While the staple Bia Saigon is most common, another historic beer remains perhaps one of Vietnam's most underrated beers - that is Biere Larue.

One of the key figures in Vietnam's beer history is Frenchman Victor Larue who started the first formal beer brewery in Vietnam in 1875. His first big break came with the "33" Export beer that was particularly popular with foreigners, and was the first real commercially manufactured and distributed beer in Vietnam.

In 1909, Larue would create perhaps what was Vietnam's first craft beer - a small batch beer under the name "Biere Larue".

Biere Larue was the original special small batch craft beer. (Image Source: Virtual-Saigon.net)

This was of great appeal to the locals, and in the mid 1900s, was specially produced for the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, and even surpassed the inaugural "33" Export beer in production.

Today, Bia Saigon is the most popular, as it was the result of the local government's desire for a more nationalistic homegrown beer brand, so as to push further away from its colonial ties.

(Image Source: Heineken Vietnam)

Nonetheless beers such as "33" (which was renamed to "333") and Larue continue to be distributed across Vietnam today, but were later split, with "33" being produced and distributed by the Saigon Beer Company (or SABECO), alongside Bia Saigon, while Biere Larue came into the hands of Dutch beer giant Heineken.

Biere Larue has three primary labels - Original, Special and Export. The last of the three has been increasingly phased out, so we'll focus on comparing the Original and Special labels.

Biere Larue Original - Review

Tasting Notes

Color: Dark Gold

Aroma: Sweet honey, wheat and oats - rich cereal notes. It gives sunflowers - gentle yet slightly honeyed and floral.

Taste: Lively on the palate, this is medium-bodied with an almost spritzy texture and bits of honey oats. It offers up chocolate-coated sunflower seeds, with just a very light bitterness and bright citric acidity in the form of tangerines. 

Finish: Clean and incredibly fresh. It is almost breezy with spritely notes of pine. It fades out lightly sweet and honeyed, think Honey Stars cereal, with an aftertaste of cookie dough milk. 

Our Thoughts

Having tried the several major local beers, this was the best beer by far - it was incredibly aromatic, creamy and malty with a complementary brightness and richness in its flavours that made it well-rounded and elegant.

The burst of flavour on the palate was surprisingly delightful, of chocolate and tangerines, that gave the beer tons of character and nuance. All the while, the its taste remained accessible and very easy to drink and absolutely fragrant, without the typical sourness that most beers have.

The finish was fresh with a lingering aftertaste of sweet malty milk - almost nostalgic.

This is not a particularly heavy beer and is great for all levels of drinkers, and even non-drinkers! If you're in Ho Chi Minh, do yourself a favour and try Vietnam's most underrated beer. 

Biere Larue Special - Review

Tasting Notes 

Color: Dark Gold

Aroma: It's immediately wheaty, with a uncomplicated light hoppy bitterness, and more on fresh pine notes.

Taste: Medium-bodied, with more on light honey sweetness, cereal notes of oats and rice husk.

Finish: Clean, with a light creaminess.

Our Thoughts

Somehow less special than the standard expression. This was quite a simple but nonetheless easy to drink, fairly enjoyable beer. It's decent but nothing to write home about with standard Lager notes that are quite common to any other Lager. It is very light and accessible, with generally affable flavors. This is probably particularly great for people who don't like the hoppy bitterness that comes with most beers.

Overall

The clear winner of the two is the Original label, which showed much character, elegance and nuance with quite a spectrum of richer flavors, whilst maintaining a good balance of top and base notes to give you the full flavor experience.

The Special label was strangely more basic and was pretty much a standard Lager with nothing interesting to write home about and wasn't good nor bad, it was just decent.

Together, Biere Larue is nonetheless commendable for producing beers that are incredibly easy to drink and are generally lighter, accessible and more refreshing with broadly speaking likeable flavors that are smooth and not harsh by any sense. They're great for all levels of drinkers, and if you're a non-drinker, this should be your go-to beer to join in the fun if you really have to drink.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot