Roll out the barrel

[Photo provided to China Daily]

For would be craft-beer makers in China, one hurdle is that under current regulations a brewery is not allowed to bottle and sell beer if it cannot produce at least 12,000 bottles of beer an hour, far higher than most microbreweries are producing now.

"There should be no limit on how much great beer a brewery can produce, but expecting a new brand to start at an industrial scale is something that China will have to reconsider as our market expands," Setzer says.

"If you see a Chinese craft beer in a bottle, it means that it was either a) a special edition, one-time small release (we occasionally do this), b) made through a contract brewery with a large bottling facility and generally little input from the actual craft brewers themselves, or c) produced at a factory in the United States."

Thus most microbreweries serve tap beers on their premises, and you will find local craft beers are mostly in kegs, with few in bottles and cans.

Gao says little governmental attention has been paid to fostering the craft beer industry.

"Our first brewery was shut down by the government. So we turned to use a third-party brewery or, say, a contract brewery, to bottle some of our beers.

"It would be really good for the industry if it got some government backing."