Ingredients of our favorite Indonesian Beers.

[Episode8]

Have you ever read the back label of a Bintang?

Honestly I hadn't before a friend of mine told me that he no longer drinks Bintang because of the sucrose. Apparently this was common knowledge among the expat Japanese in Indonesia.

When comparing this to the back label of Bali Hai,

The contents of Bali Hai looks more like what should be in a beer. Prost is just like Bali Hai, no sucrose listed, and higher alcohol content.

Initially I thought that the sucrose was just the source of the alcohol in Beer. Upon further personal experimentation and introspection, I found the morning after a few Prost felt a lot better than after a few Bintang. Does anyone else share this finding?

So now I am inclined to avoid Bintang whenever I have a choice, and I will always pay careful attention to the contents of the beer that I drink.

Just wondering what beer you all prefer.

 

[Anglian]

None of the above, Guinness only

 

[vocalneal]

Sucrose is table sugar used for priming. About 7ml per litre at 40% solution.

Any difference you feel the morning after is more likely due to the differences in the yeast.

All beer has sugars that is why they make beer for diabetics.

If you prefer Bali Hai so be it.

 

[Minuteman]

Not on the list but definitely my favorite.

 

[atlantis]

Konig Ludwig Weissbier.

Stark wouldn't be bad too if it were available here (Manado, Sulawesi Utara).

I sell all the beers you listed and stay away from them, sucrose or not.

 

[nd_eric_77]

Lagers pretty much taste the same to me, so my "favorite" is typically whichever regular-strength (4.5 - 4.9%) beer is the cheapest. Every time I go back to the US, I get spoiled by the huge variety of craft beers and other malt beverages available at reasonable prices. Oh, and Charles Shaw wine.

 

[Pak Asam Manis]

I like Anker or Prost, Bintang is okay if really cold, never heard of Stark, must be relatively new in-country ... I like a Guinness or two, but the climate of Indonesia is simply not suitable for drinking stouts ... same reason as for not importing cold-weather dogs or other animals. I'm not a huge fan of lagers but this is what the choices are in Indonesia. Heineken is weak horse piss .... seriously, it is not actually brewed, rather they just collect the piss of weak horses in buckets and troughs and then bottle it.

 

[El_Goretto]

Konig Ludwig Weissbier

This! So much this ! My favorite beer in Indonesia when I can't get my hands on hoegaarden.

 

[brian@bekasi]

I love Bali Hai simply because it get cheap and delivered.

 

[R Cameron]

Sucrose is table sugar used for priming. About 7ml per litre at 40% solution.

Any difference you feel the morning after is more likely due to the differences in the yeast.

All beer has sugars that is why they make beer for diabetics.

But it is third on the label, so more sucrose than barley or hops (and why no yeast listed?). So I think in the case of Bintang it is a more substantial amount of table sugar than simply for priming purposes, plus, I've never seen the residue at the bottom of a Bintang that is the sign of a bottle-conditioned beer (like most Belgian beers).

Sucrose is a cheap way to boost alcohol content to the desired amount without using more expensive malted barley, also sometimes rice (budweiser) and corn syrup (miller, coors, corona).

Using simple sugars, as well as high fermentation temperatures (another potential cost-cutting step in warm Indonesia), are a source of fusel alcohols which lead to headaches and worse hangovers.