Tracy Gan

It’s been a tough year for Hong Kong, starting with a particularly lethal COVID-19 wave that gave way to a slumping economy, political repression, and a surge of emigration that sent the city’s population into decline. “It’s a survival mindset. Head down,” says beer retailer Tracy Gan. “It’s about focusing on family, friends, and community to get through these rough times.”

That’s exactly what Gan is doing. Two years ago she co-founded a charity beer initiative, the Good Beer Project, with husband Danny Wong and Joey Chung (the marketing and events coordinator for the couple’s seaside beer and liquor store, The Bottle Shop). After developing a plan to release beers in conjunction with different charity partners, Gan, Wong, and Chung contracted local brewery Carbon Brews to produce the beer. The first two releases were a Light Lager called Captain Wonder that supports Run Our City, a youth fitness charity, and Char Siu Man, a lemon tea IPA that benefits Feeding Hong Kong, which helps people struggling with food insecurity. (30% of proceeds went to support the charities, and the rest were rolled back into the project.)

While the beginning of the pandemic was difficult for bars and restaurants, says Gan, it was a boon for retail outlets like The Bottle Shop. “We were incredibly lucky to have that business, so we thought we should give back and do something meaningful,” she says. 

This year, they’ve expanded the effort, bringing in five local breweries and a distillery through a new initiative called Good Beer Friends, where partner breweries make their own charitable releases. Danish cherry winery Frederiksdal Kirsebærvin donated several spent barrels to each of the breweries, which had free rein to make their own barrel-aged beers (or gin, in the case of the distillery). Sales of these beverages have gone to a nonprofit that recruits volunteers for local NGOs and charities.

Gan says it’s been a challenge to convince some charities to get on board, but she’s not giving up. “Because it’s alcohol-related it’s kind of touchy,” she says. “I understand. It’s not like I’m baking cookies. But just because we’re in this line of business doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make an effort to do something good.”

Words,
Christopher DeWolf