Malt & Grain

The fields around Hà Nội grow mainly rice, and barley, the grain used for brewing beer, barely thrives in the humid, warm climate. Vietnamese breweries therefore source most of their malt from abroad. This is a consequence of the climate, not a peculiarity of Habeco.

Malt is made by soaking barley in water and letting it germinate. This produces enzymes that later convert starch into sugar. On the kiln, a drying chamber using hot air, the maltster halts germination. The hotter and longer the kilning, the darker and more roasted the malt becomes. Pale beers use gently kilned Pilsner malt.

Bia hơi and the city's pale bottled beers are clearly aimed at this light side. They shine straw-yellow, taste lightly malty and slightly sweet, and have few roasted notes. A dark malt blend wouldn't suit the lean, thirst-quenching character at all.

With many Vietnamese beers, part of the malt is replaced with rice, known in brewing terms as an adjunct or raw fruit. Rice contributes almost no flavor of its own and makes the beer leaner and drier. Whether, and how much, rice goes into a particular Bia hơi is up to the brewery — there's no German-style purity law governing it.

The recipe for a Bia hơi is meant to serve volume and speed: a beer brewed in the morning and finished off by evening. The malt therefore needs to be reliable and consistent. Refinement takes a back seat to freshness.