Beer

Next on the list of alcoholic beverages to be discussed along with its related culture is beer. Beer has faced the same challenges as wine when it comes to Tianjin. Namely, it isn’t white liquor. White liquor historically speaking has been the quote un-quote mainstay of northern China alcohol. As such it has sat as bit of an undefeated champion with little to no competition. At least it did, until about twenty years ago when Mr Lee a Tianjin native and his beer come a knocking.

It was the year 1994 that the young musician turned beer enthusiast Mr. Lee Wenzhong took to the streets of Tianjin to introduce everyone around him to beer. Mr Lee had found his passion for beer while pursuing his dream of becoming a singer in Beijing. Like so many other musicians no doubt a lot of time was spent in bars and pubs. As such it was inevitable to spend some time drinking. Interestingly though, white liquor was never Mr Lee’s brew of choice. Instead it was beer that hit the mark.

Since Mr Lee had been mostly pursing his music career in Beijing he had a great opportunity along the way to see what was new and up incoming not just in music, but also in the bar business. There he found drinking beer not only something to be enjoyable but something he could possibly turn into a business back in Tianjin. While Beijing had more bars than one had the time or money to visit, Tianjin on the other hand was sorely lacking them and foreign beers were virtually non-existent.

Thus it was that a new bar and beer pedaling business began. Early on Mr. Lee took to promoting his passion of beer the old fashioned way, via word of mouth and personal introduction. This experience revealed to him how deep the white liquor culture runs in the hearts of Tianjiner’s. Tianjin locals like any good northern Chinese, love their white liquor. With alcohol percentages running from 40%-60%, maybe even higher, this "jet fuel" packs a punch and is makes getting drunk really easy.

Beer on the other hand was seen as wimpy, watery and well "foreign". Foreign it was as one of the main brands Mr. Lee was introducing at the time was Corona™（科罗娜）. Perhaps while hard for expats to imagine, at the time other than at Mr. Lee’s newly founded Tianjin bar called YY Beer House, it was next to impossible to find Corona around town. Twenty years ago a few foreigners had already found their way to Tianjin. Of course they were more than excited to find out that Mr. Lee’s YY Beer House had brought with it Corona™. This proved to be only the beginning as in Time YY Beer House came to offer not ten, twenty or even thirty, but rather 50 different beers.

Fast forward a few decades and Mr Lee is now hardly the only bar in Tianjin. Yet, the majority of Tianjin locals still love to drink white liquor. This is not to say that the beer business is bad though. With over 20 years of history, right up until today the YY Beer House is going strong, still offering many different kinds of foreign beer. Yet, drinking other peoples beer was only the beginning and not the end for Mr Lee.

His ongoing desire to find new and interesting foreign beer brands for his bar lead to finding a whole different aspect of beer culture. Why drink someone else’s beer when you can drink your own? This self-made is beer is being called craft beer（手工精酿啤酒）. It is the creation of the beer lover itself. Of course it takes some time, study and effort to make beer. The equipment and raw ingredients are not cheap. Mr Lee is proud of the fact that as of a few months ago he has yet again brought something new to Tianjn and to beer lovers, in opening a second bar called YY Craft Bear. There he brews his own beer. What is fascinating in talking with Mr Lee (beer) and Mr Zhang (wine) is how one’s choice of alcohol seems to dramatically change ones social circle. Beer drinkers tend to hang out with other beer drinkers. While wine "connoisseurs" find other wine enthusiasts for companionship. That being said the hard core white liquor drinkers still seem to be hanging on to their shot glasses.