The Big Four: Snow, Tsingtao, Yanjing and Harbin

Four of the world's best-selling beer brands are Chinese. You may have tasted one of them in a Chinese restaurant, but probably not the biggest. Meet them.

Snow 雪花

Launched in 1993 in Shenyang, in north-eastern China, Snow grew with the Chinese economy. In 2008 it overtook Bud Light to become the world's best-selling beer brand by volume, a title it still holds. Almost all of it is drunk in China.

Snow's classic lager is light and crisp, made for long meals and hot pot. The brand has also launched premium and craft-style beers for younger drinkers in the big cities.

**Find it:** mostly in China. Rare in Europe.

Tsingtao 青岛

Founded in 1903 in Qingdao as the Germania Brewery, by a company of British and German investors, Tsingtao is the most internationally famous Chinese beer and the one most widely exported. Its pale lager is slightly fuller than most Chinese beers, with a gentle malt sweetness.

Qingdao still celebrates its brewery with a beer museum in the original buildings and an international beer festival every summer.

**Find it:** in many European supermarkets, Asian shops and Chinese restaurants.

Yanjing 燕京

The beer of Beijing, named after Yanjing, an ancient name of the capital. Founded in 1980, it grew with the city and is still the everyday beer of many Beijing restaurants and street stalls.

**Find it:** mainly in northern China. Sometimes in Asian supermarkets in Europe.

Harbin 哈尔滨

From the northern city where modern brewing in China began in 1900, founded by a Russian entrepreneur. Harbin is considered China's oldest beer brand. The city is famous for its long, frozen winters and its ice festival, and for drinking a lot of beer even in the cold.

**Find it:** in China, and in some Asian supermarkets abroad.

How they compare

All four make mainly light, pale lagers, often with rice as well as barley malt. Differences are subtle: Tsingtao is a little fuller, Snow and Yanjing lighter and crisper, Harbin clean and easy. Taste them cold, side by side, with dumplings or skewers.

Beyond the big four

Every Chinese province has its own local lager, from Chongqing to Zhujiang in Guangzhou. And the big brewers now make IPAs, stouts and wheat beers alongside their classic lagers.

In one sentence

Snow sells the most, Tsingtao travels the most, Yanjing is Beijing's beer and Harbin carries the oldest modern history.