Beijing Boyce

Dead Guy Ale, Brooklyn Lager, Kona Big Wave – you might have seen these beers popping up in bars in Beijing. I talked to Brendan Koeniger, marketing director for American Craft Beer Partners, which distributes a dozen or so of these stateside brews, about the reason for entering the market now, the challenges of getting bars to carry U.S. beer, his favorite brands, and more.

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We have bars with dozens of different Belgian beers, but none with a similarly big selection of German, American, or other beers. How did the market end up this way?

I believe this is because Belgium has one of the oldest and richest brewing traditions. American craft beer is relatively new on the beer scene, with most of the 1500 American craft breweries cropping up within the last 20 years. Even though these breweries are less mature, they follow the tradition of American craft brewing by taking a mature, old-world style and adding their own artistic touch, creating a unique but refined brew.

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What made you decide that now is the time to bring American microbrews to China and particularly Beijing?

Honestly, we were tired of drinking watered-down beer. As beer lovers, we longed for beer with more flavor and finally decided to take things into our own hands. Beijing is a great attraction because it is a truly beer drinker’s city. We have found that the residents of Beijing not only have a taste for good beer, but they drink a lot of it!

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What’s the hardest part of convincing bars in Beijing to carry your beers?

Convincing bar owners who hail from outside of the U.S. and who have never seen or tasted true American craft beers to give them a try. No matter where they are from, as soon as bar owners try a Brooklyn Lager or Rogue Dead Guy Ale, they have found the quality and complexity immediately apparent.

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Why should I drink an American craft beer instead of a Belgian, German, or other one?

American craft beers are brewed with the same strict brewing standard dictating the sole use of malted barley, hops, yeast and water. However, they are not held to traditional European styles, thus allowing for a wide variety of twists and embellishments.

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Brooklyn Lager impressed me the first time I tried it at The Rickshaw. What are your favorite beers from the portfolio?

Craft beers typically have twice the amount of malted barley and five times the amount of hops as the typical commercial beers we see in China, so they offer stronger and more flavorful beer and ales. My favorite beers are the Brooklyn East India Pale Ale and North Coast’s Red Seal Ale. These beers really exemplify that superior taste. From the time your nose senses the bouquet of the brew, to the first mouth feel, to the finishing taste – the entire experience of drinking these beers is truly special.

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The beers: Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn East India Pale Ale , Brooklyn Brown Ale, Brooklyn Local 1, North Coast Red Seal Ale , North Coast Acme CA Pale Ale , Old No 38, Rogue American Amber Ale , Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Kona Longboard Lager, Kona Big Wave Golden Ale, Gordon Biersch Marzen, and Gordon Biersch Pilsner.

The venues: Aman Resort Hotel, American Café, Aria , Beer Mania, Kro’s Nest, Carrefoure, Chef Too, Club Sandwich, The Den, Element Fresh, Goose and Duck, Little Italy, Mexican Kitchen, Tube Station, OT Lounge, Paddy O’Shea’s, Rickshaw, Tim’s Roadhouse, Tim’s Texas BBQ, TUN, and Union Bar and Grill (list provided by Brendan Koeninger).

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Is this one perfect for Halloween, or what?

The Real Deal Contest drew more than 25 suggestions as to where the city’s drinkers and eaters can get the best for their buck during these trying times. Unfortunately, only one person can take home the Wolf Blass wine, the Riedel glass, the Yunnan corkscrew, the Blu Lobster apron, the glory, and other assorted sundries (see full list). To this end, I asked John Gai of Palatte Wines and Palette Vino to pick the winner. And that winner is: aardvark_3.

Thanks to everyone who left suggestions. I plan to announce another contest tomorrow. In the meantime, here is the full list of “real deals”:

Kro’s Nest: “We Hate Tuesdays”, with two free kegs of Tsingtao at 6PM, followed by RMB5 pints until 10 PM – Boyce

Tun: Ladies drink for free on Friday nights – beijingdaze

The Saddle: Fajitarita Monday, with fajitas at RMB35rmb and Margaritas at RMB30 – beijingdaze

Carrefour: Wine fair, with hundreds of wine samples for free and 20 percent off retail – beijingdaze

Pyro’s: Happy hour, 10 PM-midnight, RMB25 pitchers of beer, RMB15 mixed drinks, and RMB50 six-shooter tequila deals – Stuart

La Bamba: Happy hour with RMB5 draft – Stuart

Paddy O’Shea’s: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 9 PM, bottled beers and house spirits, two-for-one upstairs – GP

