Beerlao Lager - Lao Brewery Co.

UTGrad

Tennessee

4.38/5  rDev +46.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

A: Typical straw color of macro lagers with slight lacing in the glass.

Smell: Nice, crisp lager smell without the skunk.

Taste: I love this beer...very full taste and one I will definately try again.

Mouthfeel: Smooth

Drinkability: Very good...

I've never tried a beer from former French Indochina but this one did not disappoint. It was a full bodied lager that was enjoyable. I hope I can find a six pack.

Serving type: bottle

08-11-2010 00:34:12 | More by UTGrad

Englandmj7

California

3.9/5  rDev +30.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Beerlao is best enjoyed in a large, extra cold bottle on the banks of the Mekong River. I was recently in Laos and consumed, on average, 10-15 bottles a day (it's hard not to at $1 for a liter; and that's bar prices!). I bought some in the smaller bottles upon my return to the US from a Thai supermarket and it wasn't as good. May have been a combination of the hot/humid storage conditions and the amount of time the bottles had been sitting on a shelf. Regardless, this is a very refreshing beer that I much prefer to Singha/Tiger/Leo/Chang and other SE Asian beers. Nice crisp taste with no bad aftertaste. Pours a good head and is quite carbonated. Worth a try (if you ever visit Laos, the stuff is 100% unavoidable: only 2 beers served in the whole country)...

Serving type: bottle

02-04-2008 22:52:16 | More by Englandmj7

hungryghost

District of Columbia

3.85/5  rDev +28.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

I had this beer multiple times while traveling in Laos. Served cold from a large bottle the beer is clear and golden with a light, white head of foam.
The aroma consists of faint corn and malt scents.
The taste is fresh with a little malt and a crisp clean finish. Nothing bold or overpowering about the flavor, plain and simple.
Very drinkable with food and coversation at a restaraunt or street market.
Believe it or not this beer has won awards in international competitions and is supposed to be one of the most consistently brewed beers in SE Asia.

Serving type: bottle

05-31-2006 21:28:53 | More by hungryghost

bat6

District of Columbia

3.85/5  rDev +28.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

have readily found the bomber-size bottles of Beerlao Lager in Thailand and Cambodia, all w/ a freshness date stamped on them. Other than Kingdom Lager and Kingdom Dark Lager, this is hands-down the best bet for crisp, clean, lager I've found in SE Asia so far. Spend any time in the blazing heat and humidity of the region and you'll probably discover a deep appreciation for this beer, god knows it may have saved my life on a couple of occasions...

A - very pale gold, proper head for the style, looks like light lager should

S - very little smell, perhaps some faint graininess. any strong smell, or hint of citrus or sour, and you've got an extremely acute sense of smell or, more likely, it's past due

T - very clean and very simple. malts & hops are both virtually unnoticeable, meaning there's very little of either or they're perfectly balanced... or both... OR this was not meant to be over-analyzed but rather downed quickly by someone very hot and very thirsty. of note: unlike other similar beers of the region, this does not gain any unwanted sweetness as it warms

M/F - light, crisp, "refreshing" as it should

O - when looking for a beer during the thick weather of this region, i'm always genuinely thankful when this is available. it is clearly meant to be crisp, clean, and simple (rather than thoughtfully analyzed), as well as to be consumed very soon after bottling. i've had very few other beers of any style that hit their intended mark so well

Serving type: bottle

10-16-2011 08:31:26 | More by bat6

BeerAngel

Texas

3.83/5  rDev +28.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a crystal clear pale yellow with large army of bubbles racing to towards a modest white head. The smell is a musty sweet corn and light malt aroma. Almost American macro-ey. The taste is a couple notches above the macro scene though and is fairly interesting. It unleashes a nice wave of black pepper, light fruit, faint malt, and a hint of hops. Nice! This is a light bodied brew that finishes slightly dry and it drinks down super easy! I have to say that I enjoyed this beer and would have it again if the scenario was right. Cheers!

Serving type: bottle

03-18-2004 05:05:02 | More by BeerAngel

eibeinaka

United Kingdom (England)

3.75/5  rDev +25.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

I've actually drunk this in Laos, where it comes in lovely big bottles. The nicest beer in Southeast Asia in my opinion. It's very much a hot country's beer. Beautifully hoppy and refreshing.I think some of the tasters here have sampled compromised stock.

Serving type: bottle

07-12-2005 05:02:34 | More by eibeinaka

patre_tim

China

3.69/5  rDev +23.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.75

A: Golden with a slight orange tinge, almost no visible carbonation, filtered, 1 finger of creamy slightly yellow head. Fair lacing.

