Everything you need to know about the BJ Craft Beer Festival

China's premier beer festival is back with an epic line-up of breweries

Beijing's craft beer scene has experienced huge growth over the last decade, morphing from a rag-tag gang of home brewers tired of Yanjing to a score of professional operations from both foreign and local brewers. In celebration of this growing community, and as a testament to their own respect for the passion engendered in every pint, the guys at Great Leap Brewing have set the stage for what is, hands down, the most significant beer event on the Mainland, the Beijing Invitational Craft Beer Festival (BICBF).

The Beijing Invitational is not just another beer fest, 'It’s the only beer event in China where you can find diverse representation of craft beers from around the world,' says Jimmy Selent, events and communications manager at Great Leap Brewing.

'It’s supported by the brewers themselves and [the beer is] guaranteed to be fresh – chosen especially for the festival and directly imported by us'.

In other words, BICBF is anything but a boozy free-for-all. Rather than hosting a range of local breweries of varying quality, the fest invites some of the most exciting craft breweries from around the world. Rather than skulling pints, festival-goers are given a tasting glass with their ticket, which they take around to the dozens of brewers stationed around the room for a taste and a chat.

Each brewery is invited with good reason – namely that they make great beer and really want to talk to you about it. It's a celebration of the very best craft beer in the world right now, and an opportunity to not only sample plenty of great beer but also to learn, share and gain a deeper appreciation for the art of brewing.

Great Leap head honcho Carl Setzer made the trip to visit many of the European first-time additions to the programme so they could meet the brewers, taste the beer and build a connection that would ultimately result in some serious heavy-hitters making it to Beijing for the first time. Lervig Brewery from Norway, ranked as one of the world's best 100 breweries, and Mikkeller Brewery of Denmark, which since 2006 has grown into a boundary-pushing craft brew powerhouse, will both be at the fest. Regional heavyweights from Japan (Baird Beer), Australia (Moon Dog Craft Brewery) and New Zealand (Yeastie Boys) will be back for more this year, along with the dozen or so new additions for 2018.

How it works

The festival is broken up into five three- to four-hour sessions over three days. Ticket holders enjoy unlimited pours from the attending breweries and have the chance to discuss the beers with the brewers. Each session is limited to 240 attendees, which means no long queues for the popular brews.

Housed within Temple Restaurant Beijing's Copper event space, an impeccably refurbished copper wire factory, festival-goers will be treated to a unique menu of canapés and small bites designed from TRB's award-winning kitchen to pair perfectly with the complex flavours of the beers.

If you're really serious about pairing beer and food, the Brewers' Brunch on Sunday 25 March is also not to be missed (488RMB per person). It's a five-course meal prepared by Temple Restaurant Beijing, paired with some of the rarest beers featured at the festival, and a chance to get even more face time with the brewers from around the world.

By the numbers

3 Days of tasting sessions and events.

39 Breweries in attendance.

213 Unique beers, all brewed and specially imported for the festival.

15 Countries represented from four continents: North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

200RMB Price for a one-session ticket. Three-session weekend passes also available (550RMB) as well as an all-session pass plus brunch (988RMB).

The Beijing Invitational Craft Beer Festival kicks off this Friday 23 March and finishes on Sunday. To purchase tickets, scan the QR code above or hit 'Read more'.

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