Siwo - Hangzhou Xihu Beer Asahi Co. , Ltd.

happygnome

Minnesota

3.48/5  rDev +37.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

a: pours a pale golden color with about an eigth inch of head that dissapears fast leavnig not even a trace of lacing
s: hints of lemony citrus very crisp mild aroma
t: very crisp mild flavor hints of lemon in the flavor for 3.8% abv, not too bad
m: light bodied beer with a ample carbonation

overall, this is a very crisp watery refreshing brew. i could see having a few of these but not anything that i would seek out

Serving type: bottle

09-15-2008 18:02:00 | More by happygnome

WDJersey

New Jersey

2.5/5  rDev -1.2%

08-02-2012 17:30:03 | More by WDJersey

djwhit24

Michigan

2.75/5  rDev +8.7%

06-21-2012 01:48:42 | More by djwhit24

KarlHungus

Minnesota

2.85/5  rDev +12.6%
look: 2 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

This beer pours a clear dehydrated urine yellow color. There is no head. The aroma is of sweet malt with hints of caramel. It is actually quite fragrant for the style. The taste is similar to the to the aroma. It is alright, but very simple. The mouthfeel is light bodied with nice carbonation. Overall, this is a decent beer at best. I can't see myself drinking this again.

Serving type: bottle

05-07-2009 22:41:34 | More by KarlHungus

garymuchow

Minnesota

2.13/5  rDev -15.8%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

This is my attempt at getting a Chinese beer, but the reviews sure aren't very favorable. Nice and low abv. Plus I'm having it with Mexican lunch (taco salad) which I have no idea if that will work or not. I do like the bottle and I hope I can use it for bottling homebrew.
Poured into pint/shaker glass. Rather sweet lager aroma that becomes very tight. Little complexity and not much for hops that I detect.
Water clear with pale gold color. Minimal head upon pouring that becomes nothing very quickly.
Taste is real somewhat malty, sweet and really watery. There really isn't much going on here. Moderate dryness, especially minimal for style. Only a tad of bitterness.
Water easy to drink. Carbonation is just below moderate and is a bit prickly and fine, but I would expect more.
This really isn't much. It doesn't have any particular problems, it just isn't much, of anything. But I will enjoy the low abv as I move on with my day.

Serving type: bottle

03-21-2009 16:50:41 | More by garymuchow

BierFan

Michigan

2.95/5  rDev +16.6%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

There is what I believe is a freshness date but it reads "060623" and I don't know how to read it. The label says 3.6% abv. Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into a pint glass.

Appearance: Clear yellow. Slight orange hue to it. The small white head drops to nothing. It has only the slightest bit of haze to it.

Smell: Definitely a rice aroma to it. Similar in smell to an American malt liquor, or an "ice" style adjunct lager.

Taste: Thin and fizzy mouthfeel. Watery with rice adjunct flavor. This is a really easy drinking low abv cheap beer. If I saw this on tap at a restaurant I would definitely order this over any cheap American lagers.

Serving type: bottle

02-04-2009 03:52:48 | More by BierFan

KeefD

Minnesota

1.48/5  rDev -41.5%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Pours a crystal clear plae yellow color with barely any foam from a hard pour. Aroma is very dry and bready, slightly herbal. There's something there that I can't put my finger on, maybe it's the rice, but it's something I've never smelled in a beer before. Weird. Is this beer? This is water with some white bread soaking in it. It incredibly light bodied with barely any flavor in it. I thought Kokanee was the lightest beer I've ever had, but this has surpassed it. Are all Chinese beers this awful? If so, i never want another one.

Serving type: bottle

12-20-2008 03:25:34 | More by KeefD

DrainBamage

Michigan

4.43/5  rDev +75.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a pale yellow with minimal laced head. Smells like a sweeter version of an adjunct lager. The taste is very impressive, slight hop flavor with some malty characteristics. It's very tingly on the tongue and is very crisp. I am pleasantly surprised. I was expecting more of a typical macro / adjunct lager here, but for a beer with only 3.8% ABV there is a lot of flavor here.

Serving type: bottle

01-08-2008 04:21:07 | More by DrainBamage

pmcadamis

Illinois

2.93/5  rDev +15.8%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A - It';s yellow and clear with a small head and minimal lacing..

S - Crisp and clean, lagery. Grainy and sweet with some nice hop aromas.

T - Sweet, clean, grainy, ricey, little bit corny.

M - Medium bodied. 2% milk.

D - Very drinkable. Mild and unassuming, but very clean and drinkable.

