Chinese Beer

"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi) 02/10/2015 at 13:23 • Filed to: Beerlopnik

0

54

Saw this in the grocery store today, thought I'd give it a shot. Anybody know if it's any good?

505Turbeaux > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:24

2

it's okay, tastes like Chinese MGD if you want a professionals opinion (me)

MauritiusMauritia > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:26

0

Had a Chinese coworker and it was his birthday. He didn't have any friends other than work colleagues so we took him out for a celebration. I picked up Tsgintao [pronounced Ching-dow] and he was ecstatic that I had found it and we all had a few. We then went to a bar where he took his first tequila shot and instead of biting the slice of lime, he ate the whole thing.

It's a lager and tastes like a mix between miller lite and heinekin - or Fat Buddha if you have had that.

Stupidru > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:27

3

It's the best Chinese beer you can get, and that's not saying much. Their beer is like watered down flavored water. I go over there at least once a year. Trust me, it stinks by American standards.

Fun fact: It's pronounced "ching-dow"

E. Julius > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 13:28

0

I just cracked one open and I definitely see what you mean. Not bad IMO

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:28

1

on sunday i was with my grandfather and uncles, they were trying those, i was drinking wine at the moment so i didnt.

But they told me it was ok. kind of a heineken lager.

E. Julius > 505Turbeaux 02/10/2015 at 13:29

2

Now that I've had it, I agree. How does one join this beer drinking profession?

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:29

1

It's okay. Better than most mainstream domestics, but nothing to write home about either.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:31

0

It's like most Asian lagers. I'd put it above Kirin but below Tiger and Sapporo.

505Turbeaux > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:32

2

lots of practice. Lots and lots of it. Beer snobbery gets you nowhere. If you need to think about what style glass you need to properly quaff a beer, you are fired.

E. Julius > PanchoVilleneuve ST 02/10/2015 at 13:33

1

ooh you just reminded me how much I like Sapporo

CalzoneGolem > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:33

1

It is acceptable. That's the best thing I can say about it. Stick with the sake.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:33

1

A friend of mine got real drunk once and sprained his thumb drying to crush a Sapporo can.

E. Julius > 505Turbeaux 02/10/2015 at 13:34

0

Haha I like that attitude. Always amusing watching my budding beer snob friends (because no one really has that much experience in college) try and muscle down something they clearly don't like because it's a chocolate coffee porter or something random like that.

CalzoneGolem > 505Turbeaux 02/10/2015 at 13:34

1

Glass?

$kaycog > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:35

7

You'll probably be thirsty again in an hour.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:35

1

It isn't really Chinese, well, originally Germania-Brauerei based in Hong Kong. German and British, they set up breweries, Tsing Tao was one of them and they just kept making beer after they left. Some Japanese breweries were started the same way. Who knows what the quality is now, I have had it but I don't remember too much about it. I drink Japanese beer a lot though, I try to sample new ones when I go there.

crowmolly > Stupidru 02/10/2015 at 13:35

0

Yup. Harbin isn't so great.

505Turbeaux > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:36

1

tell them to enjoy life, being a beer snob only sets you up to be an asshole

505Turbeaux > CalzoneGolem 02/10/2015 at 13:36

0

exactly

CalzoneGolem > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:37

1

Chocolate coffee porter is my jam!

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 13:37

1

I have been to China a few times and I can't get anyone to explain to me why they can't spell anything in our alphabet the way it fucking sounds in our language. Why not say Ching Dow if we say it that way??? They actually tell me there are different dialects and its complicated, no it isn't, spell everything the way it sounds in our alphabet!! Its an utterly confusing country, I prefer Japan in every way.

Stupidru > crowmolly 02/10/2015 at 13:38

0

Harbin, official beer of the NBA! (In China, and they probably don't pay the NBA for their sponsorship anyway)

E. Julius > CalzoneGolem 02/10/2015 at 13:40

0

lol

MauritiusMauritia > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/10/2015 at 13:41

0

The way it was explained to me is that the beer name is a play on words from the city that it's brewed in which is Qingdao. As far as Beijing I know that this is the one instance when it is pronounced how it is spelled. Somehow we put a z and an h in there when really it is pronounced just how it looks.

crowmolly > Stupidru 02/10/2015 at 13:42

0

Of course not! That's crazy talk.

I remember seeing a can of Harbin with the logo on it and being thoroughly confused.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:44

0

It's okay. Nothing to write home about.

Funktheduck > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:47

1

Probably has lead in it.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 13:48

0

I don't know how they named the beer, I just mean in general. I get to China and read a thing and try to say it, then I show someone I work with who speaks Chinese and they speak it totally differently. I don't see the point of even writing it out in a Euro alphabet if it can't be read as it is spoken. Japan on the other hand is great, one character is basically two of our letter together phonetically and easy to say! I used to live in Utsukushigaoka in Yokohama looks hard but just say it Ut su ku shi ga o ka easy.

Sam > CalzoneGolem 02/10/2015 at 13:50

0

Glass.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 13:51

1

Hitachino is good, I like them all but this one is aged in used sake casks.

OPPOsaurus WRX > CalzoneGolem 02/10/2015 at 13:51

0

i love Sake especially with sushi or pho

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > $kaycog 02/10/2015 at 13:52

1

Oh snap

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > PanchoVilleneuve ST 02/10/2015 at 13:53

0

Yeah they are not normal cans! I drink that a lot in Japan too, very sturdy can.

