The male god of my college days, a tall Beijinger, the kind that didn't dare to speak when he was studying, I didn't expect that he could get together again after many years, he opened a very professional craft brewing bar, this time he came to Beijing, specially made an appointment to drink and chat, and walked into the deep Fangjia Hutong at night, and was a little timid in his heart.
It has been almost 20 years since I graduated from the Department of Broadcasting, Li Wei has become the "Godfather of China's Craft Beer", I have become a food blogger who is not doing my job, and our alma mater, Beijing Broadcasting Institute, has become Communication University of China.
As soon as we met, I smiled and said that after eating and drinking for so many years, each other was much more mellow than when I was young, and my Mandarin had long been unable to pass the first grade, as soon as he opened his mouth, his voice was still so magnetic, and he followed him to visit the bar and listen to him tell the story of entrepreneurship.
At first, it was just a chance, the old classmate became interested in beer, and later joined the Beijing Self-brewing Beer Association, and in 2015, the former Beiping Machinery General Factory was rebuilt into a craft brewing bar, named "Beiping Machine", and the industrial-style elevator and warm fireplace became classic design elements.
In 2018, Peiping Machinery built its own craft brewery in Jinan, and today, fresh beers with different flavors flow through the pipes, bringing a steady stream of joy to Beijing drinkers through 32 taps.
I think craft brewing is a niche enough, and he even opened a bar next door that specializes in sour beer! When he asked me to say that there were "wild mushrooms" there, I was thinking of the delicious mushrooms of Yunnan, but I was actually referring to the wild mushrooms of fermented beer.
Sour Tower is perhaps the only sour beer bar in Asia, with a three-storey tower leading to a cool elevator that houses some of the world's best sour beers.
I've been a wine lover for years, and beer is just a thirst-quenching drink, but tonight, I'm determined to rediscover the magic of water, malt, hops and yeast.
A cup of "Longjing Wheat" opens, with a light tea taste, fresh and sweet aroma, and "Hundred Flowers Deep" is the first IPA of Beiping Machinery to win the gold medal in the international beer competition, and New World Hops blooms with rich floral and fruity aromas.
Follow up a glass of cloudy IPA, a delicate balance of bitterness and sweetness, named hop juice, in fact, hops, listen to the old classmates from Germany, the Czech Republic of the ancient aristocratic hops to the strong rise of American hops in the 70s of the last century, leading the industrial revolution of craft brewing, suddenly understand that wine is dependent on the crops harvested by the land, and beer is an industrial product that can be precision designed.
The appetizers in the store, naturally can not be less, I have heard for a long time "the first pancake fruit in Beijing", today I finally eat, the fundamentalist Tianjin style pancakes, insist on using mung bean noodles to spread the cake, the filling is imaginative, I ate the version of braised pork, soft-boiled eggs, preserved eggs and thin crispy, so thick a roll, can only get started, take a big bite, and beer is a perfect match.
The pork knuckle is marinated first and then roasted, crispy on the outside and glutinous on the inside, fragrant! But the garlic with sausage is raw, and I southerners are not used to eating it.
The wine list for the night was entirely arranged by the old classmates, and I ushered in round after round of shockwaves on the spot, following up the comparison of the acidity of the two glasses, adding lactic acid and sea salt to bring their own soft, salty acid, and the legendary British craft brew BrewDog was extremely sour, like a heavy punch, the former with dry croquettes is refreshing, and the latter goes well with crispy fried hairtail.
To open a new bottle of wine, you must first understand the sour beer Lambic produced in the small Belgian town of Lambic, which is specially exposed to natural air during fermentation, and the wind blows the unique local microorganisms to give the wine a unique flavor.
The one that I opened tonight is, in the words of Li Wei, "the wild mushrooms have come to an end here!" Eight wineries blend old and new vintage Lambic into Oude Geuze, with a strong smell of leather and stables, like biodynamic Burgundy, the terroir of beer suddenly communicates with wine, so magical.
There are two different styles, the container is shaped like a clay pot, the fig macerate, sweet and rich, and the Cabernet Sauvignon blend, which seems to have barrel aging? I was a little dizzy and couldn't remember exactly.
Why? I drank back the double IPA and the imperial capital lag, smiled and said, "Transition", where to cross? The appetizer and the vegetarian dish were eaten again, and I vaguely remembered that the Shiping tofu was very delicious, and the lobster slices could be used for all kinds of wine.
The next day, I looked at the photos and realized that we had drunk so much that night!
I don't remember the wine we drank later, but I remember clearly what we talked about - we all eventually left the media industry related to our undergraduate studies, but did we really give up the ideals of our youth? No, not exactly, trying to do something tangible to broaden people's perception of this diverse world, or the myriad flavors of fine wine, or the various flavors of food, this is the practice of the ideals of the year.