Sat, Apr 23, 2016 page12

• Drinking Taipei: Brewed in Taiwan

  Three brewers from Taiwan are using tea, wheat, cocoa and other locally-sourced ingredients to make craft beer that caters to an Asian market

  • By Dana Ter / Staff reporter
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  When I showed a friend a picture I took of eight bottles of craft beer lined up on a patio, he said that from afar, they might as well have been bottles of soy sauce. It wasn’t that the photo was a bit blurry — mind you, it was taken after taste-testing a couple batches of homebrewed stouts, all with an alcohol content above 10 percent — but my friend could not read the Chinese characters on the labels.

  That was the intention of the brewers — well, sort of. Not to have their beer mistaken for soy sauce, but rather, to cater to a Chinese-speaking clientele.

  Founded in May of last year, Taiwan Head Brewers (啤酒頭) makes ales and stouts with teas produced from Taiwan such as Oolong (烏龍), Jasmine (茉莉花) and Oriental Beauty (東方美人). The color and design on the labels — baby blue with water droplets, lush green with rays of sunshine — evoke the calm water surrounding Taiwan’s Pacific coastline, as well as the rice fields during harvest season.

  

  Taiwan Head Brewers makes craft beer out of local ingredients such as teas, wheat and cocoa. Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health.

  Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times

  Earlier this month, I met up with Ray Sung (宋培弘) and Leo Yeh (葉奕辰) at their homebrew headquarters on a rooftop in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) where they experiment with new recipes – mostly barrel-aged stouts and other drinks deemed “too strong” to make it to the market, at least for now. The third co-founder, Jay Duan (段淵傑), was manning one of their two breweries in Taoyuan.

  Like many other craft brewers in Taiwan, the co-founders met through a homebrew group on Facebook. They participated in homebrewing competitions before launching Taiwan Head Brewers and releasing their first two beers, the Taiwan Tea Ale (穀雨, gu yu) and the American Pale Ale (立夏, li xia), almost a year ago. Since then, they’ve been releasing a new brew nearly every month.

  24 SEASONS

  

  Bottles of stouts line the storage space at Taiwan Head Brewers’ headquarters in New Taipei City. Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health.

  Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times

  The trio knew from the onset that they wanted to create a brand of craft beer that one would associate as being from Taiwan, and generally speaking, from East Asia.

  “When people think of craft beer, they think of something Western or American, so we decided to do something different,” Sung tells me.

  The Chinese names of the beer are derived from the “24 solar terms” (二 十 四節氣) that farmers in ancient China used to guide their agricultural activities while the English names simply state what style of beer it is. The literal translation of the Taiwan Tea Ale (穀雨), for instance, is “grain rain,” a time of the year which generally takes place around the middle to end of April, when heavy rains in the region enable grain to grow. The American Pale Ale (立夏), meanwhile, means “start of summer” and is light and citrusy.

  

  Beer bottles line the warehouse at Taiwan Head Brewers’ headquarters in New Taipei City. Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health.

  Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times

  Rather than try to re-create the flavors of North American craft beer, the co-founders, being Taiwanese, are constantly experimenting with local ingredients, save for the hops and malt which are imported from the US, Europe and New Zealand (Taiwan’s subtropical climate makes it ill-suited to grow hops and malt).

  Their Taiwan Tea Ale 2 (立秋, li qiu) is a spin on the classic 19th century English Pale Ale blended with Oriental Beauty tea leaves. The result is a delightfully bitter yet honeyed brew with crisp and buttery tones, one that is evocative of its literal translation, “start of autumn.”

  The Taiwan Tea Ale 4 (雨水, yu shui), whose literal name means “rainwater,” also boasts a buttery flavor, though stronger, as it is brewed with Jing Xuan tea (金萱), a type of milk Oolong tea. The base is a sweet and malty Scottish ale.

  

  Enjoying a homebrewed barrel-aged stout that the co-founders of Taiwan Head Brewers deem “too strong” to sell at bars. Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health.

  Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times

  Besides various types of tea, Taiwan Head Brewers also sources wheat from Taichung for their American Taiwan Wheat beer (夏至, xia zhi), which is a refreshing, light body with a slightly fruity aroma that makes it perfect for mid-summer drinking. It’s fitting, too, because its Chinese name is “summer solstice.”

  My favorite, the Taiwan Chocolate Stout (小寒, xiao han), which means “minor cold,” uses cocoa sourced from Pingtung and is an ideal winter brew. It boasts a strong, chocolatey body and does not need to be drank cold. Sung and Yeh says that their winter brews were initially more difficult to market as Taiwanese don’t normally drink beer during the winter.

  “We’re not like Westerners — they drink beer all year round!” Sung jokes.

  LIKE BEER, LIKE TEA

  According to Sung and Yeh, people who drink their beers are generally well-traveled Taiwanese in their late 20s to mid-30s. It is precisely this demographic that can afford craft beer and are able to truly appreciate it.

  “When customers see our beers, they might not be able to fully understand the English words, but they’ll understand the Chinese characters and the type of taste that the name of the season conjures up,” says Sung.

  The same goes for English-speaking consumers — despite not being able to read the characters, they would be somewhat familiar with the style of brew whether a light pale ale or a frothier stout.

  “We want each type of brew to conjure up a different type of feeling, or evoke a certain memory,” Yeh says.

  For instance, since a lot of Taiwanese drink tea, Sung and Yeh hope that the tea-infused flavors in their brews will help awaken fond memories they may have of drinking tea with their families or friends.

  Though non-Taiwanese consumers can relate to this sentiment as well. Taiwan Head Brewers currently exports to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore and they plan to expand into China, South Korea and Japan. The idea is to tap into the Asian market and in particular, to reach out to drinkers who can read Chinese characters and understand the 24 solar terms.

  It’s also created a lot of pressure for the co-founders — they’ve brewed eight beers so far, and still have 16 more to go.

  “It can be exhausting,” Yeh says. “People expect there to be 24 types of beer so we’re constantly brewing and making sure that we’re launching the beers around the same time the particular season is supposed to start.”

  BOTTOMS UP

  But Sung and Yeh also know how to kick back and have a good time experimenting with new brews.

  We end our evening sampling some of their homebrewed stouts on the rooftop. They show me their cold storage where test batches are stored and their warehouse containing homebrew equipment. There’s also a basketball hoop in the corner and a small kitchen area with a huge refrigerator.

  They’re a bit shocked when I mention that I love stouts (not many girls like stouts, they say), but I immediately regret my words when they open the refrigerator, grab a couple bottles and pour me glass after glass of vanilla flavored barrel-aged stouts and imperial stouts brewed with sake (it’s really more sake than beer).

  When I ask them why these are not sold at bars, they reply that local consumers might find the flavors too strong and too bitter. Instead, they just enjoy these brews themselves on their rooftop.

  Noticing me staring at the logo on my glass, Sung explains that it’s an outline of a beer glass blowing a kiss.

  “It’s because we feel the happiest when we’re drinking craft beer,” Sung says.

  Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health.

  Drinking Taipei: Taipei is a city that has positioned itself as being cheap and fast, but the revolution for craft drinks is taking wind and alcohol aficionados are thirsty for more. Drinking Taipei is a monthly column devoted to spotlighting chic, conceptual bars that aren’t your typical watering hole.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    First person arrested as Danjiang Bridge opens

  • 2

    TSMC shares stumble on report, but losses minor

  • 3

    Navy needs 12 subs for modern fleet: CSBC head

  • 4

    Police identify man who engaged in indecency at park

  • 5

    HIMARS to be deployed to islands