Beer in China

[BxVonWestfall]

Public Radio International has an interesting piece on the emerging beer market in China.
It seems there's some barriers to entry for small breweries, both from the government regulations and adapting to Chinese tastes, but it seems it could be a huge new field.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-18/china-getting-taste-craft-beers-not-craft-brewing

I haven't tried any Chinese beers apart from Tsingtao, have any talkbeer folk gotten on board of the Chinese beer express?


Prost!
Michael
http://biervonwestfall.blogspot.de/

 

[user 305963]

When I went to Shenzhen back in 2012 for work, I brought a bottle of KBS and Hopslam, along with a Founders pint glass, as a gift for the engineer I work with over there. I had emailed him a few weeks later, asking if he had tried them and he liked the Hopslam, but the KBS was too much for him. Which I learned to realize after I got there, as all we drank while I was there was...tada...Tsingtao. I was impressed that the hotel bar where we stayed had Guinness and a few other US domestic beers on tap, likely for the throngs of Americans that stayed there.

 

[Lutter]

I don't know much about Chinese beer, but I do know that Snow beer from China is the most popular beer in the entire world.

It's still an emerging market, but there are small craft breweries popping up in the larger cities, from what I hear.

 

[HenrikO]

Had some beer from Boxing Cat (microbrewery based in Shanghai if I remember correctly) at CBC two years ago. Solid beers but nothing too adventurous.

 

[BxVonWestfall]

When I went to Shenzhen back in 2012 for work, I brought a bottle of KBS and Hopslam, along with a Founders pint glass, as a gift for the engineer I work with over there. I had emailed him a few weeks later, asking if he had tried them and he liked the Hopslam, but the KBS was too much for him. Which I learned to realize after I got there, as all we drank while I was there was...tada...Tsingtao. I was impressed that the hotel bar where we stayed had Guinness and a few other US domestic beers on tap, likely for the throngs of Americans that stayed there.

Doing your part as a beer ambassador! KBS is too much for a lot of people, I find it's a pretty hot beer most years.

 

[1987GN]

So does this mean we will be seeing more fake Brewdog Brewpubs?

 

[Wagon Circler]

Despite my continual protest, I am going to have to go there soon.

GRDave - any idea how much beer I can bring? Do I need to bring my own toilet paper around?

 

[user 305963]

Despite my continual protest, I am going to have to go there soon.

GRDave - any idea how much beer I can bring? Do I need to bring my own toilet paper around?

Well I only had the two bottles and they were in my checked luggage. Not sure how closely they were looking for them. Also not sure what they're laws are for importation of alcohol. As for toilet paper, you should be good without having to bring your own. In Shenzhen, most restaurants had toilet paper in all bathrooms. However, the toilets are great. Small porcelain fixtures flush with the floor. Gotta squat to drop a deuce. What a country!

 

[LukeAleTime]

So does this mean we will be seeing more fake Brewdog Brewpubs?

I'm still not convinced that wasn't a stunt.

 

[MrKennedy1]

Here's a bit of a guide to beer in Shanghai if that helps:

Shanghai is pretty easy to get around. The city is flat, has a very good subway and cabs are cheap. Also a lot of venues are close to one another.

Boxing Cat Sinan Mansions is about 50m away from Hitachino Nest on Fuxing Middle Road, so easy to visit both. It's about a 15 min walk to Goose Island which has a combination of beers brewed on site and beers imported from their US brewery.

On Wuding Road in Jing An, you can visit the old Kaiba site, where Art & Swagger have just opened. A nice bar, 10 taps and a fridge of bottles. Next door on the corner is Nobibi Just Beer which has half a dozen taps of mainly Stone, Temple from Australia and Flying Dog, plus bottles. Another 100m walk along Wuding Road takes you to Siren Craft, a bottle shop with a lot of Belgian and American beer.

Near Jing An Temple and the subway station of the same name is Dr Beer, a brewpub with half a dozen beers of their own on tap. Next door to Dr Beer is World of Beer, a large pub, with around 30 or so taps and a huge wall of bottled beer from around the world. Lots of Founders on tap.

