333 Premium Export Beer - Saigon Beer Company

shivtim

Georgia

1.75/5  rDev -25.2%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

An unremarkable lager. It's called "ba ba ba" locally... but be careful not to say it too fast, because if you do it means something entirely different (something thats insulting to elderly women, I think). Anyway, it's yet another boring Southeast Asian macro lager, except this one is particularly sub-par. Clear yellow, no head, smells like water, metal and grain. Taste is mostly a lot of nothing.

For some reason this beer is exported, and is somewhat popular in areas of Japan. Who knew?

Serving type: can

09-01-2007 16:52:56 | More by shivtim

randylangford

Pennsylvania

2.75/5  rDev +17.5%

06-13-2013 03:23:54 | More by randylangford

Chegui

Connecticut

1/5  rDev -57.3%

05-14-2013 21:14:42 | More by Chegui

Poupae

Thailand

2.75/5  rDev +17.5%

03-28-2013 04:45:21 | More by Poupae

tbeckett

Ontario (Canada)

1.98/5  rDev -15.4%
look: 2 | smell: 1.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2

Can from a shop in Can Tho.

A - Golden, good carbonation, bright. One finger white head gone fast. No lace, no retention.

S - Honey, sweet grain. Some alcohol seems present.

T - Sorta chemically with a note of alochol. Honey and sweet grain.

M - Good carbonation, light-ish body, lingering chemical/booze note.

O/D - Not exactly a great lager. Odd off note holds this back a lot. Not worth an in depth look.

Serving type: can

03-09-2013 14:34:39 | More by tbeckett

BJasny

Texas

3/5  rDev +28.2%

01-21-2013 05:29:13 | More by BJasny

Foulon

2.5/5  rDev +6.8%

01-04-2013 21:03:54 | More by Foulon

intoxabroad

British Columbia (Canada)

2.25/5  rDev -3.8%

10-08-2012 17:08:21 | More by intoxabroad

shigg85

Japan

2.7/5  rDev +15.4%
look: 3 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Bought a bottle of this from the Isetan department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Poured into a Baird pint glass. Grassy golden hue with a clear complexion and a foamy white head. The taste of this beer is a simple green apple, grass, and watery hops. However, the smell is a huuuge turn-off... especially in the way of a second-breath sniff. If you breathe this in first, it doesn't do much... but if you let your air out into the glass, heat the beer up, then take the smell back in (as I have begun doing with higher-quality beers), you get an intense odor that can only be compared to vomit. It made me do a double-take with the glass. The flavors of this are not bad at all, and it is a perfectly fine session-style beer. However, that smell is a killer...

Serving type: bottle

07-06-2012 02:11:11 | More by shigg85

Joefisherman

Illinois

1.5/5  rDev -35.9%

06-24-2012 14:44:37 | More by Joefisherman

Joel12

Illinois

2/5  rDev -14.5%

06-02-2012 02:50:10 | More by Joel12

sd123

California

2.5/5  rDev +6.8%

06-01-2012 10:06:53 | More by sd123

BlackHaddock

United Kingdom (England)

3.6/5  rDev +53.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

330ml can brought home by my parents (from a world cruise) along with a few other goodies.

Poured into a Konig-Pilsner glass on 13th May 2012.

Looked like any other lager/pilsner style beer: golden bright, clean and clear with a white head of tight bubbles.

No smell and semi-sweet in taste; different to what I expected: easy to drink and just what I needed after cutting the grass and doing some ironing.

Serving type: can

05-13-2012 17:57:17 | More by BlackHaddock

bostonryan

Massachusetts

2/5  rDev -14.5%

01-30-2012 17:19:05 | More by bostonryan

bat6

District of Columbia

3/5  rDev +28.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

currently traveling through SE Asia and sampling the local offerings. this is fairly popular in Vietnam. beers in this region are almost entirely light-bodied lagers meant for fast quaffing in the blazing heat and humidity. all ratings are based on my understanding of the style here.

A - pale gold. nice head, decent retention, unremarkable

S - virtually no smell, per the style

T - very clean, unremarkable. does not gain any slick corny sweetness as it warms, no sour notes either

MF - very crisp, very clean

O - this is meant for refreshing drinking after a long hot day, though we did see a bunch of Vietnamese knocking them back between 9 and 10 AM at an art opening. point is that it isn't meant for over-analysis, they're just meant to be knocked back fast and easy

Serving type: bottle

10-20-2011 13:18:43 | More by bat6

CuriousMonk

Virginia

2.03/5  rDev -13.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

From notes at Old Chicago (2001): Poured from can into pint glass. bottle is the best thing about this beer. I was expecting something a little more exoctic, but alas, another one-dimensional pale lager sits in my glass. Pale yellow pour with a wispy white head that vanishes upon first sip. Subtle nose of hay and corn syrup. The body starts with a healthy dose of diacytel, backed by some grassy hops. Umm, not much to say. Drinks watery and offers little in the way of enjoyable attributes.

Serving type: can

02-09-2011 18:57:49 | More by CuriousMonk

fizzy

Minnesota

2.85/5  rDev +21.8%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Drank a "ton" of this along with Saigon Red and Green a couple of weeks ago on a trip to Ho Chi Minh City. I mean, really, what would somebody expect of a beer made in Vietnam, in a brewery designed by some European, made of imported ingredients, no history dating back centuries? On the other hand, in a town of dust, noise, excitement, color, great food, great people, great adventure, the "333" went down like heaven and I refuse to give this beer the dank review so many of my friendly "craft" quaffers gave it.

