The beer experiencer in Vietnam was an interesting one. Firstly, this is yet another country in Southeast Asia which is dominated by a small number of beer brands. Despite this, there is still a surprising amount of variety to be found.
The two main beers are associated with the major cities in the north and south – Ha Noi and Saigon, respectively:
There is also another major player called “333” (not pictured). All of these brands come in several different varieties (Saigon Red, Saigon Green, and Saigon Special for example) – all the brands/varieties do taste similar, but there is definitely some difference between them.
We enjoyed many Saigon and Hanoi beers during our time, in many different contexts. From in front of a train, to watching soccer with locals, to rooftop bars. If I had to guess we probably drank more Hanoi, but the split was pretty even.
Next up are what I’m starting to refer to as the “international domestics” – Heineken, Budweiser, Sapporo, and Tiger Beer (among others) can all be found in Vietnam. We prefer to drink local, so avoided these beers when we could. Sometimes it’s not an option – for example on New Years Eve the bar we were at ran out of everything but Tiger, and one Japanese restaurant we visited only carried Sapporo – on these occasions we sucked it up, but the beers weren’t photo-worthy.
I’ll give a special shout out to Ha Long’s own regional beer – Ha Long Sapphire. We only found these in the city, and got to drink some with a nice view on our boat tour of the bay:
Finally, while in Hanoi we were slightly surprised to come across a thriving and growing Vietnamese craft beer scene. This is actually becoming a broader trend as we travel through Southeast Asia. We found Vietnamese craft breweries that operate nationally, as well as some very small one-building operations. We’re always pleasantly surprised to come across good craft beer, and Vietnam did not disappoint in this department:
While on our motorcycle tour we didn’t drink much beer, but we did to a lot of toasting with happy water. We learned how to say cheers in Vietnamese (very well) during the process, so I’ll end this post on that note. To Vietnam: “Một hai ba, dô!”
