From Chef to Brewer, Science to Spirituality
– An Interview with Sun Yunfei of Nanjing Arber Brewing
Read the Chinese version here: 从厨师到酿酒师，从科学到灵性：访南京酿酒树孙云飞
Sun Yunfei is currently the proprietor of the Nanjing craft beer brand "Arber Brewing." He has previously worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant, run his own noodle shop, and also worked at Master Gao's bar. This article will narrate his journey, how he transformed from a chef to a brewer, how he went from brewing at home in plastic buckets to achieving three stars in Tianlu Competition, and how he merged science with art and spirituality.
The Beginning
Sun Yunfei first encountered craft beer in 2014. At that time, there was a Ted Talk event in Nanjing, during which he heard a speech by Master Gao (Gao Yan, 高岩). Sun Yunfei realized that he might develop an interest in something hands-on like brewing, so he plunged into the world of craft beer. It's worth noting that he wasn't particularly fond of alcohol, especially a bitter one like beer.
Sun Yunfei's journey into brewing began with books, starting with Brewing Your Own Beer and then tackling the English original version of the "Homebrewer's Bible" – How to Brew. Back then, craft brewing was still in its infancy, not only in Nanjing but also throughout China. Resources such as knowledge, books, equipment, and ingredients were scarce.
Undeterred, Sun Yunfei sought guidance from Master Gao while starting with basic equipment like a thermos, cheesecloth bags, and plastic buckets. With these humble beginnings, he brewed his first beer.
His first creation was a Schwarzbier, a German-style black lager. At the time, he wasn't well-versed in beer classifications. He simply believed that black beer was distinct from the usual ones, offering richness, fragrance, and even nutrition. So, he chose to brew a dark beer, setting the stage for his brewing philosophy. This beer, continuously refined over iterations, was named "Baijiazi" (spendthrift, 败家子), and English name as "Black Sheep".
"The name of this beer, 'Baijiazi' ('Black Sheep'), has been with us since the beginning, starting in 2016. It has something that has been passed down—a black color. This beer has always been black. However, throughout our continuous brewing process, based on my own growth, the knowledge I've acquired, my beer preferences, and the messages I want to convey, we've adjusted the beer's style. It started as a lighter German Schwarzbier, then became a Porter, later a Stout, and eventually, an Imperial Stout. Currently, it's a wild yeast Imperial Stout that undergoes barrel aging and flavor enhancement."
This beer has also earned Sun Yunfei numerous accolades in various competitions, such as a bronze medal in the finals at the 2018 Master Cup and a silver medal at the 2019 Master Cup. In the 2019 China International Beer Challenge, Sun Yunfei's "Baijiazi" ('Black Sheep') earned the prestigious Tianlu Award three stars. At the event, he met his mentor, Gao Yan, who extended an invitation to join Gao's team.
After working with Master Gao for some time, Sun Yunfei decided to leave in 2020. Factors such as the pandemic and his desire to establish his own brand led him to create "Nanjing Arber Brewing". The location of his brewery is the same space where Sun Yunfei's former noodle shop, "Qinghe Zhai (清和斋)" was located.
In the Kitchen
A noodle shop? Sun Yunfei's background seems more complex than it appears. Let's rewind to 2017, the year Qinghe Zhai Noodle Shop opened. Or perhaps even earlier, back to the summer when Sun Yunfei began learning to cook. Sun Yunfei's cousin was the head chef of a five-star hotel. During that long summer break, Sun Yunfei, just for fun, stepped into his cousin's professional kitchen, setting him on the path of the culinary industry.
In Western kitchens, various departments and sections specialize in different aspects of cooking. Sun Yunfei proudly calls himself an "all-around" person because he worked and learned in every department, including the butchery, bakery, hot kitchen, Garde Manage (cold kitchen), banquet kitchen, A la carte restaurant, and the dim sum section in a Chinese kitchen. Sun Yunfei's initial exposure to fermentation was in the bakery and dim sum section. However, he admits that these bakery and dim sum experiences didn't offer a profound understanding of fermentation or encourage in-depth exploration. Nevertheless, his experience as a chef was instrumental in his future endeavors in brewing.
In the restaurant, he conducted experimental cooking with alcohol and beverages. Learning molecular gastronomy techniques has also deepened his understanding of flavor extraction and pairing. Besides, his time working at Michelin-starred restaurants and interacting with chefs from various countries and enjoying free drinks at the restaurant's bar all contributed directly or indirectly to Sun Yunfei's development in brewing. Particularly impactful was the Indian chef's practice of dancing and singing while preparing curry dishes. It profoundly challenged his thinking about cooking at the time, to the extent that it shaped his philosophy in brewing.
