Beer Styles

Which beer style does Harbin Beer and Snow belong to? Both are pale lagers; in the BJCP's international guidelines, they fall under "International Pale Lager." This means a golden, clear beer with a light body, little bitterness, and a taste of bread and grain, without sharp edges.

For comparison with German Pils: a Pils is drier and more bitter, with a pronounced hop aroma. The international pale lager is softer, sweeter on the attack and short in the finish. Compared to a Bavarian Helles, which shows more malt fullness, it is leaner and more neutral. For everyday life in China, this is the advantage: the beer can be drunk with spicy food without being overpowered by it.

The alcohol content for this style, according to the BJCP, lies between 4.5 and 6 percent. Individual beers may fall outside this range; exact figures appear on the bottle's label, not in a table.

No other style is as widespread worldwide. It is brewed in Japan, Mexico, Brazil and China, and is considered the counterpart to American lager. That the world's best-selling beer, Snow, follows exactly this pattern shows how strongly mildness and consistency define the mass market.

Those seeking more character can now also find smaller brewers in China making wheat beer, IPA and dark beers. But for the northeast, for Harbin and for the Ice and Snow World in winter, the pale lager remains the beer almost everyone knows.