In Vietnam, beer is quite cheap and Vietnamese drinking culture has always welcomed any love of beer, from simple light beer to craft beer at all price points and service modes. Let’s explore the beer drinking culture of our Vietnamese people with M-Pacific.
Beer is everyone’s favorite drink to quench thirst on hot summer days, especially in tropical countries.
When beer first came to Vietnam
Beer production was introduced to Vietnam by the French at the end of the 19th century. The brewing process at that time was done completely manually, without any machines. This is also the beginning of two major domestic beer brands of Vietnam, Habeco (Hanoi Beer) and Sabeco (Saigon Beer). Since 1970, the government’s adaptation to the new economic policy has transformed many industries and welcomed many foreign tourists into Vietnam. One of the impacts of this change is the development of Vietnam’s beer industry and thus the creation of job opportunities in other industries such as agriculture, engineering and packaging. Many joint ventures were also established during this period, the brewing system was also upgraded with new tools and equipment.
When do Vietnamese drink beer?
Beer is a cooling drink for hot summer days, but that’s not the only reason why many Vietnamese like to drink beer. Drinking beer has more or less become a culture and habit of many Vietnamese. In Vietnam, courtesy is expected to invite each other to a beer when doing business, attending events, celebrating or gathering with friends. People, mostly men, often go out for a beer with customers and friends after work. Therefore, you will easily see the whole street lined with plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk and packed with people from different walks of life.
How do Vietnamese drink beer?
Central and Southern people often drink beer poured into cups with ice cubes, but rarely drink cold beer from bottles or cans. When drinking with locals, they sometimes say “yo” – meaning “congratulations” in English, and they will also fill your glass with beer, either as an act of hospitality or merely to test your ability to drink beer. If you find this unfamiliar, you can simply order chilled beer.
A large part of believers when drinking beer always consider it as a party with delicious food. Typical dishes are snails and oysters (grilled, steamed, fried), duck eggs, salty fish, fried rice, deep-fried salted chicken legs, fried frogs with fish sauce, fermented raw spring (sometimes grilled) wrapped in fresh greens and dipped with fish sauce or chili sauce.
Snacks that accompany beer are also varied such as peanuts (boiled, roasted), beef jerky, grilled dried squid, fried tofu, fried okra, chips and cheese sticks… The dishes and snacks are also different in different parts of Vietnam.
Types of beer in Vietnam
Steam beer
Draft beer is a beer that is aged for a short time (about 7-10 days), pasteurized should have a shorter shelf life, lower alcohol content and sugar content than other beers.
Draft beer is considered one of the pure Vietnamese beers, without the use of preservatives in the fermentation and brewing process to preserve the fresh taste. After fermentation, beer is extracted into kegs and sterilized with compressed air, hot water (800C), sodium hydroxide solution (2 to 3%), hot steam (1350C), then cooled with carbon dioxide gas. This type of beer is most popular in Northern Vietnam and the cheapest, about 10,000 – 12,000 VND / cup. You can also drink draft beer produced at breweries with small brewing equipment, but this beer can be a bit more expensive than those sold in sidewalk restaurants.
Bottled beer and beer cans
The number of hops in bottled beer and can beer is usually 30% more than in draft beer. Its incubation time is also longer, the primary fermentation lasts about 5-7 days, and the secondary fermentation lasts more than 6 days. Then the beer is filtered, stabilized with carbon dioxide gas and extracted. In Vietnam, the amount of canned beer is used more than bottled beer. The price of canned beer is about 15,000 VND and bottled beer is about 20,000 VND in restaurants.
Craft beer
Some craft beer brands in Ho Chi Minh City HCMC such as Platinum, Pasteur Street Brewing, East West Brewing, Winking Seal, Heart of Darkness, Fuzzy Logic have become more familiar to Vietnamese consumers. These breweries have brought Vietnamese consumers new flavors of Indian beer, German beer and more than 70 flavors of local fruits, cocoa beans, coffee beans, passion fruit and durian.
Because of the sophistication of the brewing process and ingredients, you can expect to pay VND 100,000 for a jar of craft beer.
Where do Vietnamese people usually sit drinking beer?
Street sidewalks
While in other countries, people go to restaurants or bars for drinks; In Vietnam, people go to “beer bars” or “pubs” on sidewalks along the streets to drink beer. The difference is that these places also serve food accompanied by beer and they don’t have a bar in their bar.
If there are streets selling electronics, flowers, clothes, in Vietnam there are also streets full of beer restaurants where you can enjoy some cheap Vietnamese beers with delicious local snacks.
In Hanoi, there are many beer shops in “backpacker” streets such as Ta Hien and others in the Old Quarter, while sidewalk beer shops you can see everywhere in Hanoi. In Ho Chi Minh City In HCMC, you can see many restaurants with tables displayed outdoors, on the sidewalk such as those in Bui Vien, Truong Sa, Hoang Sa streets. You can go to these places and drink a pint of draft beer or enjoy delicious food. Seafood restaurants or any other food restaurants also serve canned or bottled beer, but you will usually have to pay more.
Bars, high-end restaurants
With the integration of Western culture, many young Vietnamese prefer to go to more upscale places to drink beer such as sports bars, trendy sky bars. Their prices are of course also higher than those of small sidewalk eateries.
