Tasting 3 Door Craft Beer — A Cool Summer
Summer in Fucheng is the heat rising from the asphalt beneath your feet, the sweat seeping out from under a helmet, and the afternoon thunderstorm that arrives without warning yet never puts out the swelter. In a city so sweet and so sticky, we are always looking for a way out — a cool corner where the soul can “log out” of reality for a while. Sometimes that corner is not in a department store with the air conditioning turned up to full, nor in a crowded ice parlour. It may be hidden behind a door. Or behind three doors.
I am speaking of 3 Door Hotel in Tainan. It is not only a place for travellers to spend the night; for many local young people and seasoned drinkers who know their way around, it is another starting point of a Fucheng evening. As the lights come on and that gentle yellow glow at the bar is lit, the air carries not only the quality fragrance a design hotel ought to have but something still more enticing — the summer overture written together by malt, hops and yeast.
Craft beer at 3 Door was never made for heavy drinking. It is more like a slow-living ritual that belongs to Tainan alone, a way of understanding this city.
When the coolness of lemon meets the gentleness of osmanthus
Sit down at the bar and there is no need to hurry to the drinks list. First feel the atmosphere here, listen to the soft laughter at the next seat, watch the light and shadow of the scooters passing outside the window. Then let the team at the bar introduce two of the most representative works of the soul: “Summer Snow” and “Golden Drift”.
“Summer Snow”: raised to the striving soul
“Summer Snow” is an excellently chosen name; simply hearing it carries a coolness. This is a beer made with local Tainan produce. Tainan is a fine place, rich in what it grows. Besides its many enticing fruits, it even has the oldest surviving salt fields in Taiwan.[Summer Snow Lemon Sea Salt Beer] is a summer beer brewed with sun-dried sea salt from Tainan’s two-hundred-year-old Jingzijiao salt fields together with freshly pressed lemon juice from Pingtung. Sweet within its sourness and sweet within its saltiness, it gives off the clean fragrance of green lemon: a beer full of the southern wind and of local character.
This glass is right for raising to yourself when you have just completed a challenge, and to every soul striving in the city. Drink it and you feel at ease all through.
“Golden Drift”: a sea breeze that gently soothes
And “Golden Drift”, an osmanthus honey beer, carries a soft halo like the setting sun. As soon as the flowering season arrives, the flower-thieving bees get there first; but the farmers are glad to gather both flowers and honey, and the harvest is abundant. Osmanthus and honey are added for fermentation, and the aroma is a delicate osmanthus fragrance carrying the sweetness of mango and pineapple. Take a sip and the golden grain drifts like rain; it is smooth in the mouth with almost no bitterness at all, and in its place a light body and fresh fruit flavour, very like the sea breeze that blows in over Anping in the afternoon, carrying salt-damp air and stories from far off. It is much loved by people of every age.
This glass is right for touching lightly against your friends’ glasses in the faintly cool evening breeze of Fucheng, sharing the small details and bright moments of daily life.
Push open the door and taste the terroir of a city
Of course the drinks list at 3 Door goes far beyond these two surprises. From the fruit-scented [Mangosteen] to the full-bodied [Sansho], every glass is like a key that unlocks a new way of seeing Tainan. The beer here carries the craft of the brewer and takes in the land and the people of Fucheng as well.
Perhaps the meaning of “3 Door” is not simply the name of a hotel.
- The first door we push open to take refuge in a corner of coolness;
- at the second door we sit down at the bar and find a sense of belonging;
- and the third door is the one you open for yourself, in your own heart, as you take that first sip of craft beer — the door to the quiet and the freedom deep in the soul.
Next time, when the heat of Fucheng leaves you short of breath, you know where to go. Push open those three doors and order a summer overture of your own. Here, every mouthful of cold beer is the gentlest reconciliation with this sticky, lovable city.
A guide to being pleasantly tipsy: the Q&A guests ask most often
Q1: Can people who are not staying here come and drink the craft beer?
A: Of course! Although we very much hope you will stay and experience the full “3 Door” experience, the ground-floor lobby bar always welcomes drinkers and local friends who are not staying. Push open the door and taste a coolness that belongs to Fucheng.
Q2: Besides “Summer Snow” and “Golden Drift”, are there other flavours you would recommend?
A: There are! We also have several other craft beers, including the fruit-scented [Mangosteen] and the distinctively full-bodied [Sansho]. Depending on your mood that day, let the team at the bar recommend the flavour that suits you best.
Q3: I liked it very much — can I buy some to take home as a gift?
A: No problem at all! Our local craft beer makes a very good gift. Please ask the butler at the front desk about packaging for taking it away, so you can carry this pleasantly tipsy memory of Fucheng home to share with family and friends.
Q4: After drinking in the evening, is there late-night food nearby?
A: 3 Door Hotel sits in the Tainan Station district and the location is excellent. A few minutes’ walk brings you to many long-established street food shops and late-night places to eat — the strongest possible support for finding something to eat after a drink!
Step into the faint light of the bar, and let the freshness of “Summer Snow”, or the gentleness of “Golden Drift”,
keep you company in this city while you slow down and take a breath.
