Kirin Free

The nice folks at Kirin USA sent me two bottles of this for me to sample.  Kirin Free is A 0.0% beer.

A Japanese non-alcohol beer brewed by Kirin Brewing Company.

Info from the website says that the beer is 60 calories.
Protein: .1-.3g

This is my first non-alcohol beer and I was a little worried to say the least.

Off the bat, the bottles are great. They are thick, sturdy, brown, and big.  They are 12oz but the weight of the bottle is nice.  I'll be making beer glasses out of these for sure.

Look: So here we go.  The beer poured from the bottle into my schooner glass, poured an odd orange color with no head formation.  The beer glows like the sun.  Plenty of carbonation can be seen streaming up from the bottom of the glass. 

Smell:  Sticking my nose into the glass, what I detected caused me to immediately jump back from the glass. A very odd, sour smell.  Sort of reminds me of grape kool aid...

I also picked up some crackers form the malt, some fried egg, and even A bit of pizza dough. Not what I was expecting.

Taste:  After the shock of the smell settled, I gathered up the courage to actually taste this.  Thankfully, It was not as bad.   What first hits your mouth is like a cherry or grape soda flavor. I'm still not completely decided on which flavor of soda it is. It has the tang of cherry but almost the taste of a cheaper grape soda.  What follows is a sour, pizza dough flavor.  I assume this would be from the malt.  I didn't detect any honey, or toasted wheat, caramel, or even any hops for that matter.  I have come to the conclusion that the hops are in there just to hold that pizza dough back a bit.  The aftertaste finishes a bit dry and a tad sour.  I'm not really liking this at  all...

Mouthfeel: Very light and watery of course.  Some stinging carbonation on the tongue and even the back of the throat.

Overall: This has it's place. I'm not going to knock it around too much since Non-alcohol brews aren't my thing at all. This was my first and hopefully my last.
Kirin Free is not beer.  It is a malt beverage but absolutely not beer.  Don't mistake it for that.  I could see this coming in handy if you are pregnant, an AA member, or someone who wants to take a drink on the road with them, that sort of tastes like beer but really isn't beer.

I'll give Kirin Free A 1.5/5 in the NA brews category.