Craft beer has exploded in China over the last decade, and Jing-A, a Beijing-based brewery, has helped to lead that charge. In 2017, Jing-A launched the first ever 8x8 beer festival, a collaborative brewing event to highlight both China craft and unique imported beers making their way into the China market. 

With COVID restrictions this year, Jing-A decided to capitalize on this opportunity and use it as a chance to focus on China craft even more, a scene that deserves every bit of attention. While in the past the brewery lineup has included eight Chinese breweries and eight breweries from a chosen region abroad to brew eight kick-ass beers together, this year, Jing-A has brought together 16 breweries from across China, with collaborations between North and South, East and West. 

Taking it a step further, Jing-A is highlighting eight up-and-coming Chinese breweries, pairing them with ‘old school legends’ to bring together a cross section of some of the most exciting craft beer being made today. Expect bold new beers, delicious food, tattoos, local artists, great live music and so much more. 

The 8x8 festival will take place on October 16-17 at the Yushe Entertainment Space, an event space near Beijing's CBD that's hosted this one-of-a-kind festival since its inception. Tickets are available in four different 3-hour free flow sessions, each consisting of 40+ beers to try for RMB150 in advance or RMB188 at the door.

For those beer geeks that gotta try ‘em all, tickets to the entire event (all four free flow sessions) are available for RMB550, and for an extra red one, the all-inclusive VIP pass (RMB650) also includes a preview rare bottle tastings session on Friday afternoon and an 8x8 gift bag.

Basic Event Info 

• 16 China Craft Breweries
• 136 Beers
• 4 Free Flow Sessions, RMB150 each (RMB188 at the door) or RMB550 for all four

Fri Oct 16:

• VIP Preview Tasting Session 7-8pm
• Session 1: 8-11pm

Sat Oct 17

• Session 2: 12-3pm
• Session 3: 4-7pm
• Session 4: 8-11pm

Who’s Pouring

All of the brewers will be at the 8x8 festival in person, so you’ll have a chance to learn the stories behind what you’re drinking – straight from the source!

• 楚门津酿 True Man Brewing Co., Tianjin
• 牛啤堂 NBeer, Beijing
• 悠航鲜啤 Slow Boat Brewery, Beijing
• 大九酿造 Maha Nine, Hohhot
• 半吨 Half Ton Brewery, Shenzhen
• 佳卡哈 Craft Head, Shenzhen
• 高大师 Master Gao Brewing Co., Nanjing
• 水猴子 Myth Monkey Beer, Wuhu
• 丰收道酿 DaoBrew, Chengdu
• 美西啤酒 Wild West Brewing, Chengdu
• 立吞 Hopscraft, Chongqing
• 拾捌精酿 No. 18 Brewery, Wuhan
• 香格里拉啤酒厂 Shangri-La Brewery, Yunnan
• 行匠 Tripsmith, Guiyang
• 勿幕精酿 Wumu Brewery, Xi’An 

Beer Highlights

Each session will have 32 unique rotating beers on tap (two from each brewery) plus the eight collaboration brews, for a total of 40 beers per session, or 136 beers total. 

There are some collab beers we are very excited about, including Craft Head and TripSmith’s Lemon and Kalamansi Iced Tea Gose, for which the breweries made their own yogurt to use in the kettle sour. Craft Head is also bringing a dry-hopped gin and tonic to the festival, a beer meets cocktail hop explosion.

We're also looking forward to trying Slow Boat x No.18’s 10% ABV Triple Hopped Oat Cream IPA, a funky twist on Slowboat's new Oat IPA lineup. To see the full beer list, click here.

How to Attend

Scan the QR code below to purchase tickets:

[All images courtesy of Jing-A]