Mandarin Monday: All About Beer in Chinese

Katie Coy, Managing Editor | Nov 17, 2025 11:30 am | Add a comment | 158 reads

Today, we are diving into the world of beer in Chinese, covering everything from the basics to different types of beer, as well as some common Chinese and international beer brands.

Basic Beer Words

Let's start things off with the basics.

Beer: 啤酒 píjiǔ
Draft beer: 扎啤 zhāpí
Craft beer: 精酿啤酒 jīngniàng píjiǔ

Beer Styles and Vocabulary

Now, let's look up a few different types of beer. This can be especially useful if you're in a Chinese craft beer bar where they don't have an English menu. This vocab should hopefully help you decode the menu a little so you can get an idea of what kinds of beer are available.

IPA: 印度淡色艾尔/IPA Yìndù dànsè ài'ěr
Pale Ale: 淡色艾尔 dànsè ài'ěr
Stout: 黑啤 / 世涛 hēipí/shìtāo
Porter: 波特 bōtè
Lager: 拉格 lāgé
Pilsner: 皮尔森 pí'ěrsēn
Sour beer: 酸啤 suānpí
Wheat beer: 小麦啤酒 xiǎomài píjiǔ

Beer Ingredients & Brewing

If you want to get a bit more technical, here are some of the common ingredients for beer.

Hops: 啤酒花 píjiǔhuā
Malt: 麦芽 màiyá
Yeast: 酵母 jiàomǔ
Fermentation: 发酵 fājiào

Common Chinese Beer Brands

Now, let's look at some of the most common Chinese beer brands.

Tsingtao: 青岛啤酒 Qīngdǎo píjiǔ
Snow Beer: 雪花啤酒 Xuěhuā píjiǔ
Harbin: 哈尔滨啤酒 Hā'ěrbīn píjiǔ
Yanjing: 燕京啤酒 Yànjīng píjiǔ
Wusu: 乌苏啤酒 Wūsū píjiǔ

Beijing Breweries

Next, here are some well-known local craft breweries you'll find in Beijing.

Slowboat: 悠航 Yōuháng
Jing-A: 京A Jīng A
COMMUNE: COMMUNE幻师 COMMUNE Huànshī
Wild Kite: 野风筝 Yě Fēngzheng
Peiping Machine: 北平机器 Běipíng Jīqì
Great Leap Brewing: 大跃啤酒 Dàyuè Píjiǔ
Arrow Factory: 箭厂啤酒 Jiànchǎng Píjiǔ
NBeer: 牛啤堂 Niúpí Táng
Ye Brewing: 野鹅微醺 Yě’é Wēixūn

Popular International Beer Brands

Finally, let's look at international beer brands. These can be especially useful to know because some names are transliterations of English, some are semantic or branding-based translations, while others are literal translations.