Serving type: can

02-09-2011 13:01:58 | More by fizzy

eduardolinhalis

Switzerland

2.03/5  rDev -13.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

330ml can poured in a ordinary glass.

This "beer" is so terrible that I feel really lazy to write a decent review about it...
Looks like an Adjunct Lager, a clear pale white color and a fluffy white head. Medium retention and not many lacings left. Smells like some sort of artificial cereal. Crispy rice or corn. The taste is pretty much the same, sweet malts and mild grassy hops. Watery body and an artificial fizzy carbonation. Well, I'll stop here. A beer to be avoided.

Serving type: can

07-02-2010 19:47:23 | More by eduardolinhalis

OtherShoe2

Massachusetts

1.93/5  rDev -17.5%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5

Pours pale yellow with a foamy/fizzy white head. A slight skim retention, mostly due to higher carbonation. No lacing.

Very light malt aroma, some sweet grain. Not much going on.

Really thin beer here. Light malt with some grain sweetness. Watery. Some light bitterness, but you have to find it. Some sour notes. Nothing really crisp or clean about this at all.

Carbonation helps this one, and lighter body is what was expected.

This was with some Vietnamese food, and I should have went with the Thai beer option instead. This was nothing you'd want on it's own. As bad as some of the American macros out there.

Serving type: can

04-08-2010 12:07:06 | More by OtherShoe2

albern

Massachusetts

1.35/5  rDev -42.3%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 1

Yikes, this beer is bad. One smell and you can tell that this is pretty rancid stuff. For starters, the bottle is listed as "33" so I'm not sure what happened to the final digit. The beer is a clear pale straw color, with no real head, with kind of a flat syrupy look to it. The nose is just adjunct cereal grain and the smell of poor quality processing.

This is pretty awful and undrinkable stuff. It has a zingy little tang to it but there is nothing at all salvagable here. Vietnam is not a country with a beer making tradition, so I'm not sure what happened or the history of this brewery. This import will not last long. This is just poor quality, cereal grained beer, that seems to be made on the cheap. Perhaps the novelty of Vietnamese beer will bring out the curious, but there will be many one and dones with this awful beer.

Serving type: bottle

01-10-2010 02:48:50 | More by albern

laituegonflable

Australia

2.28/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

Pours a pale straw colour with frenetic bubbling and a sinking head. Reasonably good lacing can't save an otherwise poor affair.

Very grassy, soil-esque hop with too much thick, sticky malt. Plain and simple, but fairly aromatic. Shame about the excessive sticky malt aroma.

Taste has fair amounts of malt with twiggy hops. Aftertaste is slightly sticky, with a fairly viscous mouthfeel and no tingling. A slightly carbonated edge to the flavour makes me think it should be tingly, but it isn't. Mostly simple flavour, but unpleasant sticky finish renders this not all that drinkable.

Serving type: bottle

05-25-2009 00:19:58 | More by laituegonflable

lacqueredmouse

Australia

2.25/5  rDev -3.8%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Pale gold with a thin film around the edge. Some lacing. Looks very flat and insipid. No carbonation. I don't hold out much hope.

Very unpleasant sticky-rice nose, lots of nothingness as well. Sweet, with a very light sickly note. But don't get me wrong, it's incredibly bland. Blech.

Thin, but fortunately not overly sweet on the palate. Quite clean and dry, with a light lingering bitterness. Mouthfeel is quite crisp, which is a blessing. No, it's not great, but I was expecting a lot, lot worse.

It's really not that bad when you get down to it. It's not amazing, but it's pretty clean and light. I guess I'm just pleased it doesn't have the sweet sickly character promised on the nose.

Serving type: bottle

05-24-2009 02:53:44 | More by lacqueredmouse

Globetrotter

Virginia

2.13/5  rDev -9%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

Hand-delivered from Vietnam to Austria (thanks, Shannon!), the can features a black and gold oval filled with red behind the white numbers 333. Ingredients include both rice and "houbion," (a substance neither I nor google is familiar with). Best before 10/16/09, I opened it on 3/7/09.

Pours a predictable pale yellow straw under a misty white 1/2 finger head that fades completely quite quickly. The nose has a sickly sweet, raspberry like tone. The mouth is light and very well-carbonated. The taste lacks malt, while the hops a very acidic and rusty bitter. The raspberry is still there, but in the taste it seems as if there is too much stem, not enough berry. The aftertaste is earwax bitter. Not a very good experience (although I've had much worse beers...).

Serving type: can

03-07-2009 20:00:06 | More by Globetrotter

WHROO

Australia

3.28/5  rDev +40.2%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

A: Poured straw yellow, clear 2 fingerhead, quickly died tho. Big beaded carbonation
S: Straw, grassy, hay notes. Little of that eggy lager aroma too.
T: Ricey, touch malty, only a hint of tropical fruity sweetness. Zero bitterness
M: Crisp & clean. Be quite nice over a meal.
D: Just enough sweet malts to keep interested, any bitterness would have been good, classic Asian Rice beer. Don't expect much flavour.

Serving type: bottle

10-14-2008 08:32:23 | More by WHROO

brendan13

Australia

2.17/5  rDev -7.3%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

A - Pale golden straw colour with initially a big fluffy white head that falls away to a thin whisp quite quickly.
S - Smell is grainy, honey like sweetness.
T - Taste is along the same lines as the smell.
M - Low bodied, medium to high carbonation.
D - Wouldn't bother getting again. No worse than most other Asian macro lagers & is probably well suited to the climate.

Serving type: bottle

10-08-2007 09:02:49 | More by brendan13