Taiwan Beer Gold Metal - 台湾啤酒金牌 Who gave TTL this medal?

I remember when my good buddy, long since gone back to the homeland with his nice Taiwanese wife, called me up one day not long after TTL starting brewing Taiwan Beer Gold Metal in 2003 to meet him at a typical small local Taiwanese food cantina, not for the food (well, we did eat), but for this "great beer" that the local monopoly finally made. We quaffed quite a few that night and agree it was by far so much better than that brown bottle stuff (review) that TTL only had offered up until then. Those were good days indeed.

Fast forward a few years later when CostCo finally opened up in Taipei and started selling cases of this brew. I bought some, but started getting some light obnoxious headaches. Not the kind after a heavy bout of drinking, but sometimes just after a bottle or two. Since then, I swore off this gold medal beer until re-tasting it again for this bit.

Of course, some may be asking, how the h-e-double-hockey-sticks did this beer get to be called Gold Medal. Well, back in 2002 it won a silver medal at the Brewing Industry International Awards (winners' list) for a lager with ABV from 4.5-5.%. TTL must've been slapping everyone's backs over this, but it must be stated that they won the Silver, while the Gold went to....... drum rolls please........ Miller Genuine Draft (though made in Ireland. They make it better there than in U.S.? I'm guessing not that much better.). Sheet. MGD was what we bought by the caseload for beer parties in college. I.e, it was butt cheap in price. But, I give TTL very big credit for beating out the Bronze winner of Samuel Adams Boston Lager (pic), which has only in the past 2 summers shown up on shelves at 7-11 stores in Taiwan (don't get me started on why 7-11 didn't carry SABL year-round after summer 2010, considering its shelves were nearly always empty after foreigners would scoop them up). But I digress.

I thought this was a pretty cool label, though I never saw it on store shelves in 2004. Must've missed it.

Ahh, the beer girls. Where would this industry be without them.

Excellent looking head after pouring into a 500cc glass.
Foam held very well after taking a first sip, which has some bitterness which lingers a tad long.
Does have same consistent taste after follow-up swills.
There seems to be something lacking versus its excellent brother, Taiwan Beer Draft (review), but at least it is much better than the original, Taiwan Beer.
Not yet 1/4 done and that feeling in my head slightly comes back. Burned again, but only somewhat.
Remembered the plan while drinking the original, so out came some snacks.
Planned worked well.

Becomes slightly duller on the last 1/3 of swiling.
Still has that distinct smell on the final gulp. Shall it get a bonus mug?  Nah....
The last chaser turned out a bit weak.

Thanks go out to http://taipics.com/ for the baseball label and chicks' pics.

Beer type:  Lager
Alcohol content:  4.5%
Price for 600cc bottle:  N$50
Rating (out of 10):   + some excellent burps.

2011 New Taipei City North Coast Arts Festival - 風之舞 2011 新北市北岸藝術節

When you have a kid, kite festivals are up there at the top for best things to entertain and have fun with a child, as well as taking different transportation rides to get there. This past weekend's 2011 kite festival in Baishawan 白沙灣 (map) helped out in this endeavour. 

Took Tamshui MRT line out to the last stop. This place has changed dramatically since I first set foot on the island (first there was no MRT line, so it was either a very long bus ride, or a very long scooter ride to get here. And the scooter ride allowed your neck and nose to get all black and dirty from exhaust fumes!). Now it's a weekend getaway for the masses of Taipei City. Packed beyond packed. Tamshui 淡水 (wiki) reclaimed a good size chunk of land (pic above) from the river of the same name. Nice.

Next adventure was a bus (#1260-67) headed out to Sanjhih 三芝 (wiki) to indulge in something I've not had in Taiwan - draft beer straight from the Hofbrauhaus of Munich (HB Munich. Take a look at the pic under About Me to the right. You may recognize something.) at Smoky Inn (link), run by Andreas, a nice portly (self-admitted) German in Taiwan for over a decade.

Not much to add from the picture of this dunkel (wiki) beer other than to say it tasted excellent. Found out that the Paulaner restaurant chain (link) in Taiwan, run by Namchow Group (link), a huge chemical conglomerate (listed firm, stock code 1702) whose boss likes to dabble in the food biz, brews its beer out in Taoyuan and does not bring it in from Paulaner in Munich. Such gall! [Side note: Taipei City has laws against brewing in city limits, except for the grandfather clause given to TTL].

Took bus from Sanjhih to Baishawan and just outside town could already see some high-flying kites.