Serving type: bottle

11-04-2007 05:36:20 | More by pmcadamis

feloniousmonk

Minnesota

2.35/5  rDev -7.1%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 3

"Brewed with the icy quartz waters of Hupao spring at 100 metersunder ground."
To express this further, the bottle is distressed above and below the placement to resemble icy quartz crystals, or something...in any case, it's the first bottle like this I've ever seen.
And it's Chinese.
Haven't had much luck with Chinese beer yet, maybe this is the one?

Clear, pale yellow color, slim, soon-gone head. Looks like beer.

Wisps of cereal in the aroma, a hint of lemon, but otherwise barren but for wetness.

Taste: nothing here, really, ...wet and beery, but hardly any flavor at all. Not bad, mind you, not unpleasant, just a big ball of nothing at all. Easily guzzled, I'm sure. Brisk carbonation, crisp, but more than anything else, wet and empty. Barest whisper of malt.

The PBR of China.
Hand this out to the proletariat and keep them quiet, until they wonder where the taste went.

Serving type: bottle

03-23-2007 09:15:41 | More by feloniousmonk

86sportster883

New Jersey

2.93/5  rDev +15.8%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5

Some beers are meant to be drunk very cold and relatively quick, and this is definitely one of those beers. When you first pour this beer (I used a pilsner glass) it's very bubbly and forms a momentary head that quickly evaporates without a trace. The color is a pale straw color with lots of bubbles at first, but then reduces a slow steady stream rising from below. The smell is definitely different, not very strong, but odd, and hard to place.

I didn't have high hopes for this beer but the taste, when cold, was pleasantly crisp and refreshing. It's light bodied and highly carbonated with a clean dry finish. Actually, not bad when cold. As it warms up, the beer's malty flavors become prominent with a bready taste that brings to mind pretzels.

Overall, a drinkable beer which I liked better when very cold, but also not bad after it warmed up a little.

Serving type: bottle

01-24-2007 01:14:53 | More by 86sportster883

Shovelbum

Massachusetts

1.6/5  rDev -36.8%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1.5

Pours a light and airy head over a clear light golden body. The head literally snap, crackles and pops like rice crispies before it quickly vanishes into the world of sprits and ghosts without a trace. Aroma--- well there’s something that resembles pilsner malt lingering in there along with a more generic grainy aroma. Taste is similar to the aroma, except that it is perhaps even more vapid. There is a mild hop bitter twang toward the end, but I emphasize the mild. Little in the way of hop flavor. There is a strange salty character however. Body is light.

Hmm. Not exactly my cup of rice.

Serving type: bottle

01-23-2007 02:29:47 | More by Shovelbum

BuckeyeNation

Iowa

1.6/5  rDev -36.8%
look: 1.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

"Refreshing heartbeat, wonderful as nature"

--Siwo label

"Cold fountain freezing taste"

--Siwo website


Pale straw beneath a rice colored cap that is snap, crackle and popping its way to extinction in what looks to be the next few minutes. I'm reminded of Rice Crispies of course. The foam is way too brittle and unsticky to even think about leaving any lace.

The nose... well, there really isn't one. If I concentrate, I can pick up a faint hint of something that kinda, sorta smells like beer. Since rice has no real aroma, why should a Japanese Rice Lager? Another question: does a beer that smells like nothing deserve as low a score as a beer that smells bad? With warming, the aroma is more noticeable and isn't half bad.

Siwo is lousy. In fact, it tastes more like a low alcohol beer than any non-low alcohol beer that I've ever had. I'm sure the bargain basement 3.8% ABV has something to do with that, but then I've had beers with ABVs that low that actually tasted decent. This one is far from decent.

I'm at a loss at how to describe something that is a few flavor molecules away from tasting like water. Actually, a good analogy would be barely carbonated distilled water mixed 4:1 with a hop-deficient Euro pale lager. It's really difficult to think of this stuff as beer at all.

The mouthfeel, needless to say, is pathetic. The small print on the label says that Siwo was 'brewed with the icy quartz water of Hupao Spring at 100 meters under ground'. It tastes more like the icy quartz water of Hupao Spring than it does beer.

Siwo should be re-named AWOL because the color, the aroma, the flavor and the mouthfeel are the next thing to absent. Some of that spring water sounds good right about now.

Serving type: bottle

11-07-2006 14:22:55 | More by BuckeyeNation

afinepilsner

Iowa

1.5/5  rDev -40.7%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

12oz brown bottle

Siwo was a very pale yellow color and very clear. It had a fizzy white head that instanly disappeared with no lacing. The aroma was light, grainy, and not very appealing. The taste was light, fairly crisp, and a little grainy with a dry finish. The mouthfeel was thin and watery with plenty of carbonation. Drinkability was poor. This was not a good beer. Avoid.

Serving type: bottle

11-04-2006 22:39:19 | More by afinepilsner