When it comes to local Taiwanese ingredients, the first option for many brewers is fruit. But it is already a common practice internationally to add fruit to beers. Thus the first test for Taiwanese brewers is how to create a new style of drink combining these two things.

You can feel the vitality and unique style of Ugly Half Beer from the appearance of their brewery, the design of their logo, and the team spirit of their employees.

Fruit beers: Everyday flavors of Taiwan

The brand Ugly Half Beer not only has its experimental “R&D” series that is much recommended by craft beer lovers, many of its beers have won prizes at international competitions.

One of these, “Guava Gose,” the winner of a silver medal at the 2022 International Beer Cup in Japan, is made using guava, known as Taiwan’s national fruit.

For the base the company uses Gose beer, which originated in northern Germany in the Middle Ages. When this sour-tasting beer is combined with Taiwan-­grown guavas, the lemony sourness of the beer and the fragrance of the guava combine to give the beer a multilayered aroma redolent of tropical fruit. Meanwhile, the sweetness of the fruit pulp is set off against coral reef salt crystals, adding to its appeal. The overall sensation of drinking it is one of refreshment, making Guava Gose ideal for summer consumption.

But wait, the best is yet to come! Sprinkle some plum powder (a mixture of salt, sugar, Asian plums, and licorice) into your glass, and the mouthfeel of the beer as it goes down your throat becomes richer and denser. It perfectly reproduces the sweet and sour taste of the popular night-market treat of guava with licorice powder, creating the illusion of drinking licorice-flavored guava juice.

“Guava dipped in plum powder is very much a downhome Taiwanese snack,” says brewer Wang Ming-yi. After the team at Ugly Half Beer decided to make this beer, they tried many plum powders available in the market in search of one whose flavor would most authentically match Taiwanese people’s collective memories of guava with plum and licorice powder. Ultimately, they selected a plum powder that comes in small packets, which is the most familiar kind to Taiwanese, as the ideal accompaniment to their Guava Gose.

So what’s the best way to enoy Guava Gose beer with plum powder? Wang Ming-yi’s answer is that “anything goes.” Initially the team expected that people would adopt the “salt-rimmed glass” method often used in bartending, but with plum powder instead of salt. However, she notes, after the product came out many consumers came up with creative alternatives, with some people taking a smidgen of plum powder on their tongue followed by a mouthful of beer, and others opting to mix the plum powder directly into the beer. Such methods are based on individual preferences, for this is a “space” that the team deliberately chose to leave open when they came up with the idea for the product. And because not every Taiwanese necessarily eats guava dipped in plum powder, they hoped to employ their clever idea to enable beer drinkers to experience the pleasure of consuming guava with licorice powder that is such a part of daily life for so many people in Taiwan.

Guava Gose craft beer has a refreshing taste that is enhanced by adding the critical ingredient of plum powder.

As well as beers that are widely popular in the market, Ugly Half Beer also continually comes out with rare and innovative experimental beers, hoping to show more people the fun and
diverse side of beer brewing.

Tea beers: Combining Asian and Western flavors

Another part of daily life for Taiwanese is of course drinking tea. Tea’s charm has not only captivated Asians, but it has also won many hearts in the West since crossing the ocean. In that case, why not combine beer and tea?

Taiwan Head Brewers has designed a series of beers based on the 24 “solar terms” of the traditional Chinese calendar. Of these beers, four have tea as an additive. These have not only won widespread affection from Taiwanese consumers, but also received countless international awards. The beer named after the solar term “Beginning of Autumn” (labeled “Taiwan Tea Ale 2” on the bottle and named “Oriental Beauty Tea Beer” on the company website) has won seven competition awards for Taiwan Head Brewers, including a bronze at the 2018 World Beer Cup, which is considered the most prestigious contest in the craft beer community.