Those with a good eye, or a strong geiger counter, recognize those 2 "golf balls" in the background as Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant (radiation) up the road from this town.

 

Some surfers were in the waters as well as some parasurfers. Pretty cool. Very windy day, so excellent conditions for the latter group.

 

 

Can't really have a dance festival in Taiwan without some aborigines (top one). 

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:  

Taiwan Beer Draft 台湾啤酒生 - The Lost Beer

Few people know where to buy a bottle of Taiwan Beer Draft to take home, and not the Gold Medal label - will get to that one day - because even I have to emphasize "生" when in a bar and make sure it's not 金牌. You can swing a thousand dead cats or those wild dogs along the city rivers and likely not hit a Taiwanese who can provide the correct answer to: where can I buy a bottle?
If you know the answer, then you're a pro beer drinker, seeker, and/or drunk in Taiwan. Pat yourself on the back and find yourself a bottle opener. If you do not know, then go out and buy one at the nearest Wellcome, which has a refrigerated section that usually holds them.
Why in the refrigerated section? Because it's straight from 臺灣菸酒股份有限公司 and the bottle has an expiration date. Any beer with an expiration date - see the 18 on the bottle, that's for 18 days til you better finish it - gets a few bonus points (in this case, mug ratings) from this guy due to freshness. 

A nice straight 90-degree pour into a frosted mug. Lots of head. [That's the mug from the Jiaoxi Beer Festival. Don't be jealous now.]
First quaff and it goes down easy, creating nice burps in minutes. 
Still retains its refreshing taste after a few swigs. 
Has a distinct smell, but not in a bad way, which should be the ponlai rice. 
The draft version is by far the best tasting of TTL's 5 beers. TTL (the government brewer), as noted in wikipedia, adds "ponlai rice ("Formosa rice" 蓬萊米) during the fermentation process" to supposedly give it its distinct taste. 
I'd say the draft definitely goes well in Taiwan's summers when temps get above 30 celsius.

Head still a decent thumb's length after a few minutes of settling. Not bad (way better than its brown older brother, the original, but I'll get to that soon enough). 
Leaves a decent taste in the mouth that says "I can have another round and not force myself to make such a decision". 


Beer type:  Lager
Alcohol content:  5%
Price for 600cc bottle:  N$50

Color of bottle:  Green, like Rolling Rock, but far less white printing. Style points for simplicity. 
Rating (out of 10) for being best local beer  

2011 Jiaoxi Hot Spring & Beer Festival / 夏戀礁溪溫泉啤酒嘉年華活動

Luckily a typhoon the week before delayed the festival until this past Saturday/Sunday. Free beer and a free mug (for ticket holders of public transportation, bus or train) enticed the expedition over the mountain range to the hot springs town of Jiaoxi.
Hopped on a Kamalan bus that took just 45-50mins to get there for only N$102 one-way.

Was the only foreigner there (not like that hasn't happened before at an event). The show was just getting started. The Jiaoxi government wants to "fashion this into a Taiwanese Munich" - yes a quote. Figure it'll take a decade to get even remotely close. But huge kudos for starting out with grand plans. The whole event was enjoyable nonetheless. Very local feel to it, as mostly I-Lan'ers were there.

Some obasans dancing away. Pretty funny. The showgirls from a typical electronics exhibition in Taipei had another gig that day.

Line up to get those free mugs (actually, a very nice glass mug) and free beer (can of Taiwan Beer, what did you expect).

First (and only) male drinking competition. 1000cc of pure local brew. If you cannot guess which guy won in this event, then you need to pour yourself a drink right now and down it.

The lady winner. She apparently is a veteran Kaoliang drinker (or her family makes it, the host was rambling). Her time to down the 1000cc was like 3-4 seconds. Faster than the male winner by a few seconds. Amazing.

Scored a second free mug. As a media event, the sponsors had all those under the tent raise their filled mugs for pictures to be taken by news photographers. Well, they had to make it look very full obviously, so they set up a full table of filled mugs all ready to give out to people without any mugs.
Caught the eye of the volunteer in the orange Hawaiian shirt who was happy to give the only foreigner at the event a filled mug. Hence, 2 free mugs and of course, 2 free Taiwan Beers. Not bad at all.

The event had a lot of food stands (typically night market stuff) off one side-street and 2 tents selling beer (one for Taiwan Beer and one for foreign beers) on the main street leading up to the stage . The prices were what you would pay in an RT Mart or Carrefour, but did get a San Miguel as it was cheap at N$50 for 500cc and was draft beer.