After reading the ingredients label on pretty much every brand and variety of beer (and beer-type beverages like happoshu and dai-san beer), I found three drinks that listed no barley or malt in the ingredients: Kirin Nodogoshi Nama (のどごし生), Sapporo Draft One, and Suntory Jokki Nama (ジョッキ生). It's interesting that Asahi doesn't offer anything in this category (Asahi Clear contains barley). Of the three, Nodogoshi is by far the most popular. In fact, it's apparently the top-selling third-genre beer in Japan. Rather than barley malt, Kirin uses soybeans to make Nodogoshi.
Looking at the ingredients (hops, sugar, soybean protein, yeast extract), I assumed that Nodogoshi would test negative for gluten (i.e. would be gluten-free), but I wanted to be as sure as I could. "Yeast extract" sounds a little iffy, doesn't it? I had a few Gluten-in-Food testing kits left (see my earlier posts), so I decided to give it a shot. Each test costs me about US$18, so I have to choose wisely. Considering Nodogoshi's availability and popularity, it made sense to choose it over the other two.
As you can see, the test did not detect any gluten! It would seem that Nodogoshi is a safe beer alternative. Unfortunately, you won't find it in any bars or restaurants, so if you're a beer-only drinker like me, you'll have to find a way to BYOB. I've asked at a few local places, explaining that I have an "allergy", and they've all been cooperative about it. I always ask first, and I always insist on paying a corkage fee (a BYOB charge). Of course, your mileage may vary.
