After coffee, Guming stores have begun to test the waters of selling beer.

Guming has entered the freshly poured beer track.

FoodInc has noticed that recently, a Guming store located in Hangzhou has launched two types of freshly poured beer, including classic draft beer and triple-yuzu lager, with the actual selling price of 500ml cups being 12 yuan and 15 yuan respectively. A source close to Guming revealed to FoodInc that the company is piloting the sale of freshly poured beer in a small number of stores, but the specific pilot stores and the launch time of new products in different stores remain unclear.

This means that in the beverage sector, Guming has added a new product line following coffee. It is also another 10,000-store tea chain that has entered the freshly poured beer track after Mixue Group. Let's take a look together below.

"Sales Exceed Expectations"

It is reported that the aforementioned Guming store selling beer is located in the popular business district Hubin Intime in77 in Hangzhou. Its storefront display board also shows the advertisement of "Guming Freshly Poured Beer", and the store is equipped with a beer dispenser.

FoodInc called the store as a consumer today and learned that this store is currently the only Guming store in the country selling freshly poured beer. It is not clear whether the related products will be sold permanently or for a limited time, and no notice about the selling duration has been received.

According to Guming's mini-program, the freshly poured beer sold in this store is in the preferential promotion stage, and the actual selling prices of classic draft beer and triple-yuzu lager are both 3 yuan lower than the marked price. The products are sold all day long, not only targeting the peak beer consumption period at night. This morning, one of the two new products was shown to be sold out. "The sales volume has exceeded expectations. We need to transfer stock from our own warehouse, and restocking is expected in the afternoon," the store told FoodInc.

At present, the two beers launched by Guming target different groups of people. Among them, the classic draft beer emphasizes the adoption of "pure draft craft, Japanese-style low-temperature slow brewing", with an alcohol content of ≥4.8%vol, which is more suitable for groups pursuing the authentic flavor of beer. The triple-yuzu lager highlights "triple yuzu aroma" and "refreshing slight intoxication", which is more in line with consumers who like diverse flavors. Both products are marked with a warning that driving, minors and pregnant women are prohibited from drinking.

However, the evaluations from consumers who have tried the new products are divided. Some people think it is fresh and tasty, with good mouthfeel, rich malt flavor, and consumers in many places have called on Guming to promote it in more stores. But some comments say that Guming's freshly poured beer has almost no hop aroma and tastes a bit bland.

In fact, this is not the first time Guming has been "associated" with beer.

Previously, Guming was reported to be internally testing a canned beer called "Fresh Yuzu Draft Beer". The packaging of the circulated online pictures bears the logo of "Guming goodme" with a specification of 330ml, but there is no news of public listing for the time being. FoodInc learned from two insiders today that this product is not sold to the public for the time being.

Differentiation

At present, it has become a new trend for tea shops to collectively "sell beer", and each brand has different strategies.

Among them, Mixue chose capital operation, acquiring 53% equity of Fresh Beer Fulujia for about 297 million yuan. Guming renovated its existing stores and added beer dispensers. In addition, more tea brands have chosen lightweight innovation, that is, launching beverages made with beer or non-alcoholic products with beer flavor.

It should be pointed out that even if they sell beer directly, the "routines" of Mixue and Guming are different from those of large beer manufacturers. They do not just focus on telling high-quality stories with raw materials and brewing processes, but pay more attention to freshness and rich taste, positioning as "light sweet drinks" that can bring a slight sense of intoxication with relatively low burden, lowering the threshold of public acceptance.

"Beer is witnessing a trend of diversified flavors. Maybe just like the development of freshly ground coffee in China, it will derive products with local characteristics such as fruit coffee and tea coffee. Although the products become very different from those abroad, it can indeed increase the overall category scale and penetration rate," a beer industry insider told FoodInc.

In terms of pricing, Fresh Beer Fulujia and Guming have also targeted a more cost-effective price range.

FoodInc noticed that the price of 1-jin packaged freshly poured beer of Fresh Beer Fulujia is between 6.9 and 11.9 yuan, and Guming's price is similar. This price level is lower than many pubs that provide "freshly poured and freshly drunk" beer. For example, the unit price of the freshly brewed series of Ubrau Craft Beer Pub in 500ml packages is concentrated between 25 and 30 yuan; the minimum specification of the freshly poured series of Taishan Original Beer Pub is 2-liter package, with the unit price between 75 and 80 yuan.

