Booze News: Pi Bar Opening Party, Jing-A Announces 8x8 2019, Int'l Rum Day, Slow Boat IPA Week
Feeling thirsty? Wet your whistle with Booze News, our wrap-up of the week's best bar deals, parties, drink concoctions, industry gossip, and more.
The Opposite House celebrates its birthday with a reunion at Union
Getting an early start on the weekend, The Opposite House celebrates its birthday this Thursday from 8pm onwards, inviting a massive roster of former and current bartenders to their new bar Union (read our recent review here). Among the mixologists leading the party are Ethan Liu, Sunny Sun, Joy Chen, Michael Li, James Bridle, and Jack Ren, each of whom will pair up and man the bar in shifts. No entry fee – simply turn up and order the drinks you want.
Pi Bar's official launch party
One of our favorite new bars, the unassuming Pi Bar behind Taikoo Li, will celebrate its official opening this Saturday. Starting 7pm, the two Pi Bar sisters and their bartender cohorts will be pouring discounted drinks that include 30 percent off cocktails, long drinks for RMB 40, RMB 10 housemade baijiu shots, and jianbing to help you power through. For a better idea of what to expect, read our review of Pi Bar here.
Caravan get down to business for International Rum Day
Over at Beijing's rum capital, Caravan, they're preparing for a party of incredibly boozy proportions this Friday, Aug 16. As well as RMB 25 Cuba Libre's all night long, the bar will pour a different rum classic for RMB 25 every hour between 6pm-midnight. There'll also be music and prizes to keep your eyes straight. Expect your sugarcane-kissed downfall to look something like this:
- 6pm: Black mojito
- 7pm: Havana Club shot
- 8pm: Ti punch
- 9pm: Kraken shot
- 10pm: Pirate punch
- 11pm: RdM shot
Slow Boat announce IPA Week 2019
If beer's more your thing, you may want to start saving your pennies for Slow Boat's fifth annual IPA Week. Running Aug 26 to Sep 1, this year's event sees the team load their Sanlitun Brewpub and Dengshikou Taproom with seven different Slow Boat IPAs. Each day of the week, one of the seven IPAs will be discounted to a cool RMB 30 a glass, including their beasty 10 percent ABV Imperial Monkey. Fans will also get the chance to fill up on classics like Monkey’s Fist IPA, Moon Jelly Clear NE IPA, Imperial Monkey IPA, Qing Fu Session IPA, Widowmaker Brux Brut IPA, and the Knee Knocker Kumquat IPA, plus a newbie: the Okta Hazy Double IPA. To make sure you stay upright throughout, Slow Boat will also debut a limited-time Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich (pictured above).
Jing-A announce 8x8 line-up, launch two new brews
Jing-A has just announced the dates (Oct 18-19) and line-up for their annual 8x8 festival, their annual event which brings together eight Chinese and eight North American breweries to collaborate on eight new brews. The event will again be held at Langyuan Vintage in Guomao, and this year, they've even thrown in a wild card in the form of a craft cidery. All of the new beers will be launched at the festival alongside several of each brewery's other beers. The collaborations are as follows:
- Bravo Brewing Co. - Lamplighter Brewing Co.
- E.T. Brewery - Graft Cider
- Heroes Beer Co. - Finback Brewery
- Jing-A Brewing Co. - Stillwater Artisanal
- Mingri Brewing - Alewife Brewing Company
- Nanmen - Collective Arts Brewing
- Taihu Brewing - Brooklyn Brewery
- Yun Brewing - Thin Man Brewery
As in the past, the two-day event will be divided into four sessions: one on Friday evening followed by three back-to-back sessions on Saturday. Each session will feature 40 beers, available for free-flow sampling over three hours. There'll also be on-site food vendors, tattoos, massages, music, and more. Stay tuned for more venue and ticketing details.
For something a little more now, drinkers have two new beers to enjoy starting from Friday: Yan Bing Bing (5.2 percent ABV, RMB 50) and Death by Passionfruit (4.7 ABV, RMB 50, pictured above). The former was made in collaboration with Brewful Life, a Chinese beer blog based in Shanghai and takes inspiration from both Beijing's pulpy orange Beibingyang and Shanghai's salty tangy Yanqishui, resulting in "a tart Gose with salted orange peel." The latter is a hazy, heavily dry-hopped pale ale infused with fresh passionfruit, giving it "juicy hop aromas and flavors that can stand up to the fruit’s tropical tartness."
Four hours of happy hour at Gung Ho Pizza
To celebrate their ninth birthday, New Zealand pizza makers Gung Ho have expanded their happy hour from two hours to four. Now between 5-9pm on Aug 12-25, you can get discounted beers (including Kiwi beer MOA, pictured above) and spirits when you head to either their Sanlitun or Shuangjing venues. Happy birthday, Gung Ho! For more great happy hour deals, click here.
China Bar Guest Bartender Series: Satoshi Sugiura
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug 20-21, Park Hyatt invite Japanese bartender Satoshi Sugiura to serve four gin-based cocktails at their China Bar. Skilled in the art of Japanese mixology and bar manager of The Odd Couple in Shanghai, Sugiura won the 'Beefeater MIXLDN' Global Bartender Competition in 2017. He'll whip up concoctions like the Corpse Reviver #24, Strawberry Milk Punch, and a Dirty "Mango" Martini.
Explore Italian Wine Regions
On Sunday, head to The Merchants to try some fine Italian wines between 2.30-6.30pm. Throw down either RMB 228 or RMB 400 for eight or an unlimited amount of wine, respectively, under the guidance of Jinglin, one of only two Italian wine experts in China, and a Master of Wine candidate. She’ll walk attendees through seven major wine regions, conducting a tasting of over 45 different wines, including organic and biodynamic wine, orange wine, and other unique vintages.
Beer Mania in the process of being overhauled
Finally, Beer Mania on Nan Sanlitun Lu is in the process of being gutted. Rumor has it that Boxing Cat will have a hand in refurbishing the Belgian bar, which is set to reopen on Sep 15. Watch this space to see what emerges in a month's time.
Didn't hear? Great Leap #12 has officially reopened!
Photos: Uni You, courtesy of the bars, verdict.co.uk, Tom Arnstein
