Now serving bottles (and bottles and bottles and bottles) of Belgian beer, De Refter, newly opened up in Courtyard 4, next to Janes & Hooch. De Refter is actually a Belgian import via Shanghai, and was opened by an American guy in that city; kind of a winding road back to Belgium on that front. In Shanghai, De Refter's been around since 2012 and is fairly well-regarded for their wide selection of Belgian beer. The Shanghai branch also serves gastropub fare -- hence the "Brasserie" in the title -- whereas this one in Beijing is strictly Belgian beers in a chic, lounge-ish setting. It's a dim and minimal scene. Two floors of seats and a DJ playing house music while you drink. Nnn tsst, nnn tsst, nnn tsst. Kind of feels like they're going for that breed of Euro businessman that goes for simple after-work drinks with co-workers and then dangerously extends that impulse beyond loosened-up ties into late night nightclubs. De Refter's like a transitional bar, getting you from work to nightclub, maybe. It's not a bad looking place. There's some rough edges around the construction, and it's still pretty sparse-feeling, but they've only been open a week so we can give them a break. But, yeah, you're going for the large selection of beer. The menu is something like... I don't know... 50 or 60 different varieties of Belgian beers, split up into tasting categories. Abbey ales, dubbels, trippels, lambics, and all sorts of exotic brews with staggering alcohol contents. SmartBeej took a blurry spin through a bunch of the beer sections on the menu, looking for interesting stuff to drink. Here's a few you might want to seek out. Starting off easy with a cider. Never had this kind before. Stassen. For a cider, it was pretty good. From their taps, this is a Keizerrijk van Bree -- a Witbier style beer, kind of like a Hoegaarden. It's on a buy-one-get-one-free special and thus tastes nicely cost effective. A Piraat -- a Belgian Strong Pale Ale style beer. Great for drunkenly tilting at drunken windmills. Finally, a Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. This is one of the cooler labels they've got. It's like a sour fruit maceration beer (cranberry, sour cherries and raspberries), aged in oak barrels. Almost more like a wine. And they pour it out for you and fill up your glass like it's a wine. Pretty neat. Nice touch: they had all the proper glasses to serve all these beers in. That's like a thing for Belgian beers. Good job, De Refter. The Take-Away: Well, it really feels like Courtyard 4 is bursting at the seams these days. For both eating and drinking, there's tons of really decent options already, but I guess De Refter fills a bit of a niche for this really specific style of boozing -- Belgian beers -- and it's a bit of a more hip, lounge-y incarnation of that than the Beer Mania just down the road. Service is good, feels alright, and it's a nice selection of beers. Not a bad place to loosen up your tie... *** De Refter is in Courtyard 4, next to Janes & Hooch, on the other side of The Taco Bar.