My wife and I moved to China about five weeks ago. We are not in Beijing or Shanghai, so I was expecting my beer situation to be something of a wasteland. How wrong I was! There is a large craft beer store about five minutes from our apartment that stocks about one hundred beers from Europe, Australia, and the United States. Some of the breweries represented: Nogne O, Mikkeller, Samuel Smith's, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, North Coast, St. Bernardus, six of the Trappist Breweries (Westvleteren is missing), and many others. There are several other smaller shops that carry a varied stock as well. I figure that within a twenty five minute walking radius of my apartment I have access to about two hundred international beers. Call me very pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, China is not the barren land it used to be as far as beer is concerned. It's had a better and cheaper selection of Belgian beers for at least the decade I've been here. What city are you in?
Ok, I've heard of it but have never been there. Yeah, beer has been taking off here in the last few years. Glad to hear you have so many options there. Shanghai has a decent selection and a couple beer bars/breweries. I still bring back beer from home when I visit, but it's no longer a necessity like it once was.
In Shanghai? Yeah, we have two decent breweries - Boxing Cat Brewery and Liquid Laundry. Liquid Laundry also has a lot of guest beers too. Kaiba is a Belgian beer bar and Tap House has the largest draft selection. Dean's Bottle Shop has a few beers on tap and a good selection of bottles. There are a few other places but I frequent these the most.
wow, i was just there (qinhuangdao) at the end of august to judge the "master cup" national homebrewing competition. all of us beergeeks spent our nights at "zing" bar, inside the olympic stadium. heard it was the only decent beer-centric bar, but maybe there are indeed others. here's my blog entry on it... keep in mind that probably about 1/3 - 1/2 of the US selection you're seeing is coming in via grey/black market. temperature control during transport and warehousing is still an issue even with official/legal importers, and thus even less reliable for these other suppliers. sometimes even a beer with just 3 - 4 months since bottling date is obviously cooked by the summer heat.
^ That's a good point. I've seen boxes of beer sitting in alleys behind bars and grocery stores throughout China. Storage and transport are either too hot or too cold at different times of the year and generally fluctuate a bunch between the two. Definitely needs some improvement in that area. In fairness, there are a growing number of folks who know what they're doing.
