Chicagoist's Beer of the Week: Taiwan Beer

heyskinny

A few of us met up last Sunday to watch the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown on the city's South side. As the festivites marking the Year of the Dragon wound down, we headed off toward the "new" part of Chinatown, seeking coffee or tea, a respite for the cold day. Walking through Chinatown Square, a hot cup of coffee in hand, we stumbled across China Place Liquor City. Although well-stocked with Chinese liquors and more sake than you can shake a stick at, there is a lot of of beer in the back. And if you can elbow past the Miller Lites and Budwisers, Tsing Tao and Sapporo cans, you'll find plastic-wrapped six-packs of Taiwan Beer.

Brewed in Taipei by the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, this local standout is, ironically, a holdover from the days of Japan's rule over Taiwan. Founded in 1901, TTL held a monoploy over the production and sale of all tobacco, liquor, salt, opium and camphor sold on the island. When Chiang Kai-shek led his nationalists to Taipei to form their government-in-exile they preserved the monopoly system for alcohol and tobacco, assigning beer production in 1945 to the Taiwan Provincial Monopoly Bureau, which adopted the name Taiwan Beer the following year. In 1960 locally grown Ponlai rice was added to the fermentation process, giving the lager a distinctive local flavor

Unlike other Asian exports, light and forgettable, Taiwan Beer has a pure, clean taste, with a quick, fluffy head and a crisp flavor that compliments spicy foods. The Ponlai rice adds a dry maltiness to this clean-tasting lager. Sure, it's not as complex as a local microbrew, and it lacks the fullness of a Central European import like Stiegel or Urquell. But that's OK - Taiwan Beer tastes good, and you can drink a few of them in a single sitting. That's not a bad thing; sometimes beer should be enjoyed as something you drink for the sake of drinking beer.

Nobody will accuse TTL of blazing any trails with their brews, but that's what's made Asia great - a dedication to being good enough, every time. Taiwan Beer remains the island's number-one selling beer and one of the most recognized brands in the island nation's business world. And like so much of what Asia exports to the West, it's not bad.

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By Kevin Robinson in Food on February 3, 2012 2:20 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Chris Bentley

If you're craving Taiwanese food as well, you can pick this stuff up at the Asian grocery in Westmont, IL next door to Yu-Ton dumpling house. Westmont: evidently your one-stop Taiwanese shop!

Nicholas

I love Taiwan Beer! Much like OB, it goes very good with food. It is not a beer you would simply sit and drink by itself. In Taiwan, as in mainland China, you do NOT serve beer without serving food along with it. We served Taiwan Beer at our wedding banquet, and it was a big hit.

sat3911

Ok, I'm thinking it is a night to go hit the Super H mart and see if I can grab 5-6 different beers for a comparison. I'm thinking OB, Asahi, Taiwan, Tsingtao, Singha and a beer to be determined later.

ChicagoD

And grab me a bottle of soju, wouldja?

sat3911

was that a bottle of soju, Soju or SOJU. They have all three sizes out there. The big ones frighten me although I don't exactly remember why although I have a vague recollection of Karaoke being involved.

ChicagoD

We served Kriek Lambic instead of champagne to rave reviews. But I have to ask, did you serve the generic looking cans at your wedding?

Nicholas

No, it is sold in tall brown bottles, too, which we served from a bar. Taiwan Beer also has a "premium" brand. But, I have not seen that here in the States.

DROOO1

i like your style.

archie_manning

The Chinese consider this beer part of Tsingtao.

ChicagoD

Worse, the Republic of China types consider Tsingtao part of this beer.

sat3911

Ok, how does it compare to OB?

I am naturally suspicious of items from Taiwan since we got a hold of those "Long Life" cigarettes from a friend's trip. Guaranteed to give you a long life if you smoke them. I have never puked so much from so little.

Kevin_Robinson

What's OB?

ChicagoD

Dude, the sign outside every Korean bar in the city.

Kevin_Robinson

I guess I don't drink in Albany park enough....

sat3911

Get thee and a friend out to a Korean BBQ and get a giant pile of meat to go with a giant bottle of OB and two tiny glasses. It is a great way to spend a few hours.

ChicagoD

Oh crap. I just saw that OB stands for Oriental Breweries. This is going to be a shitstorm for sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...

sat3911

Oh. My. God. It is beer from Iraq or Iran that has come here in the guise of a Korean immigrant to form sleeper cells and lure us all in to drinking their beer until one day - WHAM - they take the alcohol out and we are completely powerless to stop their invasion because we are all going through withdrawl.

Nicholas

No, I think OB is widely recognized as Korean.

Use Psychology

Typical Asian "beer" that contains rice (as you can see here: http://en.ttl.com.tw/product/p... ) so it's not really even beer - much like Bud and Miller.

Why you dignify this garbage with a "beer of the week" column is beyond me. Try reviewing an actual beer next time, and not a rice-flavored imitation. (PS that's where that "clean", "crisp" tastes come from, which means if your beverage tastes that way, it's not really beer.)

sat3911

So I assume you would pull out this same rant for any beer with adjuvants such as Goose Island's Sofie or Pere Jacques, any hefeweiss or weiss beer, many Belgians, and lambics.

Beer should be about using local ingredients to preserve the harvest and make something unique and interesting and fun to drink. It doesn't need to be about your dogmatic response to a Reinheitsgebot law that is widely ignored in the country of its inception and completely ignored elsewhere

Nicholas

Damn beer snobs -- always ruining things by pointing out that "its not REAL beer."

ChicagoD

You could just not drink it. In fact, because of the way the free market and economics work in this country you could just buy the over-hyped, over-hopped crap that some hipster "craft brewer" is hawking and enjoy that.

And, by the way, you may not like Bud or Miller, but they are most certainly "beer" under any definition other than the Reinheitsgebot.

sat3911

Technically, since the original reinheitsgebot didn't include yeast, if it is alcoholic in the end, it isn't beer.

ChicagoD

Eh, wait though. The expectation was that natural yeast in the air would do the trick. Even the medieval Bavarians knew SOMETHING happened that got them drunk.

sat3911

I would guess it was more the use of yeast in the lees/foam of the previous batch or yeast soaked wooden barrels as opposed to airborne yeast. They didn't have the technology to isolate the yeast strains so it wouldn't have been added the way we add it now into a sterile environment.