Brewer started small with beer at primary school
Editor's note:
The beer culture of Shanghai can be dated back to as early as the 19th century, with the earliest brewery in the city founded in 1896. Today, beer is no longer just a beverage but also stands for a culture in Shanghai. In this column, "Hopscotch," we share people's stories about beer while exploring the city of Shanghai.
Edited by Yang Yang . Subtitles by Yang Yang , Tracie Barrett.
The prototype of Raph Vetri's 12 SQM Beer brand started from a tiny 12-square-meter microbrewery in downtown Shanghai.
A 12-SQUARE-METER brewery in Yongpingli 永坪里 in Shanghai, possibly the smallest brewery system at professional level, was the beginning of Belgian Raph Vetri's move to large-scale production.
“I started my own little brand — the Twelve Square Meters Brewing Shanghai — from scratch,” said Vetri, who is also a chef.
“I love craft beer and also tend to prefer beer to any other alcoholic beverages. But there were years I didn’t like beer,” he said.
It wasn't until the 1990s that the Belgian government removed “table beers” from primary schools.
Table beer is beer with a very low alcohol content. It was served in school canteens with a big 750ml swing top bottle shared by four children per table.
“So imagine, seven or eight years old, we went to the canteen and there was beer on the table," Vetri said. "The best part is: we would help each other to drink the beer without tasting it, as we discovered that if we pinched our noses and also blocked our ears and our friend poured the beer into our mouth, then we could drink the beer and there was no taste. Few bottomed up and back to the classroom.” he said.
“Those years I didn’t like beer. But I guess that camaraderie around it was probably the reason why I started to love beer so much at the end.”
Raph Vetri is a chef and brewer from Belgium who now lives and works in Shanghai.
The beer culture in Vetri’s motherland is such that UNESCO classified it as an intangible cultural heritage in 2016. Vetri introduced it to Shanghai when he came to live here, while also involving local products such as using Sichuan pepper as one of his ingredients.
He signed up in a home brewing course operated by Mike Sherretz, an American chemical engineer, in the Pudong New Area, in 2013.
“So I attended his class on Saturdays and when I left I just bought so many things from Mike’s ‘My Homebrew Store,’ you know, containers, pots and instruments, to brew the beer,” said Vetri.
The 200L brewing equipment inside the microbrewery
His first beer was not so good, but eventually after two or three beers he obtained a grain machine. The taste was better and brewing became more interesting as well.
“In Shanghai there is quite a big scene of craft beer, involving a lot of home brewers, both expats and locals. It is not something that the Americans or Belgians in China are doing, you can see the vibe for craft beer is like enormous,” said Vetri.
The Belgian chef’s small brewery happened quite luckily: his partners were operating a pizza restaurant and ended up having an additional 12-square-meter room where they decided to put a microbrewery.
“I initially thought I would have three beers on tap — two regular and one I would rotate. But after a couple of months I decided I wanted to experience and brew more beers. So over the years, I just changed the machine and extended one more each time. At the end I had eight taps, two with nitrogen gas to push the beer and six regular taps. And there was a lot of fun,” Vetri said.
The pitfall of such a small brewing system, according to Vetri, was it made little to none commercial sense. The smaller the brewery, the less efficient the system. On the plus side, it was perfect for experimenting. If you want to test a recipe and you make it, what do you have to lose? Just one day of work and you still learn something.
“The brewery was inside a restaurant. The good thing is I could have very good feedback when I brew a new beer and put it on a menu. People ordered a beer and they didn’t know I was the brewer. I just looked at their faces and listened to what they said. Then they ordered again and I felt happy. A little bit of stress and finally it went well."
After two years Vetri separated the beer from the restaurant and came up with the idea of the logo of a floor plan resembling the same shape of the brewery and circling the number of 12 inside it.
Since he added the name, it was easier to target new customers and Vetri made the next move of brewing his beer in bigger premises.
“I also have the benefit of being a chef in the Shanghai food and beer industry. Maybe it’s easier to open doors. I called my friend chefs or managers: ‘I brew beer now, is there a chance I can meet you?’ ‘Yes, come.’ ‘Have a sample.’ Hopefully I was quite supported."
His first style of beer that won him a gold medal in the Asian Beer Championship was a Session IPA with a Chinese local twist of Sichuan pepper.
“Sichuan pepper is very iconic of China and Chinese cuisine for me. I once received a pouch of it as a gift from Chengdu City. When I took the plane back, it was in the overhead compartment. And I could smell it. It was so fragrant all over the plane and I was inspired that I might put it into the beer,” said Vetri.
Then he made two Saison beers and one Belgian Wheat Beer.
“Saison beers are a style very particular from Belgium. Saison means ‘seasonal.’ Back in the days, traditionally on the farms the farmers would prepare some beer for their workers. When the seasonal workers came, they received it as part of the salary, like 5 liters of beer per day for working on the field. It is also called Farmhouse in English.
“The Saison beers could be blonde, brown, clear or red, depending on whatever grains were added into them. Some were sour beers, probably because at that time sanitation was not that good,” Vetri said.
Belgian painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters, with farm workers carrying kegs of beer
On January 25, 12SQM Beer launched its new Belgian Double “The Trap Is There” with a 7.8 percent ABV at the French restaurant in Ferguson Lane where Vetri is working as a head chef.
“I noticed that brown beer is not very popular in Shanghai. In the city the best sellers are the wheat beers, anything with fruits, IPA, these are the big trends. So brown beer is like a good addition to the lineup, but probably not the commercial drive for the brewery. And it’s also quite strong. After you are doing two or three bottles, you become very happy quickly,” he said.
The original 12-square-meter brewery in Yongpingli has been closed and its neighborhood undergoing urban renewal. But for Vetri, it was a nice place to get started and fulfill a dream of beer originating from a 12-square-meter brewery.
Friends and customers enjoy a new beer from Raph Vetri at a restaurant in Ferguson Lane.
The night when Raph Vetri and 12SQM Beer launched their new Belgian Double “The Trap Is There.”
The styles of beer with the 12-Square-Meter Brewery
Raph Vetri (second left) takes part in a beer festival in Shanghai.
Terrace of the restaurant that included Raph Vetri's 12-Square-Meter Brewery
