China

Beer Madness

By Austin Ramzy | @austinramzy | March 23, 2009 | +

As China Blog readers may recall, last March I took a handful of Chinese brews across the Pacific to participate in the beer brackets, an unofficial companion to the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament. There were a few surprising performances from the Middle Kingdom, but overall Chinese beers did not fare well in the competition. This year I won’t be attending the beer brackets. If I could, there is one beer I would be tempted to throw in the mix, if only as an ill-fated 16 seed. It’s called Jiahe Beer, which is rendered in English as a semi-pronounceable series of symbols and letters.

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It’s name is wrapped in a frame you may recognize from a better known beer—Miller High Life.

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And Jiahe Beer bears a slogan—”Just Enjoy It”—that’s a word off of Nike’s “Just Do It.”

There is one realm where Jiahe shows signs of innovation. It comes in a plastic, screw-top bottle. With its Nike-like motto and activity friendly container, Jiahe appears to be aiming for the wide-open sport beer market.

Having tried a few sips of Jiahe, I realize there is one other area in which it is a pioneer: flavor. The brew tastes like a light pilsner that’s been spiked with a few shots of vinegar. One sip and you’ll be tempted to toss it to the curb. But the plastic bottle will bounce right back, just like an underdog should.

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  • johnsmith9876

    Ah! Vinegary beer !! Another great Chinese invention !! And bouncing back container. That’s another creative feat.

    Told you Chinese have great creative taste.

    Hmm.. I wonder how good it is as detergent, or for unclogging drains. May be they should include a small packet of baking soda to add more fizz.

  • laohong

    Sugarcanes cannot be sweet at both ends. I guess so cheap a beer should not be consumed by our elite expat correpondent, but only belong to Johnsmith type who can drink as detergent when delousing in NY Central Park.

  • johnsmith9876

    laohong: you still can’t find anything wrong with my posts and can only call me names. That’s good. Thank you. But it is too bad you still don’t know what Miller tastes like. But that’s all right. Chinese can drink detergent instead and feel very smuck about it too.

    By the way, I didn’t know that Chinese beer can be used for delousing. You must be speaking from experience, knowing that delousing is a daily routine for most Chinese.

  • jordancfan

    By: Jordan C. Fan , Prophet of Environment.

    The best beers produced China are from Qingdao 青岛. The reason is because that Chinese city of Qingdao was a “treaty port” leased or rented to Germany during the late 1800s and early 20th Century. Everyone knows that German beers were the best. German were chemists. They have very long tradition, experience and knowhow in the fermentation biochemical processes . In addition, Qingdao is near 泰山 Tài Shān or Mountain which has a constant suply of fresh clean drinking water for brewing beer.

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