Reviewers try Vietnamese beers and local Iowan brews

Happy New Year Bennies and Johnnies. We’re stoked to be back writing our column at the last minute in Chuck’s living room like always. We thought this week’s review would be a great time to fill you in on our winter breaks. Enjoy our swan song, we could almost cry. It isn’t as good as Dua Lipa’s, though (according to Chuck).

Chuck spent two weeks across the Pacific in Vietnam fighting tummy aches and the innate desire to try every single spicy dish ever created in the country (Chuck is 20 days without an incident). Somewhere between Chuck’s business meetings and hours spent surfing the East Vietnam Sea waves, he found ample time to try a magnitude of beers. Albino Rhino from Mekong Brewing Company and Imperial Craft Bia’s Hard AF Lemonade took the cake for Chuck’s favorite Vietnamese libations.

He felt pretty cool being the first to try Imperial Craft’s Red Velvet Porter—a silky-smooth paradise. Chuck would like to shout out Rob from Mekong Brewing Company and Shaun from Imperial Craft Bia for taking time out of their busy day to talk entrepreneurship and brews with a lowly beer reviewer. Many a nights were spent trying local lagers while sitting in a miniature plastic chair bumping knees into the tiny table while passing around local soups, dishes and the occasional king crab.

Jack spent his time mostly back in Dubuque, Iowa, where he needed to find a stand-in for the Middy while he was away. Luckily, he and a group of his high school buddies (close the yearbook) befriended the owner of Denny’s Lux Club in Dubuque. After realizing that Jack and his buddies lowered the average age of bar patrons by at least two dozen years, he quickly warmed up to the group, and it became home base each weekend (and some weeknights). We both obviously stopped@buzzed the entire month, and so should you.

Another note, he spent his New Year’s in a Duluth dive called The Reef. It didn’t have chicken kiev. All roads lead back…

Here are some of our favorites we drank over break—some from the Midwest, and some from East Asia.

**Vietnamese Nano Brewery Stout**

Chuck was gracious enough to bring back some treats from bAC nano brewery, a purveyor of fine libations based out of Hanoi. This oatmeal stout (bia thu cong) was a patently winter beer. The label was rather ominous, featuring an anthropomorphic lotus flower shrouded in dark plants. It read, “harness the darkness.” While this gave us the feeling that the trees were talking, the beer was actually darn good. With a lower ABV and IBU, this was far smoother than most stouts we’ve surveyed. Its flavor was not overly strong, but refreshing.

**Denny’s Lux Club Busch Light Pitcher**

Really not much else to be said here, but for $8 any night of the week, it’s a deal you can build an evening around. This is a pro-Iowa beer column and this is a pro-Iowa beer. We recommend you find a similar special in your favorite hometown tavern.

**Juicy Bits IPA – Weldwerks Brewing, Greeley, Colo.**

The beer itself was a standard pale ale, but it had a silly name. Worth checking out.

**Tiger Beer – A Random Vietnamese BBQ**

Sitting at 20,000 Vietnamese Dong (about $0.85 a pop) at a Vietnamese BBQ in Saigon, Chuck couldn’t pass up this deal. Chuck found that the first one or two tigers tasted like the disdain that is Sal’s Lite. This red flag, however, could not keep him away from the Vietnamese drinking competition of một hai ba, dô. Chuck had a boxing match in his head the next morning and was losing every single round. Chuck found that the only good thing about this beer was the price. He warns that you stay away from this jungle animal anytime you’re in East Asia. Instead, we would recommend you stick with a Huda or Saigon Special to satisfy your thirst.

We hope you all had a lovely break, and we’re excited to see y’all around. If you have any free beer you’d like to have us sample, please feel free to stop by Seton 205 or 208. Chuck didn’t find his wife in Vietnam, but left many hearts broken in his wake. Jack is chilling and now is cool with dogs. What a simp. Still a long season, but we’ve entered a new stadium.