Friday 27 October 2006

Beer O'Clock: Tsingtao

This week's recommendation from Neil at Real Beer.

Beer Fact: Tsingtao is the only Chinese beer to appear in the Beer Hunter Michael Jackson's list of the world’s top 500 beers.

Beer Opinion: Tsingtao is definitely my favorite Chinese beer.

Granted, it's the only Chinese beer I've ever tried - but I really do like it.

It's also surprisingly easy to find - in Wellington it pops up at a number of fine Chinese and Malaysian restaurants and at reputable bottle stores like Regional Wines and Spirits.

I had a couple of bottles for lunch at the excellent Long Bar just to confirm its ready availability for skeptical readers.

A word of warning though - be careful with your pronunciation otherwise you may end up with the inferior Thai Singha! The official Tsingtao website suggests “Ching-dow”.

The brewery was founded by Germans in the port of Tsingtao in the early 1900s. At that time, the city was a German port as part of the concessions after the Boxer Rebellion. The Germans were eventually kicked out by the Imperial Japanese Army, who moved in and stayed until they were defeated in the Second Sino-Japanese war. Tsingtao Brewery is now 100% Chinese owned and is the largest in China. Many breweries around the world were established by German settlers including Samoa Breweries, and the producers of the excellent Namibian Windhoek.

Geopolitics aside, the beer pours a lovely straw colour with a wispy white head. It has a slightly astringent and crisp nose. Nicely carbonated, it has short, sweetish body with a crisp, dry finish. It’s quite smooth and refreshing and is indeed a perfect match for spicy food.

This is one of the few beers to use a small proportion of rice properly giving it a light colour and clean finish. It is not overly complicated - but everything balances and everything works.

Marvellous.

LINKS: Michael Jackson, beer hunter
Tsingtao Brewery

RELATED: Beer & Elsewhere

4 comments:

phil_style said...

I used to work for the firm that imports Tsing Tao. One of my favourite beers.

But be warned, you can buy cheap paralell imported cans of the beer in New Zealand (normally from independant suprettes and food-marts) which are not produced at the export factory in China, but by local regional Chinese breweries. The quality of these regional products is not consistent or approved for export to NZ.

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, most of the chinese people I know here in NZ don't drink this beer. They favour just about anything else available on the market.

They don't/won't drink Waikato either...

My Chinese former-flatmates used to go through Stella, Steinlager and Buddweiser like there was no tomorrow.

KG said...

Oh dear! I've just started drinking beer and Tasman Bitter tastes good.
moi is a peasant, I fear....

KG said...

Totally off-topic, but I just found pics of this building.
Wow!
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=149009