Beer of the Weekend #19: Tsingtao

In a tribute to this year’s Olympic host nation the beer this weekend is “China’s Number One Beer” — Tsingtao, brewed by the Tsingtao Brewing Company of Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.


Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.

Appearance: Straw yellow. Very pale. It’s probably the palest beer I’ve sampled so far for Beer of the Weekend. A fuzzy white head dissipated very quickly. It dissipated before it accumulated.

Smell: It has that fresh cut grass, barnyard smell like a lot of German lagers (the fun facts will tell you why).

Taste: Smooth and slightly bitter with hops. There’s just a slight tingle on the back of the tongue. It’s a little grassy, malty, and spicy, but nothing spectacular. Bland.

Drinkability: Relatively tasteless. Sounds like a beer they brew in St. Louis.

Fun facts about Tsingtao:

-Serving temp.: 46ºF.

-Alcohol content: 4.8 percent ABV.

-Food pairings including steamed or poached fish.

-Tsingtao is pronounced “ching-dow.”

-Tsingtao is the best selling beer in China and the best-known Chinese beer worldwide. It was introduced in the US in 1972 and accounts for 80 percent of all Chinese beer exports.

-The city of Qingdao — originally named Tsingtao, hence the beer’s name — was a German port much the way Hong Kong was a British port. The Tsingtao Brewery was founded by Germans so they could brew German style beers for their countrymen and other westerners. In 1915 the brewery was bought by the Japanese, who retained ownership until the Chinese nationalists took over operations in 1945.


The Quiet Man’s grade: [Shaking my head.] The Beijing Olympics have been quite memorable, but I can't say the same for my first Chinese beer. C.

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