Vietnam beers

[alphacento]

I have just come back from a 2 weeks holiday in Vietnam. There I had the opportunity to try the two most popular local beers that go by the very creative names of Ha noi and Saigon.

Both beers are light lagers that combine extrmely well with the delicate local food. In my opinion Saigon is a lager very similar to those sold in the USA (Coors above all) while Ha noi has a more bitter and hoopy taste which gives it a more European flavour.

In my opinion I prefer Ha noi because of the more complex flavour (although sometimes it does not go as well with the local food as Saigon beers does).

Another famous beer in Vietnam is 333. It is originally a French beer but about 40 years ago production was moved to Ho chi Min. Even in Ho chi Minh it used to be produced with German ingredients althought now they have switched to Australian ones. The taste of it resembles Saigon and it is a refreshing light lager.

Take care

 

[Crastney]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I was in Vietnam back in 2008, and really liked the beers. I'd forgotten about 333!
I'm going back in November for two weeks, so I'll have to remember to try it.

If you've seen the website 'beersofEurope' they do Vietnamese beer, Hanoi, Saigon, and Hue beer.

 

[alphacento]

The website looks cool. I must say that I enjoyed the Vietnamese beer bit I would not pay those prices to buy it!

 

[Vossy1]

The only problem with beers in south east asia is that they never taste the same when back home :cry:
I think the heat and expectation level cannot be match, unless you buy/have a sauna :lol:

 

[Crastney]

quid something a bottle isn't that terrible is it?

[eta - obviously not compared to 40 Vietnamese Dong ~ 60p, it's expensive]

 

[alphacento]

1,60 is not too bad for a decent ale. Vietnamese beers are quite good but they are normal light lagers, that's what I mean with too expensive :)

Actually, apart from some ex-pat bars in Saigon, you can get local beer for about 20 dongs in whichever bar/restaurant you go. I loved it there! A whole dinner for two people for the same price as 1 maincourse here in Europe it's just too tempting!

 

[snail59]

You have to remember that Beer's of Europe have to get the Beers from Vietnam so there will be shipping costs to be included in that price :thumb:

 

[alphacento]

You have to remember that Beer's of Europe have to get the Beers from Vietnam so there will be shipping costs to be included in that price

yes I understand that. What I meant is that I'd rather invest that money in a good ale that in a lager from Vietnam (considering that I could get a pretty good German lager for half price). :drink:

 

[4birddogs]

My Dad and I are debating which beer is the best in Vietnam. He is a Vietnam Veteran (1964-1965), and claims that San Miguel was the best when he was there. My travels through Vietnam have found just about every province with their own brew, a few national brands and several imports. I have sampled at least the following brews in Vietnam:

Bia Hanoi
Bia Thai Binh
Bia Hue
Bia Saigon
Tiger Beer
333
Heineken
San Miguel
Something from a dead cobra

I would like to hear about other Vietnam beer drinking experiences to continue the intellectual conversation with my Dad. My questions are as follows:

1) what kind of beers did you experience in Vietnam?

2) Which one did you like the best and why?

3) Do you prefer bottled or draft?

 

[Crastney]

i do recall there being two different colours of 333, and I'm fairly sure we had Beer Chang, and Singha also.

I prefer bottled beer when abroad. We also had some Hue Festival beer which was rather good.

 

[Crastney]

got back last weekend, but have been busy out Christmas dos every night.

one of my favourite beers in Vietnam was Bia LaRue, which was local to Hoi An. very nice.
we did drink a lot of Ba Ba Ba (333), and the wedding that we were at was held in the Lion Brewery/Restraunt in Saigon (near the Opera House), so the continually topped up free beer during the 7 course meal was brewed downstairs, and was most like a German wheat beer.

I also tried a glass of 'fresh beer' which was locally brewed beer on draught, at 4 (thousand) VD a glass it was the cheapest we found (about 12p), not terribly bad, but you needed (at least) two glasses to each bottle you'd have drank instead (at 10 or 12 VD).

 

[alphacento]

Everything about Hoi an is great and extremely cheap! I've got ripped off in my hotel where they charged me 1€ per Vietnamise beer. Mind you still very cheap if compared to Europe.

 

[Monkeybrew]

When in Hanoi ten years ago we just drank the local bia hoi

Local unregulated beer delivered draft in big buckets,

Great stuff and 10p a pint at the time :

 

[tonester]

Ha. I loved the beer in Vietnam! I was there in 2006. There are little pop up beer joints in the Old town of Ha Noi - usually a couple who get a keg or two from the big brewrey - they call it 'fresh beer' - I'm not sure if it was strictly legal or what but you sit around on the roadside with the city wizzing past and drink glasses of this stuff until it runs out. The cheapest drinks I have ever had and they were pretty good! I can't really review the taste so much as I got pretty drunk - I actually fell into a ditch walking home - those weird sort of gutter / ditch that goes under the pavement. Good times.