I had to test a simple hypothesis: was the world’s best-selling beer the world’s best-tasting? This seemed like simple logic, as surely something that accounts for around one-in-20 of every beer brewed and drunk in the world has to taste good. I did the research for a previous my blog—The Best Beer in the World, which covers a few of the entries that are also in The Beer Bucket List in greater detail—and you can probably guess the answer to my theory was that it isn’t a delicious beer. In fact, far from being the best, it was more like the worst. Regardless, I think it’s worthy of a tick for being the biggest-selling brew. I’d also suggest that drinking the other nine of the top 10 best-selling brews is worth doing, if only to recalibrate the palate and realize exactly what the majority of the world are drinking every day while we’re hunting out the best hoppy brews. The Top 10 in 2017 were Snow, Tsingtao, Bud Light, Budweiser, Skol (Brazil), Yanjing, Heineken, Harbin, Brahma, and Coors Light.
Drink Snow In China Have You Drunk The World’s Best-Selling Beer? Photo Gallery
Chinese Craft Beer
China is the world’s biggest beer market by volume and brews four of the 10 best-selling beers in the world. Interestingly, the megabrew and economy side of the industry is contracting and premium and import beers are experiencing growth, where the Chinese middle-class mentality of wanting quality, or perceived quality, has affected drinking habits, with foreign or foreign-style brews and brewpubs having a high-status appeal. If you go to the big cities, you’ll be able to find some excellent breweries and brewpubs.
Great Leap Brewing was Beijing’s first craft brewery when it opened in 2010. They have three brewpubs in the city, but go to their Hutong location (DouJiao Hutong 6, Beijing), which is hidden down an old alleyway. This is a nice east-meets-west mix of old China and new craft brews that’s distinctly local to this part of the world. Great Leap is also notable for using local ingredients, including Chinese hops (try Pale Ale #6, which is made with 100 percent Chinese ingredients). In Beijing, there’s also the exceptional Jing-A (1949 The Hidden City, Courtyard 4, Gongti Bei Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing) who use a lot of local ingredients in their exceptional beers. In Shanghai, the well-established Boxing Cat Brewery was bought by AB-InBev in early 2017, which tells you how important the big guys think the growing Chinese market is. They have three brewpubs in Shanghai—visit www.boxingcatbrewery.com for details. If I’m in the city, then I’ll still be drinking their beers.
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