If you are in Xintiandi (same name subway station), The Refinery serves around 8 Chinese craft beers on tap and is right near the courtyard that the Paulaner beer hall backs onto. It is about a 15 minute walk to Jackies Beer Nest. Unique place, around 30-40 taps, lots of Epic (NZL) plus To-ol, Boon and a number of provincial Chinese craft beers on tap. Only open from 5pm to about 10 or 10:30pm each day, it seats just 8 people around a communal centre table.

 

[IndianaJones]

In my experience, Taiwan and Hong Kong are a good decade ahead of mainland China in terms of craft beer. Having explored Shenzhen, there is a small enclave of craft brewers, but they seem to be by expats for expats. Search for BionicBrew, there are like 3-4 store fronts that are all neighbors near that place, and all serve varying degrees of "craft" beer. I haven't spent any real time in Shanghai, so I don't know the scene, but I'm guessing it's more developed as the population of expats is much higher.

For westerners, getting around Shenzhen can be a bitch if you don't speak Mandarin. I just came back from my second trip this Friday, and had a much easier time in Taipei and Hong Kong than I did in Shenzhen. Also, seems to me like China mostly pushes baijiu (i.e. Moutai/Maotai) which I've heard is straight firewater and hard to stomach.

Most of my colleagues in China don't even drink alcohol. In Taiwan, I saw multiple occasions where Taiwanese people would be pretty tipsy off one beer, and shitfaced off two. I was complimented on my ability to finish 4x 0.5oz whiskey tasters at the Kavalan gift store, as the woman behind the counter said most locals couldn't finish 1x taster glass without feeling it. Not really sure if that's a compliment or more like a sideways commentary on the perceived alcoholism of westerners

All that said, there is an emerging "craft" culture, just at varying degrees and (to me seemingly) tied to the amount of expats a place gets. Taipei had a lot of really dope craft cocktail bars and micro breweries, but Taoyuan seemed like a craft desert. Hong Kong and Shenzhen had the same dichotomy.. point is, these places are geographically close, but distinct in their composition of locals v. expats

 

[Rowingbrewer1]

In my experience, Taiwan and Hong Kong are a good decade ahead of mainland China in terms of craft beer. Having explored Shenzhen, there is a small enclave of craft brewers, but they seem to be by expats for expats. Search for BionicBrew, there are like 3-4 store fronts that are all neighbors near that place, and all serve varying degrees of "craft" beer. I haven't spent any real time in Shanghai, so I don't know the scene, but I'm guessing it's more developed as the population of expats is much higher.

For westerners, getting around Shenzhen can be a bitch if you don't speak Mandarin. I just came back from my second trip this Friday, and had a much easier time in Taipei and Hong Kong than I did in Shenzhen. Also, seems to me like China mostly pushes baijiu (i.e. Moutai/Maotai) which I've heard is straight firewater and hard to stomach.

Most of my colleagues in China don't even drink alcohol. In Taiwan, I saw multiple occasions where Taiwanese people would be pretty tipsy off one beer, and shitfaced off two. I was complimented on my ability to finish 4x 0.5oz whiskey tasters at the Kavalan gift store, as the woman behind the counter said most locals couldn't finish 1x taster glass without feeling it. Not really sure if that's a compliment or more like a sideways commentary on the perceived alcoholism of westerners

All that said, there is an emerging "craft" culture, just at varying degrees and (to me seemingly) tied to the amount of expats a place gets. Taipei had a lot of really dope craft cocktail bars and micro breweries, but Taoyuan seemed like a craft desert. Hong Kong and Shenzhen had the same dichotomy.. point is, these places are geographically close, but distinct in their composition of locals v. expats

I was gifted a bottle of expensive maotai by a Chinese coworker a few years back. She and her husband did not drink and they got the bottle when their son was born. I tried it several times and never developed a taste for it. After reading more about it I should have kept it and sold it as there seems to be a shortage today.