In space, apparently, no-one can hear you scream.
So, partly to remedy this fact, or perhaps for other reasons, two Australian beer brewers are boldly going where no brewer has gone before…
Good on ‘em !
Thanks,
Matthew.
In Germany there is a beer ice cream. Its alcohol content is lower than that of classic beer.
Matthew
FortyBeers.com
Snake Wine Review – Live from Hoi An, Vietnam.
Usually, here at FortyBeers.com I am in the habit of opening and sampling beers of various descriptions.
However, during my holiday in Vietnam, apart from some fantastic beers, I came across what looked like an interesting concoction….
Snake Wine.
Snake Wine is apparently a Vietnamese ” Elixir of Life ” – it allegedly cures everything from baldness to cancer to blindness, it is allegedly an aphrodisiac, it will predict the winning lotto numbers, and may or may not cook your lunch for you as well. Allegedly.
In Mexico, you have your Tequilla worm – a poor unfortunate little fella who happens to be dunked into a bottle of evil tasting local liquor.
Vietnamese Snake Wine is similar. In Vietnam, Snake Wine consists of a dead cobra in a bottle full of some kind of clearish/yellow spirit, which is left in the sun or on a shelf for probably far too long. Some of the bigger bottles have a scorpion as well as a snake, but these were a bit too expensive for my simple requirements.
I asked the market vendor “how much for a little bottle ?”.
“ Six Dollar”.
I paused, thinking to myself, “do I really want one”.
” Five Dollar”.
Still pausing, not because of the price, but because I was VERY unsure about this…
” Three Dollar !!” yelled the apparently desperate vendor.
Sweating from both the heat and the thought of drinking it, I asked “Two Dollars ?” , and the transaction was done.
Finding a little restaurant and asking my wife to hold the video camera, as my two daughters looked on in fear and amazement, I sampled what can only be described as one of the most disgusting tastes known to human kind…. or at least to me anyway. Describing the taste of Snake Wine as “kerosene mixed with rotting dead, fishy, snake with undertones of petrol and metholated spirits” is an understatement, and goes no-where near to what I actually tasted.
I absolutely loved the beers and the food that we ate in Vietnam. There were a few weird and wonderful tastes and smells that I probably wouldn’t need to have again, but my theory is “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”…. or the Vietnamese in this case. I ate far too much, drank too many beers, loved every minute of it, and it was all fantastic.
Except for the Snake Wine !!
Snake Wine gets a NEGATIVE 53 out of 10 on the Forty Beers Cheers O Meter.
You have been warned 
Thanks,
Matthew.
Tags: Vietnamese Beer
Beer Review – Huda Beer, Live from Hue, Vietnam.
Continuing on my trip to Vietnam, my wife, 2 daughters and I found ourselves in the central Vietnamese town of Hue (pronounced “Hway”). Hue is famed throughout the land for its dipping sauces and its bit-sized-appetizers. Very tasty indeed. Hue is also well known for its history – there is an amazing Citadel in the middle of town. The Citadel is very much like the Forbidden City in Beijing, China – it is the old imperial palace and walled city where the emperor used to live approximately 200 years ago. Hue is also famous for its beers, among them Huda Beer.
Like most Asian beers, Huda is probably on the weaker side of taste explosions. However, given it is stinking hot for 99% of the time day and night in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese like their beers REALLY cold, Huda is not a bad drop at all. The standard 450 ml bottle is just the right size to consume quickly and easily. The standard price of just under $1 means that another is usually ordered within 30 seconds of finishing the first one. Everywhere we went in Hue, Huda Beers were not far behind, or in front, or in our faces in some form of advertising or another. And so it was only natural to have a few of these local Lagers (at least, I think it is a Lager).
A very clean and crisp taste, it just went down so well with the local edible delicacies in Hue. As I was travelling with my young daughters, I didn’t have too much of the local spicey food (I tried that in Hanoi, and had several tumultuous out of stomach and out of bowel experiences as a result, an experience I was thus not keen to repeat ), but I suspect the Huda woul;d have gone with the chilli’s very nicely indeed.
The Huda Beer website – http://www.huda.com.vn/default.asp?type=portal&changelang=en&tab=language - has lots of text and graphics, but doesn’t say much. Interestingly though, the Huda Brewery does apparently donate a large sum of money fairly regularly to various charities and provides scholarships to students in poorer areas. To me as a seemingly ”rich western tourist”, there is a lot of poverty in Vietnam. Given every man and his dog drinks Huda in this area of the country, the profits from this brewery would probably be large enough to support some Good Deeds. This has to be a good thing, I reckon.
Thanks,
Matthew.
P.S. I’ve recently set up a new Saxophone Teachers directory listing. If you are a Saxophone Teacher, then please visit www.SaxophoneTeachers.com and consider subscribing to advertise your services to potential students.
Tags: Lager, Vietnamese Beer
