It's Beer O'Clock in Beijing

The Chinese capital has become the epicentre of the country’s burgeoning craft-brew culture. Lisa Brackmann knocks back a few cold ones.

- Lisa Brackmann

You’ve probably never heard of the world’s best-selling beer. It’s called Snow, and it’s from China, the largest beer market on the planet. Snow is a typical Chinese brew—which is to say that it’s a mass-produced, watery lager whose primary appeal is its affordability. But more sophisticated beer styles have emerged lately in China, thanks to the rapid growth of a movement Westerners know well: craft brewing.

Chinese consumers traditionally favour weaker beers and sweeter, less-bitter flavours. But palates have been changing. Carl Setzer, the American-born co-owner of Beijing’s Great Leap Brewing (greatleapbrewing.com), one of the first craft-beer pubs in China, told me that many young women in Beijing have become quite fond of strong, hoppy IPAs, like Great Leap’s Little General and Hop God 120 Imperial. “They find them really refreshing,” he said.

Germans founded the brewery that makes the Chinese beer you probably have heard of, Tsingtao, in 1903. A little over a century later, around the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, foreigners introduced the country to specialty beer. Soon after, a nexus of small-batch brewers—mostly expats—and restaurateurs in Beijing began creating their own product. Less than a decade later, you can find beers brewed in the style of California IPAs, English bitters, and Belgian saisons in virtually any large Chinese city.