S: Malt, hops, very faint, very American Adjunct Lagerish.

T: Malty, slight hops, thick and somewhat bready, I get a hit of yeast that fades fast near the end that is slightly sourdough.

M: Medium body, medium low carbonation. Thicker than I’d thought it would be.

O: Good body, nice taste but not outstanding. Certainly great for this part of the world. Hits the spot and is cheap for this area, cool can. Goes great with pub food, and would be great with Lao/ Thai fare.

Serving type: can

05-09-2013 14:06:45 | More by patre_tim

RonaldTheriot

Louisiana

3.68/5  rDev +23.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Beerlao has a thick, white head, an initially clear, yellow-golden appearance (which, when one swishes and pours out the bottom third, has lots of little brown flecks floating about), with streaming bubbles and a bit of lacing down the glass. The aroma is of sweet, mild barley malt, and the taste is of sweetness, some sourness, sugar, malt, cracker, paper, grain husk, alcohol, and a touch of hop bitterness to balance it. Mouthfeel is light and watery, and the finish is crisp, clean, refreshing, and highly drinkable. Overall, this is a very good beer. Try some!

RJT

Serving type: bottle

07-12-2012 21:16:09 | More by RonaldTheriot

basica

Singapore

3.63/5  rDev +21.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A - Pours an amber golden color into my Samuel Adams Globe pint glass with a thick head that quickly reduces to a pleasant half-finger thick milky white layer with clear lacing on the side and active fizzling (4)

S - Mild nose of malts and light grassy hop aromas as well as hints of citrus and a light dash of spice. Pretty interesting for a mass lager. (3.5)

T - Malts upfront, backed nicely with some grassy hops, meeting some spices and a mild, short-lived bitterness in the middle. A pleasant lemonish citrus zest shows up towards the finish followed by a dash of light biscuity malts at the back. The flavor was light but definitely well-balanced and ever so very slightly complex for the style. May have been a 4 had the flavors been slightly stronger. (3.5)

M - Light-bodied with minimal carbonation bite and watery-foamy smoothness. Pretty smooth for the style and really may deserve a tad higher a rating on this. (3.5)

D - A mass lager that's of surprising quality in all sense; pleasant, well-balanced flavors with a watery-foamy smoothness that makes it so drinkable and sessionable. Beer Lao is definitely impressive for its style. (4.0)

Serving type: bottle

12-10-2010 16:20:40 | More by basica

NODAK

Tennessee

3.6/5  rDev +20.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Beer from Laos! Apparently this is the national beer of Laos....and tourists apparently love it. So I'm happy to have it over here in the USA.

The smell was almost exclusively of grains...very grainy, presumably from the rice it's made from.

The taste isn't earth shattering, though it's pretty drinkable. The body of the beer has a grain taste to it that has an interesting flavor to it that I struggle to describe, though I'd say that it's certainly from the rice. It's different. The backend, however, is simple. There's a touch of hop bitterness, which finishes the beer pretty dryly....and a whole lot of grain popping up afterwards.

Not bad, but not a top-tier beer either. I could quaff a few of these on a hot day. And hey, it's from Laos!

Serving type: bottle

01-15-2011 03:16:30 | More by NODAK

BlackHaddock

United Kingdom (England)

3.58/5  rDev +19.7%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Brown 330ml bottle of 5.0% ABV Beerlao Lager. Best before 1st April 09, drank 17th March 09. Poured into a Hoegaarden Grand Cru stemmed tulip shaped glass.

I have drank many beers in my quest to find the worst lager in the world and I have now found this beer from Laos, how did it compare with some of the worlds worst, read on.

Typical lager/pilsner look, golden, bright and clear. Like so many others the head started off large and snow white in colour, only to fade very swiftly to a collar and wispy covering.

No aroma at all, gets my standard no-smelling lager score of 3. There could be a hint of some cereal, but don't ask me which one.

the taste suprised me, one of the best 'rice lagers' for flavour I think I've had. There is an unusual richness to the beer, for a lager anyway. It would hold up against a lot of the German Pilsners I've tasted over the years and is head and shoulders above most Oriental ones.

Not bad at all, one of the joys of drinking round the world (as I am trying to do) is finding little gems like this in the most unlikely places.

Serving type: bottle

03-17-2009 22:37:41 | More by BlackHaddock

ATPete

New Jersey

3.58/5  rDev +19.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

12oz bottle, green glass.

