China Beer

August 28 - September 7, 2013:

My wife and I recently took an amazing 10-day trip to China.  It is a fascinating place and culture that I highly recommend seeing in person.  And yes, there was beer in China, lots of it actually.  You could buy it on the street in most areas and walk around with it.  Unfortunately, most of it was of the watery lager variety and sat at about 3% to 5% alcohol, but, hey, it was cheaper than bottled water most of the time so when in the Far East why not do as the Far Easterners do!!



We set it up to have an overnight layover in Seattle before heading to Beijing and while we were in "The Emerald City" we stopped at Emerald City Brewing for a discounted 4-beer sampler (thanks Groupon.com).  I had the Dottie Seattle Lager, the Ivana Pale Lager, their Pilsner (a harbinger of what was about to come I think) and on a guest tap, the Lucille IPA from Georgetown Brewing (also Seattle).   The ECB beer is decent but they focus on the lighter styles of beer which aren't my particular favorites.   But I forgive them since their pin-up girl logo artwork including Dottie herself (photo above) are definitely worth a look and a toast.

 My first beer in China was in Beijing.  This is Yanjing 10 Degree Beer, a pale lager rice-based beer from one of the largest breweries in Asia.  It's nothing special and pretty much the common-style of beer found here.

"I got the Green Bottle Blues."
Same Yanjing Beer as above, different bottle (and brewing process?)....not that I could tell.



What makes The Great Wall a little greater?  Why a cheap, cold beer, of course.  A little old man was selling this can of Tsingtao Lager (which is common even in the U.S.)and a few other beverages right on the famous wall.  His display of wares, as well as the other couple ones I saw, were fairly small and unobtrusive to the overall power and beauty of this unbelievable structure.



No idea what this version of Tsingtao is called.  But, hey, it's another green bottle of watery lager/pilsner...

This is a Tsingtao "Draft" with a shot of good ol' American-made Jack Daniels for it to chase after.

We took an overnight sleeper train to the city of Xi'an from Beijing and they were selling beer on it as well.   I didn't even have to get out of beer as the guy was selling it from a cart in the hallway.  This is a Kingway, another popular pale lager made in Shenzhen, China.

Tsingtao 9 Degrees, this time for dinner with one of our G Adventures traveling companions in the background, the lovely, Natalie, from London.  The 9 degrees didn't help the taste or quality, by the way.



According to our guide this is actually a craft/local beer made near the famous West Lake and translates to "West Lake Beer" as it's name.  I bought it at a street-side stand near the lake.  I didn't see a whole of difference in it, but it did seem perhaps a bit fresher than a few of the others I had.



Hoo-ray! It's clear bottle time, but still the same style and taste as the green bottles, so don't get too excited.  This is the amusingly-named Cheerday Beer.  I thought their website was kind of a hoot.  Check it out:
http://www.qdhbeer.com/index1.php

The beer wasn't great but we had a good time with it.  Here's my wife, Ashlee, making the best of low-alcohol spirits at a street-side table next to a barbecue grill where they just cooked us a large squid on a stick.  Yep, you heard me.

And there was LOTS of consumption by our group.  I hadn't seen this many "dead soldiers" since we left the Terra Cotta Warriors back in Xi'an!!



Another clear bottle.  Good luck with the name of it?  Does it matter really?  It's all the same!!

Another can of Tsingtao from our hotel room fridge in Shanghai with a view of The Pearl Tower in the background.  Shanghai's an amazing city and I would jump at the chance to visit there again.  Cheers!

Suntory Premium....yet, it tastes the same as "non-premium" Chinese beer...but it's from Japan...threw you a curve there, didn't I...that's about the most interesting thing about it unfortunately.

Holy crap!! Is that a dark beer?? Yep, it's a German-style Fest Beer (dark ale) from a microbrewery in Shanghai just around the corner from our hotel (a lucky happenstance that I stumbled  upon) called The Bund Brewing Company.  Granted the place only had 3 styles of beer they made and this was the only dark one, but it's a start.  With the embrace of modern technology and style in this city, I could see the rise of  good craft beer booming here quickly

Another Suntory Premium bought and drank while street shopping in Shanghai (bargains galore by the way)

One last complimentary can of Tsingtao on the plane home from Shanghai along with the sweet entertainment set-up  in the background offered by China Eastern Airlines (even in economy class).

Great trip. hum-ho beer but an unforgettable experience.