Beer Review – Tsingtao Beer
Another beer and another Special Guest…. while this is not an official Birthday Beer, it does feature my friend Chris.
Regular visitors to FortyBeers.com will know that my three friends – Phoebe, Simon and Chris – contributed to a birthday gift for me a while ago. As a means to share this gift, I started this beer review blog.
Chris is a temporary Queenslander. He came to Melbourne (where I am) for a conference for a few days, and while he was here he came to my place for dinner. This visit seemed to be a good opportunity to open a very tasty Tsingtao Beer.
When Chris came over, and I announced he would be a Special Guest, he didn’t appear to be overly enthused. However, when I opened my ‘fridge and gave him a few choices of bubbly beveridges, he grabbed the Tsingtao, snatched the video camera out of my hand, and ran off yelling, “Hurry up !! Where’s a bottle opener !”
Tsingtao Beer is brewed and exported from China – on the east coast, in a town called Qingdao. In my humble opinion, Tsingtao beer is fantastic.
A very clean and refreshing taste, Tsingtao is one of those beers that can be downed quickly and happily and with alarming regularity. Personally, I like Asian beers possibly a little more than European Beers. Having said that, a quick visit to the Tsingtao Brewery website reveals that it was founded in 1903 by Germans. This would explain its hop/malt flavour to an extent, but it certainly is not as strong as many German beers are. The website goes on to explain that the water has been airlifted from Loashan (an allegedly aqueous and famous mountain region in China), and that they use, surprisingly, Australian and Canadian yeast and barley.
Many years ago I was in China, and I had the pleasure of tasting my first Tsingtao. They drink it there by the barrel full (unlike Fosters here in Australia, which is exported in large quantities, but not many locals drink it), and it is very well known all over the world. If you are at a bottle shop, and see a Tsingtao, I suggest that you buy two of them.
Chris and I enjoyed ours very much – and I thank Chris for both his Forty Beers gift to me, and for turning up and blathering on while drinking beer at my place in front of the camera as a Forty Beers Special Guest.
On the Forty Beers Cheers O Meter – this beer review suggests it gets a very healthy 9 out of 10.
Thanks Chris – and may there be many more.
Matthew
P.S. Yes, Both Chris and I know there is more than one brand of beer in China… but we were having fun at the time at the expense of factual information.
Another Beer Review from FortyBeers.com
Tags: Asian Beer, Beer Review, Lager
Beer Review – Bee Sting Honey Wheat Beer from Barossa Valley Brewing
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Forty Beers, at the time of my birthday beers gift, seemed so many, yet so few. However, fast forward seven months, and I’m only up to Number 12…. (although there have been a few unauthorised Beer Reviews as well)….
I was going to do another video beer review on the long weekend just gone, however I got side tracked with the amazing storms here in Melbourne. Golf Ball and fist sized hail stones – the likes I’ve never seen before made for some great video footage and excitedly nervous children. Many cars and houses were damaged during this storm – but given recent events in Haiti and Chile, a few dings on the car are nothing compared to their problems.
Beer Number 12 is “Bee Sting” from Barossa Valley Brewing. According to the label it is a Honey Wheat Beer, and I might just say up front that it’s an unusual taste, but it’s certainly very nice indeed.
Bee Sting beer has a slight hint of honey, however it is not really sweet like honey is. It’s got a slight after spice / after taste too, which is probably why the Barossa Valley Brewing website suggests their Bee Sting Honey Wheat Beer goes well with Asian and foods with a bit of spice. It still has the hop taste that good beers have and it is very crisp and light.
It is a very light coloured beer, yellow/golden, and very clear.
“It is 100% all natural, using only barley, hops, a little wheat and a touch of honey. We have created a drink with tantalizingly round flavours, free of preservatives, additives or chemicals,” suggests the Bee sting page on the Barossa Valley website. For those who don’t know, the Barossa valley is about an hours drive out of Adelaide, in South Australia. It is well known thought the world for it’s wine making, wineries, grapes, and all things wine. I was unaware of it’s beer making industry until opening this birthday beer.
“A complex but refreshing beer” according to the label – it certainly does beg for another to be had immediately… the 330ml bottle didn’t last very long before it was emptied…. which I suppose has to be a good sign.
I like it. As with several of the beers reviewed here on FortyBeers.com , I don’t think I’ll run out and buy cases and cases of these little fellas, but, having said that I’m really pleased this Bee Sting Ale has made up a part of my birthday beer stash.
In my humble opinion, I suggest that Bee Sting Ale gets very respectable 8 out of 10 on the Forty-Beers-Cheers-O-Meter.
Thanks once again for visitng FortyBeers.com. I’m certainly enjoying these beers, and writing / videoing these reviews is also proving to be more fun than perhaps it should be….
Stay tuned for another exciting episode. I’ll try not to make bad puns like my “float like a butterfly, drink like a bee” quip during the video.
Thanks,
Matthew
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Tags: Ale, Australian Beer, Wheat Beer
Beer – Interesting Facts 8
In ancient Egypt, two containers of beer were the minimum wage for a day’s labour.
Matthew
Tags: Beer Facts
Beer Review Golden Ale – Red Hill Brewery.
Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to FortyBeers.com – where it is Beer O’Clock all the time….
Especially on this VERY hot Melbourne summers day… 38 degrees celcius / 100 degrees fahrenheit makes for excellent beer drinking weather.
After the last few beer reviews where I broke away from the “birthday beers” format with my Special Guest Beer Reviewer, Simon, I thought it was time to return to the ‘fridge and grab myself another unknown wrapped up cold one.
So, here we are with Birthday Beer number 11, which turned out to be “Golden Ale” from Red hill Brewery, near Melbourne, In Australia.
Golden Ale, at first tatse, was great. And the second mouthful proved to be even better. A subtle and slightly sweet taste initially, it quickly gave way to a more European style hop sensation. It was, in fact, quite golden in colour, and had exactly the right amount of bubbles….. I didn’t count them, so I can’t quite put a numerical value to quantify “extactly the right amount of bubbles”, but it was juuuust right.
Crisp and dry, this Golden Ale is a beer to be consumed…. savoured slowly, quaffed quickly… it doesn’t matter, because either way it tastes fantastic.
Red Hill is an area about an hours drive south west of Melbourne, Australia. It’s in a delightful little part of the world known as the Mornington Peninsular, where there are beach towns and farm land in abundance. Red Hill is known for its wineries – some absolute gems of wines come from this area. Simon ( aka one third of my Forty Beers, and Special Guest Beer Review Dude) and his lovely wife Jen were married at one of these wineries.
The Red Hill Brewery website mentions that they are ”a beer oasis in a sea of wine”. They make a big deal of growing their own hops, and it would appear that they are a destination – cafes, restaurants, bars, brewery tours, etc. While I have never been there, next time I’m in the area I certainly will make the time to stop by and have a look, and most definately a taste. Or two. Or three…… I’d better get my wife to drive home….
I like Golden Ale from the good people at Red Hill Brewery. On the Forty Beers Cheers O Meter, I reckon this is a very worthy 9 out of 10.
Stay tuned for more exciting episodes of FortyBeers.com !
Thanks,
Matthew
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Tags: Ale, Australian Beer
