In Dongli Brewery, Shangdi Embraces its First Brewpub

Have you ever gone for your visa health check in Xierqi, and afterwards thought, gee, I could really go for a pint right now? So have we. And now we're in luck as Dongli Brewery, which soft-opened in Shangdi near to Xierqi at the far end of Haidian in February, amidst the offices of IT giants such as Baidu, Sina, and Tencent which also occupy the area.

The decorative theme, as with many of Beijing's brewpubs, is industrial. The first thing you'll notice upon entering are the seven, 500-liter fermentation tanks on your right. Brewer Li Gaorong said, “The best seller here is the Baiyilu wheat beer, which, to make from scratch to being sold out takes 24 days. Since the location is far from downtown Beijing, we have to adjust the recipe to meet people’s taste here."

Upon trying the Baiyilu (RMB 40) ourselves, we can report that it's neither strong, nor bitter, and very easy to drink – akin to Hoegaarden, complete with citrus, coriander, and orange peel notes.

Dongli usually has seven beers on the menu, but three were sold out upon our visit. From the reduced stock we also tried the Hero Stout, an imperial stout (10 percent, RMB 45); the Amber #21 (5.8 percent, RMB 40); and the Dongli IPA (6.6 percent, RMB 45). A flight of four costs RMB 50, which compared to the RMB 100 price tag on some flights downtown, is very reasonable.

Dongli also serves German-style dishes, such as sausages, pork knuckle, and fried chicken (half, RMB 42/whole, RMB 78). The fish burger (RMB 58) comes with two big fried pieces of cod topped with lettuce and tomato, and provided a lighter option to the bar's regular beef burger.

Since it is near many of the large IT companies, a lot of their employees use this place to meet up and for company events and meant that the place was full during lunchtime, which promises good things for Dongli Brewery come summer.

Dongli Brewery 
1/F, Keshi Mansion, 30 Xinxi Lu, Haidian (6298 8917)
东里手工啤酒：海淀区信息路30号上地大厦一层

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Photos courtesy of Tracy Wang