The Chinese city of Suzhou is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze Basin with a history that is more than 2000 years old. Known for its beautiful gardens, many of which survive to this day, the modern version of the city also boasts some interesting bars.
Paulaner at Kempinski Hotel, 1 Guobing Lu
The hotel’s bar contains the only microbrewery in Suzhou, and it is part of the German Paulaner chain. The brewer, Christian Liepke, explained that the brewing is done in two large copper kettles facing the bar and then transferred to the fermenting room, a separate room at the side of the bar but with glass walls so people can look in. When ready, the beer is stored in five large vats downstairs and then transferred as needed to three large vats near the bar, and these are connected directly to the pumps at the bar.
Sadly Christian uses hop pellets rather than full hops as he said these were more convenient for a brewery this size, yet many microbreweries use full hops as they know they give better flavour.
The Paulaner light and dark are brewed there. The wheat beer is imported in bottles.
Jane’s Pub Bar, 621 Shiquan Street
This busy ex-pat style bar is one of the better ones on a street full of similar bars. Tiger beer is available on draught and the food is good. The bar also sells bottled beers that are a lot nicer than the draught Tiger. The range includes Chimay, Duvel, Hoegarden, Erdinger Weiss and Dunkel, and Paulaner Weiss. And it has a pool table.
ZZ8 Loft, Unit 203, 215 Shishan Road
This upstairs pub specialising in American craft beers is quite small with half a dozen stools at the bar and nine tables with seating round them. There were goldfish in a large bowl on the bar. The craft beers were imported from the USA in 12 fl oz bottles. The bar also sold Erdinger Weizen white and dark, Schöfferhofer Weizen and Crystal, Heinekin and TsingTao from bottles and Carlsberg on draught.
The Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale is a 5.5% hazy red beer from California. It is very hoppy to the extent that the hoppiness broke through even when it was cold from the fridge. The Dead Guy Ale Rogue is a 6.5% beer from Oregon. This has a very malty smell, and on taste an initial bitter hit gives way to a lasting malty and bitter mix. Also a red cloudy beer, with sediment, so bottle conditioned. The barmaid said people who normally drink the Carlsberg all night are drunk after two bottles of this.
Finally, the 5.2% Brooklyn lager is again a cloudy bottle conditioned beer with a hoppy smell. It had a nice hoppy taste with a colour more brown than red. It was good though not as good as the first two. Despite its name, this is not a lager.
The bar also sells Brooklyn IPA, which the barmaid said was the best seller, which probably explains why it was sold out.
Dream Hollywood, 777 Shiquan Street
This is another upstairs bar, but with live rock music. It has Paulaner wheat beer light and dark on draught. This oddly comes from the Paulaner brewpub in nearby Shanghai, rather than the one in Suzhou, apparently for contractual reasons.
The Bookworm, 77 Gun Xiu Fang
The Bookworm is a cosy combined bar, library and bookshop just off Shiquan Street. There is also a pleasant outdoor seating area. The menu had a range of western and eastern foods, and beer. On draught are Sapporo from Japan, Tiger, Carlsberg and Guinness, and the bottles range from Erdinger and Hoegarden to Newcastle Brown and Boddingtons.
Books are brought from the shelves around the premises to the bar to be purchased and the barman packs them and will add the cost to your drink tab if you are staying.
HB Hofbrau Bar, 50 Ligongdi Road
This is the second of the German Hofbrau chain in China and the beer is brewed at the first in Jiangyin. They sell the lager, weisse and dunkel.
See also Bars in Shanghai.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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