Beer drinkers warned they may get more than they ordered at the bar

    Fake "foreign" beers sold in some Beijing bars could cause sickness because of insanitary conditions in the brewing process, according to enforcement officers with the bureau of quality supervision in Chaoyang district.

    The area is home to Sanlitun - one of the most well known bar streets in the city - as well as many luxury hotels.

    "These beers are produced in small workshops with no disinfection process," said Wei Jinsheng, head of the enforcement team.

    "Customers in bars usually wouldn't check what they are drinking, which raises the chance of getting a disease."

    In a recent raid on a rented house in Wuliqiao village, officers found four men making counterfeit beer that they hoped to pass off as Budweiser, Corona and Carlsberg.

    The men were filling empty foreign beer bottles with Chinese beer and resealing them using a bottle-capping machine. Officers seized more than 10 boxes of adulterated beer.

    They said Chaoyang is known as a base of fake beer makers.

    In 2007, an adulterated beer production workshop raided in Chaoyang contained 7,000 boxes of phony foreign beer.

    According to Wei, it is easy to pass off fake beer because many brands have a similar taste.

    "Some people add water to light beers, such as Corona, which is quite popular among women in bars," he said.

    Officers said fake foreign beers are sold to bars for around 7 or 8 yuan a bottle and sold on to customers for 30 to 40 yuan a bottle.

    In 2009, the team handled about 15 cases related to the production of adulterated liquor, including beer, Chinese white wine and foreign wine.

    "I believe some bar owners know they are adulterated," Wei said. "But since they are cheap, there is still big demand from the bars."

    However, bar operators insisted they would not sell bogus beer.

    A man who answered the phone at "The Club" said they "never sell adulterated beers".

    "How can we do that? Our customers can tell when they taste our beers," he said.

    And a woman at a bar in Sanlitun, called Boys and Girls, also said they would not sell counterfeit brews. She told METRO the bar had purchased beer from a place called "Dinglixin", before another woman took over the phone and said beers were "ordered directly from the manufacturer".

    He Liang, customer service manager from Babyface, which operates one of the largest bar chains in Chaoyang and other parts of the city, estimated that about 100 bottles of foreign beers are sold every weekday in a single chain bar.

    Before the Olympic Games, many adulterated beers were produced in Datun, Chaoyang district, according to the enforcement team. Now, the sites are scattered in the outskirts of Beijing.

    Some bar owners say they are actually the victims of the producers of adulterated alcohol.

    Chad Lager has been running a bar named FUBAR in Sanlitun for three years. He said the fake alcohol problems seem to run along the distribution chain and employees.

    "Most of the bars do not try to make fake alcohols. At least the foreign bars I've dealt with. But sometimes an employee buys a bottle of fake Absolut, brings it to work and steals your bottle of real Absolut. Or, it could be delivery drivers or further down the chain," Lager said.

    Garry Lu, director of Carlsberg China Marketing Team, remains optimistic about their anti-counterfeit system.

    "Our marketing representatives in Beijing do regular checks on bars' Carlsberg stock," Lu said. "We only found five cases of counterfeit beer in Beijing in 2009."

    Wang Yuanyuan, a frequent bar-goer, told METRO drinkers may have difficulty telling the real thing from the counterfeit brews.

    "Well, I cannot tell the brand from the taste," Wang said. "I don't think there is much difference between them. If I don't order a cocktail, I would accept any beer handed to me."

    Zheng Tieqiu is another self-described "bar-worm".

    "I cannot tell the beer brand by taste, that's why I choose to buy foreign wine instead of beers," Zheng said, adding that a substantial number of apparently foreign alcohol may not be genuine.

    啤酒飲用者被告知他們?cè)诰瓢娠嬘玫钠【瓶赡苡屑佟?/p>

    朝陽(yáng)區(qū)質(zhì)量技術(shù)監(jiān)督局執(zhí)法人員稱，在北京某些酒吧銷售的假"外國(guó)"啤酒可能導(dǎo)致嘔吐，因?yàn)檫@些啤酒是在不符合衛(wèi)生標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的條件下釀造的。

    出現(xiàn)假啤酒的區(qū)域主要集中在三里屯（本市有名的酒吧街之一）以及許多豪華酒店。

    執(zhí)法隊(duì)隊(duì)長(zhǎng)Wei jinsheng稱，"這些啤酒是在沒(méi)有消毒措施的小作坊生產(chǎn)的。酒吧的顧客通常不能辨別真假，這增加了得病的可能。"

    最近，在五里橋村的出租房?jī)?nèi)，執(zhí)法人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了4個(gè)男子正在制造假冒偽劣啤酒，他們計(jì)劃以百威（Budweiser）、嘉士伯（Corona）和科羅娜（Carlsberg）的商標(biāo)銷售。

