Cheers to Craft Beers

In May 2015, as that year’s busy season for the beer industry was about to start, Taiwan Head Brewers unveiled two beers nearly a year in the planning: “Grain Rain” and “Start of Summer.” Each of these beers combines local tradition with Western brewing methods, creating beers that are distinctively Taiwanese.

The series is the brainchild of the three founders of Taiwan Head Brewers, Ray Sung, Jay Duan, and Leo Yeh, and consists of beers named after the solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar. Each beer is brewed to suit its respective season, providing beer lovers with a perfect choice year round.

Drinking through the seasons

By naming these and the beers that followed after solar terms, the young brew­masters and cofounders of Taiwan Head Brewers, Ray Sung, Jay Duan, and Leo Yeh, hoped to not only bust open the stereotype that beer is for summer drinking, but also create beers with a touch of familiarity for drinkers.

For instance, the first beer of their creation, “Grain Rain,” also uses Taiwanese oolong tea as an ingredient.

The “Grain Rain” solar term in the traditional Chinese calendar corresponds with a time when rainfall increases and the earth is left moist and fertile. This term, in late April, also corresponds with the tea picking season at Long­jing near the West Lake in Hang­zhou, mainland China, and the tea collected at that time has a reputation for quality. This solar term has more of a connection with tea than any other, and so Sung and his two partners decided to pair Taiwanese spring oolong with a Belgian-style pale ale for their beer “Grain Rain.”

After summer had begun in earnest, Taiwan Head Brewers launched the second of their summer beers, pairing a Belgian-style specialty ale with winter melon in “Grain Full.”

A Collective Interpretation of the 72 Phenological Terms, by Wu ­Cheng (1249‡1333), describes the “Grain Full” solar term, in the fourth lunar month, as being when “the crop is somewhat full,” which is to say that as we enter summer and the weather turns warm, crops begin to set seed, with the ears of grain growing fuller by the day, but not yet ripening. The arrival of this solar term has traditionally been a time of great excitement for the upcoming harvest among agrarian communities.

In keeping with the name and what it signifies, Taiwan Head Brewers aspired to make “Grain Full” beer a pleasing drop that is full of warmth. To this end, they chose a Belgian-style specialty ale as the foundation, topping it off with Taiwan’s own distinctive winter melon punch cake. (The cake is made by boiling down winter melon with brown sugar. Pieces are dissolved in water to make winter melon punch.)

Belgian brewers have traditionally added sugars to their brews. In earlier times transportation was difficult, so they used the locally available beet sugar. This is the source of the sweetness Belgian beers are known for. Now, half a world and a couple of centuries away, these Taiwanese brewers have similarly utilized a local source of sweetness, making old-fashioned winter melon punch cake their go-to choice.

Where “Start of Summer” is marked by a crisp flavor full of personality that people tend to either love or hate, “Grain Full” is more in the traditional style of Belgian specialty ales, with a touch of the familiar flavor of winter melon on top.

Beer is traditionally considered “cold” in nature, and so when winter rolls around, the beer market tends to start its low season. Taiwan Head Brewers, though, are determined to swim against the current with winter beers like “Start of Winter” and “Minor Cold.”

Putting out more seasonal beers to match the changing weather is an old tradition in the West. For “Minor Cold,” Taiwan Head Brewers chose to pair a British-style stout—a common winter beer—with cocoa beans from Ping­tung to produce a wintery beer that mixes East and West.

As the “Solar Term Series” beers continue to roll out with the changing seasons and flavors, already they have begun winning awards. Their first award-winner was “Start of Summer,” which took a silver medal at the 2015 International Beer Cup in Yoko­hama, Japan. But in contrast to the many flavored beers in the series, this brew relied purely on the basic ingredients of beer: malt, hops, yeast, and water.

Simplicity and purity are at the core of Sung, Duan, and Yeh’s plan for the Solar Term Series. Not only do they want these beers to be accessible, they also hope each beer will satisfy their collective desire as brewers to stick to the more pure brewing methods.

That “Start of Summer” so rapidly won international acclaim was a huge source of encouragement for the trio.

Leo Yeh, Ray Sung and Jay Duan (left to right) have launched their “Solar Term Series” lineup of beers, giving drinkers beers to fit each stage of each season.

Rise of the craft brewing movement

By day, Sung is an engineer for computer makers MSI, while Duan is head brewmaster for North Taiwan Brewing. Yeh became Taiwan Head Brewers’ sales specialist after finishing his military service. Between them, they represent the growing homebrew movement among children of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Sung’s love affair with beer started with a surprise during a family trip just before he returned to Taiwan from studying overseas.

Studying toward a degree in electrical engineering in the US, he took a trip to a small town in Pennsylvania where he dined at the restaurant of Triumph Brewing Company, a brewery over a century old. There he tried six beers, each with their own distinctive, complex tastes, and, bowled over, he decided to begin exploring the world of craft beer.

