Meet (and Drink Free Beer With) Beersmith’s New Brewmaster: Wilson Hede

Until he stepped off the plane from his native Australia two weeks ago, Beijing’s newest brewmaster had never been to China. 

Since then, Wilson Hede, 28, has been leading a team of three brewers to perfect XPA, his first craft-beer creation at Guomao’s biggest gastropub, Beersmith. And on Tuesday, Dec 18, you’re invited to try it for free. 

For one hour, from 6pm, attendees will enjoy free-flow XPA, followed by a performance by Beersmith resident band Soul Shake. 

Hede’s XPA is unfiltered and cloudy, and delivers a crisp, citrus finish; think hoppy, but without the IPA heaviness. It’s a nod to his hometown of Melbourne, where tastes for beer often gravitate toward a balance of high hops and low ABV. 

“These Pacific-style beers are hugely popular in Australia,” Hede says, “because the climate lends itself to being somewhere where you can’t have too many high-alcohol beers out in the sun.”

After eight years of studying brewing and biotechnology – and playing bass for Melbourne doom/sludge band Merchant – Hede says he’s excited to embark on Beijing’s beer frontier. 

“Beijing looks like the land of opportunity,” Hede says during a rare tour of Beersmith’s brewing tanks. “Some beer markets have just gone to where everyone wants the new thing and forgets about the classics. But here, I think it’s the perfect city to cheer the two.”

We dropped by this weekend to get the first taste of Hede’s XPA and to talk the man behind the beer about its origins and his insights into what he thinks the Chinese market holds for craft beer.

What am I tasting, and why does it go down so easy? 
This XPA is kind of like having the benefits and the hop character of an IPA, but without the ABV and without the bitterness. These kinds of beers really broke craft into the mainstream, and introduced people to a new range of flavors. A lot of it is about bringing beer back to sessionability, in response to that arms race that was IPA, when every beer was just highly hopped, high-bitterness, often super-dry and aggressive. 

What surprises you about Chinese enthusiasm for craft beer? 
I could see from afar that the appetite was there. It’s moving from an emerging market to a mature market; people know what they want now. You can see it in the local breweries’ tap ranges, there’s quite a diverse style. Some markets have just gone to where everyone wants the new thing and forgets about the classics. But here I think is the perfect city to champion the two. 

How did you first encounter craft beer? 
I came originally from a hospitality background. I think I was 16 when I started bussing tables at what was the Belgian Beer Garden [in Melbourne]. As an underage guy getting slung an end-of-night pint by one of the older bartenders, I’d be drinking Hoegaarden and Chimay. So oddly enough from an early age I was exposed to these classically European, but flavorful, beer styles. Then there was that evolution into something more. And I see a parallel here in Beijing. 

So how will you make your mark in an established, competitive craft market? 
It’s not just a handful of breweries, right? There’s a good ten-plus, you reckon? I think you’ve got to bring something new stylistically to the table from an ingredient perspective. I’m fairly used to using Australian ingredients, so that’s something that I’m interested in doing. Back at the brewery I was at before, we pushed pretty hard to do hybrid styles and beers inspired by food. I think the more people experimenting and pushing those beer flavors out there – getting Beijing even further onto the map – to help bring that whole scene out will be pretty cool. 

To revamp a tried-and-true beer menu is ambitious. 
The signature Beersmith beers will stay as-is, or with minor improvements, because I think the staples are really great. And it’s a great range for anyone at any level of expertise when it comes to craft beer. We’ll make sure we stay true to why Beersmith has been successful with those staple beers, but also enhance the offering by looking forward and bringing beer styles from overseas – and just doing cool shit. We’ll just get in there and do some more esoteric styles, do a bit of weird stuff: beers that are as educational as they are flavorful. 

Tell me more about the weird stuff.
Coming out for New Year’s, we’ve got a New England-style IPA. These are taking the world by storm. I’ve seen a few of them over here, but not heaps. It’s more of a golden, hazy beer; it’s meant to look like breakfast juice. Some of them can get a bit soup-like, which is perhaps a step too far. The style is meant to have those juicy, fruity, tropical flavors. 

The Beersmith Imperial Stout we are brewing again for a January release. That’s going to be a nine-plus percent ABV, full of rich, dark malt. What’s the temperature in Beijing in January? You need something to warm you up. 

So can we expect you to release a new beer every month?
We’re probably looking at a schedule of one a month. But for us, it’s about having the taps full, making sure that we’ve got that full offering. If the people love it, we’ll make it again. We don’t want to churn out stuff just for the sake of churning out stuff. We want to make sure that it’s thoughtful and there’s a reason why we’re making those new beers, and making sure that we’re diversifying what’s available for the customer already. We can’t have the people go thirsty.

Join Hede at Beersmith Gastropub this Tuesday at 6pm for a chance to try his newest creation, all for free.

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Photos: Patrick Flanary