Still, despite this unseemly interference with nature, it is the lack of adulteration that is one of Le ble d'or's main selling points.
"We have a turn-around period of two days," Chou said. This is done to ensure that the beer is always drunk fresh. The beer is not pasteurized, which gives it a much higher nutritional value than regular canned lager.
Meeting the needs of Taiwanese consumers was a priority for Chou in developing his beers. Of the three beers offered by the company, it is the pale ale, which is the most similar to Taiwan Beer that sells the best.
The Weiss beer, with its distinctive hint of sourness, sells better among the foreign community. Even the stout is a relatively light, easily drinkable even in the heat of summer.
Taiwan Micro Brewing Co (
Taiwan Micro Brewing, which was the first beer company to be granted a license after the deregulation of the alcoholic beverages industry in 2001, offers a golden ale, a honey ale, a stout and variety of fruit beers. According to Li, these beers, if properly stored, can last for three weeks.
Current regulations forbid the operation of microbreweries outside land zoned for industrial use, a regulation that has hampered the development brewery pubs in Taiwan. Currently, both Le ble d'or and Taiwan Micro Brewing focus production in factories in industrial areas and ship the beer to their outlets in the city.
Both companies expressed the hope that these regulations could be changed to allow brewing directly at venues in commercial areas. For the moment, they rely on their own or outside courier services to distribute the beer direct from the factory.
"It's basically because the government still has insufficient understanding of microbrewing," Chou said. "They regard it as a polluting industry, but in fact everything is natural. We have people lining up to collect the dregs of our brewing because it makes excellent fertilizer."
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