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A Horde of Mongolian Beer

Question: What is the best beer drinking town in Asia? Answer: Ulaanbataar. If it wasn't for the title of this document, many of you would have the question. Where the heck is Ulaanbataar? It is, of course, the capital of Mongolia, a city that recently reached one million in population. So what makes in the best for beer? -- three brewpubs and several bars that specialize in imports.
On the way in from the airport we couldn't miss the huge Khan Brau brewpub/restaurant with bright lights advertising its presence. The travel guide said it was a watering hole for the "A list." This put us off a little, but we went anyway. No problem -- it was a busy, smoky place with waiters bustling around serving half-liter mugs of both dark and light lager. Both were palatable, the dark being a little sweet. I guess the "A list" was a reference to all the good looking Mongolian girls who came in well-dressed groups.
The next day, on our way to the National Museum (yes, we do other cultural things), we passed a bar that specialized in Budvar. The attractive barmaid took great care in serving our beers in appropriate Budvar glasses.
fermentation in the bag

The evening found us in another brewpub that served Mongol beer, both dark and light; the dark was a little watery. Our Mongolian dinner was accompanied by bottled Borgio, which is the standard local brewery making light, gold and regular lagers. The other local brewery is U.B., which is how foreigners, not the locals, refer to Ulaanbaatar. U.B. beer has been around since 1927, which is a long time for a recently modernized country.
Our main reason for coming to Mongolia was to visit the Gobi Desert, which we toured in an old Russian jeep. This was a very rustic trip; sleeping in gers (Mongolian yurts), riding camels and climbing sand dunes. For more on that click this link. There was no beer on this trip, but that doesn't mean we didn't have some alcoholic beverages. Our first taste was at a ger hosted by the fellow pictured. As our guide prepared lunch he offered us a bowl containing a clear liquid; it had a definite alcohol twang to it. It was goat whey vodka! These guys don't waste anything.
After a couple days of abstinence we were treated to the drink that made the Mongol army invincible -- fermented mares milk! We stopped at a ger that had a string of horses tied up outside. Each mare had a foal next to her. Once inside the ger we were served a foamy bowl of the mares' milk, a little sour but not repulsive; the fermenter was hanging on the wall. We were then invited outside to watch the milking of the mares. In turn each mare was primed by having it's foal suck on it's teat, the milkmaid then pulled a few more ounces into her bucket. I was glad we did things in that order, after watching one of the kids dipping a rope into the bucket.
Back in U.B. we went in search of some Chinggis Brau, as in Genghis Khan. He's still a big deal around here. Having accomplished this, we visited the third brewpub, London Pop. All they had available was an unfiltered Belgian style white ale. The style is not one of my favorites, neither was this one. Lastly, I need a Chingis Brau can for my collection of beer cans from countries I've visited. While in the supermarket we observed a young girl filling bottles to order of Gem Beer from Japan. We hoped for a free sample, but none was forthcoming. We never made it to the Guinness pub, but as you can tell, there were plenty of interesting beers and places to drink them. milking of the mares