Real ale fans have made a business out of brewing quality local beers for Beijing's drinkers

Tasty draft beers, similar to the kind found in traditional English pubs and fashionable American bars, are now available in China, thanks to Chandler Jurinka, whose Slow Boat brewery ales are proving to be hugely popular.

Jurinka figured that the more discerning drinkers in China would form a ready-made market for his unpasteurized and unfiltered beers, which are brewed at a specially-constructed new facility located in a village outside Beijing.

His hunch proved to be spot on. The range of Slow Boat ales can now be found at more sophisticated venues throughout the capital, and at a popular former French concession restaurant in Shanghai.

Slow Boat currently brews 12 different varieties of beer at any one time, from strong stout to light lager, with evocative names such as Monkey's Fist IPA, Man-O-War Porter and Dragon Boat Ale.

"We offer a lot because it is important to provide a variety to get people to be interested," says Jurinka. "Westerners have tried this type of beer before, and get it, but this is a new thing for Chinese people. We have a blond ale, a cream ale, a pilsner and a wheat beer; in fact we cover the whole range. Most of them are on the lower end of the alcohol scale but we have an imperial vanilla stout, which has an alcohol content of 8.5 per cent.

"Our beer is a point of differentiation. There are a lot of beers out there that are ubiquitous but if you are looking for a local, China-made option then we are that beer. In Beijing we are in 30 places, several are embassies and there is growing interest. In a year's time we hope to be supplying 200 outlets."

Slow Boat the name derives from the 1930s song Slowboat to China came about when Jurinka met fellow American Daniel Hebert, an expert brewer, who had moved to Beijing with his international schoolteacher wife, Sharee. The two began chatting and, over time, formulated a plan to make natural beer, or real ale as it is called in Britain.

It was a fitting match. Hebert, who is from Oregon had the skills to make the amber nectar while Jurinka, who has ties in Colorado and Chicago, possessed the business and marketing skills and just as importantly knew how to deal with the Chinese system's rules and regulations. Both had previously studied in China and were proficient in Chinese.

Jurinka was a student during the mid 1990s, before returning to the United States to pursue a successful career in on-line analytics, ultimately selling a company he co-founded to the Internet giant Google. It gave him breathing space to think long and hard about his next career move ultimately concluding that China offered the most interesting opportunities.

Says Jurinka: "When people think back, they always think of the great days, and I always wanted to come back to China; I started a marketing company which had a lot to do with food and beverage. That meant I got to know a lot of restaurants and bars and met Daniel and discovered he was a brewer.

"We talked and talked and decided that it was feasible to make a go of a brewery. There have always been the German brew pubs in China, but there was not much else catering to people who liked craft beers.

"There were some good breweries before us but they were probably before their time. You didn't have that many returning Chinese in the past, or the microbrewery revolution kicking into high gear worldwide and you didn't have the distribution system."

Setting up the entire operation including the out-of-town brewery and the Taproom bar in the downtown area cost around $500,000, money raised from the duo's personal savings and other investors, both Chinese and expatriate.

It took two years of careful planning and official approvals before Slow Boat brewed its first barrel. Capacity is around 3,500 liters daily which is around 7,500 American-measure pints, more than enough to slake the thirst of discerning drinkers for the foreseeable future.

People who are unfamiliar with craft-style beers can sample most of the range at the Taproom premises, located in one of Beijing's quaint hutong (alleyways), not far from the iconic Lama Temple. As well as traditional English-style pale ales, there are quirky offerings such as Three Sheets Coffee Porter, Sea Anchor Imperial Vanilla Stout, and Man-O-War Porter. Most beers are between $6 and $9, with the option of ordering a sample tray of different brews to see which appeal.

Having the bar situated in a hutong is a selling point, emphasizing the back-to-basics appeal of the product; the downside is that the Taproom is tricky to find even with a good map.

"I think everyone likes to come into the alleyways and courtyards of Beijing more than the malls," says Jurinka, 46. "The hutong are an amazing part of the city, a way of looking at it from a different angle, the lure of Beijing is its culture and history. The Taproom is a bit of a secret in a way, somewhere that only locals would know and could show friends who came to visit, an insider place."

Jurinka can be found there most nights, patiently explaining to customers the subtle taste differences between beers, a job that he says, ruefully, has led to an incremental increase in his waistline.

But late nights drinking with customers are likely to be strictly limited before too long - he and his Hubei-born wife Ji Chun, a teacher who instructs executives in the skills of boardroom English, are expecting their first child soon.

For China Daily