Pearl River Lager Beer
Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Co. Ltd.

 

 

 

 

 

Smells like unripe feijoas!

Nice lager! Smooth drop so don't drink it fast because it will put you on your ass!

Although nice semi warm it's a dream if nicely chilled but do try it for yourself.

If you like TSINGTAO you will convert.

If you can tolerate KINGFISHER then I think you'd like the taste of this beauty.

Horrible!

 

 

Poured from a green 11.2 oz. bottle. Has a light golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of green apples, grains, not a good sign. Taste is green apples, some grains, a bit of vinegar, kind of bland. Feels light in the mouth and overall is not terrible, but not to my liking.

I had this beer while travelling in China on business in April 2015. Likely to never get there again, so I decided to try as many different China brewed beers as I could. This was 1 of 6 beers I tried in my travels and in doing my research before departing the states this was considered a Top 10 China (Euro Lager) beer! The ABV was 5.3 according to my language assistant. I poured from a clear glass, 600ml bottle after purchasing at a restaurant; quite a different look from the picture depicted.
A - mellow yellow, with very slight head and almost no carbination
S - grainy, mild to the nose
T - watery and bland with some sweetness
F - light, no lacing and thin

If you must have a beer while in China, then give it a go - but it is not much to write home about!

 

Format: a 330mL dark green bottle with a pretty ordinary macro label. Looks... suspicious.

Appearance: pours out a fairly thin-looking light yellow with okay carbonation. A fizzing white head drops from a finger almost immediately. Doesn't look great.

Aroma: there is a touch of cereal grain there, but much more adjuncts - particularly rice. Smells cheap if not offensive.

Taste: I don't mind some Asian adjunct beers - some actually make the rice taste quite nice. This is not one of those beers. An awkward fug from the rice, and only cheap and light cereals to back it up.

Aftertaste: more rice awkwardness on the finish. Not a great beer.

Mouth feel: light in body to the point of being somewhat watery, with a moderate to higher carbonation.

Overall: a fairly cheap lager at AU$38 a case, but there are better quality beers even at this level. I'd rather spend a few bucks more and get some VB.

 

 

 

Drank it directly from an ice cold can (that's how you drink macro lager). 4.3% ABV.

Typical adjunct with very minor skunky taste. Poor malt presence, plenty of rice though.

Good to go with Chinese food. Especially crayfish stirfried with szechuan peppercorn.

Touch of grain, some bit of skunk, definitely more "beery" than the weaker Pearl River beers, with some extra bitterness that's not entirely metallic. Quaffable, cheap.

 

330ml Can from Yue Hwa, Chinatown, Singapore (SGD$ 2.30):
Light, golden straw that is clear and thin with a bubbly white head on top that sets as a patchy lacing that barely covers half of the surface area.

Sweet with water and light, grassy hops making up most of the rest. There are a few adjuncts but that's about it and it is very light.

Water with a hint of sweetness and the faintest of grassy hops on top. There is a bit of biterness but not much else to speak of other than a hint of citrus towards the end.

Thin and light with medium carbonation and a strange, semi-sweet feel with a hint of skunk and bitterness.

A very poor beer and up there with some of the worst I have tried although by no means the very worst. The beer was cheap and thin with little in the way of taste or smell.

 

 

 

A rather unremarkable Chinese beer. When poured a very light pale gold coloured beer; a small white head. Good carbonation. A strong aroma of rice is present, but on tasting this is a weak bland beer, water like is one of the first things that come to mind. At the same time, it didn't put me off (like other Chinese beer).

Pours crystal-clear golden body without visible effervescence topped by half an
inch thin non-lasting white head.

Sweetish malt aroma with noticeable yeast character reminiscent of green apples.

Medium-light bodied, crispy and dry on the palate, slightly malty with green apple like fruitiness and slight carbonic acid bite. Bland with no hop flavor/aroma to speak of. (330 ml without BB indication, into tulip.)

Chinese should stick to what they make best - food - and leave brewing to others.

 

330 ml green glass bottle with standard pressure cap served into a Disneyland thimble glass in me gaff in low altitude Los Angeles, California. Reviewed live. Expectations are rather low.

