tsingtao.

tsingtao.

what’s happening guys.

nothing. just a new bottle of beer. i actually noticed something weird these past few weeks. and that is the increasing traffic to this blog. i do not know if this is weird to some of you, but it is to me. prior to me writing all these stuffs about beer, my views are getting really low. and so i think, “heck it, now i can write anything i want since no one is gonna read it anyway.” and now that it is rising again, i fear that people would think of me as an alcoholic or whatsoever bad connotations. but it also made me ponder whether people there now have a softer and more liberal stance on drinking alcoholic beverages.

i guess it is really a prevalent view in asia that consuming alcoholic drinks is just simply bad. i actually had a conversation with a girl, and when i asked her to define being a good girl or a good person, she told me that it includes not going to parties and not drinking alcoholic drinks. well, let’s just say according to that definition i am not good.

but here lays the difference. here people drink alcohol to have a good time. not a ‘good’ time, but a good time. me and my dad go to different bars every weekend to try out different beers and hear good music or play a game of foosball, and we drink wine to accompany a nice dinner. but it is not extraordinary, and we are far away from being an alcoholic. so, i wanna say again that collecting beer bottles is just a hobby, and in actuality i do not drink much, and i wish to continue posting interesting stuffs about beers cos i find it educational, and if you already have a bad perception of me, F U!

enough blabbering, let’s get straight to business. tonight we have tsingtao beer from qingdao, shandong province, china. i know it is not a european beer, but let’s not discriminate. and you know what, i actually like this beer, cos it has a really sweet taste. the description says that the sweet taste of the beer is a good companion for spicy asian cuisines. but i have yet to proof that preposition.

some history, the brewery was actually founded by the germans, of the anglo-german brewery, in the year 1903, when they were settling in the area. so it is in some way actually an european beer, which has obviously transformed. and now it is actually world famous, being sold in 62 countries and being the number 1 exported consumer product from china. i can still remember my dad drinking it on our trip to london 2 years ago and i saw the logo on a few nba basketball matches.

here is the link: http://www.tsingtaobeer.com

try to visit the site, and you can’t enter unless you are 21 years old. (but of course you can always put a false birthdate like what i did) and you could be entertained.

click on the ‘chinese heritage’ tab on top, and you will see chinese milestones in these order:

1. 551 b.c. confucius was born
2. 403 b.c. construction of the great wall began
3. 1903 tsingtao brewery was founded (whut?)
4. 1972 tsingtao lager was launched in the united states (whut??)
5. 2001 china won the 2008 olympic bid (okay)
6. 2003 tsingtao celebrates 100th anniversary(whut???)
7. 2008 tsingtao sponsored the 2008 china olympic (you are pushing it man)

in conclusion, let’s just say that the chinese are glad that the history books were not written by this company.

ganbei!

rothaus tannenzäpfle.

rothaus tannenzäpfle.

hey guys.

welcome to the new addition of my beer collection.

today we have rothaus tannenzäpfle which comes from germany. at first i only bought it cos it looks cute. isn’t it? with the picture of a german woman carryin two glasses of beer in her hands and the pine cones around her.

however, there are actually some interesting facts about this traditional bottle. believe it or not, it is the first 0.33 l (330 ml) bottle! amazing right. and it was only in the year 1956 that beers are bottled in this size, which has now become more or less the standard. i heard that it was actually impossible before that year to put beers into a bottle that size, i am still unaware as for why though.

and there’s another thing that is awesome, the gold tinfoil sleeve around the top of the bottle is famous for being able to be removed by merely the  slight wrist of the wrist. i don’t dare to do it on my collection bottle though, maybe the next time i get the chance.

and i actually know how to say cheers in german without needing to look it up. thanks to my dad who seems to be encouraging me to drink once i came here. (relax dudes, i don’t drink that much in actuality. let’s just say i am normal here.)

zum wohl! prost!

budweiser (original).

budweiser budvar.

hey dudes.

