The third part of the Singapore Beer Bar trilogy will be coming soon. Brewerkz will not be neglected, but I really need to get a new flat with reliable out-of-office Internet access before I finish the item. I'm still a bit busy with the move to China and with the new job. The annual parliament session is a somewhat heavy detail. As I said, there's not a lot of unexpected news. But there are a shedload of announcements of 'expected' news. So, I have to spend a lot of time doing background research on the things that are 'expected.'

Thankfully for beer-blog visitors, I have had time to sample two of Beijing's stranger brews: Blue Diamond Pineapple Beer and Blue Diamond Lemon Beer. I picked them up at a supermarket for about Rmb2.50 each (around 30 US cents per can).A couple of years ago I returned to Canada for a visit. While at a corner store, I picked up about $20 worth of candies that I remembered from my childhood. Aside from the Pixy Sticks, they all tasted much more disgusting than I had remembered. They were nothing but artificial flavorings and excess sugar (the Pixy Sticks, meanwhile, were pure sugar). Well, these beers reminded me of the horrible candies of my youth.

I'm not completely sure about the brewing process. However, I believe that the pineapple beer is a weak lager (1.5-2.5% ABV) flavored by allowing an artificially flavored pineapple Popsicle to melt into it. The Lemon beer is another weak lager, flavored by dissolving a few tablespoons of instant Country Time Lemonade into it. I had two sips of the pineapple beer and poured it down the sink. I had one sip of the lemon beer and poured it down the toilet.

The next time I'm back in Canada I plan to dissolve a couple of Pixy Sticks into a bottle of Molson's. I'm sure the result will be more pleasing.