Moo Brewpub 牛啤精酿酒馆

Article By Stephen Robinson

West of North Gate 3, Zone G, Shijia Xingcheng phase 3, Chang’an West Road
长安西路世家星城3期G区
北3门西侧
180-9280-0072
2:00pm – 2:00am

Average Price per Person /人均消费: 40RMB

We’ve reviewed many different bars at the magazine over the years, and in doing so, we’ve discovered a trend. Bars have been getting fancier over the years, and prices across the board have been rising, to the point where a single night out is going to cost you a pretty penny if you are going to remotely approach having a good time. While in many cases, this has led to improved quality and service, it can be a bit difficult to justify a regular trips where you return home with a significant dent in your pocket. The other side of the spectrum, where cheap drinks remain, are often serve drinks so bad that many cringe at the thought of them. What’s needed is a place that strikes a happy medium, somewhere where you can have a few drinks, have a good time, and not regret (most) of your decisions the next day. A place like Moo Brewpub.
Located just down the road from the TV Tower, Moo Brewpub is a place you might miss if you weren’t looking for it. Located in a small block of shops, this bar has a nice little outdoor patio with an awning for those nice days where you just want to sit outside and have a few drinks. Once you walk inside, the first thing that you will notice are the large brewing vats just to the right of the door. This is where the magic happens, as all of the beers on tap are made in house, with the types of beer rotating depending on the season and the brewer’s mood (and whether or not his most recent experiment has worked or not). While the place isn’t huge, it can host a decent number of people with a main seating area that holds about 16 and another room that can hold 6-8 people. The room in the back is very colorful, with lots of interesting decorations, like Lego motorcycles, and picture of the owner and his clientele. The owner also had his Harley parked out front, so if you’re a fan of motorcycles, you might want to check this place out just for that.
As a brewpub, and as represented by the vats, one of the main offerings here is beer. At the time that I reviewed the place, there were just 2 beers on offer, as they were in the midst of brewing up a new batch. The first beer that I tried was a wheat beer, which was cloudy and cold, with just a slight sweetness and a nice hoppy finish. The second beer that I tried was a strawberry beer, and while it was a bit sweet for my personal taste, it still tasted good, with a fresh, sweet strawberry flavor. Definitely something to try if you like things on the sweeter side. The owner, Jiang, said that they were currently working on an American IPA, and to come try it once it was finished.
In addition to the beer, Moo Brewpub also provides food, with a wide variety of foods to snack on or eat while you are downing pint after pint. The menu includes Harbin Red Sausage with pickles, a nice smoked sausage that comes from China’s northeast province; handmade pizzas; lamb chops and steak. It’s really an eclectic list of items, but the one thing that they have in common is that they go well with beer and are made in house. Since I’d already had dinner before arriving, we opted to just have some of the Harbin Red Sausage, as it would go best with the wheat beer. The sausage was sliced thin, and lightly fried to give them a bit of a crisp. Paired with a beer, you could easily sit there for hours, just doing sausage and beer.
One of the best things about this place is how affordable it is. The wheat beers came in at 20RMB a glass, and the most expensive beer on the menu was only 45RMB, well below the price you’d pay elsewhere. Overall, this is a good place if you’re looking for a more intimate setting to hang out with some good friends and have a few drinks for a cheap night out. The owner is very accommodating and generally tries to make sure that everyone is happy, making this a place to check out. If you do, I hope you enjoy it.

Stephen Robinson is the editor-in-chief at xianease and would love to get your thoughts on everything we are doing. You can contact him at stephen@hershelbernhar