It had to be a mirage. A large frosted glass full of beer with a frothy head standing ten metres high in the Gobi desert, as the sands beneath were being blown into small drifts by the strong winds.

I had been travelling for two weeks along the Karakoram Highway through Pakistan into China and not a drop of beer had passed my lips. Apart from the can of Murree Lager that I had picked up from a insalubrious hole in the wall in the back streets of Islamabad, but that barely counted as beer as the sickly sweet Pakistani liquor had a quicker than usual passage into a nearby toilet bowl.

But this was unmistakably a massive advertising board for Tsingtao. The national beer of China. In the middle of the desert. A sign that my beer drought was about to end. Later that evening, having made it through the checkpoints and searches that are a way of life in the sensitive Xinjiang region, I relaxed in the hotel bar, knocking back many cold bottles of the lager from the small coastal town of Qingdao.

Almost any beer would have tasted good, well, maybe not Murree Lager, but Tsingtao was perfect. Produced in what was once the main German colony on the Chinese mainland, a combination of local yeast, barley, mineral water and rice results in a tasty and thirst quenching brew. OK, it would not exactly pass the Reinheitsgebot (German Beer purity law) but I knew it as one of the most reliable and tasty brews in the country. That was until I got to the capital, Beijing.

It may have taken China a few years longer than other countries to experience the pleasures of craft beers, but it is now in catch-up mode. Small breweries are springing up across the country. Nanjing has Master Gao, Shenzhen has Taps, Shanghai has Boxing Cat (the latter recently purchased by the global Anheuser-Busch conglomerate who clearly recognise a money making opportunity when they see one, if not always a quality beer with their flagship ale being Budweiser), but it is in Beijing that most of the small breweries are concentrated in.

It was too good an opportunity to miss, and I spent a week sampling beers at a number of breweries around the city, and here are the Far Flung Places top three breweries in Beijing. In reverse order, they are:

It might give you a headache if you drink too much, an advert for Airpocalypse Ale

#3. 京 A Jiang A

FFP: Expats from outside of China mostly love beer of course, but how has Slow Boat found the reaction from local Beijingers?

FFP: What is the story behind Peanut Butter Destroyer, a rather unusual beer?

“ We’re always trying out new approaches to beers we’ve done in the past. It keeps us engaged and laughing. Kind of a way to entertain ourselves. Anyway, Daniel (Daniel Herbert, the co-founder and co-brewer) came up with the idea of doing a peanut butter and jelly beer and we all just looked at him in disbelief. Taking it as a challenge, he set out to prove us wrong. Using real peanut butter with lots and lots of pureed strawberry, I think Daniel did a damn nice job of making a very balanced PB&J Pale Ale.”

FFP: How difficult is it to run a small brewery in China?

“The raw materials for brewing are readily available and demand is growing, however the regulatory environment has not kept up with the market. Regulation still favors large scale brewing which is unfortunate because all of the innovation is being done at the nano-level.”

FFP: What are the future plans for Slowboat beers, as well as the brewery, in China?

“We just released “Luchador on a boat”, a Mexican Saison made with avocado honey, cumin, coriander, lime zest and tequila soaked chilies. This years seasonal brews are going to be seaweed pale ale, Maple bacon golden ale, and a chocolate sea-salt stout. And for the first time, we will begin actively distributing our beers to other provinces."

Even hunter gatherers made time for a beer, Mijiaya Neolithic Ale