Do the Japanese have to one-up us on everything?  The automotive industry, general exportation, flat screen tv technology, and now non-alcoholic beer.  I suppose in the grand scheme of things I can relinquish non-alcoholic beer to The Land of the Rising Sun for “best in category” since a) non-alcoholic beer is absolutely irrelevant to me  b) US craft beer quality exceeds the Japanese, and c) they buy a lot of beer from us.

How did they upstage us?

The mad scientists (and a few robots, I’m sure) have developed a non-alcoholic brew that is absolutely alcohol free (0.00%).  As we have discussed in the past, every other so called non-alcoholic beer has traces of alcohol in it, even if such traces amount to less alcohol than you would find in a bottle of Robitussin.

Apparently this new brew–”Kirin Free” put out by brewer Kirin Holdings–is selling far more rapidly than expected.  In fact, it sold out!  Good news for Japan’s beer industry that fell 15% this past quarter (which is shocking…the Japanese are big social beer consumers, a quality I heartily applaud!).  The beverage is wildly popular amongst pregnant women (for obvious reasons) and weanie men (for obvious reasons).

I’ll admit, given the opportunity I hope to give this freak of science a try, if only to say that I have.  For all of those who want to drink real beer but can’t for whatever reasons, whether they be personal or religious, give this one a sip and let us know how it is.

More information can be found here.

Here is another example of Japanese beer innovation–beer brewed in space.

Just to let you in on my overly-active imagination, the image below depicts how I believe the “Kirin Free” is made.  Cheers!