"At present, fresh beer is in a critical stage of transformation from niche novelty tasting to mass daily consumption; at the same time, the craft beer brands of traditional industrial beer giants have relatively high customer unit prices, and there is a lack of national brands in the price range of 5.9 yuan to 12.9 yuan. Fulujia hopes to fill this market gap," Jia Rongrong, CEO of Fresh Beer Fulujia, said at Mixue Group's 2025 annual report performance meeting in March this year.

Seeking New Growth Points

For Guming, selling freshly poured beer is also an attempt to explore new growth points.

"Now the homogenization of the tea drinking industry is very serious. Selling freshly poured beer by Guming can not only create differentiation, but also seems to be an exploration to improve store output. After the peak of milk tea sales at night, beer can supplement the turnover of the store, and it is also easy to arrange takeout delivery. It is indeed a good strategic choice," a catering industry insider told FoodInc.

The aforementioned beer industry insider said that there is a trend of "brand decentralization" in the current beer market. Even if OEM produced by leading large manufacturers, some retailers' own products can gain market recognition only with their own labels. In addition, China's beer market has overall overcapacity, releasing supply chain resources, all of which provide favorable conditions for tea shops to sell beer.

For tea brands, selling beer also caters to the main customer group, the younger generation's demand for relaxation and self-pleasure.

According to the "2025 Young People's Alcohol Consumption Insight Report" released by EnData, the alcohol participation rate of the Z-generation legal drinking population increased from 66% in 2023 to 73% in 2025. The social media discussion heat of young people drinking alcohol surged by 219% within one year, reaching 7.499 million. Emotional value is an important reason for young drinkers to drink. From the perspective of categories, beer has the highest voice volume, with a clear leading advantage over wine, cocktails, fruit wine and other categories.

However, selling freshly poured beer in existing stores is not easy. The aforementioned insider pointed out that selling freshly poured beer requires adding equipment. If the original store is not designed to accommodate this product line, it will be difficult to add relevant facilities. In addition, freshly poured beer generally has a short shelf life, and if sales are not good, the loss of the store will increase.

"The front-end operation of freshly poured beer is simple, but the difficulty lies in the back-end supply chain," the insider said.

Fresh Beer Fulujia has a similar statement. At a public event earlier this year, Qiu Tengyu, deputy general manager of Fresh Beer Fulujia, said that due to the high thresholds of fresh beer factories and cold chain distribution, these barriers have blocked 90% of the brands. The brand's solution is cold chain distribution plus centralized procurement, relying on the supply chain of Mixue Group.

Diversified Categories

As the main line of freshly made tea drinks shifts from scale expansion to quality improvement, category diversification has received more attention in the past two years, including coffee, bakery, ice cream and bottled drinks. The underlying logic is to increase the output of each store by developing new scenarios and new categories.

Guming is a brand that actively embraces diversification. Taking coffee as an example, it continues to increase investment through methods such as inviting spokespersons, upgrading equipment, innovating products, and promoting cost-effectiveness.

At the 2026 mid-term performance meeting held last month, Wang Yun'an, Chairman and CEO of Guming, revealed that in the past year, the quality of Guming's products, including coffee, has been significantly improved. This measure has led to a significant increase in new customer acquisition and repurchase rate compared with last year. Among them, the coffee business has become an important starting point for Guming to expand in-store consumption. As of the end of June, more than 90% of Guming's stores are equipped with coffee machines, and the coffee business can further expand in-store consumption scenarios such as morning peak hours.

In addition to coffee, Guming is also exploring the bottled beverage business. Wang Yun'an said that bottled beverages such as HPP juice are category explorations with a 5-year time horizon, which have limited reference significance for the company's performance at this stage, and are more important for long-term exploration of the second growth curve in the future.

Interestingly, Guming's next target has been locked on Italian-style ice cream Gelato. FoodInc noticed that recently, the company's social media account posted that it will open the country's first fresh experience store in Nanjing, and the Guming Gelato pop-up store will soon open for business. This is also the first time the company has launched Gelato products.

This article is from the WeChat official account "FoodInc" (ID: foodinc), written by Pan Xian, authorized to be released by 36Kr.