The World's Five best Beers
And five more from the bottom of the barrel
Of all the languages one can learn, beer seems to be the most universal. We visited 36 countries on our trip around the world, and every single one of them had at least one beer that was brewed there. But, like all things, not all of them were good.
The Five Best Beers in the World
Starting from #5 and working up to #1, these are the five best beers we drank during our 333-Day trip around the world..
5. Jacobsen Dark
This lager, which is brewed from an original recipe from Carl Jacobsen (the founder of Carlsberg), is only available in Denmark.
4. Pilsner-Urquell
I've had this a few times at home in the U.S. and was somewhat unimpressed. However, when it's fresh from the taps at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzn, Czech Republic, it's something quite different. Very refreshing and too easy to drink more than one.
3. Weihenstephaner Korbinian
Weihenstephan Brewery in Freising is the oldest (continually) operating brewery in the world. And, like most German breweries, they make a number of excellent products. But Korbinian, a doppelbock named for the patron saint of Freising and founder of the Weihenstephan monastery, was my favorite.
2. Little Creatures Pale Ale
Little Creatures is a brewery in Fremantle, Western Australia. We'd had a few good beers in Australia, but this was a favorite. The hotel we stayed at (The Murray) had it on tap, so it was nice to have a refreshing beer after a long day of walking around Perth. It was doubly nice after a week-long stay working on a farm.
Westvleteren 12
This beer is a Belgian Quadrupel Trappist ale and is brewed by monks. In fact, the Brouwerij Westvleteren at the Abbey of Saint Sixtus is the last in the world to be operated solely by monks. As such, it's brewed each month in limited quantities (as the monks have other monkly duties to perform).
Many consider this to be the best beer in the world, and, while I have more research to conduct before I make a final ruling on this, based on what I've had so far, I'd have to agree. It cost me €18 for a bottle (though I later saw it as low as €11), but it was worth it.
A close analog is the readily available St. Bernadus Abt 12, which is allegeldly the same recipe but brewed with different water.
The Five Worst Beers in the World
Of course, not all beers can be great beers. And these five, from least offensive to most offensive, are the five worst beers I had on the trip.
5. Tsing Tao
In China, we didn't have a lot of choice when it came to beer. And while Tsing Tao is a popular offering in Asian restaurants all over the United States, I've never been a big fan. It's not all that enticing in its home country, either.
4. Halida
There were a fair amount of beer choices in Vietnam (a country where a can of beer was cheaper than a bottle of water), but this lager came up short for me. It paled in comparison to Hanoi Beer.
3. Balboa
Panama wasn't our favorite destination, and this watery lager, named after the country's currency (or perhaps conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to cross the Panamanian isthmus), didn't do the country any favors.
2. Blue Girl
We found a lot of things we liked in South Korea, but this lager was not one of them.
1. Chang
A popular Thai lager — we saw many backpackers sucking on large bottles of Chang while wandering about the streets — but I found it to be lacking. I've seen this for sale in the United States and really have to wonder why — it's not like we have a shortage of bad beers over here.
0. Bintang
Bintang is the party beer of Bali. Masses of tourists proudly wear T-shirts with the Bintang logo emblazoned on it as they guzzle the stuff in mass quantities. To me it was so undrinkable that it was the measure by which all beers were judged.
We even developed a phrase during the course of our trip. "Better than Bintang!"
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Header Image: Bottles of Weihenstephan Korbinian. All photos from the author's collection.