Rice Beer

Who'd Have Thought?

Who'd have thought a German protest could improve my opinion of Budweiser?

IT IS brown-gold and alcoholic but, then, in the scathing verdict of German beer fans, so is paint thinner.
The Germans are furious that Budweiser will be the official tipple for the World Cup, which starts next month. The American lager has secured a near-monopoly of beer sales inside World Cup stadiums and within a 500m radius of the grounds, supplanting more than 1,270 domestic breweries.

And what most upsets the fans is that Budweiser — advertised as the “King of Beers” in the US — fails to meet the ancient German standards for purity, which stipulate that beer can be brewed only from malt, hops and water. Budweiser uses rice in its production process and therefore does not qualify as a beer in the German sense.

Captain Ed joins in the condemnation of "Budricer," but -- not so fast, says I.

When I lived in HangZhou, China, we bought beer the way you used to buy milk: the local store had a fresh shipment from the local brewery every day, and you returned your used bottles and got the day's supply. They gave you a deposit back on the bottles, and took them back to refill them for tomorrow. The water wasn't clean, so you either drank (imported) bottled water, or local beer. The poor had to boil their water to get by, but the real problem wasn't biologicals, it was pollution -- and that you can only get out by filtering, which is part of the process in producing a lager.

(An aside -- we bought milk, too, but China largely doesn't "do" refrigeration. Thus, meats are usually either fresh-killed or, more often, dried or otherwise preserved; and the milk was powdered. I used to buy a kind that had a picture of a Holstein cow on the front, and advertised in their best attempt at English: "Free contaminated milk.")

Every city in China has its own local brewery, and the local brewery in HangZhou makes what is called XiHu Pijiu -- that is, "West Lake Beer," named after the lake by the city where Song dynasty poets and Emperors would lounge. This stuff was made not just partly, but largely with rice (and what would you expect?).

The first time I had it, I thought it was horrid.

The second time, not so bad.

But by the end of our several months there, I'd come to like it quite a bit. I'd buy it today, if it were shipped overseas at all.

I haven't had a Budweiser (as opposed to Bud Light, which I drink sometimes) in quite a few years. I might have to give it another shot.