Join us as we celebrate a belated Oktoberfest with this podcast dedicated to the most popular domestic beer in China. And if you don't know this you pretty much owe it to yourself to listen, since it isn't what you think (Brendan is the only one we know who guessed correctly). Also because dropping this sort of trivia in casual conversation will help you come across as urbane, sophisticated and connected to the pulse of the Chinese consumer. Hello promotion!That said, since this is a Speaking Practice lesson, our primary focus is helping you get your tones right when ordering these beers. So if you're a beginner student, the first half of this podcast is designed for you. We focus on the tones and talk a bit about the different beers. If you're a more advanced student, hang in there until halfway through our lesson when we start putting these words into context, and pulling up lots of related vocab including the proper way to say 12-pack in Chinese.And if you're a premium subscriber? Click through to our text page and grab our toll-free telephone number and your personal identification code. Call us up and enter your personal code when prompted. Start recording yourself reciting the names of these brands (focus on the tones!), or repeat our sentences, or talk to us about something completely different. Our teachers will listen to everything you say and get back to you in a day or two with personal feedback. It's a very good thing.
sseamon
said on October 14, 2009
喝啤酒只喝青岛啤酒 qingdao beer is my favorite. I've had snow beer in donbei (anshan).
Gail天堂的声音
said on October 14, 2009
once I asked the waitress to bring me some 青岛啤酒, she just took a bottle of beer made in 青岛with horrible taste.
paglino9
said on October 14, 2009
I think I account for a majority of 燕京‘s surprisingly large market share. 4th in China! My weekday drinking schedule usually looks something like this. A beer for lunch, a beer for dinner, and a beer for dessert. Weekends are a little more intensive.
Luckily high levels of rice and noodles in my diet, combined with biking to work have been balancing out the onset of a beer gut.
Brendan
said on October 14, 2009
Of course, my vote for "least-bad beer in China" goes to 哈尔滨啤酒, shortened to 哈啤, which (a) makes me Hapi whenever I drink it, and (b) is the oldest beer in China. Particularly recommended is their 小麦王 sub-brand, which is nice and perfumey. Still not my dream beer by a long shot, but not at all bad!
xiaoxin
said on October 15, 2009
@sseamon,
我和你一样，最喜欢青岛！
Joanna Hu
said on October 15, 2009
Qingdao beer is the best beer in China ,have really big name .But I think I like Kingstar 金星啤酒 It just taste good ,especially the New Generation . I tried 燕京 and 雪花 （snow beer ） before , not really into it . Do u miss Kingstar beer 小虎 ？ I dont think BJ have it ``Ha ha ! Smiles
mat
said on October 15, 2009
They all seem to be remnants of the dutch style, outside of China across SE Asia there's many more beers of a similar type. Most of which, on an actual beer scale, I'd score between 4 and 6. Not great then, but then since I haven't met a beer in North America that could break a 5, despite making a point of visiting micro breweries evey place I went over the course of many years... I don't think China is doing too bad. :)
Echo
said on October 15, 2009
@Joanna,
I have never seen 金星啤酒 in Beijing. Or maybe I didn't pay attention. 燕京 has a pineapple flavor beer(菠萝啤酒 bo1luo2pi2jiu3). It tastes surprisingly good though, not like those alcohol free beer in China (for instance, 啤儿茶爽）.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
richard
said on October 16, 2009
@mat,
there are hundreds of micro breweries in north america that are above 5
that uses only 2 noble ingredients(barley&hops) the base of good beers
bǐrú shūo > in the north east you have Sam Adams(US) MacAuslan and Boreale Rousse(CANADA) perhaps David can elaborate on this?
i have not been to china so i will try the availability of the mention beers in the podcast
but sounds like all beers in china are made mostly with chemical ingredients
mat
said on October 16, 2009
Well I guess it's a matter of opinion but most of the breweries I tried were bad, just didn't really get the correct ratios. Sam Adams is probably about the best actually, that gets a 5 :)
I don't think I'd heard of Rousse. So let's just say there's some fantastic beer in the US and I seem to have missed it :)
Think I agree about the Chinese beers I tried, they're very much mega-vat beers, a bit like Australia's CUB beers in that respect but more watery and sweet.
Actually off topic there, I've been meaning to try get into China's teas. Obviously that's a major strength but it's kind of impenetrable to the novice. The Chinese friends I have don't seem to be into it.
mat
said on October 16, 2009
@Echo, 菠萝啤酒啊！我一天必须尝试！
Gail天堂的声音
said on October 16, 2009
@Echo,
我们家好像买过这种啤酒，结果因为口味不好，没有人喝，所以到最后被扔掉了。。。。在我印象里，这个好像是无醇啤酒吧？
paglino9
said on October 16, 2009
@ joanna
我真的想念喝奥克啤酒。能买一打儿啤酒就是十三块。还有我记得在郑州足道就是十块钱。
@ Mat
菠萝啤酒太难喝。我喝了的时候让我头疼。
Gail说很对了＝）
trevelyan
said on October 16, 2009
@richard and @mat -- we're indoctrinated from childhood up north that Canadian beers are better than American beers. Which is true if your point of comparison is Labatt's versus Budweiser. But Canadian microbrews aren't nearly as good and varied as the ones you guys have. The best is probably Moosehead, which is pretty bitter and nutty.
