I'm pretty much a beer-only guy when it comes to drinking, so going gluten-free presented a challenge. However, when I noticed Kirin's Hard Cidre (キリン ハードシードル) on the shelves at a local supermarket, I felt a slight sense of relief. I've never been much into ciders, but I figured I'd give it a go. Judging from the ingredients listed on the label, I was pretty sure this stuff would test negative, but I thought I might as well check for cross-contamination or something like that.
Well, to make a long story short, my test didn't detect any gluten whatsoever. Hooray! As far as the taste goes... again, I've never been much into ciders, so I can't really compare it to anything else. Kirin says it's a dry cider, and I'd have to agree with that. The first one goes down pretty easily, but halfway into the second one, my mouth starts doing a tspt tspt kind of thing. Not sour per se, just tart.
So from there, I decided to mix it 50/50 with Asahi Dry Zero non-alcohol "beer" (see my post here), and I was rather satisfied with the results. A 50/50 mix of lager and cider is called a snakebite, so I'm going to call this a fakebite. Seems like a nice summer drink. The Hard Cidre has an alcohol content of 4.5% ABV (alcohol by volume), so mix that with the Dry Zero and you've got a pretty light drink, good for a barbecue or the beach!
A 290ml (9.8 fluid ounces US) bottle of Hard Cidre runs less than ¥200. Let's hope Kirin doesn't pull it off the market anytime soon.
I recently ordered some more Gluten-in-Food home testing kits, and since I'd read that Corona Extra beer had tested negative for gluten (here, here and here), I wanted to see for myself. I wanted to see whether I could duplicate those results.
I bought a bottle of Corona Extra from Yamaya (they seem to have some of the best prices, as well as free shipping on orders over 3000 yen). As soon as I got home, I opened the bottle with great enthusiasm and proceeded with the test.
When reading the results with Imutest's gluten testing kits, there is a steady pink control spot on the right (C), and a variable pink test spot on the left (T). The gluten content of the substance can be estimated based on the intensity of the test spot.
In this case, this glorious case, no test spot is visible, which indicates that gluten is not present in the test sample. Hooray!
As a layman, I don't know why Corona consistently tests negative for gluten. I have read that it contains small amounts of the enzyme papain. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Disclaimer: although I have used this testing kit many times, and am quite confident that I conducted the test properly, I must point out that this is a non-scientific test, performed in my kitchen, and the results in no way constitute any form of medical advice.
That being said, although Corona has never been among my favorites, it's safe to say that I'll be ordering it a lot more often in the future!
If you're interested in the gluten content of Japanese beer, please check out some of my other posts. I've tested and posted about Asahi Super Dry, Kirin Nodogoshi and Asahi Dry Zero, and will be posting many more.
Kanpai!
I'm pretty much a beer-only guy when it comes to drinking, so going gluten-free presented a challenge. However, when I noticed Kirin's Hard Cidre (キリン ハードシードル) on the shelves at a local supermarket, I felt a slight sense of relief. I've never been much into ciders, but I figured I'd give it a go. Judging from the ingredients listed on the label, I was pretty sure this stuff would test negative, but I thought I might as well check for cross-contamination or something like that.
So from there, I decided to mix it 50/50 with Asahi Dry Zero non-alcohol "beer" (see my post here), and I was rather satisfied with the results. A 50/50 mix of lager and cider is called a snakebite, so I'm going to call this a fakebite. Seems like a nice summer drink. The Hard Cidre has an alcohol content of 4.5% ABV (alcohol by volume), so mix that with the Dry Zero and you've got a pretty light drink, good for a barbecue or the beach!
