Bia Hoi, or ‘fresh beer’ is ubiquitous in northern Vietnam. Once you know what you are looking for, you see it everywhere – at well-placarded stalls on busy streets, cavernous beer halls, and in hole in the wall bars down narrow alleys.
It is a light beer, typically around 3 percent alcohol. It is unbranded, and brewed all over the place – you really don’t know where it comes from. The beer is delivered each morning and is usually on tap from around 11am. These days it mostly arrives in steel kegs but you sometimes see it sloshing around in large plastic containers stacked on the back of a motorcycle weaving through traffic. In earlier times it might be delivered in PET bottles sealed with a piece of rubber. For better or for worse those days seem to be gone.
This story is part of our Slow Travel in South East Asia series. Read more here.
To get the genuine bia hoi experience, you must sit on a tiny chair at a tiny table, regardless of how much your knees complain. The standard accompaniment is a big bowl of boiled peanuts, but you are also likely to be offered dried squid, pork crackle, buffalo jerky, pickled vegetables – or anything else that is handy. A 500ml glass may cost as little as 10,000 dong (about 60c) in a quiet neighbourhood, maybe 20-30,000 in the touristy areas.
Vendors with carts prowl past the bia hoi stalls selling all sorts of junk, and sometimes useful stuff. Buy a knockoff wallet or money clip, a cap, a wristband or a lighter. Haggle but not too much – the vendor needs your few dollars more than you do.
The beer is sometimes served in plastic mugs, more often in glass. The classic bia hoi glass, distinctively light blue with air bubbles through the glass, was designed by artist Le Huy Van in the 1980s with the first prototypes made within a week. The rugged, easily-stackable design became hugely popular and has not changed since.
The Vietnamese have a number of chants to accompany their drinking. The easiest one for Westerners to remember is ‘Mot-Hai-Ba-Dzo!’ (one-two-three-drink!). It is entirely acceptable for foreigners to chant while they drink, and the louder you do it, the better chance of getting befriended by the locals at neighbouring tables. And its not a ‘boy thing’ at all – plenty of Vietnamese women enjoy their bia hoi.
A word of warning – as the name implies, the beer deteriorates throughout the afternoon and by sundown may be past its best. If you buy an evening beer and it is flat or tainted, just politely let your host know and ask for something in a bottle. Then next day, get into your bia hoi at lunch time.
Steve is a former Army officer and technology manager, now semi-retired and living in Melbourne. He enjoys adventurous travel and believes that good stories should be shared. He founded the Dusty Boots Journal as a means to connect those with similar interests.
I assume that the bottom right photo is the celebration after the special forces guy in the black beret finally rescued the long-term prisoner of war with the beard.
It had been quite an ordeal. A motorcycle trip through the badlands that included breakdowns and repairs, a guy trying to steal my sunglasses (resolved by me snatching his keys and threatening to pitch them into the scrub), and finding a stuffed tiger next to the road.