(reviewed from notes taken in 1/10)

Definitey first beer from Lao. Pours a very clear yellow color with a small foamy white head. Skunky, corny malt malt, bitter hops, overall pretty clean and light, refreshing and very easy to drink. Would easily pick this over any BMC or the like, especially if i knew it was fresh. Not bad, not bad.

Serving type: bottle

02-21-2010 19:51:57 | More by ATPete

utah44

Louisiana

3.55/5  rDev +18.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

Poured into standard pint glass revealed a minimal head which did not persist the requisite amount of time to impress most folks. Carbonation seems to be minimal. Yellow color typical of many beers of this type. Smell was pleasing despite being minimal. Taste was surprisingly good with hints of the normal ingredients for this type of beer. Mouthfeel was about as good as it gets for this type of beer. This was an average lager but not without merit. I would consider drinking this brew again if ever I encounter it in a package store.

Serving type: bottle

04-07-2010 04:25:16 | More by utah44

biboergosum

Alberta (Canada)

3.55/5  rDev +18.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

330ml stubby-esque bottle.

This beer pours a clear pale straw colour, with two fingers of light, billowy white head, which recedes slowly, doing a pretty good meringue impression in the meantime, and leaves a few random swaths of chunky lace around the glass. It smells of sweet bready malt, a bit of mild spicy citrus, and soft grassy, floral hops. The taste is quite consistent with the aroma, a soft bread-dough like character, accented by some increasingly weedy, grassy hops. I also get a sweet, medicinal twinge - subtle, but it's there. The carbonation is fairly sedate, the body medium weight, smooth, and damned-near creamy. It finishes still semi-sweet and bready, with an understated, nondescript dryness, that does its job well enough.

Well, for a lager from one of the tropics-abutting countries, one doesn't expect much more that a pale watery thirst quencher, who's highest attribute is its lack of distance from the nearest fridge. This offering, on the other hand, is stamped from a different press - a decent malt component (from wherever it may originate), and balanced by an adequate, if not overly evident, dryness. I could easily have another of this.

Serving type: bottle

05-17-2011 23:24:31 | More by biboergosum

BDIMike

Ohio

3.55/5  rDev +18.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Pours a clear golden color. A lot of carbonation, but only a thin white head that dissipates very quickly.
Smell is very sweet for a Euro Pale Lager. The wheat base can be smelled, but there is a very sweet corn smell dominating.
Taste is very sweet as well. A lot of sweet malts and a sugary aftertaste.
Mouthfeel has a very crisp and carbonated feel. At first it is refreshing, but then it almost hurts it is so strong.
Drinkability is good on this beer. Very crisp, refreshing, balanced beer. However, after a while the sweetness and strong kick to the mouth gets old. Surprised by how nice this beer is.

Serving type: bottle

05-17-2012 01:48:39 | More by BDIMike

BeerAdvocate

Massachusetts

3.5/5  rDev +17.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Review from BeerAdvocate magazine Vol. II Issue VIII:

Laos is not known for their beer culture, with only two breweries in the whole country. Not much of a selection if you wanted to open up a beer bar and serve local beer, but we guess they make due.

Perfect clarity with a pale straw yellow color, good foaming action here as it pushes up four fingers in height and leaves a thick crowning of white lace on the glass. A delicate but complex aroma; sweet lemon oil, mellow spice and thin, cracker-like graininess. Mild crispness and light-bodied. Faint lemon oil meets a clean and dry graininess. Mild on the hop bitterness, though there is a spiciness within that has a jasmine-like bite. Very faint cooked corn flavor in the back. Finishes slightly husky and dry.

Not half bad, drinkable and refreshing for what it is, and a few odd complexities make this one interesting.

Serving type: bottle

09-14-2010 05:18:54 | More by BeerAdvocate

flyingpig

United Kingdom (Scotland)

3.5/5  rDev +17.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Crystal clear & light straw coloured with a two-fingered size, foamy white head that has very good retention, managing to stay without receding for well over two minutes.

Some light malts & faint grassy hops, a fair bit of adjuncts such as vegetables and possibly rice. There is a bit of grain in there as well & a very faint amount of skunk towards the end.

Grassy hops and some vegetable adjuncts to begin with and some faint lager malts. The flavour is basic but very nice. There is some mild honey and a touch of lemon.

Very smooth & very creamy feeling, the beer is light bodied and goes down incredibly well with a beautiful crisp finish.

Up there with the best lagers I have ever tried, it may not be quite as good as I remember when drinking it on the banks of the Mekong but it is still a great beer.

