Series: Lager Love (part 4)--Awaken your Inner Superhero with Super "Dry"

With the release of Asahi Super Dry in 1987, an intense battle was waged between Asahi and Kirin beer companies. Seeing the popularity of Asahi, other major Big Four breweries also started making their own "dry" beers, only to reaffirm Asahi's success as the standard setting best "dry." Asahi cemented its victory as it overtook Kirin in sales, where kirin had previously dominated. Since then, Asahi Super Dry has been the number one best selling beer in Japan.

The sticker just lettin' you know it's No. 1...

 "Dry" is actually a type of lager, but one where the fermentation process has gone to near completion. This means that the beer is less sweet because the yeasts have eaten up all the sugars, and also lighter in taste, though slightly higher in alcohol. It's also less hopped (both in terms of flavor and aroma) during the brewing process. You might say, bland!! But that is so NOT the point of the dry. Let me try to explain.

Picture this: It's a really hot day, you've been walking around in the sun in your leather shoes and business suit all day. It's a scorcher. Life is tough. Your boss is a jerk. You're just a hardworking dude/chick. But at 6 p.m., you're finally at your favorite izakaya with a good friend. You are so hot. You order two nama--the super dry, please--clink glasses, and gulp it down so fast because you're convinced it's the best thing ever. You experience a sense of ecstasy as the beer gushes down your throat. Dry is a sensation, a feeling of replenishment, a rejuvenation that is so fresh that it's sublime. The superhero inside you emerges. Your cellphone rings. You are Angelina Jolie. You are Hugh Jackman.

Dry is an experience, not a drink.

Okay, so that is what the marketing is about. If you're not sure what this feels like: check out Asahi's visual approximation and you'll get more of the idea. Also, see Hugh Jackman on a mission here. Catch him if you can!

Not even breaking a sweat

Musical pairing: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man." Baby, you're so dry it's smooth. 
(N.B.: The reason that this Japanglish term "dry" doesn't work in American English is the reason that Bud Dry did not make it in the US)

Anyway, Super Dry is for the superhero slumbering deep inside us all.