Bia Saigon Lager

Brewed by Sabeco
Style: Pale Lager
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

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Bottled in Dong Hoi. Clear pale yellow, fizzy head. Vague fruity aroma. Sweet and bland. Almost flavourless, but a minor soapy rice flavour is noticable. Light bodied and completely without bitterness. The ugliest sibling in the Saigon beer family

45cl bottle at Mama Ly, Cua Dai Beach, Hoi An. Pours light golden with a small white head. Aroma of cooked vegetables and malt with some skunky notes. Sweet and lightly malt with some bitterness. Slightly sour finish. Not a great beer, but quite drinkable in the heat on the beach. Goes down quite easy. (2012-05-10)

I’ve been trying to decipher the difference between the Red and the Green Saigon lagers...and honestly, the Vietnamese I’ve asked (many) can’t even tell me! What it’s come down to (I think) is that one is just a different label for export. BUT that said, for some reason the Red tastes better to me, so I go for that when I can...at the usual price of a whopping 14,000VND or around $.67!!! Typical Asian lager by the way. ’Nuff said.

[450ml bottle] Drunk as an alternative to Asahi in a Vietnamese restaurant in Shoreditch – attempting to stay in the same country with the beer to match the food. Turned out the food was lovely, the beer hideous. Almost totally flat, bronze pour (following the reduction of the billowing head). Aroma of sweet, musty rice. Flavour was sweet, yet slightly sour. Tasted like suspicious rice. Completely skunky, and so really unpleasant in every way [18032012]

Light yellow lager, big surprise, with little taste, no hop character, and very little bitterness. Light head and a little alcohol bite. You can drink these for hours with little to no hangover. The price is right (from $0.50 to 1.50). I think it is the best thing from the Saigon Brewery, but the competition is pretty weak.

Bottle. Yellowish colour, dull aroma, watery flavourless beer with hint of that skunky mess found in hot country lagers.

This beer aspires to the lofty magnitude in quality set by Saigon Export but doesn’t quite reach its mildly bad taste due to a complete lack of taste, alcohol and anything else one might be able to put a finger on. Drank in a bottle in a cafe in Nha Trang

Clear golden coloured body with a thin white head and a nice refreshing rice and citrus smell. Light-bodied; Pungent malt flavour with some light rice and metallic tastes and a good malty, mild finish. Aftertaste is relatively uncomplicated with light sweetness and a touch of fresh lemons on the end with the pungent malt and touch of metal. Overall, not a bad lager and showing some unique (lemon) flavours compared to other pales you’ll find in Vietnam. I sampled this 33 cL bottle purchased in Saigon, Vietnam on 31-December-2009.

A clear yellow colored beer, with a white head. The aroma of some malts with sweet and some bitter. The taste has some malts. It’s watery with notes of sweet and bitter. The aftertaste is a little bitter and sweet.

Bottled. A light golden beer with a white head. The aroma has skunky notes of brewing cereal. The flavor is sweet with notes of rice and brewing cereal lending it skunky notes and leads to a dry metallic finish. Thanks Papsoe for sharing.

Bottle 450ml.

Clear medium yellow color with a small to average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, grain, cereal, corn, vegetable, coocked corn. Flavor is moderate sweet and light bitter with a average to long duration, metal. Body is light to medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft, finish feel is metalic. [20101102]