Roll out the barrel

Jing-A Brewing Co taproom. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Reflecting the helter-skelter nature of the industry right now, he adds soberly: "However, I reckon only half of them have survived."

The fact remains, too, that despite the frenetic growth in the industry, craft beer sales in China account for less than 1 percent of the total beer market, industry experts say.

Li Wei, president of the Beijing Home Brewing Society says: "Even though a lot of pubs have beers on tap and myriad new pubs have emerged, if you really count things, there are only six serious local craft beer players in Beijing. By serious I mean a craft brewery having its own complete branding output, and I am talking about Jing-A, Great Leap, Slow Boat, NBeer, Panda and Arrow Factory.

"As far as I know, there are no statistics, either from government or market research firms, into this fledging industry. It's hard even to get a handle on how much craft beer the country produces."

However, his guesses that China produces about 100,000 tons of craft beers in a year.