Asian beer or American Lager?

Tonight I went with a good friend to Sawadee Thai Restaurant in Salt Lake City. As I always do when eating at Asian restaurants, I ordered the local beer, in this case the Singha Beer from Thailand. As I drank this light colored beer, it reminded me of other Asian beers, namely the Sapporo and Kirin Ichiban from Japan. These beers all share the light, smooth drinkability of the American Lager and I couldn't help but make a comparison to the yellow beers of the US, such as Budweiser and Coors. Now, I don't think it's a secret that these beers get very little respect in the international community. When one is talking about prestigious beers, the ales of European countries or even some American microbreweries come to mind. So I couldn't help but wonder why it is that Asian beers seem to resemble the lesser-favored lagers of the United States.

In answering this question, I looked to the brewing history of Asian countries, starting with Thailand, as it was the beer of the night. I was interested to learn that brewing in Thailand first started in 1934. This is quite a long while after brewing in the US and, as such, would help to explain where they got the idea for the American style lager. In addition to being relatively new to the brewing scene, they have traditionally only brewed lagers with low alcohol content (Singha is brewed at 3.5% ABV). This isn't to say that all Thai beer is low in alcohol. Boon Rawd Brewery, the maker of Singha, also brews a lager at 6.5% ABV called Leo Super, which is a premium Thai beer, and not one offered at Sawadee.

In researching Japanese beers, it is interesting to discover that beer brewing in Japan was first started by the Dutch, during the time when sailors were commuting between Japan and the Dutch empire. This would explain the Dutch-style lagers one finds in Japan, but it's also interesting to note that the Germans also have a strong brewing presence in Japan. Like Thailand, Japan tends to brew lagers, although their alcohol content tends to hover in the 4-5% range (5% when consumed locally, 4% when exported).

So I guess this does answer my question and confirm my suspicion that, yes, Asian beers are very similar to the American lager. After dinner, my friend and I went to the planetarium to see a movie, Magnificent Desolation about astronauts going to the moon. I was feeling particularly dorky and my friend was awesome and accommodated my wishes. To close this post, I'd like to share this video trailer of the movie we saw about the moon. I should also probably tell you that I'm one of those people who's not really sure the Apollo landing really happened, so take this with a grain of moon salt. Enjoy!