Ramada Pearl Hotel Beer

Poured from pitcher at California Café, inside Ramada Pearl Hotel, Guangzhou.

My excitement of finding a possible Chinese brewpub inside this Guangzhou dwindled when they had no clue at the reception what I was talking about. At a pamphlet available it said there was something called "Beer Plaza" on the 2nd floor, so I went there. The staff on 2nd floor looked very confused - they didn'd know about any beer plaza. Instead I went to the information desk, they told me the beer plaza was closed, but I could still enjoy their beer in California Café on 1st floor.

This proved to be a buffet restaurant, and the idea that someone would like to just have a beer confused them. After explaining what I was after to three different persons, I was seated, and finally I was served a beer from a pitcher - they first tried to serve me Tsingtao, though - and I was anxious it all would be a big misunderstanding. How would I know it was really their own beer?

It looked kind of bleak - pale golden and with no head, just like any other Chinese beer. The aroma revealed some promise. Wasn't that grassy hops, up front? When I finally tasted a feeling of success spread through my body. It was crisp and fresh with firm, if light, maltiness. It was somewhat bready, and had some fruitiness. In short - it was a really decent, fresh lager. Even if it might not be a masterpiece, it was lots better than other Chinese lagers.