Explore Beijing's Local Microbrews With Lost Plate’s Boozy Brewery Tour
In a city famous for its more than 3,000 years of history, relics of the past offer stark and stunning contrast as a backdrop for Beijing's rapid changes. Today's developments are no less "Beijing" than the temples of dynasties past, and the city's locally owned eateries and breweries are as unique and attractive to visitors as the historical specimens surrounding them. Bridging the gap between the attractions of yesteryear and today is Lost Plate's new tuk tuk-powered beer tour.
Lost Plate is best known for their food tours centering around locals' favorite family-run restaurants in Xi’an, Chengdu, and Beijing. This new, beer-focused tour began in April and is composed of a trip to three or four of the city’s best and most popular taprooms and brewpubs, providing guests a chance to taste over 12 different varieties of beer in a well-curated and enlightening pub crawl. The choices are carefully considered and, on our tour, happened to feature my go-to watering holes in town. That being said, I still learned a lot of from the knowledgeable and affable guides on hand, but you'll find no spoilers here – take the tour yourself to see whether you can guess the locations correctly.
Greeted at Shichahai subway station by Brian Bergey, Lost Plate's co-founder, beer lover, and seasoned guide, we took a short walk through the hutongs, reaching our first stop, one that many of you have probably frequented and is credited as one of, if not the first, craft brewery in Beijing. Proud of its locally-sourced recipes, the first brew we tried from a flight of four proved extremely drinkable and infused with Sichuan peppercorns and local honey from an apiary located near the Great Wall. The flight also included another of my favorites, a beer that features Chinese cinnamon, Chinese rock candy, local malted barley, and local Qingdao flower hops from Xinjiang and Gansu.
Having failed to rinse the guides of all their boozy knowledge, but succeeding in rendering our glasses dry, it was time to travel to the second location using Lost Plate’s exclusive tuk tuk (complete with cooler and local roadies). The second venue, a decently sized taphouse in the heart of some of Beijing's liveliest hutongs, provided us with a flight of six of their in-house brewed beers and was accompanied by a bite of everyone's favorite street eat, jianbing. By this point, we couldn't be sure if our senses were acting up but we could have sworn that there were notes of baijiu in the bean sauce.
After one last joy ride, we were transferred to our final destination, where we had four of this venue's most popular summer brews: German-style Kölsch; a dry-hopped and funky sour saison; a malty and biscuity American-style IPA; and a classic Seeing Double IPA (OK, you probably know where we are now), universally loved for its zesty flavors and notes of tropical fruits – a perfect wrap for the night.
The brewery tour sets of every Monday (7pm), Thursday (5pm), and Saturday (3pm), and has a maximum yield of 10 people so that the guides can dedicate their time to answering all of your curious sud-related questions. RMB 450 (USD 67) per person will get you over four pints of beer in total at three (or sometimes even four) breweries, a local Beijing snack, a souvenir pint glass, tuk tuk transportation, understanding behind the local brews, and a guaranteed tipsy and fun experience. To book, visit lostplate.com or email info@lostplate.com.
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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos courtesy of Lost Plate, Tom Arnstein, Tracy Wang
