I have had this feeling for some time that I was a bit of a fraud, that I was not really covering the beer news scene as I should, as you expected. Now I know that I have filled in at least a part of the gap with this news from Mongolia:
...the police are the men to see if you need a beer. Makes sense, they have the old stocks; either confiscated or purchased at low cost. I can’t say that I expected the black market to spring up with the local constabulary, but this is Mongolia. Price is said to be doubled from the happy days. Thursday’s Ulan Baatar Post reported on raids and closures of small bottling plants and repeated a rumor that I had heard from visitors to my apartment building. Namely, that some stores are operating under special permit.Apparently it is the wrong place for the beer lover these days. Who knew? This one narrow opening into that far off land gives the before and after images. More here...from the same guy. This may all derive from bad moonshine...thankfully as reported by Reuters.
Comments
Evan Rail - January 13, 2008 5:46 PM
Don't they also drink fermented mare's milk?
Mmm, kumis...
MongolBeerLover - May 2, 2008 4:02 PM
Mongolian Beer, here's the lowdown.
Alright the prohibition's done & dusted, Mongolians are free to indulge in their favourite past-time again, DRINKING!!! Like any former Soviet Bloc country Mongolians love their drinks, a bit too much. Anyways before I give you the lowdown on beer I'll give you a little preview of the Vodka scene, Mongolians love vodka as much as the Russians do but due to some well dodgy people bottling fake vodka made in dirty bathrooms well the domestic vodka scene is well dodgy. If you're going to drink vodka in Mongolia then the safest bet is to go for imports, there's only one domestic vodka brand which I think is safe, namely the Chinggis Khaan brand, as the company making it is the same company working with APB in brewing Tiger Beer & Sengur Beer (it's also the only licensed Coca Cola manufacturer in Mongolia) so I assume they're reputable, as for the other brands of Vodka well it's a bit like playing roulette, some are safe, some well... you might as well be drinking ethanol.
Anyways on to the beer:
Tiger Beer, brewed in Mongolia, not as good as the ones you'd get in South-East Asia but it's alright.
Sengur, definitely the best beer made in Mongolia in my opinion, a bit on the light side though.
Chinggis, goes in smoothly enough but tends to leave an unpleasant after-taste when consumed in large quantities.
Mongol, it's different from place to place, in some pubs it's decent in others it's not, I heard that some of the dodgy pub owners mix cheaper beer in so that may be why.
Kharkhorin, fruity dark beer, too fruity for me but it's not bad, other people I know like it.
Khan Brau, not very good in my opinion, but worth a try.
Dorgio, cheap & nasty, gives you a nasty hang-over the morning after, will probably regurgitate when you drink a lot of this.
Altan Gobi, you might as well drink urine.
Richard - October 2, 2009 5:42 AM
Umm..MongolBeerLover, you forgot Gem Draft and Malt and Hops, two of Mongolia's finest.