The Den: From 5-10 PM, half-price pizza and beer – Judge Panda

Domus: From 5-8 PM, complimentary antipasti spread – Judge Panda

Pekotan: Lunch box – pick jumbo prawns for all three servings, RMB28 – Daniel LaRusso

Asamuka: All-you-can-eat lunch, with sashimi, steak, sushi, etc, RMB150 (includes one drink) – Daniel LaRusso

Club Sandwich: Pepperoni pizza (RMB25) and iced coffee (RMB10) or Qingdao (RMB10) – Blake

IKEA: One hot dog, one ice cream cone, one coke for RMB10, or three hot dogs and one ice cream cone for RMB10 – Chad

The Saddle: FajitaRita Mondays, with Margaritas and Fajitas at half-price – Melissa

China View: Teppanyaki place (3F), all you can eat and drink for RMB150 – aardvark

Club China Doll: Ladies drink free on ladies night, with RMB1000 prize split between best dancer, sexiest girl – Boyce

Tun: Thursday night, live music, no cover, two beers for RMB15 – Boyce

Aria: Happy hour, two-for-one drinks and free snacks – Boyce

Matsuko: RMB78 lunch, with all you can eat, including sushi, desserts, and beer – Chad

Hash House Harriers: RMB20 for beer before, during, after the run; RMB60 gets the beer and a meal (hash.cn) – Arthoof

The Rickshaw: 6th of each month, all-day ‘Hair of the Dog’ party with half-price drinks (same deal at Cinco de Drinko at Saddle Cantina, 5th of each month) – Blake
Blue Frog: 25 Tuesdays, all standard drinks for RMB25 – Blake

OT Lounge: During November, Brooklyn Lager at RMB20 per bottle – Blake

The Boat: Thursday “Alt Dance Party”, two drinks free between 9 and 11pm, no cover – Blake

The Aubergine (Shangdu Soho): RMB36 lunch includes soup, Danish Roast Pork with potato wedges, “something that looks like clover, and rich, fat sauce” – Mazolinc

Mesh Bar: Thursdays, two-for-one cocktails, 7-11 PM – Weeble

The Rickshaw: Taco Tuesday, during happy hour; RMB40 for three tacos, 1 pitcher of Margaritas for RMB60 – aadrvark_3

Xiao Mai Bu: RMB2 beers – aardvark_3

Note: You never know when a deal will end, so it is always best to check before you go.

A few weeks ago, I popped into Jenny Lou’s gourmet shop near Chaoyang Park and counted around 100 different sparkling wines. One hundred! Choice in Beijing, in terms of shops, tastings, and restaurant, bar, and hotel wine lists, is incredibly diverse when compared to a few years back.

Case in point: this 1998 City Weekend story about a tasting of four local and four imported wines.

Author Anne Stevenson-Yang noted the difficulty of finding imported wine, particularly at a reasonable price, and posited: “So when you’re thinking of uncorking a red to go with dinner, you may not say it out loud, but a secret voice inside asks, “The Chinese stuff can’t be that bad, can it?“

An eight-member panel, including “two experts on wine, two utter ignoramuses, with the rest someplace found in the middle,” provided the answer:

The panel unanimously declared the Chinese wines “disgusting” (62 RMB, Dragon Seal), “like cough syrup” (42 RMB, Great Wall), “a little off” (55 RMB) and “overpriced” (27 RMB, Dynasty). The highest marks went to, sigh, the Wente Chardonnay (210 RMB) and the Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon (218 RMB), both Californian wines. The French Gallerie Cabernet Sauvignon and Gallerie Chardonnay Languedoc got low ratings all around but still ranked above the Chinese wines. Of the Chinese, the humble Great Wall red got the most face, being called “pleasant” but “without any follow-through.”

Here the scores as found in the article, “Bargain-Basement Connoisseur: Sorry, but the cheap wine is really and truly awful.”

• 8.1 – Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon (California) 1995
• 7.5 – Wente Chardonnay (California)
• 6.1 – Gallerie Cabernet Sauvignon (Languedoc) 1995
• 5.3 Gallerie Chardonnay (Languedoc)
• 5.0 – Great Wall red
• 4.3 – Tsingtao Huadong Chardonnay 1995
• 3.3 – Dynasty
• 1.1 – Dragon Seal Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

As for the Chinese wines, here are some tasting notes for the wine that ranked highest…

and lowest.

Note: Triple hat-tip to Elvis Lives for digging up this article.