Millennials’ taste for designer beer adds fresh fizz to China’s boutique and old breweries

Chinese millennials are reaching deep into their pockets for a taste of the exotic, adding new fizz to the designer beers brewed by some of the country’s boutique and microbreweries.

The excitement is not limited to imports or premium beers. Even a century-old brew like Harbin Beer -- produced by China’s oldest surviving brewery -- has found a new lease of life as one of China’s top 10 alcoholic beverages, and as one of the brands owned by the world’s largest beer producer Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“Harbin Beer’s recent rise tells us that Chinese millennial consumers are opened to old Chinese brands, as long as these brands can connect with them,” said Wendy Wang, managing director of Kantar TNS, a consumer brand consultancy, in Beijing. “Let it be hip or cool, fun or wacky, classic or tasteful, brewery brands need to cut through with a distinct image and message.”

The millennials -- the generation born in 1980 who come of age at the turn of the third millennium -- are the most important drivers of consumer behaviour in China, as rising income and increasing contact with global trends upend age-old habits in the world’s largest consumer market.

In leisurely dining and drinking, the millennials are ditching their forebears’ favourite rice liquor for whiskies, wine and beer, picking out the exotic, the rare and the quirky as extensions of their personality.

“Our main customers are younger Chinese aged between 25 and 35 who can afford a discerning taste for something exotic or different beyond the ones available at mass supermarkets,” said Marcia Li, owner of the 145-square-metre Papa’s Beer, which serves up to 400 different brews on Wuding Road West in downtown Shanghai. “Their taste is so differentiated as everyone is seeking a flavour that meets their personal taste.”