Shawn Dean James Kidd hasn’t just watched Taiwan slowly, steadily, increasingly embrace craft beer over the past two decades—he has helped make it happen.
A Canadian expat who relocated to Taipei in the early ’00s, Kidd has at one point or another had a hand in just about every level of the local beer business. He’s the head brewer at Taipei craft brewery 886 Beer Co, which he says is set for a resurgence in 2020. He has owned or had a stake in several beer bars over the years, and currently runs Local Craft Beer House, a laid-back, no-frills bar with 13 taps located in the lively Da’an District. Kidd is the founder of East Drinks West, one of Taiwan’s most successful import/distribution companies; its US-heavy roster of breweries includes Evil Twin, Oskar Blues, Three Weavers, Green Flash, Stillwater Artisanal, and Abomination Brewing, among others.
Finally, Kidd is also the driving force behind CraftConAsia, an annual beer bash that in just two years has become one of the region’s premier craft beer festivals. Last year more than 40 local and international breweries participated, and this year’s event sounds like it’ll be even bigger.
I last saw Kidd on an epic night out in Taipei in January ’19, one which began with him generously digging deep into his stash of rare Evil Twin beers and ended with cans of PBR and Oskar Blues at Eastside, the city’s tiniest beer bar. Here we catch up with a brief chat about the evolution of Taipei craft beer, and how CraftConAsia is helping connect Taiwan to the global beer community.
Beer Travelist: How was CraftConAsia this year, or should I say last year?
Shawn Dean James Kidd: It was even better than we expected. We ended up with almost 2,000 ticket holders through the door, which made it feel like you were winding your way through a packed music festival, squeezing and weaving through the crowd all day long. Our goal was to make CraftConAsia feel like beer festivals we used to love attending back in North America—loud music, amazing food vendors, and tons of craft beer! We hope this means that this year we’ll need to expand the festival to a larger venue.
Lucky for us we had zero surprises that set us back, minus a close call with a food truck almost wedging itself into the main door as it pulled into the venue at 10am. It could have made getting in and out an… interesting affair.
The demographic was amazing, a nice range of attendees from 19 to 65+ years old. The only reason we know this is because we must give a seniors discount, and a few were actually sold. There were people from all over the world; I heard more languages spoken over those eight hours than I have in a long time.
BT: How did CraftConAsia originally come about, and how has it changed over the years?
Kidd: We love craft beer, and we’ve always thrown events and smaller festivals that had it as a focal point. We have an events background, too, so the transition from music events to craft beer festivals made sense. Over the years we slowly gravitated the focus from music/food/beer to just strictly craft beer, with some background music and food to keep you going. We’re really excited for 2020 and already are working on to make it bigger and better.
BT: What do you enjoy most about throwing a large-scale festival like this?
Kidd: I think the most exciting part about CraftConAsia for me are the connections made with breweries both in Taiwan and internationally. It’s allowed us to use some of our relationships through importing with East Drinks West, as well as our continual attendance at SEA Brew since 2015, to build on those relationships, and grow from them.
That being said we love collaborating. At our first CraftConAsia in 2018, The Swaen, White Labs, and Yakima Chief Hops sponsored us to brew collaboration beers with various breweries attending the event. We decided to brew two collabs with four different breweries for each beer, which turned out to be quite the production considering they were spread out across Asia. But we ended up producing two amazing beers with some great breweries, and gave those away at the event.
These are the kinds of things we hope we can grow and improve upon, and we want to help facilitate engagement like this between other local and international breweries for future events.
BT: How often do overseas breweries approach you about exporting to Taiwan? Are there specific beer styles that move better in the country than others?
Kidd: We get a lot of emails from breweries asking us about distribution in Taiwan, but it’s really tough as we’re really trying to focus on growing our current brands in the market. The market is definitely growing steadily, but as it grows, so does the competition. There are new import brands entering all the time, as well as amazing local brands emerging and really dialing in their craft. It’s an exciting time in Taiwan; we see craft beer becoming more of the norm in both on-trade and off-trade channels across the island.
Related: In Singapore, Brewlander Founder John Wei on the State of Singapore Craft Beer
As far as styles, I try not to focus on what’s hot right now in Taiwan because as the market matures, which is happening quickly, we’ve seen that what sells really fluctuates season by season. We’re also seeing that price point isn’t as much of a factor in sales as it used to be—people have the money to spend on craft beer, and they are spending it.
There are tons of new SKUs coming and going by the day, which is really exciting for East Drinks West since some of our brands, like Evil Twin, are definitely more of a niche product, and that growing volume has opened us up to expanding niche breweries like that. We’re also able to take more time showcasing smaller breweries in Taiwan, as you can see with our newly expanded list of breweries we’re bringing in this year.
All of that being said, right now it’s still a hazy world out there.
BT: What’s most challenging about the beer import business in Taiwan? Has it gotten easier compared to when you first launched East Drinks West in 2013?
Kidd: I think that like anywhere else in the world the most challenging aspect is keeping a brand going, and selling those same SKUs over and over again. With the insurgence of all these new breweries and beers, everyone is excited to always try new things, so figuring out how to create a long-lasting spot for a certain beer or brewery in the marketplace has become an issue that, I think, most of us feel globally.
The business as a whole has definitely gotten easier over the years. If the market was this mature when I started, I might not have jumped into the bar business at the same time back in 2013. But I think it’s been a natural evolution of growth since I started.
BT: You’ve been in Taiwan for some time now. As you’ve said there’s obviously a lot more craft beer than when you first arrived, but aside from volume, is there anything surprising about the ways in which the Taipei craft beer scene has evolved?
Kidd: At the risk of dating myself, it’s definitely been a few years. I first landed in 1999 for a short visit to see a friend, and officially came back to live here in 2001, which lead to the beginning of what is now home for me. Originally there were the big brands and a lot of German/English/Belgian beers around. It took a while for the American-style craft beer to arrive, but it did in spurts from around ’03 or ‘04.
I think one of the most exciting ways the scene has evolved is the fact that you now see craft beer paired with all kinds of food concepts. The idea of craft beer and beef noodle soup 10 years ago would have had me shaking my head, but one of the most successful little taprooms in Taipei is exactly that. You&Me Bar has proven, to me at least, that craft beer works great with Taiwanese comfort food.
BT: This year CraftCon Asia coincides with SEA Brew. You mentioned that you’ve already started planning—is there anything you already know will be different?
Kidd: This is going to be a very exciting year for CraftConAsia and East Drinks West. I think 2019 put CraftConAsia on the map internationally, and we already have breweries from Europe and the UK interested in attending this year, so it’s a great start. Coinciding with the SEA Brew conference, and having all of the industry people in town for it, sets the perfect stage for CraftConAsia. If things go well, hopefully it’ll entice more brewers to bring beer over for our event, or at least attend it, and get to experience what we and our local breweries are doing here.
And as a little icing on the cake it falls on Halloween this year, so we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve to make this event even more memorable.
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CraftConAsia 2020 will be held alongside SEA Brew 2020 in Taipei, Taiwan, the latter of which takes place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Centre on October 29 and 30. Follow SEA Brew and East Drinks West for updates and ticketing announcements.
All photos courtesy of East Drinks West. SEA Brew logo courtesy of SEA Brew.
