Lhasa Beer (Export)

Brewed by Lhasa Brewery (Carlsberg)
Style: Pale Lager
Lhasa, Tibet

12oz Bottle. Pours a really light golden, doesn’t darken much after pour, no haze at all. Good head with some decent retention. Some really fine lacy patterns left on the glass. Really light malt aroma with less detectable hops. Very light flavor following the aroma, mostly malt with a light hop flavor and minor bitterness that lingers. Reminiscent of other Asiatic lagers. High carbonation with a good body.

12 oz bottle. Pours a crystal clear golden yellow with a small white head. Nose is somewhat parfume-y with faint hops, corn and cereal grain. Flavor is fairly big for a pale lager, starting with grain and fresh corn, finishing with a light hop bitterness.

Appearance - Poured it into a pilsner glass. Bright golden lager with about an inch foamy white head. A much better color than I expected, compared to the typical Asian choices out there. Nice lacing down the glass as I quickly polished this off. Smell - Nice hop character, must be the Saaz hops, leads to a nice light and sweet aroma. Taste/ Mouthfeel - There is a nice balance of malt and hops that linger throughout the beer. According to the website they use a huskless barley malt that supposedly makes this less astringent, and adds to a smooth finish. Drinkability - This was a pleasant surprise considering where it is from and the other beers from the brewery got some pretty bad reviews, thank god we get the Lhasa Export and not the local stuff. This was clean, crisp, and had a nice balance of quality Saaz hops and local malts to make for a solid beer experience. The fact that they use the local water probably adds to the clean refreshing taste as well.