Best beers to try in Southeast Asia

Everyone loves Southeast Asia for the beautiful beaches, fascinating cultures and of course, the cheap drinks. However, their low price isn’t necessarily linked to low quality; in fact, there are a variety of lagers that everyone loves in Southeast Asia – and here they are.

Angkor Beer

Angkor Beer is the default beer in Cambodia - everpresent, extremely affordable, and ever-welcome when cold and imbibed just after a whole day exploring the ruins of the Angkor temples. The beer's flavor is somewhat low-profile with a distinct hoppy presence, but it packs a relatively high alcohol content at 5.5%.

Angkor has been made and bottled in Cambodia since the 1960s, and every corner store, restaurant, and dive bar serves the stuff in massive quantities. Cambodians are great drinkers - there are cave drawings in Cambodia showing drunkards sleeping off their rice beer hangovers - and in Angkor, they've got a beer to match their thirst.

Beerlao

Time Magazine called it "Asia's best beer"; the Bangkok Post named it the "Dom Perignon of Asian beers". Not bad for a beer brewed by one of Southeast Asia's least developed countries. Beerlao was first bottled in 1973 - four decades and a partnership with Carlsberg later, this beer is a favorite among expat communities for its subtlety and clean flavor.

The manufacturer claims that only the best ingredients go into their beer - German hops and dry yeast, French malts, and local polished rice. Easygoing and absolutely silken when imbibed cold, Beerlao seems inextricably intertwined with the laid-back ambiance of Luang Prabang.

Bia Huda

Almost every major Vietnamese town has its own beer. In Hue, the "official" beer is Huda, produced in partnership with Carlsberg. Huda is a light, crisp-tasting lager with a small head and a malty nose.

Like all Vietnamese beers, Huda is served cold, often with ice - an ideal internal refrigerator for the humid Central Vietnam weather. This beer is especially well-suited for Hue's spicy, greasy regional cuisine.

Bia Saigon

Bia Saigon, the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation's flagship product, is produced (and mainly imbibed) in Ho Chi Minh City, South Vietnam - do not make the mistake of asking for it anywhere else in Vietnam.

A light golden lager with some notes of rice and boiled vegetable, Bia Saigon is a must-have when drinking with friends on Pham Ngu Lao. It makes a very slight impression, if at all: drinking it cold (with ice, as the Vietnamese like it) allows it to make its character felt only in passing.

Bir Bintang

Bir Bintang dominates the Indonesian beer market, which is surprisingly large; Indonesians are very big on beer despite their being culturally an Islamic country.

Bintang is manufactured under a partnership with Heineken, so the resulting beer tastes like it comes from the same family: a grainy aroma with notes of hops, honey, citrus, and malt. The beer is golden-colored, slightly sweet, and very carbonated: it goes down very easy in the tropical heat.

Chang Beer

Despite being one of Thailand's cheaper brews, Chang is still a good beer experience: a very pale gold liquid with a slight sweetness, malty flavor with hints of grains and hops.

Best when imbibed cold, Chang Beer is an excellent match for streetside Thai food.

Dagon Beer

While Myanmar has a catalog of local beers, Dagon Beer is considered one of the stronger contenders: it's light, sweetish and hoppy, with a somewhat metallic and malty aftertaste.

Dagon can be had in cans and bottles, but (naturally) the draft version offers the best experience of the lot, preferably imbibed in a historic watering hole like the long bar at the Strand in the Myanmar capital Yangon.

Reflecting on Myanmar's long history as a rice-growing power in Southeast Asia, Dagon Beer is brewed with rice. Compared to European beers, rice lagers tend to be lighter, crisper and a little fruitier, and Dagon Beer is no exception!

San Miguel Pale Pilsen

This golden lager owns about 90% of the beer market share in its native country the Philippines, and it's not hard to figure out why: San Miguel Pale Pilsen has been produced in Manila since 1890 and has found its way across Southeast Asia since then, achieving top market share in Hong Kong.

A full-flavored pilsner with hints of caramel and a malty top note, San Miguel Pale Pilsen is meant to be imbibed in warm weather and consumed alongside greasy Filipino pulutan (side dishes) like balut. When ordering in the Philippines, you can just tell the waiter to get you "Pale", just "Pale", and he'll know what to do.

See more: Top local drinks you should try in Indonesia

Source: Internet

All about beers in Vietnam

In Vietnam, beer is everyone's favourite drink to cool down and refresh after a long day. In fact, most of Vietnam's nightlife is based on beer. This makes Vietnamese beer inexpensive and rich in variety.

1. Draft Beer

Draft Beer or Bia Hoi is the most common kind of beer you will find in Vietnam. Bia Hoi is brewed in 7 - 10 days and hence has a shorter shelf life. It is pasteurized and has a lower ABV and sugar content than other beers. During the fermentation process, no preservatives are used. After fermentation, the beer is extracted into kegs and sterilized with compressed air and warm water, sodium hydroxide and hot steam. It is then cooled down with carbon dioxide gas. This is the kind of beer you will see on sidewalks throughout Vietnam. Bia Hoi is cheap (VND 10,000 per mug) and is a local delicacy you cannot afford to miss. 

2. Craft Beer

Craft Beer is brewed with a lot of skill and care and is often very expensive. Some popular Vietnamese Craft Beer producers include Platinum, Pasteur Street Brewing, east West Brewing, Winking Seal and Heart of Darkness. Craft Beer is brewed from all sorts of substances such as cocoa beans, local fruits, coffee beans, passion fruit and durian. The brewing process is highly complicated and sophisticated as a result of which craft beer is often very expensive, starting from VND 100,000.

Vietnam has a number of beers that you must not miss. These beers include:

3. 333 

This beer was first produced in 1893 and initially known as Beer 33. Later, another digit was added to it. It is most commonly available in the south.

4. Bia Hanoi 

It is the most popular beer in Vietnam. This beer is brewed and served fresh and has a nice and crisp taste. It is found easily in Hanoi and the northern region in general but not as much in the south. It is estimated that around 3 - 4 litres of Bia Hanoi are sold in Hanoi every day.

5. Saigon Beer

These are relatively lighter beers produced in the south but are found all over Vietnam. The beer has about 4.7% alcohol and has a very distinctive Asian Rice flavour.

6. Huda 

This beer's name is derived from Hue (Hu) and Denmark (Da). This beer is confined to Central Vietnam and rarely found outside.

7. Heineken

This foreign beer brand is vastly popular amongst the foreigners and expats in Vietnam.

8. Tiger 

This beer is brewed by the Asia Pacific Breweries and is considered a premium brand everywhere else in Asia but is the cheapest international beer you can buy in Vietnam.

See more: 8 beverages you should try when visiting China

Source: holidify