Tag Archives: Asian beer

Saigon Export

Saigon Export

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Saigon Export

http://www.saigon-beer.co.uk/products

Brewed by Sabeco/Saigon Beer Company 
Style: Rice Lager
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Saigon ExportSaigon Export beer is the only authentic Vietnamese beer brewed in Vietnam and sold in the UK and in the US. Brewed by Vietnam’s Saigon Beer Company ( “Saigon Alcohol Beer and Beverages Corporation” or its abbreviation of “Sabeco”), based in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh City (or the old name “Saigon”). Sabeco is Vietnam’s leading beer producer, and is state owned under the authority of Vietnam’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. Its main brands are Saigon Beer and 333 Beer, and it has about 50% of the market share of the country. 

Review: 355ml Bottle of Saigon Export: ABV: 4.9%

Saigon ExportThere is some rice in this with a dab of malt, or so they say….. 

On pour, we get a nice clear light golden colour, looks fantastic, bubbling along with some decent carbonation.
A nice decent frothy white head that sticks around, a small bit of lacing. A good looking beer……………

On the nose I get a lovely beery smell, very piercing aroma of the rice but nice, with traces of lemon. Not a bad aroma…….

On taste, actually not much to taste at all, very very watery.

Saigon ExportA bit hoppy, with a light bitter aftertaste, but its slight.

Very watery, did I say how watery it is!

Cant really taste the alcohol…..but on second thoughts I did find some alcohol and tastes of grain in the second bottle….. 

Overall not great, a pretty shit light bodied beer…..and I found it hard to drink it…..its not terrible, just nothing to hold it all together…some flavour or tastes would be nice, instead of water masquerading as a beer………

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Singha Premium Import

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Singha Premium Import 

http://www.singhabeer.com

Brewed by Boon Rawd Brewery Co., Ltd 
Style: Premium Lager
Bangkok, Thailand

Singha Premium ImportSingha is a 5% abv pale lager produced by the Boon Rawd Brewery in Bangkok, Thailand. 

A popular beer in Thailand, brewed since the 1930’s, it has a big rivalry with Chang to see who has the number one spot in the country. Singha is generally considered to be a bit more upmarket than the cheaper Chang beer. 

Singha Premium ImportLike Chang, Singha is easy to get in Thai and Asian restaurants and supermarkets all across Europe. 

The Singha is a powerful mythological lion, found in ancient Indian, Hindu and Thai stories. 

Anyway about the only thing interesting about this beer is that the one and only Shane MacGowan did a song about Singha beer….”Singha beer don’t ask no questions; Singha beer don’t tell no lies”.

Review: 330 ml Bottle of Singha Premium Import: ABV: 5%

Singha Premium ImportThe bottle top has Singha’s dragon logo which looks pretty cool and there is a yellow lion on the front of the bottle. We are also told that this is “The original Thai beer since 1933.”

On pour we get a light gold looking beer, very clear, that produces a massive frothy white head which eventually flattens afterwards to die out. It is very fizzy and lively, a lot of carbonation.

Singha Premium ImportNo lacing but a perfectly clear looking beer….

Has a very nice beery smell, faint but pleasant. Of grains, light malts and lager hops. Ok…….

The taste is a bit sweet at the start…….caramel and malt sweetness.

Bitter after taste, which is a little strong, a little too hoppy.

It is sessionable alright, but there really isn’t a whole lot of good tastes in the beer.

Could work as a session beer, but might get sickly after a while, can taste a bit like washing up liquid if you ask me……not a great beer overall. 

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Sapporo Premium Beer, Japans oldest brand since 1876

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Sapporo Premium Beer  

http://sapporobeer.com/

Brewed by Sapporo Breweries Ltd
Style: Japanese Rice Lager
Tokyo, Japan

Japanese beer, Sapporo Premium Beer, Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Seibei NakagawaNot the first Japanese beer I have had, that honour goes to Kirin Ichiban, but it is always interesting to grab a beer from the far east. Sapporo, the oldest beer brand in Japan and one of its most popular, was first brewed in Sapporo city, way back in 1876 by the German-trained brew master Seibei Nakagawa for the Kaitakushi Brewery (became Sapporo Beer Company in 1886).  A high quality lager, using some of the locally produced beer ingredients and authentic brewing process, made the beer an instant success, not just in Sapparo, but throughout all the country. The company now has five breweries in Japan, one in both Canada, and the U.S, and Sapporo Premium has been the number 1 selling Asian beer in the States.

