Beer history

Beer arrived in China around 1900, with the Russian, Polish and Czech communities that grew up along the Chinese Eastern Railway in Harbin, and with the German concession in Qingdao, where the brewery that would become Tsingtao was founded in 1903. For decades it remained a foreign drink, brewed for expatriates and a small urban public. After 1949 breweries were nationalised and every province built its own, often using rice alongside malt to stretch scarce barley. In the reform era beer became the everyday drink of a fast-growing country: cheap, light, served cold or at room temperature with street food and family dinners. In 2002 China overtook the United States as the world's largest beer producer. Consolidation followed. A handful of groups, led by China Resources Snow, Tsingtao, Budweiser APAC, Yanjing and Carlsberg's Chongqing brewery, absorbed hundreds of local brands, and Snow became the best-selling beer brand in the world by volume, almost entirely within China. Since around 2010 a craft beer movement, born in the hutongs of Beijing and the bars of Shanghai, has given Chinese beer new flavours: Sichuan pepper, tea, osmanthus, jujube and other local ingredients. A new national standard, in force from 2027, defines craft beer for the first time and raises the minimum share of malt, a sign that Chinese beer is moving from volume to quality.