"When I first learned to make Indian food with the Indian chef, I followed a very modern approach. I measured everything precisely—how much to add, I weighed it all out, how to adjust the heat by temperature, and I timed every step down to the second. But the Indian food I made didn't taste good. It lacked fragrance, and it was significantly different from what the Indian chef made. I was troubled by this for a long time. However, when I tried to record more variables and more values later on, I discovered that you couldn't completely replicate it solely through measurements because there were many environmental factors that couldn't be measured. Things like the pot's current temperature and the time it takes to serve—whether it's served immediately or half an hour later—all affect the quantity of ingredients added. So, many times, being flexible and adaptable is essential to create a better product. I discarded all my measured recipes and began doing it like the Indian chef—using my palm and fingers to estimate, roughly throwing in ingredients, and the dish would come out. I found my dishes gradually becoming more like those of the Indian chef.
"When Indian chefs cook, they dance, they sing, they're very cheerful. I asked him why they do this, why can't you be more serious? This is relative because I also knew another German chef I worked with, and he was very serious. Then the Indian chef told me, he said, your mood determines how your dish tastes, and you can convey that to your diners. This made me feel that there's something beyond science. When I think about the current development of AI, it makes me believe that as humans, we should try to bring out what makes us human. I think most people still prefer things with a human touch, things with emotions, rather than just cold, metallic numbers. I think this is a way of communication between humans."
Traditional Practices and Spiritual Intuition
Sun Yunfei has researched various traditional brewing techniques, both local and foreign. For instance, he was deeply intrigued by a scene from the movie "Your Name" where a girl chews rice and then spits it into a container to ferment it. In another part of the world, in Mexico, indigenous people also use a similar method of chewing maize to convert it into Chicha, a fermented drink. In Burundi, Sun Yunfei found out that local women mashing subpar bananas, placing them in clay pots, covering them with banana leaves, and allowing them to naturally ferment before drinking the resulting banana wine using reed straws. Sun Yunfei even attempted to replicate this banana wine using the same traditional method.
"In China, most of the brewing of Huangjiu ("Yellow wine", 黄酒) is done in winter and spring, with occasional summer brewing. As I read 'Qimin Yaoshu,' (齐民要术, the most completely preserved of the ancient Chinese agricultural texts) it talks about brewing, and although the ancient people did not understand microorganisms, they knew they had to chase away dogs, isolate chickens, and keep the area clean. They knew they had to brew in autumn or winter, as mentioned in 'Qimin Yaoshu,' when mulberry leaves fall. So it's all about experience, intuition, and feeling. When mulberry leaves fall is obviously not on a fixed date. Mulberry trees shed their leaves based on changes in the natural environment; there's definitely no fixed date like 'it will shed its leaves on November 20th' because the natural environment can change. By observing changes in the external environment and judging their brewing environment, I think what the ancients did was very wise."
Upon careful reflection will we think, did ancient people and indigenous cultures understand "science"? They didn't even know what "yeast" was. From the perspective of modern humans, before Louis Pasteur's discovery of yeast, the step of "inoculating yeast" in traditional brewing might seem like a daily routine based on intuition and experience. They hoped that their efforts would absorb the essence of the sun, moon, and earth, ultimately producing a great brew. Even without knowing what "yeast" was, they had already grasped the mysteries of fermentation. In modern times, various commercial yeast companies isolate a single strain from complex microbial communities, reducing the "essence of the sun and moon" to a "single strain", which is quite a metaphor of modernism. Sun Yunfei believes that by exploring these traditional brewing methods, we can get a glimpse of what beer might have been like in ancient times. It's about understanding historical brewing techniques and experiencing the primitive essence of those beers, which can be applied in today's brewing.
THE SCIENCE AND ART OF BREWING
However, Sun Yunfei didn't initially sense the spirituality and intuition in brewing when he first started. In his early encounters with brewing, he considered it a pure science, a fusion of biology and chemistry. It involved constantly controlling various variables and numerical values to fine-tune the product. But as he continued to brew, seems like the Indian chef’s influence started to kick in, and he gradually realized that numbers weren't as crucial as he initially thought. Modern food science can ensure a certain level of consistency in beer production, but for small independent brewers like him, even the most precise measurements can't guarantee 100% replication. Many variables are beyond control. Blindly pursuing precision only results in uninteresting, monotonous products rather than works of art.