    他們正在向用空的國(guó)產(chǎn)啤酒瓶充當(dāng)?shù)耐鈬?guó)啤酒瓶中灌裝啤酒，然后用一個(gè)瓶子壓蓋機(jī)密封。 執(zhí)法人員查封了超過(guò)10箱假冒偽劣啤酒。

    據(jù)說(shuō)，朝陽(yáng)區(qū)是一個(gè)假啤酒生產(chǎn)基地。

    在2007年，在朝陽(yáng)區(qū)了搗毀了一個(gè)假酒生產(chǎn)工廠，共查封7000箱假的外國(guó)啤酒。

    據(jù)姓Wei的官員稱，因?yàn)樵S多商標(biāo)的啤酒味道相似，所以他們很容易銷售這些假酒。

    許多人常加水稀釋啤酒，如Corona,這在酒吧的女士中是相當(dāng)受歡迎的。

    執(zhí)法人員稱，假的外國(guó)啤酒賣給酒吧每瓶約為7元或8元，可到了消費(fèi)者手中每瓶賣30-40元。

    在2009年，執(zhí)法隊(duì)共查獲生產(chǎn)假冒偽劣液體事件15起，包括啤酒、國(guó)產(chǎn)白葡萄酒和外國(guó)葡萄酒。

    我認(rèn)為某些酒吧知道有些酒是假的。但是因?yàn)樗鼈儽阋�，仍然有較大的需求。

    然而，酒吧經(jīng)營(yíng)者卻強(qiáng)調(diào)他們不銷售假酒。

    一名在俱樂(lè)部的男士在電話回答中稱，"他們從未銷售過(guò)假啤酒".

    "我們?cè)趺磿?huì)那樣做？ 我們的顧客如果嘗到我們的酒有問(wèn)題會(huì)告發(fā)我們的。"

    在三里屯一個(gè)稱為"Boys and Girls"的酒吧中，一名女士也稱她們從不銷售假啤酒。 她告訴執(zhí)法人員說(shuō)酒吧的啤酒是從一個(gè)叫"Dinglixin"的地方購(gòu)買，但之前另一名女士通過(guò)電話說(shuō)啤酒是直接從廠家訂購(gòu)。

    何亮，Babyface酒吧的客戶服務(wù)經(jīng)理，其經(jīng)營(yíng)著朝陽(yáng)區(qū)最大的酒吧連鎖店之一和本市其它地區(qū)的酒吧，他估計(jì)大約每周僅在一個(gè)連鎖酒吧就能銷售約100瓶外國(guó)啤酒。

    據(jù)執(zhí)法人員稱，奧林匹克運(yùn)動(dòng)會(huì)之前，許多假冒偽劣啤酒是產(chǎn)于朝陽(yáng)區(qū)的大屯�，F(xiàn)在，加工點(diǎn)分散在北京的郊區(qū)。

    許多酒吧擁有者稱，他們實(shí)際上是假酒的受害者。

    Chad Lager在三里屯地區(qū)經(jīng)營(yíng)一個(gè)名為FUBAR的酒吧已有三年。 他說(shuō)，"假酒問(wèn)題似乎與雇傭者有一定聯(lián)系。大部分的酒吧不會(huì)試圖銷售假酒，至少是我掌管的外國(guó)酒吧不會(huì)。 但是，有時(shí)雇員購(gòu)買了假酒，用它偷偷更換了酒吧購(gòu)買的真酒。或者，可能采用其它方式促使事態(tài)的進(jìn)一步發(fā)展。"

    Garry Lu,Carlsberg的中國(guó)市場(chǎng)總監(jiān)，仍然對(duì)他們的防假體系保持樂(lè)觀。 他說(shuō)，我們?cè)诒本┑匿N售代表定期檢查酒吧的Carisberg標(biāo)示。在2009年，我們?cè)诒本﹥H僅發(fā)現(xiàn)5次假啤酒事件。

    王圓圓，一個(gè)頻繁出入酒吧者，告訴執(zhí)法人員，飲酒者不敢說(shuō)出假啤酒的真相。

    王說(shuō)，"我不能從味覺(jué)上辨別啤酒的優(yōu)劣，我認(rèn)為它們之間沒(méi)有很大差異。如果我不要雞尾酒，我將接受遞給我的任何一種啤酒。"

    Zheng Tieqiu 是另一位自稱"酒吧蟲(chóng)"者。 他說(shuō)，"我不能憑味覺(jué)來(lái)判斷優(yōu)劣，這是我選擇購(gòu)買外國(guó)葡萄酒而不是啤酒的原因".他還補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，"大量標(biāo)示為外國(guó)酒的啤酒不一定是真的。"