Beer of the Week - Lucky Buddha Enlightened Beer

Sometimes a good name and fancy packaging can sell a product but this week's Beer of the Week, Lucky Buddha Enlightened Beer, uses religion in both as a selling point.

The beer is not only named after a religious figure but the bottom of the bottle is in the shape of Buddha hold a gold ingot over it's head.

Now I find this a little odd.

I do know that if a beer company were to make their bottle in the shape of Jesus or Muhammad, there would be howls of protest, demonstrations outside of their breweries and lawsuits demanding the beer be pulled of store shelves, but Buddhists don't seem to mind. This beer has been on the market since 2005.

Maybe the religion has a bit of a sense of humour about itself or do they just promote their beliefs through any method possible? Better than knocking on my door to sell your religion for sure!

Their website describes the beer like this:

Enlightening the senses.

Created to put a smile on your face!

 In a world a world that's full of change, it's good to know that Lucky Beer offers something consistently good natured. Although the distinctive laughing Buddha bottle is central to our brand, Lucky Beer - and the good fortune it shares - transcends all religions, cultural boundaries and beliefs. 

In its simplest form, we stand for goodwill for all humanity. 

"If you think that enlightenment is separate from the drinking of beer you have not yet understood" Ancient Taoist Saying.

Lucky Buddha is brewed by Hangzhou Qiandaohu Beer Company which is located in the town of Qiandaohu, China. The beer itself though is brewed and bottled at Thousand Island Lake, which is about three and a half hour drive south-east of Qiandaohu.

And the taste?

The beer pours a very light golden colour with a white head that dissipates quite quickly. There is a sourness in the aroma that I did not expect plus a hint of hops. As rice has been added to the malt, there are no lacings left on the glass.

This is a very light tasting beer, much lighter than expected with it's 4.8% APV. I am not a big fan of rice being added to a beer but realize that there is an abundance of rice in China and that Asian lagers feature rice. It is a taste that is appreciated in the Japan, China and Asia, but one that I don't particularly enjoy.

For me, it is a passable light tasting lager. Many would enjoy it. Me ... not so much. Still, it won't be a hardship to drink those other five beers that are left.

Beer of the Week Stats

Beers Profiled 212
Breweries 194
Countries 41

Beer of the Week - Yanjing Beer

The other night I was in the beer store at Dufferin Mall. I like that beer store as they have a very good selection of craft beers and international beers. On one shelf was a beer from China, Yanjing Beer.

Yanjing Beer is brewed in Beijing China by the Beijing Yanjing Beer Group Corporation. Yanjing Brewery was opened in 1980 and in 1997 did a corporate restructuring to form the current corporation. I am not sure how big the Chinese beer industry is but it must be huge as this company alone has approximately 20,000 employees and is the largest brewery in Asia. It currently ranks first for total output and profit.

The company's main product is Yanjing Beer. The company also produces a range of soft drinks such as ice tea, jasmine tea, and Jiulongzhai syrup of plum which is a sour plum drink. I can't imagine what that might taste like. Thankfully this is a beer blog and not a soft drink blog.

Yanjing Beer uses natural mineral water that comes from the Beijing YanShan Mountain, along with hops, rice and barley malt. It is popular in Beijing as 85% of all beer sold in Beijing is Yanjing Beer. In the rest of the country, it has a 11% market share.

And how does it taste?

The beer pours very clear. In fact, on my colour chart which ranks beer colour from 1 to 40 shades, this is about a 2 perhaps a 3. Nothing wrong with that, just want to give an accurate description on how light a yellow this beer is. It does have an aroma to it, and some lacings along the side of the glass, which do not remain long. This is not surprising as lacings are derived for the malt in the beer, and I would think this beer would have more rice than malt.

It is not a hoppy beer by any means. It's not a bad beer but I really did not find much to it. It is a dry, light tasting beer with a bit of a different taste, which again might come from the rice.

To me, it's like someone coming to Canada from Germany or Belgium and judging our beer by tasting our big brewery beer.

If you are a person that enjoys a light tasting beer, this might be for you. All in all, not a beer I would run out to have again.