Gan bei!

I have my friend Dave to thank for today's subjects. When he tweeted he was off to China for work I asked if he could help me scratch my most persistent beer itch. Chinese lager Snow is the biggest selling beer in the world and I've never tasted it. Would he be able to bring me a can back? Star that he is, I subsequently took delivery of six cans of unfamiliar beer.

The Snow issue proved more complicated than anticipated. The brand covers a dizzying array of variants, each seeming to have its own multiple packaging designs. After considerable research I'm not even sure that there is even a core Snow beer. Dave's bundle included two Snows.

The one I started with is called Globe Trekker, announcing that vertically on the can in characters bigger than the ones spelling "Snow Beer". And that may be the last time "character" gets mentioned in this post. Globe Trekker is 2.5% ABV and an anaemic yellow colour with a fast-dissipating head. It's as watery as you might expect: extremely thin and not even very fizzy. Still, the brewers seem to know the limits of their brief as it shows none of the flaws often found in this sort: no tinny metal, cheap sweetcorn or stale cookedness. There is a clean malt sweetness at the centre, flashing briefly before fading away completely. It is therefore thirst-quenching and perfectly serviceable as a weak hot-country lager. While not something I'd actively seek out, it is at least inoffensive and well made.

The next Snow is branded "Refreshing" and I don't know if that's a name or a description. Either way, the claim's veracity is thrown into doubt by it being marked as 10° Plato and 3.3% ABV, which suggests under-attenuation to me. It's even flatter than the previous one, looking more like a cider in the glass. Now here we have those classic lager flaws. There's a syrupyness I associate with much stronger, cheaper lagers, and an on-style metallic tinfoil buzz. The stickiness does mean the flavour has more legs than the Globe Trekker, but that's really not a good thing.

We leave the Snow investigations here. I'm still interested in finding out if the One True Snow exists, so if there are any experts in Chinese beer out there, let me know.

The next pair are from AB InBev's brewery in the far north-east of China: Harbin. Harbin 9° gushed forth with an abundance of fizz, but again no head retention. There's a decent substance to this, even if the pale gold colour isn't very striking. There's a wisp  of white pepper in the aroma while a cakey sweetness forms the foretaste. But a foretaste is all there is: no follow-up for good or ill comes after it, just water. Given a decent noble hop pinch, this has the makings of a genuinely good pilsner. As is, it's a much more satisfying glassful than either of the Snows, and again only 3.3% ABV.

That boded well for the bigger sequel: Harbin 10°. It looks identical and tastes very similar, but a little more intense. This time the pepper makes it into the flavour, and the texture is bigger too, almost sticky, despite an ABV of just 3.6%. I got a slight plasticky burr on the very end, something I occasionally find with German hops so I probably can't mark it down as a flaw. A raw sugar sweetness sits at the centre of it all, somewhat balanced by the hop spice but still a little overdone, especially considering the very modest strength. I think I preferred the cleaner profile of the 9° out of this pair.

Two random outliers to take us home. Laoshan Beer, from AB InBev's Tsingtao brewery in Qingdao, is 10° Plato and 4% ABV, which is more like it. There's a proper golden lager colour too, and a rich malt aroma. The flavour is middling: quite dry and minerally, showing an aspirin tang that veers towards metallic sharpness but thankfully stops short. There's also a slight funk — cheese, or possibly phenolic — that adds a mildly unpleasant note to the finish. This is almost a passable lager but just misses the mark.

We come back to the capital to finish, with Yanjing. I reckoned this would be the best for absolutely no other reason than the vaguely German-style blackletter font on the can. It looks like it contains a proper pils. It doesn't really, though. Despite the statement on the side "Quality Grade: Excellent" this is another dull one, pale and watery like Snow. It is clean and flawless in the manner of Globe Trekker, and offers more of a bang at 3.6% ABV. It doesn't have much to say flavourwise at all, however.

It's just as well there's a growing beer scene in China these days. I don't think I'd like to be stuck with just these six as my only options, though I guess I'd make peace with  Harbin 9° if that happened. Cheers Dave!