First Glance: Arrow Factory Taproom, Wudaoying

We stopped by the new and very lovely Arrow Factory Taproom, and it was impressive to say the least. Sitting just beside Stuff’d off of Wudaoying Hutong, and has a very cool shabby-chic-industrial but cozy vibe. The space was initially used as their brew room, where they had a jerry-rigged system of buckets set up to ferment and doing other magical beer things out of. This process has, in the past year, been moved to the state of the art brewing facility at Charcoal in Shunyi.

Arrow Factory currently have nine brews available, and owner Thomas Gaestadius gave us the grand tour sampling of all their potent potions. We started off with the seasonal offering, called The Man With the Goldenhop, a stunningly golden and slightly bitter English Pub Ale that will soon become a tasty summer staple and a perfect pairing for shouting Kinks tracks at an old tele screening football, while chomping down on digestive biscuits. Or at least that’s what we wanted to do, without the football.

Other delicious recommendations are the Seeing Double IPA, Dark Ages, and the Bitter End Rye PA. Each pint ranges from RMB 40-45. Not a terrible price when you consider that it only takes about two or three glasses to get you howling at the moon.

Arrow Factory is still technically in soft opening (gross hospitality term for nothing’s set in stone) and deciding whether or not they would also like to serve their delicious Stuff’d eats in this sector of the compound. We are sure it will be possible in the near future, but there are probably some moments when the restaurant is so slammed that this won't be possible. Besides that, the taproom is open every day except Monday (see full opening times below). We command you to give them your patronage.

Arrow Factory Taproom
Tue-Thu, Sun 6pm-12am, Fri-Sat 6pm-1am (closed Monday). 9 Jianchang Hutong (east of Yonghe Villas), Dongcheng District (6407 6308)
东城区箭厂胡同9号（近五道营胡同）

More stories by this author here.

Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com

Photo: Kipp Whittaker