Japanese Alcohol Free Beer

In Okinawa most people travel by car, the nearest train station is in Kagoshima, 500 miles away. Many Okinawans drive to a bar, and then use a daiko service to bring both them and their car home at the end of the night. (A daiko service is similar to a taxi service, but with two drivers. Driver A chauffeurs you home in your own car while driver B follows behind to collect driver A.)

The cost of using a daiko service, the health benefits of reducing alcohol consumption, and a crackdown on people who drink and drive are some of the possible reasons for the growth in popularity of alcohol free beers. The other night I had a few friends over to test the various alcohol free beers and the results were pretty conclusive. Four beers were sampled: Kirin Free, Sapporo Premium Alcohol Free, Suntory All-Free, and Kirin 休む日のAlc. 0.00 %. The Sapporo Premium Alcohol Free was by far the most popular, with Shawn even stating “it actually tastes like beer.”

As a final bonus, alcohol free beer doesn’t have the same tax as regular beer so you can get a high quality malt beer for just 128 yen.

Happy Healthy Drinking And Safety Drive 🙂