My Chinese Beer Experience

Beer Review:
I am not a pro beer taster but I have traveled Europe and I am from Portland, Oregon, the microbrew capitol of the world, so I have tasted some pretty awesome brews. The review below doesn’t use a system; I simply react to the beer. The following is in the order that I tasted them:

1. West Lake Green Rain Beer (Hangzhou) – a good refreshing beer, it is brewed locally in Hangzhou and has a good balanced wheat flavor and isn’t too strong on the hops. The beer is golden with somewhat of a foamy head. (pictured)

2. Reeb (Shanghai) – this is a cheap beer without much taste, but it was refreshing and it hit the spot. Produced by Asia Pacific breweries, this is a brand owned by Heineken. Oddly, the name of the beer is beer spelled backwards.

3. Tsingtao (Qingdao) – truly the best beer that I had in China. This is a German style lager that was started by German immigrants in 1903. The only downside is that it is more expensive than most and in some areas more expensive than Budweiser.



4. Yanjing (Beijing) – smooth and similar to a pilsner, this was my favorite on the trip because of the price and the taste. It is the equivalent of 44 cents for about a half liter.

5. Hans Beer (Xi’an) – watery and not my favorite. It had a weak hoppy aftertaste and hardly any head.