What's is considered the best domestic Taiwanese beer?

what’s is considered the best domestic Taiwanese beer?

and how does it compare to, say, Heineken(Dutch) or Späten(German)…? (my favourite beers)

Thanks!

Taiwan Beer (the original one) is the best beer. In fact, it is world class, and one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the best of reputations. This is because it is - as with many fine things - something of an acquired taste. On top of this, Mainland China has waged a propaganda war against it. They equate drinking Taiwan Beer with calls for Taiwan independence, and have poured a lot of money into promoting Qingdao Beer.

AJ, have you ever been to the “bars” in the TTL factories where they serve absolutely fresh Taiwan draft? I’ve haven’t been yet but a mate goes to the one in Taichung from time to time and says it’s great stuff.

Joe,
I’m living down in Chiayi now, so I haven’t been to those places. However, I have a local brewery contact so I have tasted some of the “fresh stuff.”

Ice cold Taiwan Draft! The best! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

[quote=“creamypanda”]what’s is considered the best domestic Taiwanese beer?

and how does it compare to, say, Heineken(Dutch) or Späten(German)…? (my favourite beers)

Thanks![/quote]

I blind tested Heineken and Taiwan beer. Honestly the taste was not that different. What set them apart was the foam of the Taiwan beer. It drowns out the taste and is obviously the reason English quality beers don’t have much bubble going on.

Try it. Just put something under identical glasses to mark one and have somebody present you the two beers. Guarantee you’ll tell them apart.

Taiwan Beer is excellent.
The green bottle or the brown bottle are fine beers.
And as there is a TTL brewery just up the road from this mythical outpost of civilization, we get it very fresh.

TsingTao is now being made in a TTL brewery in the Kendding/PingTung area at the southern end of the island. I have tasted it and am not impressed.

I don’t know why they ever did away with I want Beer.

HG

Earlier in the thread, I wrote [quote]Taiwan Beer (the original one) is the best beer. In fact, it is world class, and one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the best of reputations. This is because it is - as with many fine things - something of an acquired taste. On top of this, Mainland China has waged a propaganda war against it. They equate drinking Taiwan Beer with calls for Taiwan independence, and have poured a lot of money into promoting Qingdao Beer.[/quote]

How come nobody called me out on that B.S.? :noway: I was waiting to be spanked, but everyone seems to be agreeing?

Well mate, I couldn’t get much past the first few words without thinking, he’s simply gotta be drunk!

HG

HG wrote [quote]he’s simply gotta be drunk! [/quote]
Lucky guess you marsupial-loving bastard! But then again, anything I post after midnight has a 90% chance of being under the influence.
After a hard day’s work forcing the natives to buy opium, I like to unwind with a soothing tonic.

As is your birth right, old egg. :laughing:

HG

This
Shit
Is
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Another
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Taiwan beer taste shit.

To compare it with heineken is fine because that is shit too.

DV8 has a couple of local micro-brewed beers that are not bad - a dark ale and a white beer. The white beer is a bit sweeter than I’m used to, but with a slice of lemon it was pretty good. It was too late at night to remember what they were called though…

[quote=“Taffy”]DV8 has a couple of local micro-brewed beers that are not bad - a dark ale and a white beer. The white beer is a bit sweeter than I’m used to, but with a slice of lemon it was pretty good. It was too late at night to remember what they were called though…[/quote]I think I might know those. Was the dark ale called “Abbey Beer”? That’s quite nice.

There’s also a microbrewer in Gaoxiong which does a couple of different brews including a sweet but fairly pleasant stout.

I think it’s called North Taiwan (北台灣) Beer. As was mentioned, the Taiwan Beer brewery on Jianguo Rd in Taipei is a fine place to get sozzled. Their snacks are good too.

I remember having some of the premium (green) bottled Taiwan Beer that was something above merely passable lager. The problem, imo, is the quality control process.

  1. The brewers are free to cheat and use formaldehyde to control sediment in order to ensure a clear appearance. Now, everybody knows that various processing oils are present in canned beer – these are added in coating the interior of the can – so if you’re drinking cans you’re obviously not in this for flavor. The formaldehyde I’m talking about here is added to the process upstream of bottling, so it’s obviously present in bottled beer and is additional to the processing oils in canned beer. Kegged beer as well, for that matter.

  2. Given that the chances are excellent you’re drinking a sub-prime product to begin with (added formaldehyde), sometimes the quality is further degraded because the bottled beer’s skunked. More than likely the distributors leave it to sit out in the sun too long. This probably happens between the blue truck and the retailer’s cooler, but whatever the reason the key to this spoilage is sunlight not heat. Fine lagers are that way, let them see sunlight and good lager’ll go to crap lager in very short order.

Actually, you gotta screw up pretty bad to fuck up the taste of fresh-brewed beer. Like fresh-baked bread, if the basic ingredients are all there in the proper proportions then what you taste straight out of the oven is a slice of heaven. I’m also not so naive as to believe that even German brewers are above adding a little of this or that if it comes to saving a batch; American brewers probably do so as well. Business is business, after all.

However, this is probably an example of the case where enforcement, with teeth, of laws designed to regulate brewing help consumers. For example, Germany’s Reinheitsgebot law forced brewers to get the process right the first time and thus minimize the need to save batches. This law led directly to the formation of the world’s best beercraft (German brewing), hands down. To be clearer here, what I’m saying is that German brewers are so good because the law (actually, its enforcement) forced them to learn their craft: adding bitters or spices or formaldehyde to save a batch wasn’t an option open to the German brewer. [Adding bitters or spices to change the flavor also wasn’t an option, and that’s why German beer although excellent is a bit boring (imho); Reinheitsgebot no longer applies to German brewing, btw.]

If I receive incoming on this, it’ll come from the British. :laughing: So let me say up front: :uk: Oh, and imperial Britain knew more about distributing ales to nontemperate climates than any nation on Earth, and I’m sure today’s discerning British drinkers have strong opinions here…even though Britain’s best export ale, imo Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout, is sent to my local booze hole in clear bottles. Go figure.

almas john,

no one called you out on your original statement because you were drinking beer. imo, there is no bad beer. only degrees of goodness. and if it says ‘beer’ on the can or bottle it is good enough for me.

beer is good. any beer is good. any beer is better than no beer. just enjoy and who cares what some snob thinks, as long as you enjoy it. and besides, how many taiwanese beers are there?

i enjoyed many a taiwan beer and several tsingtao beers while exploring the streets of taipei. it’s just so easy to acquire, and so refreshing. i would choose a skunky, warm, shaken up taiwan beer over an ice cold bud, miller or coors anyday. but if someone offered me the latter i would oblige.

they all sound the same when you crack em open, and after that i just know theres a beer waiting to wash over my tongue and down my throat.

enjoy beer, beer, pure and simple.

jm

You are correct. As mentioned, North Taiwan Beer (out of Xinzhuang) brews a white ale and an abbey ale. They had a stand set up at the recent street fair at CKS Memorial (the one that the Muddy Basin Ramblers played at), and they had the white ale on tap.

Nice to see craft brewing taking off in Taiwan.