Ricey and lifelss with very low hop rte and bitterness. Void and industrial, though only moderately foul tasting.

Clear golden with plenty of carbonation and an active head. Burnt rubber, metal, some grain. Let’s see what this refreshing new style tastes like...Oh, nothing. Very tasteless (can something be very tasteless?) Watery, I guess some...wait, no, nothing. Thin body. Absolutly no finish. Style free = taste free.

Medium white coarse head. Greenish yellow body with carbonation. Acidic rubbery aroma with notes of grain. Taste is sweetish grainy rubber with a thin mouthfeel. Perfume notes. Dry chalky aftertaste. I think I prefer beer with style. (0.35l can.)