1001 Beers To Try Before You Die:
http://abarwithnoname.wordpress.com

Serving type: bottle

12-28-2011 22:17:27 | More by flyingpig

thegodfather2701

North Carolina

3.48/5  rDev +16.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

A-Yellow/lemon color with a bright white head. There is some yeast at the bottom of the bottle and floating around in the beer itself.

S-Noble which have a lemon, grassy, and spicy character. There is also some malt.

T-Very balanced between hops and malts. Not a strong flavor, but what sticks out is some lemon and just a hint of caramel. The noble hops become more present as it warms. While it is watery and isn't packed with flavor it is very refreshing.

M-Thicker than expected and sticky.

D-This is one drinkable beer. I could drink this all day and would love to drink it alongside some Asian food.

Overall, I really enjoyed this beer. Its very tasty and easy to drink. One of the best examples of the style I have had.

Serving type: bottle

10-26-2010 19:39:54 | More by thegodfather2701

SmashPants

Australia

3.48/5  rDev +16.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Bottle: reasonable light brown bottle, chinsy and sparkly south-east asian label, if that's your thing...

Appearance: decent, light straw with average head, reasonable lacing.

Aroma: malt, grassy hops and rice grains. Quite light.

Taste: light and bready malts, quite sweet rice undertone with some grassy hops. Unlike most Asian beers with rice for filler, this one actually adds a nice sweet flavour.

Aftertaste: disappears quickly, some rice sweetness remains.

Mouth feel: quite clean, a little heavier than a lot of lagers, but still light-to-medium body. Mid carbonation. Quite nice.

Overall: quite a surprise. I expected this beer to be awful thanks to its origins and the bottle, but it turned out to be quite good. Decent lager with an unusual rice sweetness undertone, as opposed to the rice simply being filler in most Asian beers.

Serving type: bottle

07-07-2012 02:19:47 | More by SmashPants

benclimbs

California

3.45/5  rDev +15.4%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 4

Pours headless and without much carbonation, no carbonation as well.

Nose lacks the typical skunky overtones associated with a lot of lagers, especially some of the other asian lagers - smell is quite dull but just a hint of spice in there.

Taste is just really smooth - not a whole lot there, but a bit of german malt character, but much lighter than your average deutch lager - again, missing the skunky flavour that a lot of european/third world lagers have. Finish is slight but pleasantly sweet and malty.

mouthfeel isn't much...pretty flat, but again not sticky or super thin.

Very drinkable, not much here, but nothing too offensive, and there is enough structure to make it better than an american lager.

Serving type: bottle

12-07-2009 20:12:01 | More by benclimbs

farrago

New Jersey

3.43/5  rDev +14.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

The bone white head crests over a finger, finespun enough that the it collapses down to the surface with ease, nice thin traces of lacing, retains a thin layer across the surface. Washed out orange to worn gold in color, transparent but not squeaky clean per se, few bubbles visible within. Bready nose with a honeyed touch, buttered corn, hay, caramel, no real fruit or citrus presence, just a slavish desire to please by maximizing sweetness and minimizing anything which might offend by requiring thought. Medium-bodied, lowgrade fizz for carbonation, no surprise that the palate has the same character as the nose, all poised to please the lowest common denominator and blend into the pack. Corn syrup, maple syrup, caramel, all this makes it stick to your mouth pores. The hay or grass is without edge, has sufficient hops to have good posture, that's it. No problem taking another sip, A step above domestic macrobrews, that is its best attribute.

Serving type: bottle

12-01-2009 00:06:48 | More by farrago

BuckeyeNation

Iowa

3.4/5  rDev +13.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Pale yellowish gold with a good sized head of cotton white thanks to a high altitude pour. A pretty nice look, all things considered. Its appearance is superior to the two light macro lagers that I tasted during a recent head-to-head smackdown. The cap maintains some firmness as it falls and streaks the glass with vertical rivulets of thin, sudsy froth.

Standard macro lager nose of (more) sweet (than most) grain and perhaps a touch of hops. Beer Lao doesn't smell all that bad and I might even say that it's rather pleasant in a low expectations kind of way. There are no off-aromas of any kind; always a good thing.

'Tutti-frutti' came to mind as I assessed the nose, but I thought I was hallucinating. The beer tastes just like it smells and I'll be damned if it doesn't taste 'tutti-frutti' as well. I'm not sure that I could take much more than one bottle since the candyish flavor would undoubtedly wear pretty thin after a while. It isn't sweet like candy (though it is somewhat sweet, for beer). That description seems pretty unsatisfactory on re-reading, but it'll have to do. And it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds.

