Craft Beer Scene Takes Off In China
China already consumes more beer than any other country, and now its hops are getting even hipper. Craft beer is gaining a following in China—Beijing has two breweries, and the smaller Nanjing has one, but Shanghai is where craft brewing has really taken off. Considering a trip to Shanghai? Check Startle.com after April 25 for Forbes Travel Guide’s first-ever Five-Star ratings of Shanghai’s top hotels and spas, and then once you’ve decided where to stay, consider these breweries for your first stop for a drink.
Photo courtesy of Boxing Cat Brewery.
In the past two years, the city’s number of craft breweries, beer-focused bars and shops has nearly doubled, thanks to Shanghai’s population of expats and the rising interest of Chinese citizens. The increase in craft beer enthusiasts led French shop-owner Cedric Bourlet to open his beer boutique, Cheers In, last year. The shop now has two branches, stocking bottles of craft brews such as Oregon-made Rogue Ales and Scottish Brewdog beers and offering delivery service. But Shanghai has more than imported beer—they’re making it here, too. The city now has four big craft breweries—including Dr. Beer, which opened late last year—and a handful of smaller, less craft-focused operations.
The city’s top breweries include Shanghai Brewery (which recently opened a second branch), Boxing Cat Brewery (its second outpost opened last year), and The Brew, housed inside Kerry Hotel, Pudong. Kiwi brewmaster Leon Mickelson joined The Brew when it opened in early 2011, and he now says nearly 40 percent of his customers are Chinese. “To be able to start a craft beer revolution is a very special opportunity,” Mickelson says. “I’ve had 100 percent success—have not heard a bad thing from a Chinese drinker. Our beers range from a light, easy drinking lager to a vanilla milk coffee stout, and expats also love that variety.”
The Brew. Photo Courtesy of Shangri-La International Hotel Management.
Another brewmaster capitalizing on the trend is Michael Jordan, an American who makes the beer at Boxing Cat Brewery—a restaurant and brewpub serving Southern food. Coming to Shanghai from Denmark, Jordan was surprised by the popularity of craft beer in China. “When I realized what was happening, I was super excited to get into the market,” Jordan says. “We are the pioneers of the whole craft beer scene in China. I’ve never been in this situation before.”
Like Mickelson, Jordan says Boxing Cat’s beers have been well received by locals—but there’s no specific variety that’s most popular here. “There’s a broad spectrum in terms of what Chinese people like,” he says. “I’ve had quite a few Chinese women who like the fruitiness of the pale ale, and I’ve seen middle-aged men gravitate towards the dark beers.”
Photo courtesy of Shanghai Brewery.
And both breweries get what Mickelson and Jordan call “super-excited foreigners”—they’ve both been visited by a beer aficionado who scores every India pale ale he drinks.
But that doesn’t mean Shanghai’s craft breweries need a foreign population to sustain them, the brewmasters say—with China’s growing economy and its citizens’ larger disposable incomes, locals provide plenty of thirst for the new class of Shanghai-made lagers and ales.
All About Beer with Bill & Sheila
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