Served refrigerator cold. Side-poured with standard vigor as no carbonation issues are anticipated.

A: Pours a one finger head of no real cream, white colour, okay thickness, and average retention. Colour is a clear dark yellow. No visible yeast particles. No bubble show.

Sm: Cream and barley. A mild strength aroma. Not particularly appealing, but not repugnant.

T: Cream over a clean barley body. Very simple, boring, and bland. There's very little to say about it. Not layered, complex, or subtle. Very dull.

Mf: Smooth and wet, suiting the flavours of the body generally. Weak. Too thin. Carbonation is adequate but not ideal.

Dr: Drinkable in that its ABV is average and no flavours are particularly bad. But it's so damned boring. I won't get this again, nor would I recommend it - even for the price.

D

As with most things made in China, this is a very bland and ordinary beer. It is flat and watery and there is way too much carbonation for my liking. The beer pours a very watery yellowish color, with an excess amount of head. The beer barely has a taste. It tastes more like a light beer out of a can. This is a very bad beer.

This is a direct import from China, and my can is greater than or equal to 4.3% alc/vol. Ingredients: Water, High Quality Malt, High Quality Rice, Hops...

A- Comes in a cool can that has the pull off tab and members of the Chinese National Basketball team, with Yao Ming as the focal point. The brew itself is urine yellow in color, with very minimal head...what there is quickly vanishes into nothingness. This is very highly carbonated and resembles pop..providing a carbonated ring around the glass at the top of the brew. There is also no lacing to speak of but instead an oily looking film covering my glass. Not very impressive to look at!

S- Typical Chinese lager aromas, being very similar to BMC type beer. Sweet malt/rice adjuncts dominate...it smells very similar to a piece of fermented rice cake dessert that I tried recently...not super appealing to be honest. I don't smell any of the hops that are said to be used in this either.

T- Well it tastes better than it smells, but not by much...it follows fairly close to the aroma. Again, there is sweet malt and/or rice, which actually keeps it clean tasting. The flavors are light overall and have a typically synthetic character about them. There is little to no hop presence either.

M- Thin and watery, which isn't unexpected...afterall, this is brewed for the Asian population and I think for the climate it's intended for, it works. It's very carbonated and scrubs the palate accordingly.

O- It's a very forgettable Chinese lager, and it's not one of the better ones. However, I would drink this again if necessary, as it's not offensive or anything, and makes a nice hot weather adult beverage if you just want something simple....I wouldn't purchase it though if I have a choice...

Pours a pale gold colour, head is white and bubbly, disappears very quickly. Stream of big carbonation bubbles don't revive it. Not very interesting.

Smells carbolic and...meh. Sweet grain with rice and a sour acidic 'beer' aroma. Maybe hints of bittering hops, mildly metallic. Inoffensive but very generic.

Taste is sweet upfront with weak rice notes and hints of corn syrup. Develops mild cereal grain note with pearl barley on mid-palate. Bit residually sweet on the back, with nowhere near enough bitterness, just sweet and grainy, and overall very bland.

Fizzy feel but gently so, it needs fizz to cut through the sweetness but not enough, not a great job.

Meh.

330ml bottle poured into a 16oz pint glass.

A - Fizzy white, one finger head. Fizzles out fast. Looks like apple juice. By the end of the review, I can honestly say that this is the worst looking beer I've ever seen. No carbonation left at all, seriously just looks like juice.

S - Rice and something really metallic. Really odd...

T - Some extremely light malt and rice. Really, really watery. Almost nothing going on here. Not even some infamous green-bottle-skunk. Not offensive, but not really anything...

M - Low carbonation and watery, thin mouthfeel.

D - Really not all that enjoyable. Seriously lacking in the flavor department.

When in Rome, or in this case a Chinese restaurant.
Looked OK to start but the white fizzy head disapated almost instantly, leaving a dark straw coloured beverage. Probably should have left it in the bottle than poured into the 1984 Calgary Olympic tulip glass.
Smells like a lager but with perhaps a bit more of some honey and grassy notes.
The taste was somewhat sweet and had very little else to offer.
The mouthfeel was flat and has a semi dry short finish. Had this not been cold and with a meal I most likely would not have finished it. The glass may have helped class this beer up a notch.