In his senior year of college, the now-32-year-old Jay Duan started working part-time at North Taiwan Brewing, where his uncle Duan Kow-jen worked as a consultant, beginning his journey into the craft beer world. After finishing school and completing his military service, Duan was confronted by a pessimistic economic outlook as the financial crisis of 2008 unfurled. He decided to travel to far-off Australia and do seasonal work to get by, visiting some 40 or 50 Australian breweries along the way. Since returning to Taiwan, he has not only continued to explore the world of beer, but also become a multiple award winner for his work as North Taiwan Brewing’s head brewmaster.

The youngest of the team, Leo Yeh, first got involved in home brewing after meeting Duan Kow-jen, known as the godfather of Taiwanese craft beer. While still in school, Yeh founded Taiwan’s first liquid yeast company, Yeh’s Yeast Company.

Passionate about cooking, Yeh taught himself how to bake, enamored with the feeling that came with watching each item come together from scratch. However, after dining at a few restaurants he came to see cooking as taking ingredients “from life to death,” whereas brewing beer is precisely the opposite: “After you add the yeast and hops, you can watch as the beer comes alive over time.”

These three beer lovers already knew each other through their shared passion before going into business together, meeting often through get-togethers organized by groups like the Taiwan Craft Beer Club and Taiwan Homebrew Maniacs. Each time they met, they would excitedly share their latest discoveries, all while quietly harboring their own ideas about going into business.

One night in 2014, while idly chatting, the three decided to pool their resources and make a move, forming Taiwan Head Brewers and starting their journey with the Solar Term Series.

With 24 solar terms, that meant coming up with 24 different beers. While picking 24 different beers from the hundreds of varieties wouldn’t be a difficult task, “instead we made the ballsier choice, basically like stepping up to the plate and pointing way into the outfield like we’re going to hit a home run,” says Sung.

Their first beers, “Grain Rain” and “Start of Summer,” immediately got rave reviews and flew off the shelves. The three figured they had passed their big test, never expecting that it would be with their third beer, “Summer Solstice,” that they would start running into trouble.

The company responsible for producing the beer for Taiwan Head Brewers made a mistake when setting the saccharification temperature, which decides the quality of the body and the sharpness of the beer. That meant that the body and taste weren’t what they’d expected, and all that was left to do was dump two tons of fully brewed beer.

So far, Taiwan Head Brewers have launched 11 of their 24 “Solar Terms” beers. “We’re not halfway done yet,” laughs Sung, “so there’s still time to turn back.” However, in the year and change that they have been in operation, the reception they’ve gotten has been beyond all expectations—initially they’d expected to sell out of all their beers by the end of the year, but sales have been far, far faster than that. They also began racking up international plaudits, including at Japan’s International Beer Cup, the Australian International Beer Awards, the Asia Beer Cup in Japan, and the World Beer Awards.

While the international recognition has been nice, the trio behind Taiwan Head Brewers are more interested in the future of craft beer in Taiwan. As they state on their website, their goal is to “create great and unique beer with local ingredients, creativity, love, and passion.”

With local ingredients like white-tip oolong tea, tieguanyin tea, Ping­tung cocoa and jasmine flowers from Chan­g­hua, the “Solar Term Series” beers are a reflection of the out-of-the-box thinking of these three beer geeks, and their hope that beer lovers will be able to enjoy a taste of Taiwan in every sip.

Taiwan Head Brewers’ second “Solar Term” beer, “Grain Full,” is sweetened with winter melon punch cake. The beers in the series offer a refreshing palate overlaid with local flavors like Taiwanese tieguanyin tea, jinxuan oolong, and jasmine.

Taiwan Head Brewers’ second “Solar Term” beer, “Grain Full,” is sweetened with winter melon punch cake. The beers in the series offer a refreshing palate overlaid with local flavors like Taiwanese tieguanyin tea, jinxuan oolong, and jasmine. (courtesy of Taiwan Head Brewers)

Taiwan Head Brewers’ most iconic beers so far, “Start of Summer” and “Grain Rain,” both pair their beer with seasonally appropriate Taiwanese oolong. (courtesy of Taiwan Head Brewers)

Craft beer is on the rise in Taiwan, and Taiwan Head Brewers have not only launched several of their own craft beers, but also opened a bar, Mikkeller, in the Dadaocheng area of Taipei.

Craft beer is on the rise in Taiwan, and Taiwan Head Brewers have not only launched several of their own craft beers, but also opened a bar, Mikkeller, in the Dadaocheng area of Taipei.

Incorporating local crops like oolong, jasmine, and Pingtung cocoa into their “Solar Term Series” beers has helped Taiwan Head Brewers show their love for their homeland.