What’s Up in Beer: Lantern Festival and Valentine's Deals, Homebrew Competition, New Arrow and Jing-A's New Brews and New Imports

Yes, the relatively empty Beijing is getting livelier day by day. With the traffic back, food delivery services recovered, the subway getting ever-more crowded, your workload weighing down, and Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it can be difficult to count the positives, but chin up, beer is here and there's plenty of it to be gulped down.

North Capital is offering a family-style roasted chicken dinner for Lantern Festival (7pm, Feb 11). RMB 298 will get you a whole chicken, a choice of roasted or mashed potato and steamed vegetables, side dishes, and a bottle of wine to be shared between four. Since preparation is needed, call or WeChat 18664680276 to book a seat in advance.

Jing-A has teamed up with Café Zarah also in aid of Lantern Festival party on February 11, from 8pm till late. However, this one is centered around celebrating two-for-one glasses of Jing-A's Koji Red Ale (5.5 percent ABV). A mainstay of Jing-A's brewing repertoire, this red ale is brewed using Koji sake rice, wasabi root, and ginger. There'll also be mulled wine on hand from Zarah.

<Valentine’s Day special dinner at their Sanlitun location, with a starter, a main dish (poached salmon with vegetables and mashed potatoes), and a dessert (Feuillantine chocolate), for RMB 214 per serving or RMB 388 per couple. Paired beers, sparkling wine, and Champagne will be charged extra. Get your fill from 6.30-10pm on February 14 and call 65925388 for reservations.

If you were lucky enough to receive a big hongbao this Chinese New Year, El Nido has a range of decent imported draughts to help you burn through it all, including Lizard of Koz (10.5 percent ABV), Breakfast Stout (8.3 percent ABV), Imperial Red IPA (9.5 percent ABV), and All Day (4.7 percent ABV), all from Founders; Shakedown (5.5 percent ABV), Deception (4.7 percent ABV) from Black Market; and Hel & Verdoemenis (10 percent ABV) from De Molen. Unfortunately during our visit, the 3 Bean Stout from Norwegian brewery Lervig was out. Prices range from RMB 50-65 a pint.

We recently dropped by Peiping Machine and were happy to find homebrewer extraordinaire and friendly Dutchman Yob working behind the bar. Get a dose of him on Mondays and Wednesdays, saving you from Peiping's otherwise surly staff. If you can look past bad service you'll also be happy to find Rogue’s 8 Hop IPA (8.88 percent ABV) and Founders’ Curmudgeon and Devil Dancer on tap.

Jing-A has also released a Juicy Dongbei IPA (on tap as of today, Feb 10), which is slowly becoming one of our new favorites thanks to its hoppy notes and hazy look, a mix that is going down particularly well in America's Northeast recently. This beer may remind you of when you fell in love with craft beer for the first time; its juicy combination of tangerine, peach, guava, and mango, as well as its soft taste, relatively light bitterness, but high hoppiness, refresh and dance on the tongue. 

In keeping with our assertion that sour beer is the new black, Arrow Factory Brewpub now stocks NBeer’s Kiwi Sour on tap. This light beer has 4.2 percent ABV and 0 IBU, meaning that it exhibits no bitterness whatsoever, which may just bring you a summer's breeze on frigid windy day. 

And finally, Goose Island is holding a homebrewing competition called Hometown Hero in collaboration with Imbeer. Participants mst register online, brew their own beer, and then deliver two bottles (330ml each) to Shanghai by March 2. After choosing the top three ranking beers at the end of March, those three brewers will then be asked to brew their a further 50L of beer at the Goose Island Brewhouse. The final product will then be put to the public to vote. The winner will get a chance to brew a 500L batch on April 28, which will be put on tap at Goose Island Brewhouse in Shanghai, as well as receive one-week trip to Chicago to visit Goose University and their brewery. For more details, please go here.

Keep warm, stay strong, and drink well, Beijing!

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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
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Photos courtesy of the venues, Tracy Wang