330ml bottle poured into pint glass jan25 2011

A clear pale yellow with plenty of bubbles but no head or lace

S skunky rice cakes and some sweet grains and faint grassy hops

T not far from the smell but with a little lemon

M thin but well carbonated pretty much no aftertaste

D nothing awful but nothing worth trying, pretty basic brew

I won't be picking it up again but I didn't dump it down the sink either

Chilled 330ml bottle poured into a tall pilsner glass.

Very pale body with straw chardonnay-like gold hue. Pushes up a big effervescent and lively bulk of head that falls away all to quickly.

Aromatically this is rather boring with only the stereo typical run of the mill lager hops, yeast and malt notes.

As with the aroma, taste is very bland and almost a perfect imitation of the mass produced corona like lagers.

Where this beer works is its ease of consumption, its light body, clean after taste and its crisp refreshing mouthfeel - its a winner.

On a hot afternoon and/or evening you will be very happy with two or three of these. Likewise, a perfect accompaniment with a sizzling Tieban of szechuan or chili beef

I originally stopped in at my usual beer merchant to pick up Tsingtao (a personal favorite) to have with that evenings hot and spicy meal. When I learnt that Tsingtao was all out I was offered this is a replacement. Can't say this is worthy of replacing Tsingtao but still good all the same.

The best score for this one is drinkability.

Appearnce: Highly carbonated, lots of bubbles, medium sized head, gold colour

Smell: Light hop smell

Taste: Feels fizzy in the mouth, average lager taste, no individual characteristics

Overall: Not a bad lager beer, would've preffered it without so much carbonation.

Pale lager yellow with a large bone white head that receeded to a thin cap & ring. All in all an average looking lager.

Very faint graininess and not much else comes to my nose here. Certainly lacking any spicy/floral hop that one would associate with a Euro Lager.

Watery is the first thing that comes to mind here. Some faint grainy-sweet malt and a touch of hop bitterness. Some mineral water taste from the 'Pearl River' perhaps is also present. Finishes quite dry, almost turning citric acid like minutes after tasting.

There are better Asian beers out there my friends.

Bottle: Poured a pale yellow color lager with a medium foamy head with good retention and good lacing. Aroma is pretty weak with some light sweet malt but no discernable adjunct. Taste is very bland but no discernable flaws either. Not much malt and no discernable hops but no major flaws or default either (adjunct, skunk...)

Appearance
Clear, straw yellow; nice, substantial and quick-to-rise white head; head subsides quickly, leaving no lacing

Aroma
Familiar, skunky lager aroma, similar to Heinekin or Corona; nothing too appetizing

Taste & Mouth Feel
Very light, crisp, and clean; surprisingly good! No nasty aftertaste – very clean-cut; light mouth feel, good, high level of carbonation; pleasant bready/malty/yeasty taste

Comparisons
It’s very similar and on par with the other H.K. beer I tried, Kingway; they’re both very refreshing and clean; aroma’s not great, but the flavor makes up

Overall
Great for a hot afternoon; one of the better “cheap” lagers I’ve had; I’m doubly impressed with Hong Kong’s offerings as I liked the other one quite a bit for the style

Consumed in mass on a fishing trip off Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

Appearance: Ultra pale almost white yellow, moderate carbonation, minimal white head.

Aroma: Light malts, rice, corn, grass.

Taste: Sweet loads of corn or rice. Grassy and some grainy hops.

Mouthfeel: Thin, watery, sweet, dirty.

Drinkability: Low. If I wasn’t stranded on some secret island, at some secret military base, unable to leave the dock and with nothing to do but catch scorpion fish and drink this beer until the guards returned with some German Shepard that our boat had been Shanghaied by the Red Army to transport, I’m not sure that I would have cared for this beer all that much. Considering the circumstances I was drinking this under, I’m still not sure I liked it very much.