pFriem + Loyal Legion Vietnamese Lager

Loyal Legion team member Ny Provenzano talks about her history with Vietnamese Lager and how it relates to this collaboration:

Vietnamese lager is all about food, family, and friends. Cruising the streets of Saigon on a motorbike, you will see countless examples of beer (bia) playing a crucial role in the social fabric of the city. 

A friendly game of cards, with spectators in tow, and a case of beer propped up next to a table. Groups of people singing karaoke, sharing laughs, swaying to and fro to the tinsely sounds blaring out of tableside speakers all aided by cans of beer. But above all else, find anyone eating food and you will certainly see beer being consumed.

Street food is king in Vietnam. Nearly every square inch of its cities, streets, and sidewalks is occupied by vendors whipping up delicacies and, more times than not, beer will be the beverage of choice to wash it all down. A knee high plastic table, dimpled mugs, a bucket of ice, and a case of beer - the standard setup. A single food cart cranking out steaming bowls of noodles and bottles of Tiger being clanked together. Streetside grills with blazing orange flames licking hunks of pork and drifting large plumes of sweet smoke out into traffic, beckoning patrons to pull over, showcasing packed tables, crowded with glasses filled to the brim of Bia Saigon. Seafood restaurants boasting crab, clams, squid, snails, you name it, with nearly every chair being occupied by a smiling, conversing, and beer drinking customer. Vietnamese lager and enjoyment of life go hand in hand.

There are plentiful examples of German, Czech, and other European style lagers being brewed in Oregon, but no one has made a Vietnamese lager. And with the prevalence of Vietnamese restaurants in this great state it made sense to collaborate with one of the best lager breweries to fill that niche.

Viet lager is pale to light golden straw in color. It has a slight noble hop aroma. Commercial examples use 40% rice in the malt bill and optimize efficiency by high gravity brewing, but for this collaboration, the most important aspect is that it should be bone dry. It is meant to be (or at least ends up being) consumed in copious amounts. In a tropical climate, especially in a densely populated city like Saigon, a proper Viet lager should be quenchable, with just enough bitterness and malt flavor to keep the palette interested, but light and dry so as to continue sipping throughout the evening. Complimenting the many flavors of Vietnamese food and celebrating time spent with family and friends, Vietnamese lager is a luxury everyone can afford. We hope to create a unique lager that exemplifies the hard working nature and zest for life of the Vietnamese people through our pFriem collaboration.

We wanted to embrace the tropical nature of this rice lager. In doing so we used toasted rice to play off some of the slightly sweet notes of Vietnamese Lagers and in order embrace further tropical character we used a light hand of Nelson hops. The result is a very drinkable, slightly sweet, dry, slight notes of tropical fruit, and quenching lager to be shared with friends in copious amounts!