Found some 哈尔滨啤酒å°?麦王/Harbin Beer Wheat King in the fridge at the supermarket at lunchtime, so I bought a few cans thinking I’d try it out. Well, it’s one kuai cheaper than canned Tsingtao, Hapi (Harbin Beer, for the uninitiated) is on my list of drinkable Chinese beers, and it looked interesting….. Of course, I checked the can before putting any in my basket. 3.6% by volume, a little on the weak side, but about average for China. The ingredients listed are water, barely malt, wheat malt, rice and hops, listed in that order. One would assume there was a little yeast involved in there somewhere, too.
Roubaozi’s on his way, and I was feeling a little thirsty, so I thought, why wait, and cracked open a can now. First impression: Well, there’s a little hint of flavour hanging around in the background, but kinda watery. Second impression: Might as well be drinking carbonated water.
Fortunately Lao Ma came over bearing a large case of Yanjing.
I found by chance that the 红旗 under my building has a beer called Stout Lodge which has a rather tasty chocolate-smoky flavour. It’s produced by a brewery in Hebei. Or perhaps I find it palatable because the flavour’s a little different from most beers I’ve encountered here.
Sounds interesting, though I’ve never seen such a beer. I like Tsingtao’s Haidao Heipi for a similar reason- it actually has flavour, unlike every other beer in China. Haidao Heipi has a nice, smooth chocolatey flavour.