New Atlas Beverage Co.» Beer & Wine

Pabst Blue Ribbon Black Beer

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:17:42 +0000

Another rare find at the Chinese Grocery store - Pabst Blue Ribbon! But this isn't your normal PBR, this is Pabst Blue Ribbon Black Beer. Claiming to be "The Original Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer," it's in a black can with gold lettering and barely stands out from the other bright beer cans on the shelf.

I was excited to try out the newest (or oldest?) variety of PBR, but I had to put it in the fridge to chill first. It is indeed black, with a tan foam. Not very heavily carbonated, and not heavy at all. It's got a little bit of a darker flavor than regular PBR, but a little sour and nothing like a stout. It's not great as far as beers go, but it is drinkable if you're accustomed to drinking Chinese beers (a.k.a. you have lowered standards). It's got around 4.5% alcohol according to the label.

The can says 蓝带黑啤 (lan2 dai4 hei1 pi2), which means Blue Ribbon Black Beer. It also has at the bottom an official-looking long company name at the bottom of the can, and it does even say 蓝带啤酒（lan2 dai4 pi2 jiu3) in the small print, but that's weird to have two different company names. I can't find it on the Pabst China website either, so it looks like we're dealing with a fake here.

It even has the Pabst seal on the can

Can any readers confirm or deny whether this is actually sold/endorsed by Pabst Blue Ribbon?

Lychee Beer

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:06:02 +0000

This stuff smells just like lychee candy. Since it came in a can I wanted to see what it looked like. Poured out in a glass, this lychee flavored beer is whitish-clear similar to the lychee fruit itself and very bubbly. Judging from the color alone, I would probably be more likely to call this a wine cooler than a beer. It does say 荔枝啤 "lychee beer" on the bottle, but it could just be a translation issue.

Actually, I can't find anywhere on the label that would indicate how much alcohol it has. This leads me to question whether it's a beer or even alcoholic at all, despite being labeled as such and put in the beer section of the grocery store.

It tastes just like it smells. If you've tried any kind of lychee candy or lychee jelly it pretty much tastes like that. There's not a hint of beer flavor, and it's very very sweet. It's a little artificial-tasting, but not nearly as bad as the 1 yuan blackcurrant soda.

This particular brand of lychee beer is called Lan Bei Lychee Taste. I got it in a grocery store in Beijing, china.

8.4 Alcoholic Cider

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:59:14 +0000

Since drinks in bars are expensive in Hong Kong, my friend recommended we go to 7-11 to get drinks first so that we don't have to buy them in the bar. She recommended that I try this drink called "8.4" which is a cider, supposedly.

It was 2 bottles for HKD22, coming out to be about USD$1.40 per bottle. Not bad for a drink with 8.4% alcohol, and considering I knew beers in the bars we were going to are at least twice that, maybe triple.

It turns out that this cider has practically no flavor whatsoever. I've had hard ciders before that I liked before, but this was not it. There was really nothing to be liked or disliked about it. It tasted just like really weak cider or a hint of wine cooler. I think it's safe to say that this is only for getting drunk, people don't buy it for the flavor.

It's not just alcoholic cider, it's cider for alcoholics - if you can even call it cider.

Milk Beer 奶啤酒 from China

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:29:52 +0000

This opaque white beer stood out clearly as the weirdest beer among the other normal beers at the cafe in my hotel in Beijing. The label in Chinese says 奶啤酒 (nai pi jiu), literally translated as "milk beer." It smells like sweet cream, and tastes a lot like the frosting I had on my last birthday cake. It tastes a bit like cream soda, but not quite as sweet. The best way I can hunk to describe it is whipped cream mixed with flat sprite. It's not bitter at all and if I didn't know, I probably wouldn't guess that it was beer at all. On that note though, it isn't a very strong beer, weighing in at only 3.5% when most flavored beers are more like 4.5%. According to the bottle it comes from Inner Mongolia, a part of china that also I home to an interesting style of milk tea. Thankfully, they taste nothing alike.

This is the first time I've seen or heard of milk beer, but it seems like a version called Bilk was developed in Japan two years ago to use up the excess milk supply in a small town. I decided to do more research about the milkbeer that I found:

This milk beer is made by a company called Health (汉奥斯), which says that this is the "First milk beer in China." It claims to be rich in nutrients like amino acids, calcium, vitamins, and trace elements. It has no preservatives, and seems to be healthy. I know beer and milk are both healthy, so why not combine them? I've heard of a lot of people mixing beer and milk, but it didn't seem like it turned out well.

According to Health's website, there is a long history of milk alcohol and milk wine in China, especially with the northern minorities. In the Western Han and Yuan Dynasties, supposedly it was pretty common for the people to mix milk and alcohol and have that as their main drink. Also according to the website, the company won an award for "Outstanding innovative Chinese beer." They produce 6 varieties of milk beer and milk alcohol.

ps.

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