My last two nights have been spent in the eastern Xinjiang city of Hami, which has a population of 670,000. After walking to the two big attractions in Hami, the museum and the King’s Palace, I took a different route back to my hotel which revealed a strip of restaurants, coffee shops and a craft beer dispensary. Fortuitous™.
When I stuck my head inside I was gobsmacked. Here we had a place 20 doors down from my hotel that serves 28 different beers. To say that I was excited is an understatement. The blokes behind the bar were amused by the overjoyed expression on my face.
It turns out that I had stumbled across the Hami branch of the Fresh Beer Fulujia chain, which has over 3,000 (three thousand!) stores across China. Fresh Beer Fulujia is operated by the Mixue Group that is multinational operator of Ice Cream and Tea shops (which are now in Australia).
The trendy looking bloke in the blue cardigan is Lu Han, China’s Justin Beiber. When I asked a young couple who he was they looked at me as if I had three heads. Lu Han’s name literally means “deer” and Fulujia means “Lucky deer family”. Lu Han is a massive brand ambassador in China but tries to keep the deer theme consistent in whom he promotes.
The beer is actually very good. The IPA would stand up against anything from the west. The chocolate milk stout was sweet, but had depth and the flagship “Fresh Beer” is a smashable Hefeweizen. I did try the pineapple beer as it was offered for free by the bar man, but it tasted like a Kirk’s pineapple soft drink.
This is a beer dispensary or takeaway shop. The blokes behind the bar very tolerantly let me stay and drink a few pints as they served a steady stream of customers grabbing their bags – yes, bags – of beer. The Chinese equivalent of Uber Eats were also picking up orders.
I’m travelling light on this trip (carry-on) and have eschewed any souvenirs other than bottle tops, but couldn’t resist a branded glass and playing cards for 12.9RMB ($2.77). The glass will come in handy for Back of the Ferry beer reviews that are now appearing on Back of the Ferry’s Insta account.
The beer fridges of Hami are largely filled with the same beers. The ubiquitous Wusu and from time to time the milk-skin beer, and other weird and wonderful Xinjiang craft beer in their colourful cans. In a restaurant two doors down from where I am staying they had a bottle of Yisenshuang, which come from (Y)Ili a town in the north of Xinjiang, near the border with Kazakhstan. A number of locals have asked whether I’ve visited Ili. It sounds beautiful with grasslands and mountains. Next time.
Fulujia Hami – 1 Renmin Road, Yizhou District Hami (This the address of the Hampton by Hilton but walk right as you face the hotel, and you’ll find the joint.
