Welp, my friends, we've officially hit the dead-end days of summer in Beijing. Half the city is on vacation and the other half is phoning it in. It's balls-hot outside and muggy as hell, and the days are really slowing down to a lazy crawl. That's not such a bad thing. But that also means there's nothing much to do and nothing to be done about it. This is the time of the year when it's real tough coming up with that sweet, sweet BLGBLE content, dear reader. Luckily, a new craft beer place just opened out in Wangfujing. Want to hear about it? Craft beer? Wangfujing? Hooray? It's called "Drunk" and it's the latest place in town to show off their very own shinny beer vats behind the bar, and serve the beer they make therein. We're just about at a 1:1 ratio of craft beer places to city residents in Beijing now, but this one's in Wangfujing, which makes it unique, at least for a few blocks until you hit Slow Boat in one direction and NBeer in the other. With a place called "Drunk" that serves its own beer, I was expecting a dive bar with beer to match. It's not that. It's not that at all. Drunk is right at the intersection of Dongsi Nan and Jinyu Hutong. It bisects the brisk walk between about seven high end luxury hotel chains (Park Plaza, Crowne Plaza, Novotel, The Peninsula, et. al), and the massive, glittering, and unending Wangfujing shopping street, home to countless glass-steel-marbel luxury malls, and international brands like Gucci, Fendi, Apple, Prada, Swarovski, um... Swatch watches, you get the idea. This is modern, modern China. This is where tourists go. Drunk is three floors of bar, brewhouse, cafe, live music stage, film room, private rooms, and buffet restaurant. It's pretty full-on. Here's the tour: The first floor is an unassuming cafe space... ...with giant, floor-to-ceiling windows opening on to the street and a view of the Legendale. Which is a pretty spectacular building, incidentally. As far as a cafe goes, it's pretty standard. Comfy couch seating, illy Coffee signs everywhere, cheesecake in glass display cases, everything wood and greenery. Weaving your way to back, the stairs to the second floor open up into a bar, brewhouse, buffet, and live music area: So this is the second floor. It's all things to all people. Or at least it's trying to be. We got turned on to this place by a friend in the Homebrewer's Society and were just going to check out the beer, only to discover that the beer is a pretty small part of what's going on. Or at least, it's just one component. It's also a buffet. Plus stage. Plus private rooms. Plus electronic darts. Plus cocktails and coffee. Plus party room. Plus they have a tree inside. It's kind of like the bar version of one of those spas you can hang out all night in. It's kind of baffling. And a bit schitzo. Decor is like rich guy club house -- lux leather sofas and boardroom bric-a-brac -- mixed with backpacker hostel boxy wooden tables. This is one of the private rooms. In the other one next to this, they were having the monthly meeting of Crewcuts and Chain Smokers United, so I didn't want to mess with them. But whatever. Beer. *** This is the craft beer available. iPads. UGH. I honestly don't give too much of a shit about craft beer -- if it's not poison, I'll drink it; it's it's cheap, hey, even better -- but I know it's just tacky to be ordering it off iPads. iPads are for ordering McDonald's delivery and nuclear assaults, THE END. So the beers they make are sort of mixed in with a few imports they have on tap. Supporting documentation was not happening, which is a pretty egregious party foul in the craft beer world, methinks. Without really looking, we ordered the first one off the top there and were informed that it's for "fancy young ladies". So yeah, obviously, fuckin' eh, give it to us immediately in that case. Ah, Lindemans. I've previously had the pleasure. It IS for fancy young ladies! Delicious! The porter. A bit of a challenge. An "Athena" Pilsner. Not too bad. Pretty smooth. Both this and the last were pretty warm though.... Rounded off with a pint of Steenbrugge. Think this one's a bit rarer around Beijing. I could be wrong. It's pretty good stuff though. *** The Take-Away: Well, an initial criticism I'd have is the beer lacks a cohesive identity. The homebrew seems mixed in with the stuff they're already serving on tap, and there isn't really a consistent brand behind what they're serving beyond ticking off the boxes to having beer that covers all the colors beer can be presented in. It's got a ways to go. If I was someone who takes craft beer seriously and is interested in experiencing someone else's work, and knowing what they've created, it's confusing. What went in this? What's the ABV? If I was a customer that just wanted to try this "craft beer phenomenon" I've been hearing about -- say, indulge in a little brief cultural tourism -- well, hey... there it is, I suppose. In terms of the place itself, it seems satisfactory for their target demographic: tourists. Of all kinds. It caters to the whole family, basically, at every stage of their lives. When we stopped by it was wealthy guys upstairs in the private room, younger groups of traveling twenty-somethings in the band area, people on dates in lounges, and the wife and kids in the cafe below. Circle of life... *** Drunk is at 249 Dong Si Nan, Dongcheng District.