What is a ‘Dry Beer’?

One of the most popular beer in Japan is Asahi Super Dry, a Japanese Rice Lager.  The beer was first produced in 1987 and was Japan’s first dry beer.  So what exactly is a dry beer?

A dry beer undergoes a longer fermentation process.  More sugar is extracted and the beer is light and crisp with little aftertaste.  The amount of sugars converted into alcohol, expressed as a percentage, is known as attenuation. Dry beers have a high attenuation percentage and tend to have a higher alcohol content level for the style.  A dry beer has the similar characteristics to a dry wine.  Dry wines are not very sweet due to the low sugar level.

Dry beers have been marketed in U.S., including ABInBev’s Bud Dry.  The product was rolled out in 1989 and discontinued in 2010.  In 1993 Molson Coors released Molson Dry.

The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and The World Beer Cup do not have a judging category for dry beer specifically.  If a dry beer is entered it is under a different category, such as one of the Lager category subsets.  Molson Dry won a gold metal at The World Beer Cup in 2002 in the North American Specialty Lager category.

Have you tried a Dry Beer?

Tags: ABInBev, Asahi, Dry Beer, GABF, Molson Coors, The World Beer Cup, Wine