MauritiusMauritia > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/10/2015 at 13:54

0

Fair point, this is the same argument I use when people say that we'll all be speaking Chinese in the future. English is really easy to learn and uses pretty simple rules and characters.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 14:04

0

Compared to Chinese I would say its easy, but English has some fucked up irregulars going on. My wife doesn't speak English natively and I have learned a lot about English from her issues! I mean there are words from other languages mixed in all over, the French ones mess with her spelling, why is it spelled that way she asks, oh its French...

uofime > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 14:12

0

the taste of that reminds me of mickeys malt liquor

E. Julius > uofime 02/10/2015 at 14:13

1

Haha I chipped a tooth on a 40 of Mickey's last year. Told my mom I "bit a fork" when I had to make the dentist appointment. #collegelife

Cé hé sin > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/10/2015 at 14:20

0

Quite apart from the fact that how you transliterate from one writing system to another depends on what language the reader of the transliteration uses (the Russian big shot could be Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Poutine or Wladimir Putin and one's as valid as the other), Chinese is a tonal language. You can't represent the sounds of Chinese using an alphabet unless you add some way of showing the different tones and so trying to write Chinese names using (say) English spelling is never going to work. You're only ever going to get some vague approximation which is quite likely to be unintelligible to a Chinese speaker.

Japanese, before you ask, isn't a tonal language and so it's easier to write it in an alphabet.

Cé hé sin > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 14:23

0

It is? English spelling is nightmarishly complicated.

Tough, cough, bough, through...they all rhyme, don't they?

uofime > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 14:27

1

Ha! next time you're in the market for 40oz based goodness I recommend Steel Reserve, nothing takes your night from good to great for less money.

During a visit to China I learned that you can add hot sauce to Tsingtao to make it taste better.... err at least different.

E. Julius > uofime 02/10/2015 at 14:30

0

That does not sound good at all haha.

ceanderson920 > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 14:40

1

I think I have had it at a Chinese restaurant but I can't remember. So if I did have it, it must not have made a huge impression on me. But the name sounds familiar

MauritiusMauritia > Cé hé sin 02/10/2015 at 14:48

0

It may be easier for creole speakers from your perspective. As pervasive as it is now, I do not see that changing and this is coming from a French speaker.

MauritiusMauritia > Cé hé sin 02/10/2015 at 14:51

0

English is really easy to learn and uses pretty simple rules and characters.

* Comparatively to other leading languages.

uofime > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 15:04

0

I was quite skeptical too, but like most nights in china I was pretty not sober so I gave it a try and found it was actually ok, I ended up doing it with several beers while I was there. That said I haven't tried it since back in america

ranwhenparked > E. Julius 02/10/2015 at 17:37

1

I vaguely recall having one at a Chinese restaurant some years ago. Didn't leave much of an impression, don't think it was any worse than most mainstream American beers (eg, Budweiser), but definitely not any better either.

Cé hé sin > MauritiusMauritia 02/10/2015 at 17:53

0

Depends on your starting point too of course. Begin from say a Germanic language and you'll find similarities in grammar if you want to learn English. Begin from something completely unrelated like Japanese and you won't.

As far as letters go, you could argue that English is more difficult than some other languages through having to use multiple letters to make some sounds and doing so inconsistently. Not using a few accented letters and extra letters doesn't really make things easier. Using as we do an alphabet designed for another language isn't intrinsically better than using Greek, Cyrillic or whatever.

GhostZ > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/10/2015 at 18:43

0

I had a friend explain this to me a while back, but basically the gist is they have 4-5 different types of pronunciations for each of our types of sounds. When we say "Ching Dow" they hear 4 different butchered words and not what it was intended to be, especially because there are muscle groups that we (and they) don't use in the other's language, so there are sounds that english-speakers are just almost incapable of properly pronouncing in the first place without lots of training.

So that means that it's just as confusing to them as why we would pronounce "Tsing" any way other than "Ching". This is because for our "Ch" sound there are 4-5 different spellings that are variations on the "Ch" sound, including "Ts".

Take it with a grain of salt, but at least that might make it seem less ridiculous.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > GhostZ 02/10/2015 at 20:18

0

One thing I was told is that Mandarin and Cantonese are so different they have trouble, that seems to go along with what you heard. I can verify that I cannot say anything I need to, I am happy with Japanese and I am pretty much only going to Japan now so no problem.

GhostZ > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/10/2015 at 21:20

0

But what about all the awesome Chinese classic cars?

Stupidru > crowmolly 02/11/2015 at 08:44

0

I distinctly remember my first experience drinking beer in China. It was put in a crate on the floor next to my chair leg, and seemed that someone stuck it in the fridge 5 minutes before we got there. And then at the end of our dinner everybody started "gombay"ing each other, which, I think means "bottoms up, bitch!"

Stupidru > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 02/11/2015 at 08:50

0

I have a Japanese coworker, and we work with our sister-company in China. The Japanese guy in our office gets as much done as an entire office full of Chinese people, and actually does it right. The culture differences are massive between the two, and I also prefer the Japanese and Japan

Stupidru > MauritiusMauritia 02/11/2015 at 08:51

0

I remember being drunk in China last year and hearing that it is a play on words. I just can't remember the specifics

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Stupidru 02/11/2015 at 12:45

1

Oh its amazing the differences when travelling or living there. In Japan everyone seems to try to do the right thing and do it correctly. In China it seems like everyone is getting away with whatever they can. China is loud, Japan is quiet. I can see why they don't like each other. I lost my wallet in Tokyo, someone returned it to a video rental branch of Tsutaya because I had a card in my wallet, that branch sent it to my local branch and called me to pick it up.