Harbin Beer

Brewed by Harbin Beer Company (Anheuser-Busch)
Style: Pale Lager
Harbin, China

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

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Faint yellow colored body. White head clings around the edges of the liquid. The stench of recently dead skunk greets my nose, making me fear the upcoming sip. Sweet, honey malt taste with lots of metallic overtones and a hint of skunk.

Clear gold with a very large, lingering head. Virtually no aroma to speak of...slight trace of skunk. Tastes even less than it smells. Now I’m an advocate of pale lagers and think they should be judged more fairly than they tend to be on this site (people seem to rate them as if they expected the taste of a stout or lambic or something, and of course they fall far short), but this stuff is pretty disappointing.

Just like Tsing Tao, only not as offensive. No evidence of hops, barley any malt. Monster head! No lacing. Grassy taste like Tsing Tao. Skip or run past it, just like a homeless person begging for change, if you stop they got you.

Not the worse lager out there. Yellow color, chemical aroma and chemical flavor with just a touch of malt. Fortunately the formaldehyde is not present in the aroma or flavor.
Earlier Rating: 9/24/2006 Total Score: 1.7
Not a bad pale lager. Very light color, almost no aroma and thin palate. A little sweet and some malt. I could drink this on a hot day.

I hope the "Tradition and Culture of China’s most Northern Province of Hellongjian" isn’t as bland and boring as this beer. No flavor, no real smell, and a nice clean straw color. But lacks of any flavor.

Purchased at Total Wine. Pale golden pour from a green bottle. Aroma of mild grass. Rice taste and garbage. This.

Bottle in HK. Pours yellow with thin foam head. Not much aroma other than a hint of apples and a trace of sulfur smell. Taste is a little sweet, corn and other adjuncts. Oily and fizzy mouthfeel. Aftertaste is rotten vegetable and metal. Nothing special.

Poured at the Gulfstream beer fest. Good lord why is this crap even brewed. Barely(and I mean barely)better than a bud. It smells and tastes weird. Very weird. Yuck.

The bottle tricked me, I thought this might be decent but in my quick overview I didnt notice the imported from China part (are there any good chinese beers?). Pours gold, smells like rancid hops. Tastes a little bitter but not much else in the flavor category. Its best to just not drink this one.

[330ml bottle from Tesco’s] My bottle was only 4.7% - I get the impression this varies in different countries? Weak, watery, no flavour other than a mild but thoroughly unpleasant lingering sourness in the aftertaste. Quite the worst beer I’ve ever had. Are A-B simply distributing this to make their Budweiser taste good in comparison?