Ni hao!What about beer in Beijing 北京! China has three major beer brands. Yanjing beer is a malty, smooth lager beer from China. Brewed in the Shunyi district of Beijing, it is the most commonly available beer throughout Beijing, is the official state beer of China, and is one of the major sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The beer was first brewed in 1980, and continues to be made today. It is also exported to countries around the globe, including the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. The beer is brewed the Beijing Yanjing Beer Co., Ltd, and its name comes from a former name for Beijing during the 5th-3rd century BC. Today, the Yanjing Beer Co. covers an area of 2,220,000 m². The company has approximately 20,000 employees, and is the largest beer manufacturer in China. They produced 3.11 million tons of beer in 2005 alone. In Beijing, Yanjing is widely available in restaurants, but is not generally available in bars and nightclubs. Because of Yanjing's low price, bar owners claim that they cannot make enough of a profit selling it; thus, they stock the popular beer brands Tsingtao and Zhujiang, or foreign brands of beer instead.
Yanjing Beer/Ale Facts: • Brewed with mineral water, first class wheat and barley imported from Canada and Australia, together with the state-of-art German Krones technology and equipment. • A Pilsner-style beer with refreshing sweetness, smooth clean finish and crystal clarity. • Specially treated clear bottle is stable from anti-oxidation of the sunlight caused by the UV-rays of the sun. • 4.5% ABV. Zhujiang beer 福尔摩莎债券is a lager beer from China, and is one of 3 Chinese national beer brands (along with Tsingtao and Yanjing). With an abv. of 5.3%, the beer is characterised by a pale straw appearance, with a subtle malt flavour highlighted by a delicate hop balance. Zhujiang is the 2nd most consumed Beer in China; 48,000 bottles are consumed per hour. It is particularly successful in the South of China. The beer is also exported to countries around the globe, including Canada, France, Australia, USA, Sweden and the UK. Zhujiang is brewed by the Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Group Co., Ltd in Guangzhou, in the South of China. The Brewery itself is one of the largest single site production facilities in the world. The Beer is brewed with water piped from the natural spring source of the Pearl River direct to the brewery to guarantee the quality and freshness. The fresh spring water is then combined with Czech hops, German yeast, Chinese Rice and Canadian Barley Malt. Tsingtao Brewery 青岛啤酒厂 is China's largest brewery. Founded in 1903 by German settlers, it claims about 12% of domestic market share. The beer is produced in Qingdao in Shandong province, but the name of the beer uses the old École francaise d´Extreme-Orient transliteration. The beer's present-day logo displays an image of Zhan Qiao, a famous pier on Qingdao's southern shore. History: The brewery was founded in 1903 as a German-British brewing company to produce German style beer in China, producing beer mainly for 
Germans and other Westerners in China. In 1915 the brewery was taken over from the German management and until 1945 was under Japanese management, who had confiscated the German share and bought the British share afterWorld War I. After the defeat of Japan in World War II the Qingdao Brewery was turned into a Chinese brewery under the supervision of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. However, this period of ownership only lasted until 1949 when the People´s Republic of China was founded and the company became a state-owned enterprise. The company was privatized in the early 1990s and in 1993 merged with three other breweries in Qingdao and was finally renamed Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited. Today 27% of the company is owned by Anheuser-Busch. The company now owns several other breweries in China, some of which also produce Tsingtao Beer. Beer styles: Tsingtao Beer, a well-hopped standard pilsner of 4.8% alcohol, is the flagship brew, accounting for most of the brewery's production. An unpasteurised version is sold as Tsingtao Draft Beer. Tsingtao Beer was long advertised as being "brewed with mineral water from the Laoshan Spring", which contributed to its characteristic flavour; 
however, this now applies only to beer produced in Qingdao, not to that produced in the company's other breweries. Like many beers made in China, Tsingtao beer contains a proportion of rice in the mash. The brewery also produces a number of other beers, mostly for the local market. Those sometimes encountered outside China include Tsingtao Dark Beer (5.2% alcohol), and more rarely Tsingtao Spirulina Green Beer, also sold as Tsingtao Green Beer, a 4.5% alcohol green-coloured pilsner containing spirulina as an additive, and claimed to promote good health. (Note: alcohol content of export versions may vary slightly.) Export orientation: The beer market in China was very underdeveloped until into the '80s and the brewery was forced to concentrate on overseas markets. However, while concentrating on international markets, the brewery also attempted to sell its beer on the domestic market and competed with other domestic brands as well as foreign brands. The main export company for the brewery was the "Good Harvest of Five Grains Corporation" based in Hong Kong. The Good Harvest of Five Grains Corporation also tried to market the beer in Hong Kong itself and later built a wholesale network consisting of up to 300 companies. Tsingtao Beer was introduced to the United States in 1972, and soon became the top-selling Chinese beer in the U.S. market; it has maintained this leadership within the United States ever since, despite increasing competition from other well known Chinese beer brands, Zhujiang Beer and Yanjing. The Tsingtao brand is sold in more than 50 countries worldwide and accounts for more than 50% of China’s beer exports. National Marketing: Before the 1949 takeover by the new PRC government, the brewery had been using imported raw material and water from the Laoshan mountain. Due to the outbreak of the Korean War and the resulting embargo of the People's Republic by the West, the brewery was forced to use domestic products and the government encouraged the peasants in 
Shandong to harvest the necessary raw materials (mainly hops and barley) themselves. The government used various incentives to achieve this goal, e.g. free seeds. The brewery had previously used nationalistic marketing strategies, and after the switchover to production using only domestic material this nationalist and patriotic marketing effort was increased. However, the brewery still mentioned its international roots. International Beer Festival: The brewery first applied for permission for a Beer Festival in 1991 and received approval and great support from the Qingdao municipal administration, even to the extent that the city became the main sponsor. The first festival was opened on June 23rd, 1991, and has been held annually ever since. The festival was named "International Beer Festival" to attract foreigners as well as Chinese, although the main purpose of the festival was to make the brand more popular for domestic consumers. Quality debacle: Tsingtao Beer suffered a quality debacle in the late-1990's, but a subsequent investigation revealed that the beer had become a victim of Chinese pollution: the barley grown in China was heavily polluted by the pesticide, chemical fertilizers and other industrial chemical wastes that it was no longer qualified for use. As a result, all barley used for Tsingtao Beer is currently imported from France, Canada and Australia. Hops used are grown in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In my last picture I show you that much beer distribution is made by bicykle in Beijing! Beer!Zai jian!
Peter
Comments