The thing about New Year’s Eve is, for many, it seems like a once-in-a-calendar sort of event. But that’s not the case, and here’s why: there’s a second New Years Eve — the Chinese version — happening this weekend. Known as the “Spring Festival,” Chinese New Year celebrates the progression of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar (which just means a calendar based on astronomical phenomena). The party often involves lanterns, the passing out of red envelopes with gifts inside and, for you lucky hop heads, some even feature BEER (did you think any big day could avoid the craft movement? Of course not!).
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But where are celebrations happening? And what’s going on? Are you invited? We’ll tell you, but remember: during all of these occasions, we want you to be respectful of the culture, the hosts and do not presume you know what’s best. Okay? Deal!
1. San Francisco
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While San Francisco will likely have a lot going on for the Chinese New Year celebration, one spot that will for sure have good beer is the party at The Beer Hall, a craft beer and wine bar, will sell a brand new beer made by the experts at Georgetown Brewing in Seattle, which was co-founded by Chinese-American, Manny Chao.
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The celebratory suds? A New Year’s Lager, which Georgetown Brewery’s Matt Edwards says, “presents itself with a golden straw hue and a white fluffy head capping it off. The lager is all about pleasant subtleties, balance and easy drinking.” Yum!
2. Seattle
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And speaking of Seattle, the newcomer brewery, Lucky Envelope, which is named after the Chinese New Year tradition, is making two new beers for a celebration at their Ballard neighborhood taproom. One they call their Buddha’s Hand IPA, made with citron fruit, which gives the beer a “unique citrus flavor” via the fruit, often used in Chinese cooking.
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But the other, perhaps an even more special beer, is their brew based off a recently discovered 5,000-year old Chinese beer recipe. “This discovery shows that there has been a pretty big proliferation of barley-based beverages around the world,” says Barry Chan, co-founder of Lucky Envelope. “Supporting the idea that beer has been everywhere and does not necessarily have a single origin point. And so we took the information from that paper and we did a recreation with a couple tweaks for the modern palate. Because a 5,000-year-old beer recipe will be, well, somewhat sour.”
3. Singapore
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Across the ocean from America’s west coast, Tiger Beer in Singapore celebrates Chinese New Year artistically. A few years back, they partnered with award-winning artist Victo Ngai to put art on their product. So when you raise a can to your lips you can see art and culture as the cool beverage washes down. Faaaannnncccyyyy!
4. Philadelphia
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In Philadelphia, Bar-ly is ringing in the Year of the Rooster (goodbye, Year of the Monkey and good riddance!) with craft beer galore (the place has an endless tap list) followed by a traditional Lion dance. What’s a traditional Lion dance? It’s a custom where performers mimic a lion’s movements in a giant lion costume. Fun fact: lion dances are often mistaken for dragon dances. The way to tell the difference is that the lion costumes generally only require two dancers, whereas dragon dances have longer costumes needing more dancers in each.
5. Los Angeles
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And in L.A., our favorite mice are getting into the Chinese New Year action. While we can’t accctttuuuaaallllyyy comment on the beer situation there — Mickey keeps a tight lid on his tap list— we can say that the theme park known as “The Happiest Place on Earth” will celebrate the New Year with a weekend-long, multi-cultural celebration including photo opps with Mulan, Mushu and the mice life-partners, Mickey and Minnie. The menu will be inspired by fare from China, Korea and Vietnam (and if they don’t have beer, smuggle it in under your I Heart Daisy sweatshirt!).
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