Beer region
Shanghai
上海Shànghǎi
Craft beer, craft gin and China's cocktail capital
- Events
- Shanghai Beer Week, Shanghai International Beer Festival (both since 2012)
Shanghai, China's largest and most international city, is one of the birthplaces of the country's craft drinks scene. Boxing Cat, founded here in 2008, was among the very first Chinese craft breweries, and the city's bars helped launch Peddlers, widely regarded as China's first craft gin. Shanghai is also where two of China's main beer festivals were born.
Craft beer
Chinese craft beer began in the big cities with large international communities. In Shanghai, Boxing Cat Brewery was co-founded in 2008 and became one of the pioneers of the movement, alongside Great Leap in Beijing. Two of the city's best-known beer events, the Shanghai International Beer Festival and Shanghai Beer Week, were both launched in 2012.
Craft gin
Peddlers Gin was 'born on the back streets of Shanghai', inspired by the city's traditional street peddlers. It combines juniper with Chinese botanicals such as Sichuan pepper, Buddha's hand and lotus flower, and its jade-green bottle recalls the address plates of Shanghai's alleyways.
Rice wine
Shanghai also has its own rice wine tradition, Shanghai laojiu ('old wine'), part of the huangjiu family of eastern China.
History
2008
Boxing Cat Brewery is founded, one of China's first craft breweries.
2012
The Shanghai International Beer Festival and Shanghai Beer Week are both launched.
Producers
Bottles
Visit
Shanghai's bars and taprooms are the best place in China to taste local craft beer, gin and cocktails side by side.
Bars and taprooms change quickly: check what is open before you go.
Sources
- Craft beer in China: a brief and complete history — The China Project, 2020
- Peddlers Gin Co brand and packaging — World Brand Design, 2020
- The microbiome of Chinese rice wine (Huangjiu) — Current Research in Food Science, 2022