"Art, by definition, requires your emotions, your thoughts, and a message you want to convey to others. In the end, I believe beer is a bridge. It's a conduit for brewers to communicate with drinkers, to let others understand who the brewer is."
For Sun Yunfei today, he no longer fixates on the finer numerical details of brewing. Many brewers, when iterating a recipe, focus on controlling a single variable for experimentation. Sun Yunfei, on the other hand, doesn't entirely trust this linear approach because he believes that the real world is imperfect and full of variables that can't be controlled. His iteration involves repeatedly brewing and experiencing without insisting on a single variable. Since the real world is full of variables, most of which can't be controlled, grasping how a beer will develop comes through a comprehensive sensory experience and intuition.
Sun Yunfei shared some stories from brewing "Baijiazi" (Black Sheep). Due to a broken grain mill, he spent fifty hours grinding five kilograms of malt with beer bottles and his bare hands, feeling the texture and breakage of every grain. Concerned that the yeast might flocculate prematurely due to the cold winter, he slept with the 30-kilogram fermentation vessel in bed at night and used light-shielding material to bask it in sunlight during the day for warmth. These seemingly eccentric actions, he described as similar to a "mafia initiation ritual." Through physical labor and devout dedication, he turned brewing into a ritual. Sun Yunfei believes that this kind of devotion may not necessarily make the beer better or worse, but it imparts something beyond the scientific realm. "By simply pouring emotions into the brewing process, the final product naturally reflects your state of mind at that time and what you wanted to convey. It's a bit mystical."
Black Sheep
The inspiration for the English name of this beer, "Black Sheep", came from the works of Italo Calvino. Another writer from South America, Augusto Monterroso of Guatemala, also wrote a story with the same title. Sun Yunfei explained that the image of the black sheep in these two articles and in common knowledge is consistent: the black sheep is not deliberately trying to be different from the crowd, nor is it intentionally antisocial. It simply stays true to itself, demonstrating its unique attitude. While other sheep may find it disagreeable, and shepherds may believe it lacks economic value due to the inability to dye its wool, the black sheep continues to exist independently, just as himself and this beer do.
The inspiration for this beer also came from Sun Yunfei's experience working in Michelin-starred restaurants. There, he was exposed to various high-quality ingredients, and one of the ingredients that fascinated him was black truffle due to its captivating fungal aroma. Sun Yunfei believed that such a unique flavor profile should combine with a dark beer. Additionally, different truffle varieties had distinct characteristics. He chose a variety called Périgord, which grows near water and doesn't easily deteriorate in liquid. Sun Yunfei used molecular gastronomy techniques he had learned in the kitchen to extract the truffle aroma. He chopped the black truffle into small pieces and soaked it in his own distilled whiskey to create a tincture, which he added during the later stages of fermentation.
For Sun Yunfei, the batch of "Baijiazi" brewed in 2018 with his wholehearted dedication is the best beer he believes he has ever brewed. However, he also attributes much of its success to luck. Whether a beer is successful or not, a recipe can only provide a direction. Many factors, such as the quality of malt and hops produced in that particular year, the yeast's condition during fermentation, and the ambient temperature, are beyond the brewer's control. After doing what is within their power, brewers entrust the beer to time and embrace the uncertainty that comes with it.
REGIONAL CULTURE
In 2018, Sun Yunfei spent some time in a place called Little Havana in Florida, where there is a community of Cuban people. During his stay, a friend who enjoyed drinking and smoking cigars introduced him to various types of beer and cigars, providing him with a unique learning experience about both.
He learned about a brewery in the United States called Yuengling, which is renowned for its Amber Lager and holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving brewery in the country. Sun Yunfei noted that people on the eastern side of the Mississippi River loved Yuengling, but those on the western side looked down upon it. He realized that Americans had a regional identity tied to their beer choices. In contrast, in China, such regional affiliations are less pronounced, and people do not place much importance on whether a product is locally made.
Sun Yunfei also attempted to incorporate the characteristics of Nanjing, his hometown, into his beer. He believed that with China's rich resources, adding local flavors to beer could be a great way to infuse regional uniqueness. He once brewed a Chrysanthemum Brain Ale, inspired by a unique plant called Chrysanthemum Brain, known for its minty fragrance, that grows locally in Nanjing. During the summer, people in Nanjing make Chrysanthemum Brain and Egg Soup, which has a cooling effect to combat the heat. Sun Yunfei believed that this flavor and aroma were carriers of memories for Nanjing residents, connecting them with their childhoods. However, Sun Yunfei also pointed out that while locals loved this beer, it might not necessarily be approved by BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) standards due to the herbal and vegetal notes, which are commonly judged as off-flavors. This tension highlights the conflict between creative concepts, public preference, and established judging criteria.