Combining Oriental Beauty tea, which got its name only after arriving in distant England, with British-­style India Pale Ale and its fruity notes, this beer perfectly blends venerable old Asian and Western beverages in terms of both history and flavor. Meanwhile “Jin Xuan Tea Ale,” made for the “Rain Water” solar term, combines a Scotch-Ale-style beer with Jin Xuan oolong tea, and has won nearly as many awards.

Brewer Ray Sung, one of the brewery’s cofounders, explains the thinking behind the latter beer. First, Scotland has a damp and rainy climate, reminiscent of the Rain Water solar term, which begins in late February. Second, while Scotland is internationally renowned as a source of whisky, it also produces its own unique beers. “The steps for making whisky and beer are much the same, differing only by the distillation process,” says Sung. However, a big difference with beer as compared to whisky is that low temperatures hamper fermentation.

As a result, beers brewed in Scotland, with its cold, wet environment, have a creamy flavor. Once considered a defect, over time this became a defining feature in the appeal of Scottish ales. “Meanwhile, in Taiwan the only tea variety with a creamy flavor is the Jin Xuan oolong tea developed by the Tea and Beverage Research Station.” By combining these two elements together, the master brewers at Taiwan Head Brewers not only gave Jin Xuan Tea Ale a rich creamy taste, its finish also has the sweet aftertaste of tea. “Beer drinkers will see this as a Scotch ale, while tea drinkers will say it has the characteristic flavor of Jin Xuan oolong,” says Sung.

This complex story is one of the main strands in the design of Taiwan Head Brewers’ 24 Solar Terms line of beers. Ray Sung says that whether it be tealeaves or the local Taiwanese ingredients used in other products in the Solar Terms line, their use is not only about blending Asian and Western flavors. “We have our reasons for using all of them, as only in this way can they intermingle with beer to produce the flavors and stories that they do.”

The “24 Solar Terms” series put out by Taiwan Head Brewers incorporates the tradition of consuming drinks with different flavors and alcohol concentrations according to the changing seasons, challenging the widely held idea that beer is only for summer.

Taiwan Head Brewers cofounder Ray Sung tells us the complex story of the connections between tea and beer.

Taiwan Head Brewers cofounder Jay Duan explains to us the different flavors in each beer.

TCM beers: Familiar yet strange

Jim and Dad’s Brewing Company (J&D), located in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township, has chosen something quite different to mix into their craft beers: herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

In 2020 J&D worked with the local Guangshen Herbal Pharmacy to come out with two “Old Time Yilan Flavors” beers called “Kumquat Kiss Good Morning” and “Kumquat Kiss Good Night.” Both beers are infused with candied kumquats, but paired with herbal ingredients with different functions: Kiss Good Night was inspired by sleeping aids used in TCM and incorporates medicinal ingredients that include lucid ganoderma, chrysanthemum, and creeping liriope, giving this beer a soporific effect. Meanwhile, Kiss Good Morning contains refreshing and stimulating herbal ingredients, including red ginseng and dried longan.

Adding TCM herbal ingredients to comestibles is a common practice for the majority of Taiwanese people. For example, using a distilled beverage such as rice wine to brew medicinal spirits is one of the ways people combat the condition known in TCM practice as “deficiency cold.” However, TCM herbal craft beers are quite unfamiliar to people in Taiwan.

To address consumers’ unfamiliarity with TCM beer, brewer Douglas Liu chose to add candied kumquats as an ingredient. He says that combining TCM herbs with candied fruit not only reduces the shock that consumers feel on seeing the product, but can also generate a feeling of delight, leaving consumers with a deep impression of the Old Time Yilan Flavors product line.

Using candied kumquats not only compensates for the strong acidity of the fresh fruit while retaining the rich fragrance of the peel, it also solves the brewing problems produced by the thickness of the peel and the presence of natural essential oils. Most importantly, while the kumquat balances out the naturally bitter flavor of the TCM ingredients, the brine used in the pickling and candying process adds a slightly salty sensation, so that the kumquats are not too sweet. Thus people can enjoy the beer without concerns about the widely held impression that TCM herbs are bitter, astringent and unpalatable.

