A Boozy Farewell to Thierry De Dobbeleer After 12 Years of Beer Mania

Summer in Beijing is slowly coming to an end, which means for many of us that conversations are punctuated with that familiar "I've said goodbye to ____ close friends this past month," or "No, sorry, I can't because I have three farewell parties to attend this weekend," or "I haven't said goodbye to anyone this year ... wait, do I not have friends?"

If that last one applies to you, well, you're in luck because Thierry De Dobbeleer, longtime owner of Beer Mania, has been a friend to many and this weekend welcomes Beijing's drinking masses to commiserate his departure from ol' Smoggy. Even if you never had the chance to meet or know the bearded De Dobbeleer directly, his South Sanlitun bar may have been there for you regardless, with its strong Belgian beer selection, late nights, and tight-knit and friendly staff.

Now, after 12 years of running the show, it's time for De Dobbeleer to leave China and start a new chapter in his life, as many have gone on to do these past few months. Don't miss your chance to go say your goodbyes and give your well-wishes this Sunday (Sep 10), 6pm-2am, which will involve one free keg of draft getting cracked every hour for one last hoorah under De Dobbeleer's cheery gaze.

To get you in the mood, we picked De Dobbeleer's brain about some of the times he'll look back on the most fondly.

TBJ: Getting inquisitive: Purely from an anthropological perspective, how exactly did you fall into the masochistic art of running a bar? Why would anyone do that to themselves?
De Dobbeleer: Me? You should ask my staff. What could I possibly know about the art of running a bar? I was simply sitting on the porch, enjoying Belgian beers in great company waiting for Jona to come along. I don’t see anything masochistic about that!

Getting goofy: What’s a fun fact about Beer Mania that the fine beer-drinking patrons of Beijing may not know?
Belgian beers are so diverse. One day, a customer (local Beijinger) told me he preferred German beers the best. A little puzzled, I asked him why and his answer made a lot of sense. The gentleman liked to eat his favorite Sichuan dish, listen to his favorite American blues band, and drink his favorite German beer. But, that is certainly not possible with Belgian beers!

In Germany, because of the Reinheitsgebot (the Beer Purity Law that limits the ingredients to water, barley, yeast, and hops), most breweries will brew very similar beers (Weizenbier, Hefeweizen, Dunkel, etc.). All he had to do was try all of the beers from one brewery and determine which one was his favorite. Then, he would know which one would be his first choice, whatever the brewery.

For Belgian beers, such a classification does not work. Belgian brewmasters will go to incredible levels of creativity, adding coriander, fruits, chocolate, coffee, durian to their brews. (Well … maybe not durian ...) He would have to try all of them (over 1,000 beers) to finally know which one was his favorite!

Getting serious: How did your love for beer first start? Was there a singular event that changed your outlook on beer for life?
Long story short: it runs in my blood. I’m from Belgium. In Belgium, people only eat mussels and only drink Belgian beer!

I think it all started at the age of 16 with my grandfather with whom I enjoyed my very first Trappist Beer in Wolvendael Park in Brussels, a Chimay Blue. Yes, Belgium is a paradise when it comes to drinking beer. According to Wikipedia, in Belgium: “Legal age to drink beer and wine: 16 (rarely enforced).”

Getting cocky: What are some of your proudest achievements from your time at Beer Mania? Was there one specific beer that you were overjoyed to add to your collection?
Maovember! Since two years ago, I’ve put my beard in jeopardy for Maovember, a fun and altruistic event under the care of Jim Boyce. People could vote for either shaving my beard or saving it by putting money into jars labeled SHAVE and NO SHAVE. At the end of Maovember, we would open the jars to see the results.

For Maovember 2015, the SHAVE side of the campaign raised 900 yuan while the SAVE side reached 1,600 yuan. My beard was safe for another year …

But then, in 2016, we relaunched the same campaign for Maovember and this time many more people decided the fate of my beard with 8,000 yuan to SAVE it but 12,000 to SHAVE it! RMB 20,000 was raised to build a library for children in Baoding using my beard!

READ: Thierry De Dobbeleer: The Man With the RMB 20,000 Beard

Getting self-reflective: In your 12 years at Beer Mania, is there one night (or a few) that particularly stick out to you for being the “worst” (i.e. drunkest, most rambunctious) nights ever?
I’m not sure rambunctious nights should be considered the worst … I would say pretty much every BM night would qualify as a rambunctious night!

Beer Mania has been rich in the funniest, craziest (the bad and the good), happiest, and most joyful nights (when people would still be dancing on the porch at 8 in the morning while neighbors were going to work). Some of those stories follow the basic rule of “what happens at BM, stays at BM,” though, to my knowledge that rule has never been applied during these 12 past years … However, I won’t be the first one to officially break that rule.

Getting groggy: Finally, now getting sad and morose as the night wears on, what is it that you’ll miss most about running Beer Mania? What happens now for you and the bar?
People. The only thing I will miss after 16 years in Beijing are the people I met in this city who enriched my stay in China with lifelong friendships and great memories to cherish. But, I’m definitely not sad about it. I’m pretty confident I will see the people I sincerely consider true friends in the near future in another corner of the world!

As for the bar, I leave it in really good hands. Consider it the dawn of a new era for Beer Mania.

In order to party the night away one last time, De Dobbeleer and his crew will be cracking one free keg of draft beer every hour between 6pm and 2am this Sunday, at which point he will be whisked away to the airport, sozzled as a Belgian skunk. In the words of Thierry, "Let’s have one more rambunctious Beer Mania party before we leave!"

Photos courtesy of Thierry De Dobbeleer