Something a little different from me today, South East Asian craft beer. In Australia we are starting to see a little bit more of the craft brews from Asia. We have gotten some from Japan for quite some time, but it's getting a little more diverse now, and today I have beers from Hong Kong and Vietnam.
First up is Young Master Brewery out of Hong Kong which started back in 2013. This beer takes the not particularly creative name of 'Dad Bod' and is a Guava infused Pale Ale - their notes tell me Guava is the national fruit of Hong Kong. - Guava always reminds me this cheap 'fruit drink' we used to drink as children - 'fruit drink' not juice as it was basically sugar water with guava juice in it. It's not promising.
The beer is, well, interesting. There isn't a huger amount to it, a pretty basic pale ale, clear, almost no head or carbonation, the bitterness is there but not in any distinctive way, but then there is this wave of sweetness in the aftertaste which is a guava - I'm not hugely sure it works though. I've had better beers by Young Master - One night at Alvy's being their standout. I do like the waving cat on the can though.
Our second beer is Kurtz's Insane IPA from Heart of Darkness brewery which is in Saigon in Vietnam. Now some of you might get the references here, even if they are a little mixed. Heart of Darkness is a book which is set in The Congo in Africa. The Owner of the brewery (who is English by the way) claims it was one of his favourite books, and that it was about the spirit of adventure and starting a craft brewery (and Gastropub) in Vietnam was an adventure. But here is where it gets interesting. Kurtz's is a Apocalypse Now reference (and that's him on the can) which is set in the Vietnam war, but that character was named for the main character in Heart of Darkness - a Ivory trader named Kurtz.
But all of these reference aside is the beer any good? Yes is the short answer. It's what I would call a good example of a classic American style West Coast IPA - it's big and hoppy with resinous hop tones, If I told you it was 102 IBU's and 7.2% alcohol you'd likely think this was a monster but it's a actually really well balanced - if you see this one around - get it. By the way Heart of Darkness have bars in Vietnam and Singapore so if I'm ever allowed to travel again I'm sure I will get to one of those.
And as always when I write about beer this post is part of #beersaturday organised by 