Roll out the barrel

Gao Yan, founder of Master Gao Brewing Company of Nanjing, predicts he will sell 1 million bottles of his Baby IPA, right, this year－a far cry from 2008, when he began selling his first brew batches and when few Chinese knew what craft beer was. [Photo provided to China Daily]

This year he forecasts he will sell 1 million bottles of Baby IPA and 2 million bottles of Jasmine Tea Lager, his two flagship bottled craft beers, among more than 20 brews under his Master Gao brand.

One of Gao's earliest efforts to proselytise in China on craft beer involved a book he wrote and that was published in 2011, Get Your Own Brew, in which he details the beer making process and offers advice on how to evaluate beer, the first of its kind in Chinese.

"There has been a craft beer movement in China since 2010," says Gao, who now enjoys a reputation in the industry of something like the father of craft beers in China.

These days small-scale pubs are popping up all over the place selling imported and local craft beers.

"In Chengdu alone, more than 300 pubs were selling foreign bottled beer last year," Gao says.