Black Beers

[roddy]

Is anyone trying out China’s black beers? They’re becoming more widespread. I had a pint of what I think was a brew from the Yanjing stable at the weekend – not bad at all, washed my duck down nicely. There’s a black beer from the folks who make Hapi (Harbin Pijiu) as well – not sure who they got bought by in the end.

I think the trick with drinking black beers is NOT to compare it with Guinness – they’ll always be a disappointment. I’m trying to train myself to look at them as an alternative to the decent but all pretty much the same light beers around.

[xuechengfeng]

Dark beer makes me vomit

[PollyWaffle]

if you are talking about stout, china's stouts are way better than their watery beers... qingdao's is good, harbin is good, plus there's another really cheap one (cant remember name) that isnt bad also... none of them can match cooper's stout though! & of course guinness on tap!!!

[niubi]

7-8 years ago the only ones available that i know of were of course imported guinness in bottle, locally made guinness in a can, on tap at goose and duck pub (the first place in beijing to have it on tap - 1996/7?), and the qingdao hepi which was hard to find in beijing. since i have been back to china a couple times i have not ventured to find any stouts, but shall the next time because i quite like a pint - oh OK...several - of guinness now and again.

[xuechengfeng]

How much would one presume a regular ole beer costs in American dollars over in China?

[marcopolo79]

絕對不能錯過的啤酒:

金陵黑啤,,哈爾濱啤酒黑啤,三孔苦瓜啤酒

Harbin Beer (recently bought out by Anheiser Busch) is good, local Nanjing Brewery's Stout is extremely good, and, although it might sound revolting, Bitter Melon Beer from QuFu's SanKong brewery is fantastic!

[marcopolo79]

Sorry, beer, by volume, is cheaper than bottled water, and, after tea and rice, is one of the most ubiquitous items found in mainland restaurants. Price in a convenience store, about 2-3 yuan (not including bottle deposit), price in restaurants depends on the restaurant, and what particular brand of beer they're trying to push you to buy. Joint venture brands, such as Bud, Pabst, Carlsberg, etc. generally cost more than the local brews, but there has been a lot of consolidating, so this might no longer be the case.

Cities in China were first industrialized after Liberation according to an localized autarchic centralized planning scheme, i.e. they were each allowed to establish a variety of industries to provide for local production of essential goods. As a result, each city has it's own cigarette plant and brewery. Each brewery puts out a variety of beers, some of which (I find quite unexplicably so) are far more expensive than others. One of the benefits this system was (it's gradually losing it's local character) that everytime you came into a new town, you got to try a new brewery's beer. The downside was that there was no national distribution except for the few biggest brands.

Certain cities in China, especially Harbin and Qingdao, have a fantastic beer making tradition. Harbin in particular is a beer lovers dream: when the weather is warm enough, beer gardens spring up all over the city, turning the simple act of having a beer into a pleasant activity; good beer is available on tap throughout the city; and many restaurants even brew their own.

Cheap, good beer has been one of the joys of living in China for foreigners.

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

drinking black beer was my favourite pastime in Tianjin - the stuff was amazing, 5kuai for a fat mug of the stuff on draught from a Hui streetside restaurant (not strictly qingzhen, but never mind).

i found it superior to Guiness, Murphys etc, like a thick stout with hints of coffee and chocolate.

Devastatingly, the only places i knew that sold it have all been demolished now, as i found out in June after travelling 8000km overland back to Tianjin just to try it! curses.

kugua pijiu gets my vote for the best lager-style beer, after Qingdao of course (best sampled in Qingdao's Beer Palace 啤酒宫, the finest boozer in China, where the qingdao pijiu is piped in direct from the factory).

[Gary Soup]

Reeb Beer (Shanghai Mila Brewery) made a tasty dark beer 10 or 12 years ago, but discontinued it. Maybe they'll bring it back now. It wasn't like a stout, more like a European dark lager. It was probably modeled after Heineken Dark, as Heinekin was a joint venture partner in the Shanghai Mila Brewery.

[wushijiao]

I am having a smooth, mild, but slightly odd, Carbine 卡尔黑啤 tonight. It seems that it's one of the only dark beers that is widespread in the Shanghai area.

I agree with marcopolo: Harbin is a beer-drinkers dream! During the summer they host a beer festival, whch includes a lot of the typical famous foreign brands- Bud, Corona, Guiness, Heineken, Negra Modelo, Sol...etc. Yet the main attraction is the cheap 15 kuai pitchers of Hapi, both blond and dark. At night you can sit out on tables in the cool summer weather, drink cheap, fresh beer, chat with the locals and eat tons of things on sticks!

I also like 新疆黑啤.