The Dark Beers of Red Beijing

Beer aficionados who plan to visit Beijing should not expect to find a great variety of local products. All restaurants will invariably provide you with bottled or draft pale lagers such as locally brewed Yanjing Beer (燕京啤酒) and much familiar Tsingtao Beer (青岛啤酒) and their countless variations. A few Beijing-based Korean restaurants will also offer Harbin Brewery Group (哈尔滨啤酒集团) Pale Lager (哈尔滨啤酒). As for micro-breweries (小型酿酒厂) as we know them in Canada, my Beijing sources all tell me they have not surfaced yet in the PRC, while my Shanghai sources believe there might be a few pubs who brew their own beer in Shanghai. Apart from the aforementioned lagers and a variety of chrysanthemum, lemon and pineapple beers, Beijing supermarkets sometimes distribute a few dark beers. Here are a couple noteworthy ones:

Harbin Brewery (Changchun Yinpu) Co. Yinpu Black Rice Dark Beer: located in Changchun City (长春) in Northeastern China Jilin Provin (吉林省), Harbin Brewery (Changchun Yinpu) Co. brews what it claims to be a Schwarzbier (深色啤酒). Available both canned and bottled, it is much harder to find in Beijing than Beijing Yanjing Brewery's Dark Beer. It has a deep brown color and very little head formation.

Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co. Dark Beer: Yanjing Beer Brewery's (燕京啤酒) first brewery was established in 1980 in Shunyi County (顺义县), north-east of Beijing. In 1981, the name was changed from Shunyi Beer (顺义啤酒) to Yanjing Beer. It started to diversify its production in 1999, and finally introduced in June 2004 a canned Dark Beer (燕京听装黑啤酒) that is also claims to be a Schwarzbier.

Yanjing Brewery's introduction of a dark beer on the Beijing market is representative of the diversification trend followed by other PRC brewers. For example, Shandong Province Yantai Beer Group Co. (brewer of Asahi in the PRC) announced the introduction of a dark beer in December 2004. Established in 1920, Yantai Beer Group Co. produced a dark beer in 1970, it was called "black milk" (黑色牛奶). With the help of German brewer Robert Kritzer, it became the first PRC brewery to produce a white beer in 1986. Unfortunately, neither the dark beer nor the white beer are brewed nowadays. Worldwide famous Tsingtao also brews a Schwarzbier Beer, but I never had the chance to find it in Beijing.

Let's hope the introduction of dark beers on the PRC market will lead to greater diversification in a near future. Even though some beer industry experts do complain about the lack of variety, Chinese beer fans would rather like to see more big Chinese Beer companies instead of micro-breweries.

Comments

Alan - December 6, 2004 11:27 pm

Great post, Charles. The graphics on the PRC brewery sites are amazing and I think the Chinese text works just fine. Welcome aboard.

Joe - December 7, 2004 5:34 pm

http://unabrewer.blogspot.com

I cry over my beer future in China. Maybe I can find something good in Shanghai. I did find a place in Hangzhou that had Guinness, at least.

Alan - December 7, 2004 6:29 pm

I think there may be traditional brews to be found but you may have to find a way to get into that conversation. In my days in Prince Edward Island I found it took a while for the neighbour to know you before the moonshine was offered.

CapFLU - December 7, 2004 11:39 pm

http://www.ratebeer.com

I recently did some searching of the Chinese brewpubs and you are right, Charles, there are few compared with your Asian neighbours of Korea, Japan and even Taiwan.

I did encounter one brewpub in Shanghai however, a place called "Fest Brew House": http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp?PlaceID=3673

If you make it out that way let me know its merits...

All the best from Canada,

Todd

Zokirjon - July 20, 2005 9:31 am

[Ed.: <i>Russian text not supported hereabouts - sad given the Uzbek server location: 213.206.41.157.</i>]

gregory - August 1, 2005 7:49 am

I just drank two liters of the dark at the Fest Brewhouse at 11 HanKou Road (just a half block off of the Bund) in Shanghai. Without a doubt the best beer I have had in China!

I think it compares very favorably to other dark ales that I have drunk. It is a little more tart than a Gosser dark, and nowhere near the head of a Guiness, but after a month of drinking (f*cking) lagers I am so thrilled!

I chatted some with the supervisor, and he told me their malt comes from Germany and their hops from Canada.

Definitely a beer worth trying, especially if you are stuck in China wondering what the hell there is good to drink.

Price is 70 yuan for 1L. Worth every jiao!

Dave - June 25, 2006 1:23 am

Thanks for the tip on the joint on Hankou Lu (Shanghai). Suffering with gnats pee-like Qingdao and Suntory - or the stupidly overpriced Paulaner drop msy soon be over.

Cheers

tomas - June 25, 2006 12:53 pm

Hello, I am looking at moving to Beijing this year. I am a brewmaster by profession and have developed and opened many microbreweriws in the last 9 years - taiwan, vietnam, manila, czech republic, russia and azerbaijan. I am in my mid 30's, male and fluent in english. I am from the czech republic. Would appreciate any leads for job vacancies in Beijing.

Thanks

Mark - July 20, 2006 10:21 pm

The Yantai RT Mart was selling bottles of Abbots Ale and Old Speckled Hen this week. First time I've seen it there - dunno how long it will last. First real beer I've drunk in 6 months !!!

Alan - July 20, 2006 10:25 pm

Congratulations. Where is Yantai RT Mart??? I need to google map it for posterity.

Bruce - August 8, 2006 9:29 pm

Tomas, I might have something for you! contact me as your hotmail addy is not working.

Save the world - drink fresh beer

Mike - August 28, 2006 7:53 am

I recently ended living in Hangzhou and there is one place to go: 1828 located at 262 NanShan Road (南山路 - or "North Mountain Road" translating directly). Paul is the manager and he brews up 2 fine brews: dark and light. Both are amazing. There is currently no other brewery in HZ.