What is a dry beer or sake? Asahi Super Dry Beer vs non-dry beer, sake, and dry sake

I went for a S$6 beer tasting workshop that answered this question with side-by-side samples to compare. It was organised by Asahi Beer in July 2023 for the launch of their updated Superdry Beer taste. They not only let us try different types of beer, but also sake, because the concept of dry and not dry started from sake.

Sampling dry and non-dry beer and sake
Asahi Super Dry Beer Tasting Workshop 2

To explain to us this concept, they first started us off with tasting normal not dry sake as a point of reference. Then we tried the dry sake, to understand the concept of what 'dry' means in and of itself.

In a nutshell, 'dry' means that the beer or sake taste drops off, ends or disappears from your palate quickly. I believe people would describe that as the malty or grain taste. For non-dry sake or beer, the taste lingers for a good 5 to 10 seconds, like I experienced for the normal sake. When it is dry, it is shorter, like 3 seconds, which was the length of the "dry" sake's taste lingering on my palate.

So naturally, super dry means the taste fades super quickly. 

Sampling dry vs not dry sake and beer

So just how dry is "super" dry? For Asahi Super Dry, it was an extremely crisp 1 second. Basically, you get a quick burst of beer taste in your mouth lasting a second, then it fades to nothing. I found that extremely refreshing, like drinking chilled or iced water, but with an interesting flavoured twist at the start.

Pairing dry beer with sweet, savoury and spicy flavours
Asahi Super Dry Beer Tasting Workshop 1

Now if people like beers for their malty taste, why would anyone want the taste to drop off within 1 second? If you wanted something tasteless, why not just go for water?

It turns out that apart form the alcohol high, dry beers, and especially super dry, are apparently great for cleansing your palate between different types of food, so they can be paired with any flavor after the beer. We were given snacks that were sweet, salty and spicy to try, and cleansing each flavour with Asahi super dry did work like magic. I can imagine that for some complex gourmet menus where the chef is ambitious, a small sip of dry sake or beer might be a useful tool to insert between courses that don't really pair well.

Pairing Asahi super dry beet with local food

It was a great learning experience. I enjoyed my beer with Singaporean-style fried oyster omelette. Super dry is now my favourite beer type. I also love that they now have 0 alcohol versions, so I can drink it without worrying about dehydration or liver damage. It would be a dream come true if they also have versions without the fizz so it no longer harms teeth... Would be a perfect 0 sugar healthy alternative to tea or water that I could guzzle daily.

Exhibition Highlights

Finally, along with the workshop, we were treated to a mini exhibition. Some interesting things I found were this sandwich board where an empty beer glass lit up to become filled with beer when I took a photo with flash. Then there was this indoor open wheat field with a lovely blue sky... a boring sight for some who live in agricultural regions with lots of land perhaps, but not something you would see in Singapore or cities.

Asahi Super Dry Exhibition - sandwich board with empty beer glass
Asahi Super Dry Exhibition - sandwich board with empty beer glass lighting up upon flash photography
Asahi Super Dry Exhibition - indoor wheat field with blue sky
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