February 9, 2009: Tsingtao

When I think about China, certain definitive images come to mind right away. Crazy dragons, delicious food, over a billion people, origami; in my own little bizarre world that exists only in my mind these, are the things that make up China. When I conjure of these images in my mind, beer never enters the equation. Maybe I'm just being small minded by buying into the stereotypes of chinese culture and not really giving them a fair shake. Tonight I've decided to expand my mind a bit and try a Chinese beer called Tsingtao. Beers that come from non-prominent brewing nations present some interesting prospects from me with the 365brews project. I don't have any biases or expectations coming into the drinking of that beer. I'm a blank slate and the beer stands on its own its own merits or falls from its own shortcomings.

I've heard some good things about Tsingtao in the past, but this is my first time actually trying it. In my humble opinion, there's a lot more room for error with lagers than there is with ales. You can miss the mark a bit with a lager and still produce a decent beer, but if your off with an Ale, it's pretty obvious. Tsingtao is a golden pale lager, and it has a nice bright sparkle to it when poured in a proper glass. Other than that, there's not much visually to make this beer stand out from the rest of the pack. As far as taste goes, Tsingtao was just about average for as well. I didn't come into this one with very high hopes, but somehow I was still disappointed. If I hadn't been drinking beer everyday for the past month and a half, the brewers of Tsingtao might have been able to fool me with this blah lager. This brew is good enough in its own right, but when you stack it up against some of the great beers I've had in the last couple of weeks, it simply pales in comparison. That being said, I'm not exactly not endorsing Tsingtao because if you're the average consumer of beer then it will probably be fine for you. If you're okay with settling for something that's not great then this is not a bad beer. I guess I've just become a bit cynical with less than stellar beers lately, but try Tsingtao out for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Kong Chien!
Ian

www.tsingtaobeer.com