The iconic star, that you can see on the silver can, represents the spirit of the early beer pioneers of Sapporo. This pioneering spirit continues at Sapparo as, in 2006, the company created a one off limited Space Barley brew. Using barley grown from seeds which spent five months on board the International Space Station, they auctioned off six packs of the space beer at a price of 10,000 yen, or about $90/£62.

Review: Can of Sapporo Premium Beer: ABV: 4.9%

Japanese beer, Sapporo Premium Beer, Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Seibei NakagawaComing in a very distinctive shiny silver can, it certainly stands out in the off licence.

Appearance: The appearance was of a lovely clean looking golden yellow colour, with a pretty good white frothy head on pour
Head does die a little, no real lacing
Nice carbonation, bubbling along throughout.
Is definitely a nice looking beer, even if the head is non existent.

Aroma: Not trying to be funny but thought it smelt of shite, ha ha, now I know that’s obviously the sweet rice mixed around with the hops, grains and sweet malts. but Jesus I didn’t like the smell one bit at all, very stinky smell, bit of a generic beer smell too, Japanese style, but not very appealing.

Japanese beer, Sapporo Premium Beer, Sapporo Breweries Ltd, Seibei NakagawaFaint initial taste of the malts , not much to saviour, but very clean and smooth, very easy to drink

Taste only really kicks in at the back end, with the rice and the grassy hops kicking in

Has a slight kick to it alright, can definitely feel the alcohol, sweet and bitter, but not overbearing.

Ok beer, not a bad beer, nothing offensive, not much taste, but very smooth and easy to drink, but it would be nice to actually taste some real flavours…….something……anything at all….come on! And not just a bland generic taste of nothingness

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lion strong beer, sri lanka

Lion Strong Beer

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Lion Strong Beer

http://lionbeer.com/

Brewed by Ceylon / Lion Brewery Limited 
Style: Imperial Pils/Strong Pale Lager
Biyagama, Sri Lanka 

A beer from Sri Lanka? Now there is a novelty. And the beer bottle looks enticing too. A big lion on the bottle looking angrily at me, “buy me, roar!

Lion beer

Lion beer

Lion Brewery is a Sri Lankan owned and operated brewery that produces Lion Lager, a bestseller in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Lion Strong BeerThe Ceylon/Lion Brewery was the first brewery established in Sri Lanka. In 1849, Samuel Baker, the famous British explorer and officer, set up a small brewery mainly to cater for the local expats and other well to do types who were making their money on the tea plantations in the beautiful cool climate of Nuwara Eliya, with its perfect natural spring water. It was only until 1881 that the brewery started to get serious and began brewing on a commercial basis, with the Ceylon Brewery Company officially taking over the operations.
In 1993, the Ceylon Brewery was took over by Carson Cumberbatch & Co Ltd, a diversified group of Sri Lankan businesses. This group turning the brewery into Sri Lanka’s leading beer brand. This success didn’t go unnoticed and in 1996 the Carlsberg Group acquired a 25% share in the brewery.
To note, the company is called Lion Brewery, with the Ceylon Brewery remaining as a holding company.

Also the brewery now has its headquarters and operates out of the town of Biyagama, just outside the capital Colombo, with the Nuwara Eliya operations now closed.

The brewery rules Sri Lanka with an impressive 82% of the market share, and apart from the extra strong lager they also produce a regular lager and a stout. Lion can be bought in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia amongst others.

Review: Bottle of Lion Strong Lager  8.80% ABV

A Gold medal winner in 2012 from the Monde Selection, the Michelin Guide version of beer, the lager came in some pretty impressive imagery, the bottle showing a very intimidating lion face. I guess signifying strength and prowess. Perhaps his name is Cecil?

