Slow Boat beers now available in Shanghai

One of Beijing's finest microbreweries, Slow Boat Brewery, are bringing their beers to Shanghai. Slow Boat's The First Immortal Double IPA (8.0 per cent) and the Zombie Pirate Pale Ale (4.75 per cent) are now available from venues across town including DADA, Hai by Goga, Staxx, I Love Shanghai, The Beaver and Jackie's Beer Nest. These will be followed in mid-April by the brewery's new Eight Six Golden Lager (4.6 per cent).

Although bottling of unpasteurised product is illegal in China - which means beers have to be treated or filtered before they're put into bottles, thus killing the yeast which gives most their flavour - Slow Boat's Chandler Jurinka has got around this problem by buying up a failing brewery in the US and having them produce Slow Boat's beers abroad before importing them back to China (the law over pasteurisation does not apply to imports).

The mild Zombie Pirate Pale Ale (40RMB) has a hoppy nose and a sweet, biscuit-like finish, while the citrusy, powerful First Immortal Double IPA (45RMB) is described by Jurinka as a 'beer-lover's beer'.

The Beijing-backed beers add to a healthy and growing microbrewery scene in Shanghai (which you can read more about here), something which will be celebrated as part of next month's Shanghai International Beer Festival.