However, there are sweet-tasting options among TCM ingredients, so why did J&D ultimately use kumquat? Douglas Liu admits that they previously tried Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) and goji berries, but had problems with both. With the latter, for instance, brewing a batch of 2,000 liters of beer required too large a quantity of goji berries, causing them to abandon them in the end. Although jujubes are larger in size, so that fewer are needed, they have the same problem of their sweetness becoming dissipated as affects other Taiwanese fruits like pineapples.

Liu also mentions the issue of food safety. He says that each time a new ingredient is added during the brewing process, there must be repeated trials. Brewers not only adjust the timing of when the new ingredient is added to optimally preserve its fragrance or sweetness, they must also pay close attention to whether there are any risks in that may affect the beer after it is bottled and on its way to consumers.

Brewing beer is like a chemistry experiment, and each element added to the process can cause different changes in the beer.

J&D offers both its Old Time Yilan Flavors series made with medicinal herbs and candied kumquats, and Taiwan-flavored beers brewed using ingredients such as rice and tea.

Brewer Douglas Liu joined Jim and Dad’s Brewing Company right after graduating from university. He uses his expertise to produce many beers that include local Yilan County ingredients.

These wooden kegs placed in a corner of the brewery are part of the process for brewing wood-aged beers, which are very popular with consumers.

Acacia beers: The flavor of the land

Flavors that are highly familiar to Taiwanese including fruit, TCM herbs, and tea, can all be added to beer. But what about acacia?

Entering the factory campus of Gao Sen Establishment Company in Hsinchu County, what first strikes the eye is a two-story-high pile of raw acacia timber. As a wood products firm that handles everything from tree felling to manufacturing finished products, Gao Sen makes products ranging from cardboard boxes and custom-made cushioning packaging materials to building materials and furniture.

Although the profits generated by cardboard boxes were enough to keep the company in business, General Manager Chen Yucheng was not satisfied with that and was constantly thinking about what the limits were for domestically produced wood products in Taiwan. This is what motivated him to found the subsidiary brand “The Egg” in 2014.

The Egg follows a different path from most wood product companies, endeavoring to innovate and find new uses for wood materials, such as bathtubs, furniture, musical instruments, wood flooring, and even water cups and athletic equipment. But where did the idea of brewing beer come from? “When acacia wood is cut, the friction between the cutting tool and the timber produces a pleasant aroma, and we thought about how we could put this fragrance to use. That’s when we came up with idea of brewing beer with it,” says brand manager Sun Qihao.

Lacking any brewing equipment or experience, The Egg brought their idea for brewing beer with acacia to some brewers for repeated experiments in search of possibilities for making acacia beer. However, during the process a problem turned up.

To preserve the fragrance of acacia wood after carbonization, the development team unhesitatingly burned entire pieces of wood into charcoal during the trial period, but to their surprise, after the carbonized wood was placed in a fermentation tank an activated charcoal effect was produced and the beer was left clear and flavorless. Sun Qihao says with a laugh: “Drinking the beer from that period was like drinking water with alcohol in it.”

After a year of development, The Egg formally launched its acacia craft beer series. Forty-five days of fermentation in a tank with partially carbonized acacia wood gives the golden-yellow beverage a pleasant woody fragrance and a feeling of substance. This product not only represents a creative new direction for the domestic wood industry, it offers an alternative interpretation of “the flavor of Taiwan” in local craft brewing.

In this land of Taiwan, there are many brewers working to create craft beers with a “Taiwan flavor.” If you have the chance, why not try some? Although not every one is sure to win your heart, they will certainly enable you to experience a taste that reflects the natural terroir and social customs of this island.

Since founding his company Gao Sen several decades ago, Chen Yucheng has always been thinking of ways to develop new applications for domestically produced materials.

Design company The Egg came up with the idea of using acacia wood in beer brewing, making it possible to drink beers with a woody flavor.

Next time you visit a bar in Taiwan, why not order a craft beer? It will give you a taste of the special flavors that can be brewed with local ingredients.