When I was living down south, my favorite beers were Red Seal Ale and Prohibition. I don't know if these can be purchased nationwide, but Prohibition was especially great. Also really liked Samuel Adams, but I'm not sure it really counts as a microbrew. Have found Red Seal once or twice in China and consider this a massive sign of progress here, but the bottles are usually old and the beer doesn't taste as good as it does fresh (still good, but not quite as good as I remember).
On the Chinese side, I'm partial to 燕京 over 青岛. To be honest, they all sort of taste pretty much the same to me. I had a great black beer up in Tangshan once so am holding out hope that China will start producing more variety one of these days.
Brendan
said on October 18, 2009
@travelyan - Red Seal is increasingly available in Beijing (before, it had to be ordered through a Shanghai-based importer; there now seems to be a Beijing importer), and it is indeed a good beer. My favorite generally available beer in the States is probably Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which I think is about as nice as it gets for mass-produced beer. In Philadelphia, the locally produced Victory HopDevil is also not bad at all.Yanjing Beer does make black beer -- the 小卖部 around the corner from me carries it -- but like most Chinese attempts at black beer, it tastes suspiciously like they thought one made black beer by adding soy sauce and/or coffee grounds to regular beer. Less bad than some of the offerings I've tried, but it's not going to unseat Arthur Guinness's stout any time soon.Incidentally, the thing about Yanjing and Tsingtao tasting more or less the same isn't just your imagination -- I seem to remember reading something a while back saying that beer companies frequently use the same bottling companies and just alternate days.
Gail天堂的声音
said on October 19, 2009
@paglino9,
exactly! the taste of beer should not be mixed with fruits...
Echo
said on October 19, 2009
@Gail&paglino9,
你们这些坏人，攻击我的菠萝啤酒。
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Gail天堂的声音
said on October 20, 2009
@Echo,Echo急需提高乃对啤酒滴认识哟！
Xiao Hu
said on October 25, 2009
我2006年是第一次去中国旅行的，我原来的太太的亲戚给我介绍雪花啤酒。我觉得雪花啤酒就是一口感又纯又爽的啤酒，别的啤酒的口味又浓又苦我接受不了，总之我不常喝酒更不常喝醉。我很好奇，大家的最喜欢的啤酒是哪个牌子的呢？
Echo
said on October 25, 2009
@Xiao Hu,
欢迎你加入泡泡中文的大家庭 :)
特别奇怪，我一直不太喜欢啤酒，总觉得太苦了，什么牌子的都觉得苦。以前我有一个朋友说，一般特别喜欢啤酒的人很少，人们只能慢慢习惯啤酒，不知道是不是真的。
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
蓝大卫
said on December 14, 2009
There's a Chinese grocery chain in the Silicon Valley called 99 Ranch. The one closest to us is somewhat small and typically sells only Tsing Tao, which I like. A larger 99 Ranch in our area carries a wider variety of beers including Beijing and Taiwan beer. I enjoy all of them upon occasion. I ordered a bottle of Taiwan beer at a resort in Hualian and was surprised at its enormity!!I must admit though that I have wine with my meals more often than beer, after all, California is wine country. I tried some Chinese wine on China Airlines...uh....I think I'll stick with the Chinese beerand California wine!! :-)
trevelyan
said on December 15, 2009
@蓝大卫 - I always feel a bit cheated when I order a bottle of Tsingtao these days and get a smaller bottle (330ml) after getting used to the half-liter bottles. Also because the larger bottles are cheaper in the supermarkets and convenience stores, so you know you're paying more for less of the same thing.
Same with the cans. I've never figured out why it costs more to buy a can of beer here than a bottle with maybe double the volume.
蓝大卫
said on December 15, 2009
@trevelan
I suppose I was also worried about *my* volume! :-)
Gail天堂的声音
said on December 16, 2009
@Xiao Hu,
原来在北京很少能买到雪花啤酒，这种啤酒好像在四川最受欢迎。但是，四川喝酒的杯子比一般的杯子小一号，喝的时候觉得不太舒服。。。
user11749
said on June 20, 2010
@mat said on October 16, 2009
You know nothing about beer, even America's worst beer, Natural Light, stands head and shoulders above the best Chinese beer... Matt please never speak about beer again
