Homebrewing Abroad

[Mshane2014]

Hey Everyone! This is my first Post on here so before I ask my question, I'd like to 1st say how incredible a resource this site/you all have been in the quest to pour that perfect beer!

I'm headed abroad for a few months and I hear that Chinese beers are awful! I've also heard horror stories about formaldehyde and all sorts of things we would never want near our precious home-brew.

All of that aside, this is my #1 beloved hobby and I want to take it with me. I can't very well take 5 5 Gallon Carboys with me (and if I could, I would be whiling to bet that they would be in pieces by the time I landed) and I'm afraid that if I start shipping grains and bags of DME to some remote village in China, people are going to start getting the wrong idea.

I've read about micro breweries in China (started by foreigners - most from the USA) and it got me thinking that maybe I can find some of the ingredients I need while I am over there?

I've seen some threads on here about china made equipment and DME from Chinese companies, but what about the home brewer? We must have someone on here who knew someone who was abroad and wanted to make a batch?

Any advice/discussion/connections/concerns/etc would be much appreciated! Thanks everyone!

 

[zzARzz]

Hi and welcome! With just a cursory glance around the web I've found mention from a few different sites/forums of a homebrew store started in Shanghai called "My Homebrew Store." ( http://www.hopsmagazine.com/mikes-my-homebrew-store-your-local-homebrew-shop-comes-to-shanghai-by-kathryn-grant/ ). Also, ( http://byo.com/resources/suppliers/location/1093-My%20Homebrew%20Store,%20Shanghai/default ). I don't know if it's still around or not, but it would be worth investigating.

Other forums mentioned eBay is a great resource to order and ship equipment and supplies to your location from sellers within China. Hope this at least gets you on the right track!

 

[joeyjojojr]

I am an expat living in China. The beer here is pretty good actually, and you can get any outside brands easily at the supermarket.

There are plenty of homebrew shops on the Chinese internet as well. I use them. They have malts from all over the world and equipment much cheaper than overseas prices.

What city are you moving to? Private message me if you like.

Don't believe what most people say. Formaldehyde? I think not.

You realize Chinese beer is all owned by Belgian Beer and Anhauser Busch, right?

 

[Queequeg]

My experience of Chinese beer is that the domestic brands are quite bland and insipid. The horror stories about food and drink in China is largely exaggerated. It difficult to get good Qing Dao (xing tsao) in China, the version your'll be used to isn't freely available and your mostly get the 2.5% stuff. Qing Dao do make a dark version which was better imo. Hans larger is about the best and tastes like Heineken. The problem is the same across all the domestic big brewery beers, that is they use 40% rice and they are very low avb, so all taste like miller light.

That said if you are in Beijing there are few micro's that are founded by non-chinese. The one I have visited was the slow boat brew pub.

http://www.slowboatbrewery.com/

They do a good selection of beers. It difficult to find as quite far long a side street.

In shanghai there are two boxing cat brew pubs which are quite excellent imo, some really top quality craft beer.

http://www.boxingcatbrewery.com/

There are a fair amount of German and Belgium pubs in shanghai too.

You won't go with out good beer in you live in a major city in China or anywhere tourist are, if you are staying somewhere remote then your better off drinking rice wine. I stayed in Wudangshan and the local shop had literally 2 cans of warm piss weak beer.

If your drinking in Shanghai remember to drink your wallet. Its not cheap.

 

[Queequeg]

You realize Chinese beer is all owned by Belgian Beer and Anhauser Busch, right?

That surprises me, it is beer of some sort. In the UK we would call them shandy :cross: