Malt & Grain

Beerlao is a rice beer with a European backbone. According to the brewery, the jasmine rice is grown in Laos, while the malt comes from France and Belgium. The brewery doesn't disclose how large the rice share is. Elsewhere in Laos, sticky rice, Khao niao, sits on every table, but for beer it's the fragrant jasmine rice that's used.

So why use malt at all? Rice contains starch but not enough enzymes to convert it into fermentable sugar. Barley malt supplies those enzymes. To malt it, barley is soaked and allowed to germinate until it has formed its enzymes, then dried in a kiln, a hot-air oven that halts germination.

Jasmine rice is a long-grain, fragrant rice. In beer, rice usually gives a lean, dry body, since it brings along little protein and little flavor of its own. That's why Beerlao feels lighter than a beer made from barley malt alone.

In 2005, Beerlao Dark joined the lineup, a dark lager at 6.5% ABV. It uses roasted black malts, barley malts heated in a drum long enough to develop coffee and chocolate notes. Beerlao Gold followed in 2010 and, according to the brewery, relies on the rice variety "khao kai noy," said to lend a pleasant aroma and a non-sticky texture.

Under German law, this wouldn't be permitted as is: for bottom-fermented beer, Section 9 of the Provisional Beer Law allows only barley malt, hops, yeast and water. Still, an imported beer like Beerlao may be called beer in Germany, ever since the European Court of Justice ruled in 1987 that it's enough for the drink to count as beer in its country of production.