Unquenchable thirst for craft beer

A pleasant palate adventure

Among all beers on tap at this year's 8x8 fest, Yuan was most impressed with Xanadu (6.4% ABV). "It's so good that I've downed three in a row," the young man said.

A collaborative brew by Taiwan-based Taihu Brewing and Brooklyn Brewery from New York, Xanadu features the sweet and smoky Lapsang souchong, a black tea unique to East China's Fujian province.

With a distinct tea flavor, the beer aims to intoxicate drinkers and beckon them into Kubla Khan's exotic, luxurious palace as depicted by British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Another brew that wowed both fresh and veteran beer drinkers was Chinese Medicine (10% ABV), the brainchild of Jing A and its partner Stillwater Artisanal from Brooklyn, the US.

Inspired by boiled coke with ginger, a popular cold remedy in China, the cola sour beer has a stimulating ginger kick, making it an ideal drink for the cold days.

These are only two of the eight collaborative brews featured in this year's event. Now in its third edition, the 8x8 Brewing Project was launched in 2017 by Jing A, one of Beijing's craft beer evangelists founded in 2012 by expats Acker and Kris Li.

This year's festival showcased 136 beer flavors and attracted some top-rank overseas breweries, seven from the United States and one from Canada, as well as eight local breweries – major players in the Chinese craft beer market.

The festival turned out to be a success, drawing throngs from near and afar.

"I had a blast at last year's 8x8, so I flew back to participate in this year's event," enthused Xu Dawei, a diehard beer fan who used to live in Beijing but has moved to Hong Kong. "The festival is just like a big party where people come and savor all sorts of new flavors after getting the news from social media posts."

Calling himself a groupie of the craft beer community in China, the beer drinker said, "I got tired of factory beer brands like Yanjing and Tsingtao the day I was exposed to Belgian-style craft beer in Beijing some 12 years ago."

"Then I started home brewing, and comparing notes with other brewers has earned me a lot of friends from the craft beer community," he recalled.