you might think you know budweiser. the name sounds familiar anyways. but maybe you don’t. i certainly didn’t at first.

the thing is that the more famous budweiser beer originates from america, and most people think this is the actual budweiser. but sorry to dissapoint folks, the actual budweiser came from a place called ‘budvar‘ in the czech republic. it seems that the founder of the american budweiser was ‘inspired’ by the beer in budweis/budvar during on of their trips there.

some proofs:

• if you open the american budweiser page on wikipedia, the first thing you see would be : “For the original Bohemian beer, see Budweiser Budvar Brewery.”
• the first section of that page would address the dispute about the name.
• the american budweiser could only use the name ‘bud’ in continental europe, albeit being the biggest brewing company in the world.
• the website address for the czech’s budweiser: www.original-budweiser.cz

i am still a beginner in this, so i can’t really justify which one tastes better. in fact i am still on the stage where all beer taste good for me, i guess i need more experience.

also, it seems that the czech’s budweiser produces several styles of beer. i only got my hand on the lager. the most common of the rest, but i guess i need to get the foundation right. i’ll get the rest if i happen to pass by them.

na zdraví!

Baltika.

Baltika 7 - Russia

good evening ladies and gentlemen.

i know it seems like i have been having a lot of these beer posts. but i might as well keep writing until the next block comes around. and this bottle is so enticing i can’t help it.

baltika is apparently the largest beer brewery in mother russia and only second biggest to heineken in europe. wow! they must drink a lot of beer there in russia.

what i found most interesting about this beer is the bottle cap. it is like no other. it has its own flap and you do not need a bottle opener to get it open. you just pull the flap upwards and start enjoying the nice cold beer.

tastewise is baltika rather sweet and smooth, not as strong and stark as viru or bintang in that case. but it is nice when you do not want that much of a kick.

baltika cap.

there is a website for the beer, but it is not so interesting. in one part because it is in russian, and that when i use google translat the second word i read was ‘comrade’. and the other part beacuse the website talks more about the company rather then the beer it self.

but i did some research and found that the number i found on the bottle is of a significance. it is like a type of a baltika beer. there are nine baltika beers numbered from 0 to 9, with the exception of number one. and number 7, the one i bought is the most common lager beer. i will try to find the rest. however, i am wondering why they do not make the number one. i guess it is some kind of a conspiracy and that the number 1 baltika is the super secret bottle that is only available to the rich and wealthy.

and also i checked how to say cheers in russian, although i can’t pronounce it just as yet.

ypa!

Viru

Viru

why would i care so much about the crazy transfer night when i can add more into my beer collection.

today i got my hands on the most outstanding beer bottle i have seen to date. that is the Viru bottle. it is brewed in estonia, which is in the northern part of east europe, which should be really cold and justify their need of an alcoholic drink. anyway, the bottle is cone-shaped. i am not shitting you. look at the pictures and believe it for yourself. as many other beers, viru is actually the name of the place where it was originally brewed, viruuma is the place somewhere in estonia.

the colour of the labels are that of the estonian flag, that is blue, white and black. and i like the slogan of this beer ‘oled see, mida jood‘ which translates to ‘you are what you drink‘. you should check the website to actually hear how cool it sounds in estonian. and also what the estonian say when they toast, ‘terviseks‘. ya, ya, you can guess how the last syllable sounds.

terviseks!

oled see, mida jood

bottle cap still on the actual bottle. now you believe that it is cone shaped.

huerlimann sternbrau.

hurlimann sternbrau

yesterday was the first time i drank this. i went to ‘ole ole bar’ with my dad. that is the exact same bar that he used to frequent often in his young days. the brand is authentic zurich and also the recipe. however, the company was already taken over by feldschlossen. oh ya, the lady bartender was really nice. she gave us snacks free of charge beside the beer. and when i asked her whether i could take the bottle home, she took the one i was holding and gave me a new one full with the beer inside, and she didn’t want to charge extra. (yeah, damn nice right!)

so, that’s it for my first beer collection.

cheers.