Blue Ice Beer

Brewed by San Miguel Brewery (Hong Kong)
Style: Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils
New Territories, Hong Kong

Serve in Lager glass

It’s drinkable, but barely. I used to drink 12 oz bottles of the stuff when I was much younger. I told my mom to get me some beer at the store, and she brought home two 22s of this swill. I live in Hong Kong, BTW. Another reviewer said it smelled like cider, and it kind of does. It doesn’t have much flavor or bitterness; it’s bland, and there isn’t much of a head to it either.

UPDATED: JAN 3, 2007 Foul cidery armoa hit me before I got the thing into a glass. Pissy couloured with no head at all. The taste reminded me of a mixture of pale lager and white wine I tried years ago. There were no hops, the finish was foul and metallic. Just awful, the abv is the only thing going for this one. The can says, "A whole new beer experience" I could not think of a better way to describe this filth.

My story begins in a similar fashion to "aceofhearts" below: picked this one up in a 7-11 in Taiwan! As an aside, there are more 7-11s in Taiwan than anywhere on Earth! I could stand on a street corner and point to three different 7-11s on many occasions. Anyway, you know from the get-go that this is going to suck. And it does. Pale watery flavourless canned "lager". But fun to try!

Bottled. From a 7-Eleven in Hong Kong.
Golden lager with a fizzy white head. Says its brewed with sugar on the tin....that’s pretty rough. Ajunct city.

Bottled with a pale golden colour. The flavor is not so bad but gives an unpleasent aftertaste.

Can. Pale gold in colour. Horrible corn aroma. The flavour was of creamed corn and grains. The finish was very boring and slightly sweet. This beer still gives me nightmares.

Can. Yup, so you’re a can of mediocre beer in 7-11 in Taiwan. It’s an uneventful Thursday night around midnight. From the probably-fish-eye view in the cooler, a bald white guy in a nice suit and a purple dress shirt walks in out of the darkness amidst the broken sidewalks and rusted scaffolding on the torn-up buildings nearby. You’ve never seen anything like this, and the last thing that you’re expecting is that he walks straight to the beer cooler and picks you out after a cursory glance over the Tsingtao, San Miguel Pale Pils, and Yanjing. NT $31, one minute, and several looks of curiosity from the clerk and other customers later, you’re in his hands and on the way out. You’re even less expecting that you’re going to be in America in 48 hours, and then in said bald guy’s fridge for three months so he can share you with his brother. I’m still wondering if this stuff is a distant cousin of "Kold", which is made in Canada. Along with Bud Ice, they make up the unholy trinity of ice beers. Also, my can had special Mandarin letters on it instead of "Ice Smooth". I was going to ask one of my Chinese friends what it says but I threw away the can by accident. The beer was utterly unremarkable. Faint graininess in the aroma. I was expecting some nasty skunkiness that I could come up with a witty analogy for, but Blue Ice Beer is one of the most tasteless concoctions I’ve ever drank. My gf Tina, who describes everything I drink as "too thick", "too bitter", or "so sour!", said that this stuff "tastes like water". So sayeth a Smirnoff Ice drinker. Pale appearance, foamy white head. Pretty much...just nothing! I’d say I could chug this stuff all day, but I think that pretty much anyone could. Blue Ice Beer was a semi-funny story, a rating, and one beer closer to my goal of 100 crappy Asian lagers this year.

Blech. Terrible spoiled corn aromas emerge from a boring pale yellow beer. Blech.