Chinese Beer in 5 Minutes: The World's Biggest Beer Country

The world's best-selling beer is Chinese, and most Europeans have never heard of it. China drinks more beer than any other country on Earth, and it has been brewing for thousands of years. Here is Chinese beer in five minutes.

1. A beer superpower

China has been the world's largest beer market by volume every year since 2003. It is also home to the world's best-selling beer brand, Snow (雪花), which has held the title since 2008, even though almost all of it is drunk inside China.

2. How does it taste?

Most Chinese beer is a light, pale lager, often brewed with rice as well as barley malt: crisp, easy, low in bitterness and made to be drunk with food. Many everyday lagers are lighter in alcohol than European ones, often around 3–4%.

On Chinese labels you will also see a number in degrees, such as 8°, 10° or 12°. It is not the alcohol: it is the strength of the wort before fermentation (原麦汁浓度, measured in degrees Plato). The higher the number, the fuller the beer.

3. A short history

Beer in China is older than you might think. Archaeologists have found evidence of a beer brewed with barley, millet and other grains around 5,000 years ago, at Mijiaya in Shaanxi. For most of Chinese history, though, grain drinks meant rice and millet wines.

Modern brewing with malted barley and hops arrived with foreign entrepreneurs: in Harbin in 1900, and in Qingdao in 1903, where Tsingtao was born.

4. The big names

Four brands dominate:

• **Snow** (雪花): the world's best-seller by volume.
• **Tsingtao** (青岛): founded in 1903, the most exported Chinese beer.
• **Yanjing** (燕京): the beer of Beijing.
• **Harbin** (哈尔滨): from the city where modern Chinese brewing began.

Thanks to the size of the Chinese market, they are among the best-selling beer brands in the world.

5. How China drinks it

Beer in China is a shared drink. It arrives in big bottles or jugs and is poured into small glasses for everyone at the table. Every sip is a toast. In many restaurants you will be asked whether you want it cold (冰的) or at room temperature (常温): many Chinese drinkers prefer it not too cold, especially with food. And in summer, nothing beats beer with grilled lamb skewers at a street stall.

6. The craft revolution

Since the 2000s, small breweries in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities have been brewing IPAs, stouts, sours and beers with local ingredients like jasmine and green tea, Sichuan pepper, osmanthus and lychee. Even the big brewers now make their own IPAs and stouts.

7. Where to start

With a Tsingtao, the most widely exported Chinese beer, cold, with a plate of dumplings or fried food. Then look for Chinese craft beer, the most exciting part of the story.

In one sentence

China drinks more beer than any other country, makes the world's best-selling brand, and has a young craft scene worth discovering.