Taiwan Beer 台湾啤酒 - The Original

That familiar looking brew in every 7-11, Family Mart, Hi-Life, etc. convenience stores, grocery stores, bars, food cantinas, and many more places around the island (and now on the mainland).
Quite an interesting life for this ubiquitous brown bottle.

According to wiki, the brew was first named Takasago Beer when the first batch was made in 1920 by Takasago Malted Beer Company. Why Takasago? Because State of Takasago was what Japan called Taiwan during the Edo period. [There's a test later after you've drank 6 bottles of this stuff.]

Ba-De Road TTL brewery where Takasago Beer was made with equipment from Hawaii. 

This old factory has since been transformed into a hotspot with its own restaurant and a host of other shops and eateries around it. The following has a short report in both Chinese and English on the Taipei Brewery from TTL's site:  link

Bottle from late 1940s. Nice old style of writing Chinese characters from left to right. 

Some other old bottles and their labels. 

Some of their ad campaigns.

伍佰 Wu Bai.

阿妹 A-Mei (how she found now ex-basketball boytoy). Yes, I do believe she drinks beer. 

That's how it poured out from the ubiquitous brown bottle into the Jiaoxi Beer Festival mug which was frozen. Good amount of foam there. 

There was a bit (well, maybe a lot) less zest in the 1st taste than the draft version. Sort of like "Huh, this is what Taiwanese love to gan-bei with"? Though I do admit I have been a part of too many of those gan-bei drinking fests with this beer. 

Minutes later that head of foam shrank to a centimeter's length, losing out big to the draft.

After a few tastes, "Hmmm, TTL still enjoys a huge majority market share with this"??!

Grabbed some salty munchies to help with the swill. Plan worked. Must remember plan.

No distinct aroma like the draft that I can tell. 

The longer I drank, the more I realized why I have not bought a brown bottle in many years (even forgot when was the last time. Maybe a decade or more). 

I do order the can version on Eva Air flights, as the worse choice is canned Kirin beer which is made in ChiComm-land. [Will tell that story another day.]

The burps are definitely not as good as the draft. 

Beer type:  Lager

Alcohol content:  4.5%

Price for 600cc ubiquitous brown bottle:  N$45

Rating. 1 for its history, 1 for huge market share, 1 for ugly bottle color: