What's Up in Beer: Karl Long Challenge, El Nido and Fang Bar Reunited, Jing-A Monster Mash Pumpkin Ale
It's with heavy hearts that we have said farewell to our Senior Editor Tracy Wang, the reason this column exists at all. It's not all bad though, or at least not for her, as she heads on to greener pastures, working for one of the city's biggest craft breweries (in the name of fairness we won't say which and we certainly won't just post their stuff, no matter how much beer is thrown our way, hint, hint), and meanwhile we've got plenty of lovely deals and announcements to keep us happy.
Let's check it out...
Buy One, Get One Free Beer All Month at Side Street
Hate beer? Well, you won't want to read this. Jiaodaokou Indian-tinged pub grub joint Side Street is giving away a Crafters beer every time you buy a Crafters beer throughout the entire month of October. It's beery madness, we say! Well, there is some method to said madness given that it's all in aid of celebrating the official announcement that Crafters Brewing Co. are currently working on their first venue, to be located just past the East Fifth Ring Road. Read more about the deals here.
The 8th Annual Karl Long Challenge at Great Leap
As Great Leap-ers well know, the end of Autumn is Karl Long Challenge time. Karl who? Back in the dawn of time, a legendary figure by this name once drank 16 Great Leep beers in a single day, then took off his shirt and "flexed menacingly" at somebody who bore too strong a resemblance to Sabrina the Teenage Witch for his liking. Scholars still debate the historical significance of this moment, but beer lovers rejoice because his feat has been enshrined in the yearly Karl Long Challenge, which also coincides with the brewery's anniversary.
How does it work?
1. Show up at the Great Leap Brewing location of your choosing (#45 opens at 11am, #6 opens at noon).
2. Pay RMB 300 and receive your Karl Long Challenge card with 15 beers on it.
3. Go to both Great Leap locations throughout the day and finish all 15 beers on your card. You can do seven beers at one location and eight at the other, or 14 beers at one location and one at the other. The combination doesn’t matter – the key is to get to both locations and finish all your beers. No friends helping!
4. When you finish your 15 beers, take your shirt off and take a picture with the bar manager.
5. Receive your special-edition eighth-anniversary GLB T-shirt available only to those who complete the Karl Long Challenge.
6. Become a legend.
If this sounds like a bit too much for you (and let's be honest, it should) never fear, because RMB 100 will get you any four beers on their menu, at all Great Leap locations throughout Saturday. What's more, at the #45 location, RMB 100 gets you any two beers on the menu as well as one burger or two slices of pizza from the daily slice menu.
Great Leap Brewing have also released their Three Door Tripel anniversary beer and the launch of their online shop. Check it out here. The busy bees.
The First CBAC China Craft Beer Festival
Founded in 2015, the China Craft Brewer's Association is a trade organization aimed at providing support and information for the burgeoning Chinese craft beer scene. They've just announced the first beer festival in China that features only independent Chinese craft brewers will take place in Beijing at TRB Copper from Nov 16-18. No international craft breweries or distributors will be at this festival, and in order to qualify for participation, brewers must meet strict requirements including; zero percent ownership by a commercial beer company; 500,000hL yearly maximum production; and made by a professional brewer using Chinese water who produces beer in China.
A huge number of Chinese breweries have already signed up for the festival, with big names like Slow Boat, Jing-A, and Great Leap rubbing shoulders with smaller and lesser-known breweries such as Lion Cat Craft Beer, SUNMAI, and Koi Brewing. See the full list as it currently stands.
More breweries will be announced in time, so keep an eye out on What's Up in Beer in the coming weeks. Tickets will be available on Oct 19.
Monster Mash Pumpkin Ale at Jing-A
China may be able to escape the Autumnal western plague that is Pumpkin Spice Latte, but that doesn't mean that the Trump-colored squash isn't sneaking onto any beverage lists. Jing-A has just released their fall seasonal amber ale, the Monster Mash Pumpkin Ale, with candied pumpkin and fall spices of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. At 7.6 percent ABV, it's sure to warm you to the tips of your fur-topped boots.
El Nido and Fang Bar Happy Together Again
Finally, some great news for those of us who get off on a swell local business love story: close friends El Nido and Fang Bar, both of whom were sadly shuttered in separate incidents earlier in the year (read here and here, respectively), have finally fallen back into each others arms, with Fang converting a portion of El Nido @ The Other Place's into a cocktail bar. The result is the most beautiful collaboration we've seen the birth of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt (pre messy divorce). Just to prove how happy they are to be back together, the whole shindig will be in soft opening as of tonight, with cocktails flowing as if nothing had ever changed between these Fangjia Hutong lovebirds. Let the beer and cocktails flow freely, we say!
You know what goes great with beer? Pizza! Heaps of your favorite breweries will be pouring at this weekend's Pizza Fest, check out all the details of how to get there here.
Images courtesy of the venues
