Beer Styles

What style is Beerlao? Beerlao Original, at 5% ABV, is a pale, bottom-fermented lager made with rice, belonging to the international pale lager category. This group also includes Mexican and Japanese lagers.

The difference from German Pils, which is hard to find in Vientiane, lies in bitterness and body. A German-style Pils has more hops and tastes sharper. Beerlao is softer, lighter, and quickly forgotten after the first sip, which is exactly the point when it's hot and the food is spicy. The gap to a Bavarian Helles, with its malty note, is similar: the Helles is maltier, Beerlao drier.

The Beerlao family now has several members, and it keeps growing. In 2005 came Beerlao Light at 2.9% ABV, no longer produced, and Beerlao Dark at 6.5% ABV. In April 2008, Lanexang followed at 5% ABV, then Beerlao Gold in 2010, Beerlao White in 2018, and Beerlao IPA in 2019. The IPA is a heavily hopped beer, the abbreviation standing for India Pale Ale, a pale, assertively hopped export beer that found particular success in India, and it departs significantly from the rice lager template.

Beerlao is also an export product: in October 2024, reports mentioned more than ten million liters shipped to over 20 countries and regions. The Economist magazine once called it perhaps the most important lager in the world, a phrase best read as a judgment rather than a measurement.