Last post has been stuck in moderation queue for a few days now so not sure when this one will pop up, but have good news. BeerBaby from Shanghai just announced they're opening a store in Hangzhou on the 28th (a 2nd store, actually, but this one is in a more accessible location, actually only a few minutes walk from me). Pretty pumped - they're apparently going to have 2,000 different beers ranging in price all the way up to 5800 yuan.
I also started trying the craft beers I bought on Taobao. Wow, pretty disappointing. I had two Shangri-Las and one Gao beer so far; the Shangri-las weren't anything special so far, but were OK. The Gao Baby IPA was... bad. Actually, it was really bad - muddled flavor with some weird fruit notes that did not go with the car tire background. Considering Gao is the most common domestic craft beer, I'm seriously wondering if this bottle somehow went bad.
I have some more Gaos, Shangri-Las and some other breweries to try out.
All my grains and such got here, but I was pretty bummed when my pot arrived. I had bought a 50L stainless steel pot and planned on brewing this weekend, but the pot that arrived was 25L; the metal was also ridiculously thin so I'm not sure I even want to keep it anymore, I worry about whether it'll survive a year. Taobao seller is being pretty lame about responding, which makes me even more likely to return rather than wait for the right size. Was sorely tempted by a 50L electric 汤桶 that comes with a spigot already attached, but the spigot is the smooth sort on hot water heaters so I'm not sure I can attach a hose to it: pointless? I thought I could save some money by using our awesome Chinese stove tops, but having a spigot might be nice. I actually saw some pots with spigots for the stove, too, but was worried about durability.
Another problem that has suddenly appeared is the temperature drop. It has rained every day for about 6 days now and the temperature is hovering around 6-10 degrees. My apartment has no heating and no insulation, so the temperature outside and inside is usually the same. I don't have the room for a fridge or water bath to maintain temps, so I guess I need to rethink whether this beer will ferment. I forgot how quickly the temps change here in Hangzhou, but it'll probably be 2-10 degrees for the next 2-3 months (at least when it rains).
This part of living in 江南 is pretty fun. We couldn't find a roommate so our second room is an Airbnb and we've had people from Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Wuhan this week. The northerners were all shocked that apartments (and clothing stores, restaurants, etc) don't have heating; one had to go to an Outdoors store to buy clothing to survive. Suppose it means I could try making a lager, but was hoping to get in a few easier/shorter beers before trying the harder/longer stuff.