The flavor doesn't degrade within each mouthful, nor does it change all that much from beer entry to beer exit. As well, it doesn't seems to be worsening with warming (a minor miracle). The mouthfeel is light, but nowhere near watery, and contains an enlivening amount of carbonation.

Beer Lao was something of a surprise. It's definitely different from anything that I've had before and is pretty okay, though offbeat. I'll order it in a heartbeat if I ever find myself in a Laotian restaurant. Strangely enough, I was recently given directions to the favorite Laotian restaurant of a Laotian acquaintance of mine. Perhaps I'll pop in some evening and see if Beer Lao is on the menu.

Serving type: bottle

04-14-2005 23:56:31 | More by BuckeyeNation

Raligitano

Slovak Republic

3.4/5  rDev +13.7%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

After 5 months of beer drinking hell in Thailand I return to Laos. BeerLao owns 99% of the Laotian beer market, which is a good thing. It's a small shining spot in SE Asia's rather desolate brewing scene.

Poured into a BeerLao glass. A strong foamy head lingers for a while as rising bubbles coat the inside of the glass. The liquid has a dark yellow piss color.

Smell is a little woody and malty but not unpleasant. "Same same" for the flavor. If a Singha beer went down smooth instead of making me gag, it would taste like this. Mouthfeel is a little greasy and the bubbles tickle...ooh. A little bad odor lingers in the mouth.

Many ex-pats in Thailand look forward to a Lao visa run so that they can stock up on Beerlao. It's nothing amazing, but it's very drinkable and you can down several bottles for cheap ($0.70) without suffering the Insta-hangover that comes from Thai beer. It must be the sand-filtered water.

Serving type: bottle

09-27-2008 11:34:29 | More by Raligitano

ypsifly

Michigan

3.38/5  rDev +13%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a 12oz with a MFG date of 09/04/04 ink jetted on the front label.

Pale gold with a small white head that quickly fades into a veiled ring.

Smells of grainy malts, undefined adjunct (corn?), and a whiff of hop oils.

Light malts that fade into a clean finish that has a generic hop flavor. Way more balanced and clean than domestic macros. Better than the average mouthfeel. No awkward flavors or rabid carbonation.

Serving type: bottle

05-05-2005 05:18:47 | More by ypsifly

rickyleepotts

Arizona

3.34/5  rDev +11.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25

This is our last beer from Lao Brewery. There were only two on the list. I can't imagine craft brewing is a big business in Laos. I do, however, like beers that use rice in the brewing process. I was curious to learn they serve this warm over ice in Laos. I am drinking it cold from the fridge, but if and when we are in Laos I will order it room temperature. Drink it like the locals do. They also mention the local food, and that would be my favorite part! I don't have big expectations for this one, but here goes nothing.

In the Glass: It looks like a typical domestic beer. It does have a nice head, and I am seeing a TON of tiny bubbles rushing to the top. It almost looks like champagne below the surface.

Nose: That is what I'm talking about. This smells great. It has a nice creamy aroma and a hint of sweetness coming through from the rice. Speaking of rice, I LOVE the Flying Fish Wild Rice DIPA that recently came out. This isn't an IPA, but will be (I promise) easy to drink leaving a nice somewhat sweet aftertaste begging for another drink. Let's try it!

Flavor: There are times I sit in a bar and say, "What should I order?" I did that on Sunday at Papago Brewing Company. I wish I had this flavor on my mind when I was trying to order. They didn't have any Euro pale lagers on tap, but still. This is a creamy bottle of deliciousness. The sweetness really comes through here, and like I said… it is VERY easy to drink. This would taste great on a hot summer day. See, why don't golf courses have a Beerlao cart?

Mouthfeel: This is my favorite part of this beer. It is nice, somewhat thick, and creamy. The beer leaves a nice thin layer of sweetness on the palate. That is coming from the rice. I would love to see a brewing company make a batch of beer with rice. I have no idea how they do it… now I must find out. I wonder if Steve McFate at Fate Brewing Company here in Scottsdale would let me work with him on a wild rice beer. Like I have time for that!

Aftertaste: Those same sweet notes carry over, and every time I swallow it begins to dry. (The burp is pretty boring. Tasted more like my lunch than it did the beer I am drinking.) This is a beer, regardless of the ABV, is easy to drink and I can see myself drinking a pitcher of this. I would also like to visit Laos for that food. I am also going to look into other Laos brewing companies. This is good. It's not great, but I could drink a bunch of this carbonated sweet nectar. Yummy!

Serving type: bottle

05-14-2013 21:31:56 | More by rickyleepotts