Blind Tasting at Café de la Poste, Flow Brew and Bungalow Tiki & Cocktail Bar

Tracy Wang, Senior Editor | Mar 13, 2016 9:00 am | Add a comment | 2318 reads

Is there anything more interesting and challenging than a blind tasting? It’s hard to say no, especially beer enthusiasts. So we went to Café de la Poste to taste three beers from Bell Banger Brewing Co., and these beers have been served here since December 17.

After the warm welcome from Justin the manager, it was great to see the two brewers behind Bell Banger are our dear fellow members Andrés Quirós and Chris Dabreo of Beijing Homebrew Society. The two brew partners explained how to brew beers, and gave some introduction to the basic four ingredients – malts, hops, water and yeast.

Andrés explained that they use 20-liter equipment, and Chris emphasized they refuse to use tap water because of poor local water quality.

After they sent out the scorecards, we started the blind tasting. Odd-struck Pale Ale (RMB 25) is piney and citrusy, due to the American hops they use. The Sorrel Experiment Ale (RMB 40) is very interesting; they added some sorrel from Cambodia, which brought out the floral and sour aromas, as well as black cherries. They also added spices like cinnamon and nutmeg in it, and it could be served as a Christmas drink. It is like a beer version of mulled wine, yummy! I ticked “Give me another and one for my friend” as an overall impression on the scorecard. The third one was Got milk? Stout (RMB 40), with aromas of nuts, chocolate, and drip coffee in medium body. The girl sitting next to me saw this event from our website. And it was the first time for her to drink craft beer. And she thought it was a great experience, and she was happy to learn something new.

With our spirits and wine expert Jim Boyce also in attendance, it’s impossible to stick to one place. So we checked the newly opened Flow Brew, where there were eight beers on tap, including two from Slow Boat. We tried Whirling Wild House American Pale Ale (RMB 40) and Slow Boat’s Imperial Vanilla Stout (RMB 45).

The bar has a contemporary atmosphere, and the beers are attractive with subtle foam. I’ll definitely come back to try all of their beers soon.

Since we were in the hutongs, how could I refuse to have some tiki cocktails as a wrap? We made it to Bungalow Tiki & Cocktail Bar. Kipp wrote a blog about this before. The Desert Rose (RMB 60) was so balanced, no wonder it’s one of the owner and cocktail pro Phil’s favorites. And there are tons of choices, the sweet aroma in the air made unwilling to leave.