What’s Up in Beer: The Distillery's Jing A Moonshine, Shciehallion Lager at Arrow, Panda Brew Bottle New Beers

St. Patrick Day's is over and so is the hangover (just about). Hot on its heels comes Easter, a holiday thankfully not renowned for drinking, allowing most of Beijing's brewpubs to take a break from bingeing and return to regular events. Here's what's up in beer this week:

Mar 24: The Distillery's Jing A Moonshine
The mad scientists at The Distillery have used their hutong gin still to turn a few kegs of Jing A's Hutong Clan brew into Jing A Moonshine, a white whisky that is said to have retained the spicy and floral notes of the original beer.

Try it on Thursday (Mar 24), when The Distillery's David Putney gets behind the bar at the Jing A Taproom to mix up some tasty drinks with their new concoction, and a different take on beer cocktails. My fellow beer swillin' Beijinger colleague Kipp Whittaker has this to say about the collaboration:

"They've come a long way from the distilling of Yanjing Beer and Great Wall Wines that they were doing in their early days. Feel free to call this their testing phase, where they were learning about the intricate and likely dangerous art of distillation. They have since advanced considerably producing their unique small batch gins and vodkas every month with their upgraded in-house still.

For this collaboration they have taken the Hutong Clan CDA and distilled it down into Jing A Moonshine, a white whiskey of sorts that they’ll be mixing into drinks, giving a whole new take on the term "beer cocktails." While this isn’t the first time they have collaborated with local craft brewers (they have previously distilled some from Slow Boat) this is the first time to our knowledge that they have brought this reduced beer moonshine into the cocktail arena. 

This Jing A Moonshine, while still very much firewater, retains the essence of the beer’s original flavor which is what they will be playing with as they combine it together with your favorite sweet and bitter mixers served up by The Distillery’s lead mixologist David Putney. Some of the creations they are offering include a spritz featuring, in addition to the distilled Jing A beer, some Aperol, and soda water, then one with amaretto, lemon juice, and topped with ginger beer, and also a delicious sounding Fuzzy Navel variation. All of these sound appropriately refreshing and summer friendly, and equally likely to unleash your inner Sasquatch or backwoods hermit."

New Guest Lager at Arrow Factory Brewing
By the time the very last drop of Arrow Factory Taproom's Two Birds Lager was sold and drunk, Harviestoun Brewery's Shciehallion guest lager was ready and waiting in the wings. Boasting aromas and flavors as varied as fresh cut grass, brown sugar, lychee and green mango, with a crisp palate and a fresh grapefruity finish, this addition is sure to go down well in the sun.

Ola Dubh 12 Available at Moonshine in Nali Patio
The newly opened cocktail bar Moonshine Whiskey and Cocktail Bar may not have beer in its name but they have some high-end craft beer at the venue, too. Currently available is Harviestoun's Ola Dubh 12 – Old Engine Oil beer aged for up to six months in old Highland Park single malt casks. With a 8 percent ABV, the beer has overtones of scotch and rich, dark color.

Panda Brew will Bottle New Beers this Weekend
Panda Brew has been busy brewing a bunch of new beer recently, and will be bottling their new goods over the weekend.

Frost
Looking for somewhere different to drink this weekend? As a reminder, Frost is a great choice for quality, affordable food and drinks, with 10 beers currently on tap and 18 bottled beers. They'll also have Magners on tap soon, adding to their current range of Arrow Factory, Guinness, Stella, Hoegaarden, Asahi, Leffe, Vedette Blonde, as well as mini kegs of Qingdao. Frost may also be the only place among non-brewpubs in Beijing that has a keg walk-in cooler, meaning that the beers that they store stay cold and stay fresh longer once tapped.

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos courtesy of Jing A, Arrow Factory, Harviestoun.