Tsingtao Beer

[Ian_Lee]

Another food product exported from China that can fetch premium price overseas is Tsingtao Beer.

Over here when it is on sale in the supermarket, six-packs Tsingtao would still ask for US$5.99 -- much higher than the Japanese counterparts like Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo.

But I heard that the Tsingtao Brewery has set up branch factory in Shenzhen. Some exports, like those arriving at Taiwan, are from the Shenzhen Brewery.

Is there any difference in taste between the Qingdao-brewed and Shenzhen-brewed Tsingtao beer?

[skylee]

Does Tsingtao really taste so good? I mean if I have to choose among Chinese beers I prefer Yanjing much better (not that I drink beer that often).

[Ian_Lee]

Just like Coke which would arouse neuro response for preference even though in numerous drinking tests it shows that Pepsi tastes better, Tsingtao probably would arouse the same kind of neuro response on me.

Tastewise my first preference is the German-brewed Blue Girl. Too bad it is hard to find German beer in this part of US.

[skylee]

Some say that Blue Girl is not a German Beer (or is it Blue Ribbon? I am a bit confused here).

[ChouDoufu]

Blue Ribbon and Blue Girl are seperate beers.

There is a difference between Shenzhen-Tsingtao and Qingdao-Tsingtao: the water. Beers depend on the watersources they come from so even if you used the exact sam process, if the water is from a different source it wil taste different. I've never had Shenzhen-Tsingtao, but I do think that Qingdao-Tsingtao tastes better than Beijing-Tsingtao.

[niubi]

i had heard a while back about yanjing being imported to the u.s. i saw it once, but haven't seen it again. having lived for a short time in beijing, i much prefer yanjing to qingdao. there are a couple beers in yunnan that i like better as well, dali and lancang jiang (as the mekong river is called in yunnan). actually i preferred drinking qingdao heipi (stout) to the regular qingdao, but it was not very common in beijing.

[wushijiao]

I'd say Qingdao is fairly ok, if only for the high quality of water used. In my opinion, that makes the biggest difference in Chinese beers. I think a lot of local beers (at least for their cheap brews) start with fairly shitty local water.

[Jive Turkey]

I don't mind drinking Chinese beer at all. I've actually gotten used to drinking watery lagers. My favourite summer beers are Qingdao and Jinwei (w/ the gold label). They're both quite watery and low in alcohol and won't leave you feeling dehydrated in the summer. In the winter, I like Haerbin. It's got a higher alcohol content and a really heavy grain flavour. I don't know why, but if I get drunk on it in the summer, I'll almost always wake up with a hangover. No such problem in the winter. Yanjing is also a good winter beer. My year round favourite is the gold label Qingdao (I think people call it lao Qingdao). It's got a slightly higher alcohol content than green bottle Qindao and the flavour is really smooth. It also comes back up smooth, too, if you happen to have too many Unfortunately, it seems we can only get it in small bottles in HK. Ian Lee, have you seen it anywhere in HK in the large bottles?

OK, the beers I hate the most:

Zhujiang-absolutely vile

brown bottle Jinwei-it seems I get a hangover before I even get drunk when drinking that stuff.

Huiquan-there's something really pissy tasting about it; it might be because they use a lot more rice in the brewing process.

[Ian_Lee]

The long-neck large bottle Tsingtao Beer can be found in the mom-n-pop stores around street corner in HK (their number is rapidly dwindling) while small bottle and can-sized Tsingtao are found in the supermarkets and 7-11.

But if you work or hang out in Central and mid-level, then probably it is hard to find the large bottle Tsingtao.

[sunyata]

I think the long-bottled Tsingtao is better than its Yanjing counterpart...

As for the Tsingtao imported to the US, it tastes average, not as good as the long bottles...

[JohnDoe2]

I like Tsing-Tao too. Drink too much of it and you wouldn't recognize Taiwan either.

[Ian_Lee]

I heard that free draft beer is offered when you take a tour inside the Tsingtao Brewery in Qingdao.

[skylee]

The problem is how you can take a tour inside the brewery in Qingdao. I went to the brewery but nobody there seemed to know anything about touring it.

BUT I have been to other beer breweries and they generally were not very interesting.

[Ian_Lee]

Skylee:

You don't need to go that far to visit brewery to have free beer.

I used to hold some San Miguel shares. Each year they held their annual shareholder's meeting in their headquarter in Sheng Tseng (Now they moved). You could have all the beer you want after the meeting!

[Jive Turkey]

The long-neck large bottle Tsingtao Beer can be found in the mom-n-pop stores around street corner in HK (their number is rapidly dwindling) while small bottle and can-sized Tsingtao are found in the supermarkets and 7-11.

But if you work or hang out in Central and mid-level' date=' then probably it is hard to find the large bottle Tsingtao.[/quote']

Are you talking about the regular kind of Qingdao sold in green bottles or the more expensive kind in the clear bottle with a gold label? The large green bottles are pretty easy to find, but I can't seem to find the gold label Qingdao in anything but the small bottles.

[Ian_Lee]

Jive:

I missed the part that you were talking abut the Gold Label. I also wonder where I can find them. I will try hard to look for you when I am in HK in May.

[PollyWaffle]

qingdao also make a pretty decent stout which strangely enuff is called qingdao hei jiu.

chinese beer doesn't seem to agree with me & always gives me a headache the next day... maybe it is the poor quality of water used?

[Guest Chan]

Beer was brought by the Germans to China at around 1900.

I also like to drink Tsingtao beer but its absolutly nothing special. It's just that its from my favorite country.

Like all other foreign (non German) beer its way too light! You can safe your money and buy any american beer. I recomend Budweiser, its the same