During his time in the United States, Sun Yunfei also experienced a different kind of regional culture – microbial culture. In an orchard, he and his friends collected fruits, squeezed them into juice, and placed the containers in various locations throughout the orchard to collect wild yeast and bacteria. Lacking laboratory equipment like microscopes, they relied on their sense of taste to identify colonies with excellent flavors. Then, they used malt extract to cultivate these microbiota and eventually used the cultured wild yeast to ferment a batch of cider, which they shared with local people.
During his time at Master Gao, Sun Yunfei experimented with incorporating red yeast rice into beer. This was for a Christmas seasonal release, Persimmon Winter Ale, which required a red hue to convey a festive atmosphere. The commonly used red hue hibiscus flower could add acidity to the beer, which was not suitable for the style. Sun Yunfei remembered a dish he had learned in a Chinese kitchen – Braised Pork with Clove. This dish used red yeast rice as a colorant, and Sun Yunfei thought about incorporating it into the beer. By adding red yeast rice, he not only achieved the desired color but also provided additional grain starches and sugar sources, complementing the brewing process with a traditional Chinese ingredient and adding a unique character to the beer.
At his brewery, "Arber Brewing," Sun Yunfei not only brews beer but also produces various products related to beer ingredients, such as hop oil, perfume, soap, and more. He also distills whiskey. When he first started learning about whiskey, Sun Yunfei found that the brewing craft was quite similar to that of beer, with the primary differences being the absence of boiling and hops, and the distillation process. Whiskey production requires even greater precision in detail control than beer brewing. However, Sun Yunfei adopted a wild and unconventional approach to whiskey production at first.
"In my early days of making whiskey, we didn't add yeast. We let it ferment spontaneously, just uncovering it and letting it ferment on its own. Sometimes, fruit flies would get in, introducing various wild microorganisms. Depending on the bacteria, the fermentation could be covered by a bacterial film, like waves, or it could involve lactic acid bacteria or yeast. Since you never knew which microorganisms the fruit flies were carrying, it was quite wild. However, sometimes the resulting whiskey wouldn't be good because harmful microorganisms might be introduced. But now I've become more stringent with whiskey production to ensure food safety, so I no longer use open fermentation."
Presently, Sun Yunfei uses a 50-liter direct-fire heated copper still for whiskey production. His fermentation tanks run throughout the year, brewing not only beer but also whiskey wash, which he distills once enough wash has been collected. This process happens three to four times a year.
THE FUTURE
Currently, Sun Yunfei continues to refine his craft as a brewer. From being a chef to becoming a brewer, he sees common threads and philosophies that connect these roles. His early experiences and diverse background continually enrich his journey of expressing brewing as an art.
"My goal is quite clear; I want to make the world's best beer. That's one of my goals. Many people may find me a bit peculiar because I'm involved in various industries, and I want to explore different aspects of life and my career. I like the saying, 'Carpe Diem,' seize the day. We only live once, so we should experience different lives and careers, experience our own lives. I think that's what I want to do. But I need to excel in each thing I do; it's not just about trying something casually. For example, when I worked as a chef, my goal was to become an executive chef, and once I achieved that, I moved on to something else. In brewing, my goal is to make the world's best beer, but it's in a relatively narrow way, like winning 'the best beer' title in a well-known international competition. Once I achieve that, I may move on to explore something else."
Sun Yunfei's journey from a chef to a brewer and the incorporation of his rich experiences into his brewing process exemplify his creative and exploratory spirit. His dedication to his craft, his willingness to take risks and experiment, and his desire to connect with culture and the world around him through brewing make him a unique and inspiring figure in the world of craft beer.
As he continues to create innovative and exceptional beers, Sun Yunfei's path reminds us that brewing is not merely a scientific endeavor but an art form that can capture the essence of a time, place, and culture. His brewing journey from science to spirituality, from being a chef to a brewer, reflects a deep passion for his craft and a commitment to pushing the boundaries of what beer can be.
Sun Yunfei's story is a testament to the idea that brewing is not just about producing beer; it's about creating experiences, connecting with traditions, and expressing one's creativity. His dedication to the art of brewing serves as an inspiration for aspiring brewers and a reminder that the world of craft beer is full of endless possibilities.
updated November 2023:
Congratulation to Yunfei! For winning a gold medal in this year’s Brussels Beer Challenge with his Le Chansseur (which is the new verison of the ‘Black Sheep’ in this article).
