Lager

I love Italy; it is a beautiful country. When we think of Italy, delicious wine comes to mind. But they do have beer. I find most of it to be good. Some isn’t. Birra Menabrea Bionda Lager from Biella, Italy, is a 4.8% Pale Lager. I found this beer in my local Pasta and Provisions (a fresh pasta shop and Italian market). I have had this beer abroad in Italy, but never in the US. This lager beer pours a golden color with a one-finger translucent, white fizzy head. That head is gone in seconds. The aroma is classic lager with clean, semi-sweet corn-like notes. The taste is clean, slightly metallic, with corn-like sweetness, and a light bread note. This lager has a light body. Then this beer comes to a crisp, clean finish that is less sweet. There isn’t much aftertaste to this lager. You can taste the brewing unit in the aftertaste, but that fades quickly. For a macro Euro lager, it’s a solid beer, which I give a B-. But I would score this lower in the ‘craft beer’ context. This is a very approachable pale Euro lager that is refreshing, light, and easy to drink. You should try this, I think this is better than Peroni beer, way better! Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibility! Cheers!

Samuel Smith (https://samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk) Pure Brewed Organic Lager Beer is brewed in Tadcaster, England, and importedbyy Merchant Du Vin (https://merchantduvin.com). This lager beer with a 5% ABV was purchased from my local Harris Teeter grocery store. Now I have had this Samuel Smith pint glass for a while and it has the brewery local etched on the bottom to promote carbonation, and was bought while on a pub tour in London. I think it was like two pounds from a Samuel Smith pub. This lager pours gold with a one finger fluffy white head. The aroma is light, sweet, clean, and crisp. The flavor is also light and sweet, crisp, smooth and malty. This beer has a clean, semi-sweet finish that is crisp. The aftertaste has a light malt flavor and is smooth/crisp. This is a great lager beer. I give this lager an A+, and highly recommend drinking it. It has just the right amount of delicious flavors. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Premium Yebisu is brewed by Sapporo Brewing Company in Japan. I first had this beer at the Tokyo airport on tap, in a self-pouring multiple-beer machine. You can choose from a few different beers on one tap machine. Then I had it on the plane from Tokyo to JFK in NYC.

This is a 5% ABV malt or Dortmunderc Lager. As far as I know, this beer is only available in Japan; I have not seen it anywhere. It pours deeper gold with a bright two-finger white head. The aroma is sweet from the malts used and a bit bitter. The taste is a little malted with some bitterness. There is less sweetness hitting your taste buds than you get from the aroma. The mouthfeel is light. Then it has a malty bittersweet finish. The aftertaste is pretty bland and unforgettable. I did enjoy this Premium Yebisu, but I think there are better beers, and I give it a high C+. It is good on its own, especially on tap, and slightly better with Japanese foods. If you ever see Premium Yabisu, then I recommend tying it. It is just a maltier version of Sapporo beer. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

I don’t know about macro beer in South Korea. But I was in the Gwangjang market in Seoul, Korea , and had lunch at a spot serving Korean Hot Pots. I couldn’t read the menu because I don’t speak Korean. So I ordered two beers and Cass Fresh Lager appeared. This pale lager is 4.5% ABV. Cass pours a clean and clear gold color with a bright white fizzy head. The aroma is clean, lightly hopped, and crisp. It smells pretty much like every mass-produced lager. The taste is much, but it’s clean, crisp, and has a light metallic taste. The flavor is not so great, but paired with a Korean dumpling hot pot it becomes better. This beer has a very light mouthfeel. Then it has a clean crisp finish. The aftertaste is almost nothing but a light sweet metallic flavor. This is a refreshing lager. Cass Fresh is a D. The fact that it goes well with Korean foods such as a dumpling hot pot helped, otherwise I scoured it much lower. I would not recommend this on its own. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

I have never seen XXXX Gold Lager in the US before, and I do not think that Castlemain Perkins imports in to the US. This macro lager is a low 3.5% ABV making it a sessionable lager. XXXX Gold is brewed in Milton Queensland, Australia with pale lager malt, Super Pride, Cluster, and Hop Extract. They also use yeast such as Australian Lager Yeast. This lager pours a gold color with a thin clear two finger bubbly head. The aroma is light and semisweet. The flavor is light bodied and full bodied. It starts light bodied then as it passes over the back of your tongue is becomes full bodied. It is smooth as well with a light metallic flavor. The mouth feel is light. This lager finishes soon with a low flavor. The aftertaste is slight sweet and that fades really quick. This is very easy to drink since it is 3.5% ABV. But this is okay, C- It doesn’t have much flavor and it is easy to forget the overall flavor of the beer. I don’t think I would rush back to have a XXXX Gold Lager. Please stay safe, be kind to each other l, and remember to enjoy responsibly. Cheers!

333 Premium Export is a Lager brewed by SABECO Brewery in Ho Chi Man City, Vietnam. I have not seen much of this in the US, but I have seen it before. This is the first canned beer in Vietnam brewery first in 1985. 333 uses Hallertau hops from Bavaria and is preserved at 10 Celsius or 50 Fahrenheit. This lager is 5.3% ABV and pours a deeper gold color with a one-finger white head. The aroma is light, sweet, and malty. The flavor is clean, sweet, malty, and light. This is malted the Bia Saigon Special. This has a light mouthfeel. Then it finishes clean with a bit of sweetness. There is not much aftertaste other than a light malt note. This is not bad but it doesn’t blow me away. This a C+ beer. It is worth a try because I don’t see it very often. It has more malt than an average macro lager but it is not overly malty. Please stay safe, be kind to each other and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

We do have Saigon Beer in the US, but we don’t Bia Saigon Special, a one hundred percent barley malt, hops, and water lager beer marketed toward young, dynamic, and successful consumers. This beer is 4.9% ABV and brewed by SABECO (Saigon Alcohol Beverage Corporation). This beer is only sold domestically in Vietnam. This lager pours a gold color with two finger bright white lager head. The aroma is clean and sweet aroma or malts. The flavor is crisp, clean, sweet, and has a bit of malt to it. This lager has a light feel in the mouth. It is a refreshing beer. It has a nice malted sweet light finish and a light clean malt aftertaste that doesn’t stick around long. This is an average beer much like macro beers in the US. But it is slightly better. I give SABECO Bia Saigon Special a C+. It has decent flavors but nothing to write home about. But I had to try seeing that I might never have a chance to have it again. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Beach Rd. Lager is made Exclusively for The Raffles Hotel in Singapore by Paulaner’s Singapore Bräuhaus and is only sold at the hotel. This beer is 4.5% ABV and uses premium Franconian barley malt and Mandarina Bavarian hops. From what my waiter told me, this beer is made right across the street from the Raffles, named after Stamford Raffles, an English colonial official and governor of the East India Company who founded Singapore for the British in 1819. This beer pours an amber color with a one-finger white head. The aroma is malts and some light hay-like notes. The flavor is smooth and lightly malted. It has more carbonation than most lagers I’ve had. But that does not necessarily make this bad or good, it just is. This has a light mouthfeel. The finish is a touch bitter with light malts. The aftertaste is slightly less carbonated. This was not bad. I found this beer interesting, but I give it a C+. It was good, but Paulaner makes other better beers, and that is why I think it doesn’t get any higher than a C+. It is worth a try if you are in Singapore at the Raffles Hotel. You might never have it if you don’t. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!