A dizzying variety of beers

For lunch today, I went to my favorite Indian buffet.  Usually I just have water with my meal, but today I was in the mood for a beer.  I decided to try the Taj Mahal, a really exotic Indian beer.  It's difficult to describe, but I guess I could call it a pale lager with only a very slight hop taste to it.

It really got me to thinking about the great variety of beers that I've been able to try due to all of the various ethnic restaurants that are in my area.  Not too long ago, I was having Thai, and I got a chance to have a Thai beer.  It was really good, and I could best describe it as a lager with a straw-like color.  As for the hops, the taste was barely noticeable.

Of course, whenever I go and get some sushi, I like to get a Sapporo, which is a light-colored beer that's not an ale with a tiny hint of hop flavor.  When I was living in Martinez, there was a really cool Chinese/Japanese restaurant.  So, if I was getting sushi there, I could mix things up a bit and get a Tsingtao, a traditional Chinese beer.  If you've never had it before, I can best describe it as a not-dark beer that was fermented at a cold temperature and the brewers used only a trace amount of hops.

I realize that this sounds like only the Asian continent has this amazing variety.  You can get Corona, Pacifico, Modelo, and Dos Equis - all from Mexico, and all of them a completely different style (although some do their individual style better than others).  There are also a lot of places that serve beer brewed by the Dutch called Heineken.  You can also try Grolsch.  One of these is somewhat similar to Tsingtao but the other is more like Sapporo.

I have a lot of beer-nerd friends who tell me about Belgian styles.  Well, they don't need to tell me about how amazing they are.  After all, I drink Stella Artois.  Talk about a beer that's totally unlike all of the other beers I mentioned!  If only I had a better thesaurus, I would take the time to tell you all about it!

Ya know, there's a Korean restaurant near me.  They have a Korean beer there that I have yet to try.  I wonder what it's like.  Hmm...