On the hunt for the perfect Beijing brew
Tracy Wang, a long-term Beijing beer writer and aficionado, lists brews that have remained popular in the city throughout the years. “Flying Fist IPA at Jing-A, Honey Ma, Little General IPA at Great Leap Brewing, Money’s Fist IPA at Slow Boat, Ligui Black IPA at NBeer, and Seeing Double IPA at Arrow Factory. IPAs are an all-time popular beer in the brewpubs,” she adds.
Beijingers are not pretentious when it comes to drinking but the recent drive for increasingly high-quality tipples is adding fuel to the city’s beer culture. Good appearance, balanced flavours, and consistency are some of the desirable qualities that beer drinkers in the city pay attention to. We like to come back to our favourites and get them exactly how it was the last time we had it.
Liu is also convinced that the trend of looking for more interesting options of your favourite drink is not unique to beer. “Coffee drinkers might start out with powdered Nescafé, but before long, they’re drinking single-origin espressos and flat whites. If anything, people in China are even more open to change than in other parts of the world.”
Craft beer culture development is one of the many illustrations of economic development and the luxury to appreciate things because of quality rather than quantity. That’s why Beijingers are buying 330-millilitre IPA bottles versus 550-millilitre Tsingtao ones (though in reality, we do still buy both, depending on the day).