Searching for Good Beer in the Far East
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Sandy James

As many of you know, I just returned from a trip to Tokyo, Hong Kong and
Beijing this last week. Being the conscientious homebrewer that I am,
I set out to discover as many good beers as possible during this trip.
Unfortunately, the micro, mini and home brewing craze has not hit the eastern
part of the world yet - at least as far as I could tell.

As in previous trips to Japan, I drank copious quantities of the usual
Asahi and Kirin brews. Certainly better than the usual American offerings
but nothing compared to the many good microbrews available now. Never did
I spy anything else on the menus, although had I been interested in tasting
many different varieties of sake, they could have obliged. I did attend an
interesting private party held at a local pub. My brother and his girlfriend
had to drink 8 different Belgian beers in one day to get invitations (I snuck
in on their coat tails). This party was a Belgian beer tasting in downtown
Tokyo of all places. I had some of the best Belgian beers and lambics I've
ever tasted. Too bad I can't remember any of the names, huh? The proprietor
goes to Belgium every year to taste and order his beers.

On the flight to Hong Kong (via China Air) I had a feeling I was not going
to find any good beers on the next leg of the trip.  The big clue was the
room temp Pabst Blue Ribbon being served.  Believe me, it was ever bit as
nasty as it sounds. I had to try it!

The beer choices in Beijing were limited exclusively to TsingTao, Beijing
Beer, Tiger (from Singapore) and the favorite import, Heineken. I tried
various combinations of these, draft, bottle, cans and found the bottled
TsingTao to be the best. This surprised me since the bottles were green
rather than brown. I would have expected the cans to have at least an edge
in flavor. Draft was always the worst choice. You could never tell if it
was going to be cold, lukewarm, well carbonated or almost flat.

The absolute best beer I had the whole trip was the extremely cold TsingTao
from a can I shared with my brother after climbing down from the Great
Wall. Tragically, we only had enough change for one beer and one bottle of
water. A six-pack would have gone down nicely.

There are lots of reasons to visit Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing but
unfortunately, beer isn't one of them.