Drinkers have reason for good cheer

[Photo/China Daily]

Competition has been stiff. Aside from Western restaurants, bars and supermarkets, a local grocery store operated by a Shanghai businesswoman, who has been lovingly nicknamed "Beer Lady" by the expat community, has a whopping collection of 200 types of bottled beer.

But Yin is confident that the market is large enough to have "more beer ladies".

Euromonitor estimated that in 2015, China's high-end beer market, which is mainly dominated by craft beer, increased by 20 percent, but this still accounts for just two percent of the general beer market.

Average beer consumption in China is 34.2 liters per year, slightly higher than the world average of 33 liters. But analysts predict that tastes are about to change with more opting for more refined and expensive beer.

And by 2017, China is likely to overtake the US as the world's largest consumer of beer, according to Euromonitor.

"The way young Chinese people enjoy beer is so different from their parents' generation," Yin said, pointing out that beer is drunk in larger glasses and quantities today.

In fact, young Chinese are not only displaying a growing interest in sipping craft beer, but also brewing their own beer.

Li Wei, president of the Beijing Home Brewing Society, estimated that more than 20 provinces and cities now have their own societies for homebrew lovers, and the number of homebrewers is estimated at more than 10,000, about one-sixth that of the US.