Lion Strong BeerOn Pour we have a dark golden colour,  with a nice sized white head that dissipates quick enough, leaving pretty good lacing . Looks decent, like a proper beer.

Got a very fruity aroma, an apple and a lot of sweet smelling malts. The smell was quite strong, all that fruit!

For a lager that is 8.8%, it was very well hidden, not feeling the true strength at all.

There is a very fruity taste to this beer, very overpowering. The taste lingers in the mouth, very sweet with a good grain taste. Some bitterness in the aftertaste.

Interesting beer alright, could actually be a decent session beer considering the ABV. as it was very easy to drink. I had four of them, and was fine! (I think!).

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Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, 青岛啤酒股份有限公司,German style Chinese lager, Qinqdao

Tsingtao Beer, China’s most famous beer

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Tsingtao Beer 

https://www.tsingtaobeer.com/

www.tsingtao-beer.co.uk

Brewed by Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited 青岛啤酒股份有限公司
Style: Premium Lager
Qinqdao, China

We all love to have a Chinese after a few beers, nothing better. But how many of you have actually dared to try out the  beers that you might have noted behind the counter? Or did you even notice in your hazy intoxicated state that there is indeed some fine Chinese beer available and all you had to do was ask!

Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, 青岛啤酒股份有限公司,German style Chinese lager, Qinqdao

Waiting for an ass (bus)

It’s funny we all know about the wonder of MSG laden Chinese dishes, but I have never really seen anyone drink Chinese beer. I myself only know about some of the Chinese beer brands because I lived and worked in China for a few years back in the day, and got a taste for the local brews.

But yes China does have some decent beers, and the most widely known of them (at least to the beer connoisseur and the backpacker) is Tsingtao beer from the lovely seaside city of Qingdao (same pronunciation, the beer has the English spelling, the city the Chinese version!), situated in Shandong province.

The brewery in Qingdao dates way back to 1903, founded jointly by some German and British settlers, and even today uses the same unique processes and yeast strains as was used over 100 years ago.

Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, 青岛啤酒股份有限公司,German style Chinese lager, Qinqdao

China’s finest beer

Tsingtao Beer is a well-hopped typical pilsner of 4.7%. Brewed using a combination of the best yeast and barley from around the world, and, of course, rice which you would expect as it’s China after all! To round everything off fresh spring water from the famous Laoshan Mountains is added. The Laoshan Mountains are said to be the birthplace of Taoism.

The brewery also produces a number of other beers, mostly for the local market, but it’s Tsingtao Beer that accounts for most of the brewery’s production.
First exported in 1954, the Tsingtao brand is now sold in over 60 countries and regions around the world and accounts for more than 50% of China’s beer exports.

Of course Tsingtao is ideal when having a meal, so why not give it a try next time you are sitting down to some noodles, Spring Rolls, dumplings, or even that traditional Chinese favourite, curry chips!

Review: Bottle of Tsingtao Beer: 4.7%ABV

Tsingtao, the German style Chinese lager, with great flavors, a smooth taste and which is always recommended when eating Asian food.

Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, 青岛啤酒股份有限公司,German style Chinese lager, Qinqdao

Smooth

It comes in a lovely looking green bottle with a distinctive logo. I guess its the Chinese writing that attracts, also there looks to be a picture of the brewery overlooking a river, which I’m guessing is meant to signify the water from the Laoshan Mountain

A decent looking beer which has a clear yellow appearance, with a good nice frothy head, that unfortunately doesn’t stick around too long.

Loved the smell. Was pretty strong. Pure acidity, malts, skunk, and of course the rice, all combining to give a very sharp alcohol aroma.

The initial taste was quite strong, a little sour, and thereafter some malts and hay, a bit grainy with the rice making an appearance. A nicely balanced beer, not overbearing, with a lot of subtle flavours. Not much in the aftertaste, but overall this beer was very smooth, and not at all heavy. The crisp and refreshing taste makes this one of the most sessionable lagers you can find in my opinion.  I like Tsingtao Beer, its not going to get you wasted, but you can drink a lot of them without having to worry too much about the night, or indeed not expect a bad hangover.

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